Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/299

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Literature.
287

authoresses, is remarkable as being probably the hardest book to construe in the Japanese language.

IX. Travels. Under this heading, the bibliographers class many works which might more advantageously be counted among the Diaries, as not only are they diaries in fact, but are so entitled by their authors. The easiest and most attractive of the Japanese classics is to be found in this division. It is entitled the Tosa Niki, that is, "Diary of [a Voyage Home from] Tosa," by the poet Tsurayuki, who had been governor of that remote province. It dates from the year 935. Travels are the least voluminous department of Japanese literature. How should it accord with the fitness of things in this stay-at-home country to have a Sir John Maundeville or a Captain Cook?

X. Dramas. These are treated of in the Article on the Theatre.

XI. Dictionaries and Works on Phililogy. The best native dictionaries of Classical Japanese are the Wakun no Shiori and the Gagen Shūran; but both are unfortunately fragmentary. The recently published Genkai, or "Sea of Words," and the Kotoba no Isumī, or "Fountain of Words" aim at greater completeness. The fullest native grammar is the Kotoba no Chikamichi, by Minamoto-no-Shigetane. The chief writers of the old school on general philological subjects are Mabuchi (died 1769), Motoori (died 1801), and Hirata (died 1843). In Motoori's works the classical Japanese language reached its acme of perfection. Specially remarkable are, among his greater undertakings, the standard commentary on the Kojiki, entitled Kojiki Den, and, among his lighter essays, the Tama-Gatsuma containing jottings on all sorts of subjects, philological and otherwise.

XII. Topography. The more popular publications of this class, dating roughly from the middle of the nineteenth century, are really the best, though they are less esteemed by the Japanese literati than are other works bearing the stamp of greater antiquity. These popular topographical works are illustrated guide-books to the various provinces of the empire, and are known under the