Message from cmayfield

[Anonymous]

Similar to my reaction to the lesson on Japanese poetry with Prof. Schlaberg, I generally did not find this session about literature from Japan's classical and warrior period to be as engaging for me as other sessions were. Again, this is because I'm simply not as interested in literature as I am interested in history.

However, Prof. Miyake did make some points that I found worthwhile. I liked Prof. Miyake's method of organizing literature by Japanese dynasty. That made the presentation a little more interesting for me because it helped me connect the literature to the evolution of Japanese nationhood.

I was intrigued by one of the reasons that literature was so important during early Japanese history: courting between men and women did not involve fact-to-face contact. Although this is strange to my 20th and 21st century American sensibilities, I appreciated instantly that people during Japan's first millenium had to become extremely creative in order to date. In fact, I would venture to say that they were probably more creative and expressive than many other persons in other places and other centuries have been.

Also, Prof. Miyake did call attention to examples of Japanese literature that reflected Japan's history, such as works that reflected the importance of Samurai and their role in protecting Japanese society from invading outsiders; the demise of the Kamakura Period that followed the Mogol invasion; civil war during the Muromachi Period; and the resurgence of cultural elitism (e.g., tea ceremonies) during the Momoyama Period. As a result, my preference for history was satisfied even though Prof. Miyake's focus was on literature.