The aesthetics of mono no awarelead us to the re-
lated ideal of “mystery and depth” (yugen), of major
importance to the poetry of the Shinkokinshu (New
Collection of Ancient and Modern Times,ca. 1206) and
the Muromachi Noh theater. The phrase first appears
in a Chinese Buddhist commentary, and the comments
of Kamo no Chomei (1153–1216), the author of Hojoki
(Essays in Idleness), point to the emotional ideal while
reminding us of Buddhism’s understanding of the lim-
itations of reason:
On an autumn evening, for example, there is no color
in the sky nor any sound, yet although we cannot give
any definite reason for it, we are somehow moved to
tears.... It should be evident that this is a matter im-
possible for people of little sensibility to understand....
How can such things be easily learned or expressed pre-
cisely in words?How, for example, can we explain why the follow-
ing poem by Shunzei (1114–1204) moves us? And why
should we try?
As evening falls, yusareba
autumn wind across nobe no akikaze
the moors
blows chill into mi ni shimite
the heart,
and a quail seems to uzura naku nari
be crying
in the deep grass Fukakusa no sato
of Fukakusa.Without minimizing the profound influences of
Shinto and Confucianism on traditional Japanese
thought and feeling, we must recognize the pre-
eminence of Buddhism in shaping the nation’s artistic
production, providing much of its imagery and aes-
thetic direction. The impermanence (mujo) behind the
ideal of “sensitivity to things” and “mystery and
depth,” the consciousness of moral retribution be-
tween existences (sukuse,karma), and myriad half-
sensed feelings and images from an antique past
inform a rich literature of some five centuries of his-
tories, poetry (waka, renga,haiku,... ), novels (mono-
gatari), “essays” (zuihitsu), anecdotal “tale literature”
(setsuwa), theater (Noh, joruri,kabuki, and their mod-
ern successors), memoirs (nikki), and travel diaries
(kiko).
But Japanese and English literature, however their
fruits may compare or contrast, nevertheless shared a
common chronological timeline. The bards of the Old
English epic poem Beowulfwere contemporaries of the
guild of reciters (kataribe) that produced the Record of
Ancient Matters.See also:Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular
Literature in; Cosmology; Entertainment and Perfor-
mance; Ikkyu; Poetry and Buddhism; Ryokan; Shinto
(Honji Suijaku) and BuddhismBibliography
deBary, William Theodore; Keene, Donald; Tanabe, George;
and Varley, Paul, eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition,2nd edi-
tion. Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600.New York: Co-
lumbia University Press, 2001.
Keene, Donald. Essays in Idleness: TheTsurezuregusa of Kenko.
New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967.
Keene, Donald. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Ear-
liest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century.New York: Henry
Holt, 1993.
LaFleur, William R. The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Lit-
erary Arts in Medieval Japan.Berkeley and Los Angeles: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1983.
Miner, Earl; Hiroko Odagiri; and Morrell, Robert E., eds. The
Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature.Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Tanabe, George J., Jr., ed. Religions of Japan in Practice.Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.ROBERTE. MORRELLJAPANESE ROYAL FAMILY
AND BUDDHISMAlthough the royal family of Japan, headed by the
tenno(heavenly monarch), has since 1868 been iden-
tified by the Japanese media and government with
Shinto, it long led a religious life dominated by Bud-
dhism. It was, indeed, the prince-regent SHOTOKU
(574–622) who was identified as having the greatest
impact on the early history of Buddhism in Japan, in
emphatically supporting Buddhism in early procla-
mations, in supporting the construction of major tem-
ples such as Shitennoji in Osaka, and in writing—or,
more likely, sponsoring—one or more of the com-
mentaries on Buddhist scriptures that have been at-
tributed to him.JAPANESEROYALFAMILY ANDBUDDHISM