is an early 13th century Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese text. One volume in length, it is the oldest existing Japanese text on literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

. The author is unknown.

Composition

The title means "Nameless Book". One manuscript gives the title as , a reference to the era in which it was written. Composition occurred between 1200 and 1202.

The author is unknown. Hypotheses include Fujiwara no Shunzei

Fujiwara no Shunzei

was a noted Japanese poet and nobleman, son of Fujiwara no Toshitada. He was also known as Fujiwara no Toshinari or Shakua ; in his younger days , he gave his name as Akihiro , but in 1167, changed to Shunzei...

 (c.1114 -1204); his granddaughter, often called "Shunzei's Daughter"

Shunzei's Daughter

Fujiwara Toshinari no Musume , 1171? – 1252?, was a Japanese poet; she was probably the greatest female poet of her day, ranked with Princess Shikishi...

 (c. 1171 - 1252); Jōkaku (1147-1226); and Shikishi Naishinnō (1149-1201); but strongest support is for Shunzei's daughter.

Contents

The volume is composed of four distinct sections: a preface, literary criticism, poetic criticism, and a discussion on prominent literary women.

The preface introduces an 83 year old woman on a trip. She stops to rest at a house where she writes down the conversation of a group of women talking about literature, creating a frame tale excuse to write the volume. The frame tale itself has many elements from monogatari

Monogatari

is a literary form in traditional Japanese literature, an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic. Monogatari is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates a fictional or fictionalized story, even when retelling a historical event...

 of the time.

The literary criticism covers 28 stories including Genji Monogatari

The Tale of Genji

is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...

, Sagoromo Monogatari, Yoru no Nezame

Yoru no Nezame

is a c. 11th century Japanese story. It is one of the major representative Heian period texts. It is a courtly romance and belongs to the tsukuri monogatari genre.-Composition:...

, Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari

Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari

, also known as , is an eleventh century Japanese monogatari that tells about a chūnagon who discovers his father has been reborn as a Chinese prince. He visits his reincarnated father in China and falls in love with the Hoyang Consort, consort to the Chinese Emperor and mother to his reincarnated...

, and Torikaebaya Monogatari

Torikaebaya Monogatari

, translated into English as The Changelings, is a Japanese tale from the late Heian period by an unknown author, or possibly more than one author. It is four volumes in length....

. The others mostly do not exist anymore.

For poetic criticism, it covers Ise Monogatari, Yamato Monogatari

Yamato Monogatari

is a collection of tales and waka poetry from the Heian period of Japan. The exact date of the completion of the text is unknown, but it majority of the text was completed in the year 951 by an unknown author...

, Man'yōshū, and private and imperial

Nijuichidaishu

The are Japan's twenty one imperial collections of Japanese poetry written by noblemen. The following texts listed in chronological order constitute the Nijūichidaishū:...

 collections. The editor laments at the lack of women compilers in the collections.

It then goes on to discuss the ability and upbringing of a number of prominent women: Ono no Komachi

Ono no Komachi

was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals....

, Sei Shōnagon

Sei Shonagon

Sei Shōnagon , was a Japanese author and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Pillow Book .-Name:...

, Izumi Shikibu

Izumi Shikibu

was a mid Heian period Japanese poet. She is a member of the . She was the contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, and Akazome Emon at the court of Joto Mon'in.-Early life:...

, Akazome Emon

Akazome Emon

was a Japanese waka poet who lived in the mid-Heian period. She is a member both of the and the .-Biography:Emon is though to be the daughter of Akazome Tokimochi, but her biological father was likely her mother's first husband, Taira Kanemori. Emon was born before her mother's marriage to...

, Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012...

 and others.

The text is particularly valuable as a resource since it includes descriptions of a number of either completely or partially lost texts.

See also

• Fūyō Wakashū
  Fūyō Wakashū
  is a late 13th century collection of poetry from Japanese literature..-Composition:The collection of poems was compiled in the year 1271. Although this is not completely certain, the author is believed to be Fujiwara no Tameie...
  
  , a collection of poetry from various literary sources, many of which are no longer extant