Japanese literature in the context of "Indian literature"

The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai) is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). Heian (平安) means 'peace' in Japanese. It is a period in Japanese history when the Chinese influences were in decline and the national culture matured. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court, noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Two syllabaries unique to Japan, katakana and hiragana, emerged during this time. This gave rise to Japan's famous vernacular literature, with many of its texts written by court ladies who were not as educated in Chinese as their male counterparts.

Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the real power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful aristocratic family who had intermarried with the imperial family; most Emperors of the Heian era had mothers from the Fujiwara family. The economy mostly existed through barter and trade due to the lack of a national currency, while the shōen system encouraged the growth of aristocratic estates that began gradually asserting their independence from Imperial control. Despite a lack of serious warfare or domestic strife during the Heian era, crime and banditry were widespread as the Emperors failed to police the country effectively.

Waka (和歌; 'Japanese poem') is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although waka in modern Japanese is written as 和歌, in the past it was also written as 倭歌 (see Wa, an old name for Japan), and a variant name is yamato-uta (大和歌).

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語, Genji Monogatari; Japanese pronunciation: [ɡeɲ.dʑi mo.no.ɡaꜜ.ta.ɾʲi]) is a classic work of Japanese literature said to be written by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu around the peak of the Heian period, in the early 11th century. It is often considered to be history's first novel, as well as the first by a woman to have won global recognition. In Japan, The Tale of Genji has a stature similar to that of Shakespeare in the UK.

The work is a depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period. It is written mostly in Japanese phonetic script (hiragana), in a vernacular style (not the same as "vernacular Japanese", which only appeared in late 19th century) associated with women's writing of the time, not in Chinese characters (kanji) used for more prestigious literature, and its archaic language and poetic style require specialised study. The original manuscript no longer exists but there are more than 300 later manuscript copies of varying reliability. It was made in "concertina" or orihon style: several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other. In the early 20th century Genji was translated into modern Japanese by the poet Akiko Yosano. The first English translation of Genji was made in 1882 by Suematsu Kencho, but was of poor quality and left incomplete. Arthur Waley translated an almost complete version which excludes only the 38th chapter (Suzumushi/The Bell Cricket) between 1925 and 1933. Since then, complete English translations have been made by Edward Seidensticker, Royall Tyler, and Dennis Washburn.

Kanbun (漢文 'Han writing') is a system for writing Literary Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period until the 20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. As a result, Sino-Japanese vocabulary makes up a large portion of the Japanese lexicon and much classical Chinese literature is accessible to Japanese readers in some resemblance of the original.

Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925 – April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature. Watson's translations received many awards, including the Gold Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia University in 1979, the PEN Translation Prize in 1982 for his translation with Hiroaki Sato of From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry, and again in 1995 for his translation of Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o. In 2015, at age 88, Watson was awarded the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation for his long and prolific translation career.