The Pleasures of Japanese Literature

Donald Keene

Columbia University Press, New York, 1988; Pages: xvi, 133

In this collection of five essays, Prof. Keene, a foremost authority on the subject, introduces readers to Japanese literature and theater.

The first essay is on aesthetics, and is easily the most insightful of all. Keene identifies four characteristics of Japanese taste, which seem essential for comprehension of work from that part of the world: suggestion, irregularity, simplicity, and perishability. Without repeating the excellent exposition by the author, it is worth mentioning two in brief. Suggestion is the idea that it is preferable to describe without describing. Paradoxically, this approach would favor a monochrome curve to describe a mountain to a full-color picture. It would prefer an elliptical metaphor to a explicit statement. It would opt for a beginning or an end of an event, but not the actual event itself. There is an analogue for this preference in Western thought in the school that insists that interpretation must be left to the observer, not the author. This allows participation in the creation of meaning, not just passive reception.

Perishability is the Buddhist idea that all things are impermanent. Although many Westerners have pondered the insecurity of existence, none have made it an aesthetic principle. In the Japanese view, it is impossibly to fully appreciate beauty unless one is sensitive that it will perish. The mono no aware phrase that aptly characterizes this notion is a frequent, if untranslatable, undercurrent in many classical works. Together with suggestion, perishability gives a useful guide to the feelings that moved the authors of that literature.

The next two essays are on Japanese poetry and its uses. Keene provides a brief account of the most popular forms of poetic expression for the period, the waka (tanka) and the renga. There is a little on haiku but, owing to its more recent development, not much. The discussion on the differences between English and Japanese poetry is illuminating, especially given the usual (novice) puzzlement about the restrictive structure of Japanese poetry. I am partial to the idea that the 31-syllable waka allows one to capture perfectly a passing moment, exactly as it occurs, without much rumination, or logical reasoning. The brief form is very suited to emotional response, though it is completely useless for narrative poetry. In his discussion on the uses of Japanese poetry, Keene asserts the pleasure principle (so often worrisome to Westerners). A poem is a poem when it is designed to evoke a feeling --- beauty or sadness, these seem almost equivalent in Japanese poetry --- that is, it has no existence outside the pleasure it creates in its consumer.

There is an essay on Japanese fiction, which, although interesting, was not that illuminating if only if Keene covered so much ground in the other essays. However, the final entry on theater is excellent. It is succinct and yet still betrays the author's fascination with the form. He covers the evolution of gigaku (the earliest known dramatic form) to bugaku but pays most attention to No, with some discussion on Kabuki and Bunraku (the puppet theater). Even though this treatment is far from the exhaustive scholarly work of Karen Brazell, Keene manages to do exactly what he intended: make me want to go and see all these wonderful plays.

September 23, 2001.

@BOOK{keene-88:pleasures,
    title     = {The Pleasures of the Japanese Literature},
    author    = {Donald Keene},
    year      = {1998},
    publisher = {Columbia University Press},
    address   = {New York},
    isbn      = {0-231-06736-4 (hbk.)},
    note      = {Bibliography, index; Pp. xvi, 133}
}