Check out Episode 5 of the Read Japanese Literature podcast.
Enjoy the story of a vengeful would-be lover who turns into a 40-foot snake, a sharp-witted woman with criticisms of her husband’s equipment, and a curmudgeonly Buddhist priest who learns to love poetry. In this episode, we’re talking about setsuwa—medieval Japanese anecdotes. Many of them originate as Buddhist preaching, so we’ll also take a look at “Kamakura Buddhisms”: Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren.
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Tales of Times Now Past, translated by Marian Ury, U of Michigan, 1992.
Find Out More
“Smartening Up” by Aoko Matsuda
- A modern reimagining of the tale of the snake-woman Kiyohime and the monk Anchin. (Read the whole collection, Where the Wild Ladies Are.)
History of Japan Podcast, hosted by Isaac Meyer
Linfamy’s Japanese History and Folktales YouTube Channel
“Literature” at Japanese Wiki Corpus
Understanding Japan: A Cultural History by Professor Mark J. Ravina. Produced by The Great Courses, 2015.
- Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism
Japanese Literature at Facebook
Selected Sources
Marcus, Marvin. Japanese Literature from Murasaki to Murakami. Association for Asian Studies, 2015.