Historical Periods, Romanization,
Names, Titles, and Illustrations

Major Historical Periods

Ancient	Beginnings to 784
Nara	710–784
Heian	794–1185 (1192)

MEDIEVAL

Kamakura	1185 (1192)–1333
Northern and Southern Courts	1336–1392
Muromachi	1392–1573
Warring States	1477–1573

EARLY MODERN AND MODERN

Edo (Early Modern)	1600–1867
Meiji	1868–1912

Romanization

The romanization of both modern and classical Japanese words is based on the Hepburn system, giving the modern pronunciation as found in the Kōjien, 5th ed. (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1999). The only exception is the rendering of the case particle as wo instead of o. The romanization of Chinese words follows the pinyin system without giving the tones.

Names

Personal names are given in the Japanese order: surname first, followed by the given or artistic name. After their first mention, artists and poets are often referred to by their artistic name or pen name. Thus Matsuo Bashō is referred to by his haikai name (haigō), Bashō, and not by his family name, Matsuo. Through the mid-Edo period, names often appear with “no” between the surname and the given name, as in Ki no Tsurayuki; this indicates “of,” as in Tsurayuki of the Ki clan or family. This usage has been retained.

Poetry Anthologies

All titles of poetry collections are given by their commonly used titles—leaving out the middle term waka (classical poetry)—rather than by their official titles. Thus the title Kokinshū is used instead of Kokinwakashū; Gosenshū, instead of Gosenwakashū; Shūishū, instead of Shūiwakashū; Senzaishū, instead of Senzaiwakashū; Shinkokinshū, instead of Shinkokinwakashū; Kokin rokujō, instead of Kokin waka rokujō; and so forth.

All references to poems in the first eight imperial waka anthologies (chokusen wakashū), from the Kokinshū to the Shinkokinshū, are to the editions in the Shin Nihon koten bungaku taikei series, published by Iwanami shoten (1990–2005), and all references to the Man’yōshū are to the Nihon koten bungaku zenshū series, edited by Kojima Noriyuki, Kinoshita Masatoshi, and Satake Akihiro and published by Shōgakukan (1971–1975). For details, see the Selected Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources in Japanese.

Illustrations

The illustrations serve two basic functions. Those in the early chapters, which cover the poetic and visual arts before the twelfth century, are intended to provide an idea of the flora and fauna portrayed in those arts, particularly those that are not familiar to Western audiences, as they were later envisioned. Because there is a very limited visual record of representations of nature before the medieval period, many of the images in the early chapters are from ukiyo-e of the Edo period. By contrast, in the later chapters, which cover the medieval and Edo periods, the figures were chosen to illustrate historical points and are treated as such.