The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki

Donald Keene

Published by Columbia University Press 2013

The Winter Sun Shines In

A Life of Masaoka Shiki

Donald Keene

In the series Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/keen16488

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rather than resist the vast social and cultural changes sweeping Japan in the nineteenth century, the poet Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) incorporated new Western influences into his country's native haiku and tanka verse. By reinvigorating these traditional forms, Shiki released them from outdated conventions and made them more responsive to newer trends in artistic expression.

Using extensive readings of Shiki's own writings and accounts of the poet by his contemporaries and family, Donald Keene charts Shiki's revolutionary (and often contradictory) experiments with haiku and tanka. Keene particularly highlights random incidents and encounters in his portrait of this tragically short life, moments that elicited significant shifts and discoveries in Shiki's work. The push and pull of a profoundly changing society is vividly felt in Keene's narrative, which also includes sharp observations of other recognizable characters, such as the famous novelist and critic Natsume Soseki.

Rather than resist the vast social and cultural changes sweeping Japan in the nineteenth century, the poet Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) instead incorporated new Western influences into his country's native haiku and tanka verse. By reinvigorating these traditional forms, Shiki released them from outdated conventions and made them more responsive to newer trends in artistic expression. Altogether, his reforms made the haiku Japan's most influential modern cultural export.

Using extensive readings of Shiki's own writings and accounts of the poet by his contemporaries and family, Donald Keene charts Shiki's revolutionary (and often contradictory) experiments with haiku and tanka, a dynamic process that made the survival of these traditional genres possible in a globalizing world. Keene particularly highlights random incidents and encounters in his impressionistic portrait of this tragically young life, moments that elicited significant shifts and discoveries in Shiki's work. The push and pull of a profoundly changing society is vividly felt in Keene's narrative, which also includes sharp observations of other recognizable characters, such as the famous novelist and critic Natsume Soseki. In addition, Keene reflects on his own personal relationship with Shiki's work, further developing the nuanced, deeply felt dimensions of its power.

Author / Editor information

Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of more than thirty books, and his Columbia University Press books include Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 (2002); Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793–1841 (2006); Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan (2008); and So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers (2010). He is also the author of a definitive, multivolume history of Japanese literature.

Reviews

This biography excels.

Janine Beichman, author of Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works:
In this new biography of Masaoka Shiki, Donald Keene tells Shiki's story with a wonderful blend of brio and depth. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, the work delves into hitherto slighted aspects of Shiki's oeuvre and personality. Readers of Japanese and world literature will welcome this book for its rich portrait of one of modern Japan's most important writers.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Early Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Student Days Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. The Song of the Hototogisu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
4. Shiki the Novelist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
5. Cathay and the Way Thither Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
6. Sketches from Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
7. Hototogisu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
8. Shiki and the Tanka Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
9. Shintaishi and Kanshi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
10. Random Essays ( Zuihitsu ), 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
11. Random Essays, 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
12. The Last Days Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 14
- Other: <B>B&W Photos: </B>14,

eBook

Published: August 20, 2013
ISBN: 9780231535311