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Audiobook edition · 11 h 25 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Gods shape islands, priests ask for harvests, and poets give words to loss: early Japan speaks through many voices.
Primitive & Mediaeval Japanese Texts, edited by F. Victor Dickins, gathers myths, ritual prayers, poems and medieval tales. Its parts move from accounts of divine origins to court life and the rise of warrior families. This is not one continuous story, but a meeting with different ways of telling, praying and remembering.
The collection explores the world of the Kojiki and Nihongi, whose myths trace the imperial line to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Norito prayers ask for protection and purification, while poetry associated with the Manyoshu brings emperors, soldiers, courtiers and ordinary people into view. Across these writings, nature, ancestry and impermanence return.
What you’ll discover
- Myths of the islands Explore narratives in which gods shape the land and ancestry gives the imperial line its origins.
- Prayers before the gods Discover how norito express hopes for good harvests, protection from disaster and purification.
- Voices beyond the court Meet poetry that brings emperors and courtiers alongside soldiers and ordinary people.
- Loyalty, conflict and loss Follow the shift toward medieval tales, where warrior families bring different concerns into view.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you love early poetry, old legends, court life, the stage, or the sound of a language in its youth, and like to read verse with a guide.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Four texts show Japan finding its voice
- Old Japanese is built from simple open syllables
- Chinese characters carried the poems before kana existed
- Palaces and mountains are praised as living things
- Partings and lost wives give the book its warmth
- Hardship and loyalty sit beside court splendor
- Legends and travelers fill the roads of the anthology
- A sick governor and a lost hawk bring the later books alive
- The bamboo cutter's daughter tests five suitors
- A poet's manifesto and a play about paired pines
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Textos japoneses antiguos y medievales
A bamboo cutter finds a glowing girl, five suitors chase impossible gifts, and poets sing of pines and passes.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEspañol
Excellent
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In short
Picture a girl found inside a glowing stalk of bamboo. In three months she grows into a woman, and five noblemen set out to win her with gifts that cannot be had.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Four texts show Japan finding its voice
This volume gathers four works that mark stages in the growth of Japanese writing. The Manyoshu comes first, an anthology compiled around 760. Its long lays are often followed by short envoys that add a closing thought or a change of mood.
The second work is the Taketori Monogatari, the story of the old bamboo cutter. The third is the preface Ki no Tsurayuki wrote around 922 for the Kokinwakashu, a collection of Japanese verse old and new. The fourth is Takasago, perhaps the earliest of the medieval miracle plays known as Noh.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 7 h 25 min
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Cite this edition
Primitive & Mediaeval Japanese Texts. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/primitive-mediaeval-japanese-texts.
Primitive & mediaeval Japanese texts. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/primitive-mediaeval-japanese-texts
Primitive & Mediaeval Japanese Texts. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/primitive-mediaeval-japanese-texts.
@book{anonymous2026primitive,
title = {Primitive \& Mediaeval Japanese Texts},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/primitive-mediaeval-japanese-texts}
}
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What is Primitive and Mediaeval Japanese Texts about?
It gathers four works from early Japan: the long lays of the Manyoshu, the tale of the bamboo cutter, Ki no Tsurayuki's preface on poetry, and the Noh play Takasago, with a grammar and notes.
What is the Manyoshu?
It is the earliest Japanese anthology of verse, compiled around 760. It holds poems by emperors, courtiers, soldiers and ordinary people, with love, grief, travel, legend and praise of the land.
What are pillow words in these poems?
Pillow words, or makura kotoba, are fixed epithets placed before certain words, such as a name or a season. They decorate the line, often through sound or wordplay, and can be set aside to find the core.
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