Travelers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese as Revealed Through 1,000 Years of Diaries

Donald Keene, hailed in the New York Times Book Review as "the century's leading expert on Japanese literature," presents here a collection of premodern Japanese diaries that is both a literary history of this genre and a source of insight into Japanese life of the last thousand years. Ranging from objective to confessional, selections such as "The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu" and "Diaries of Seventeenth-Century Courtiers" offer unparalleled glimpses into the lives of diverse writers from the Kamakura dynastic period to the Tokugawa period. Illuminating the hidden and largely unknown worlds of imperial courts, Buddhist monasteries, country inns, and merchants' houses, Travelers of a Hundred Ages is an intimate account of the diarists' lives and a testimony to the struggles and advances of Japanese culture.

Author: Donald Keene
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 05/12/1999
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 8.95h x 6.02w x 0.92d
ISBN13: 9780231114370
ISBN10: 0231114370
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Asian | General

About the Author
Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University.