translations of classical Japanese works

To search by title, use the list of romanized titles on the left. Diacritics still being added...
Version without kanji. For version with Japanese titles see
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/trans/trans_tz.html

editor's notes
titles from A - F / G - I / J - K / M - N / O - R / S - / T - Z

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Tachibana no Hayanari-den

  • Bohner, Hermann. "Tachibana no Hayanari-den." MN 5 (1942).

    • Taiheiki

  • McCullough, Helen Craig. "A Military Tale: The Great Peace" in McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 1990, pp. 472-494. [Revised tr. of sections 4.5-7, 5.4, 9.6, 10.14-15.]
  • O'Neill, P. G. "A michiyuki passage from the Taiheiki," BOAS 36 (1973): 359-367.
  • Story of origin of Onimara and Onikiri tr. into German by Naumann, Zauberschale, 1973, 297-300. [From book 32, NKBT 36:225ff.]
  • McCullough, Helen Craig. The Taiheiki. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. [Translation of first twelve of the forty maki.]
  • First part of section "Oto-no-miya Kumano-ochi no koto" (book 5) tr. as "Ootoo-no-miya's flight to Kumano" in Daniels, Selections from Japanese Literature, 1953, 29-42, 138-141.
  • Koike, Kenji. "Kusonoki Masashige. Auszuege aus dem Taiheiki." MN 4.1 (1941): 133-165.

    • Taiki   

  • diary by Fujiwara no Yorinaga (1120-1156)
  • Formula recited on Emperor Konoe's accession ceremony in 1142 trans. in Philippi 1990:76-79 (12-14). See Norito.

    • Takamura monogatari

  • Geddes, Ward. "Takamura Monogatari." MN 46.3 (1991): 275-291.
  • e-text by H. Shinozaki (NKBT)

    • Takafusa-kyô enshi emaki     

  • mid-Kamakura emaki dated ca. 1177 based on poems by Fujiwara Takafusa.
  • Series of poems titled simply "tsuya kotoba" (rather than "enshi")
  • recent annotated text in Waka bungaku taikei (Meiji shoin)
  • any translation available?

    • Takahashi ujibumi

  • history, ca. 790.
  • Mills, D. E. "The Takahashi Uzibumi," BOAS 16 (1954):113-133. [complete]

    • Takemukigaki

  • diary by Hino Sukena no musume Volume 1 covers years 1329-1333, vol. 2 years 1337-1349. [NKBD 1171]
  • discussed in Hitomi Tomimura, "Re-envisioning Women in the Post-Kamakura Age," in Jeffrey P. Mass, ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century (Stanford University Press, 1997): 138-69.

    • Taketori monogatari

  • Boscaro, Adriana. Storia di un tagliabambu [Italian]. Marsilio, 1994.
  • Sieffert, René. Le Conte du Coupeur de bambous. Paris: POF, 1992. Originally published as: "Le conte du coupeur de bambous." Bulletin de la Maison Franco-Japonaise (1953).
  • Complete German translation in Naumann, Zauberschale, 1973, 45ff.
  • Keene, Donald. "The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter." Modern Japanese Fiction and Its Traditions. Ed. J. Thomas Rimer. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1978. (Originally publ. in MN 11 [1955]). O.P.
  • Dickins, F. Victor. The old bamboo-hewer's story (Taketori no okina no monogatari): the earliest of the Japanese romances, written in the tenth century. Trubner, 1888. Reprinted in Collected works of Frederick Victor Dickins ; v. 3 (Bristol: Ganesha / Tokyo : Edition Synapse, 1999).
  • Webcat lists some 20 translations or adaptations of the story into Western languages. Those given above are those I know to be translations from the classical Japanese. Tell me if there are others.
  • e-text at Matsusaka Univ. (ftp site)
  • e-text and hypertext index (Prof. Kondo/Aoyama)
  • [studies]

    • Tamakura-in Itsukushima gokô ki

  • "Account of the Journey of the ex-Emperor Takakura to Itsukushima" in Four Japanese Travel Diaries of the Middle Ages tr. Herbert Plutschow and Hideichi Fukuda. Cornell East Asia Papers. Cornell, 1981.
  • by Koga (or Tsuchimikado or Minamoto) Michichika (1149-1202).
    •

    Tamekane kyô wakashô (ca. 1287)

  • Huey, Robert N. & Susan Matisoff "Lord Tamekane's Notes on Poetry: Tamekanekyô Wakashô." MN 40 (1985): 127-46.

    • Tamuramaro-den

  • Bohner, Hermann. "Tamuramaro-denki." MN 2 (1939).

    • Tannishô

  • written by disciple(s) of Shinran (1173-1262).
  • Bloom, Alfred. Strategies for modern living: a commentary with the text of the Tannisho. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1992. 88 pp.
  • Unno, Taitetsu. Tanninshô: A Shin Buddhist Classic. Honolulu: Buddhist Study Center Press, 1982.
  • Hirota, Dennis. Tanninshô: A Primer. Kyoto: Ryûkoku University, 1982.
  • for other translations see Hérail 1986: 23.

    • Tauezôshi

  • Azuchi-Momoyama song collection ("A Collection of Rice-Planting Songs")
  • Hoff, Frank. The Genial Seed. New York: Mushinsha-Grossman, 1971. REV: Teele MN 28 (1973).

    • Tawara-toda monogatari

  • Muromachi tale [translation?]
  • e-text (Kikuchi)

    • Tenzô kyôkun (Tenzo kyookun)

  • Admonitions for the Chef by Dôgen  (1200-1253)
  • Wright, Thomas. Refining your life : from the Zen Kitchen to enlightenment. New York: Weatherhill, 1983.122 pp.
  • German tr. by Francois-A. Viallet (1976); French tr. by Janine Coursin (1994), etc.
  • future translation project of Soto Zen Text Project

    • Tô daiwajo tôseiden (Toseiden)

  • account by Aomi-no-Mabito Genkai
  • Takakusu, Junijiro. Kanshin's (Chien-Chen's) voyage to the East, A.D. 742-54, by Aomi-no-Mabito Genkai (A.D. 779). London: Probsthain, 1925.
  • Takakusu, Junijiro. "Aomi-no-Mabito Genkai, 722-785: Le voyage de Kanshin en orient, 742-754," BEFEO 28 (1929): 1-41, 441-472; 29 (1930): 47-62.

    • Tôhoku'in shokunin utaawase

  • Author unknown. Traditionally dated Kenpo 2 (1214).
  • Vollmer, Klaus. "Professionen und ihre 'Wege' im mittelalterlichen Japan. Eine Einführung in ihre Sozialgeschichte und literarische Repräsentation am Beispiel des 'Tôhoku'in shokunin utaawase'" ['People of skill' and their 'ways' in medieval Japan. An introduction to their social history and their literary representation in the 'Tooku'in shokunin utaawase']. Hamburg: OAG 1995. 551 p. ISBN 3-928463-55-1

    • Tôji kaden (or Kaden)

  • Bohner, Hermann. "Kamatari-den, Taishoku kwanden Kaden, d.i. Haustraditionen (des Hauses Fujiwara)." MN 4 (1941); "Muchimaro-den, Kaden..." MN 5 (1942). [Lives of Nakatomi no Kamatari (614-669) and Michimaro (680-737).]
  • e-text ed. Koizuka (Nihon kodai rekishi home page) [info]

    • Tôkan kiko

  • Pigeot, Jacqueline. Voyage dans les provinces de l'Est: Tôkan kiko. Gallimard, 1999. 115 p.
  • McCullough, Helen Craig. "An Account of a Journey to the East" in McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 1990, pp. 421-446.
  • e-text ed. M. Shibata (KNKBT)

    • Tônomine shôshô monogatari

  • Miyake, Lynne K. "Tonomine Shosho Monogatari: A Translation and Critical Study." Ph.D. Berkeley, 1985.
  • e-text ed. M. Shibata (GSRJ)
  • e-text ed. H. Shinozaki (GSRJ)

    • Torikaebaya monogatari

  • Stein, Michael. Die Vertauschten Geschwister: ein höfischer Roman aus dem Japan des 12. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1994. // More detailed annotation in author's dissertation: Das Torikaebaya-Monogatari. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1979.
  • Willig, Rosette F. The Changelings: A Classical Japanese Court Tale. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1983.

    • Tosa nikki

  • Sieffert, René. Kino Tsurayuki: Le Journal de Tosa ; Poemes du Kokin-shu. Paris: P.O.F., 1993.
  • Included in: McCullough, Helen C. Kokin Wakashû: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1985. [Complete translation also in Classical Japanese Prose (1990): 73-102]
  • Miner, Earl. Japanese Poetic Diaries. Berkeley, 1969. [O.P.]
  • Aston, William George. "An Ancient Japanese Classic: The Tosa Nikki, or Tosa Diary." TASJ 2 (1875): 121-131. Reprinted in Peter F. Kornicki, ed., Collected Works of William George Aston (Bristol and Tokyo: Ganesha and Oxford UP,1997), 1:45-54.
  • e-text of Teika-bon ed. E. Shibuya (see also A. Okajima's edition)

    • Toshiyori zuino

  • waka poetics by Minamoto no Toshiyori, 2 vols., 1114 or 1115
  • excerpt tr. in Matisoff, Legend, 1978, pp. 163-4.
  • excerpt tr. in Jacqueline Pigeot, Michiyukibun, 1982, pp. 129-130.

    • Towazugatari

  • Author: Gofukakusa In Nijo (Nakanoin Masatada no musume), generally referred in English as "Lady Nijo"
  • title more literally translates as "The Unrequested Tale" (PCCJL `57)
  • McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 1990. [Book 1]
  • Whitehouse, Wilfrid and Eizo Yanagisawa. Lady Nijo's Own Story. Tuttle, 1974. REV: Tahara MN 29 (1974).
  • Brazell, Karen. Confessions of Lady Nijo. Stanford UP, 1973.
  • Origlia, Lydia. Diario di una concubina imperiale. Milan: SE,1996. ISBN: 8877103477. [several editions]
  • Krempien, Rainer. Towazugatari: Ubersetzung und Bearbeitung eines neuaufgefundenen literarischen Werkes der Kamakura-Zeit. Freiburg im Breisgau: Schwarz, 1973.
  • studies (Marra 1991)

    • Tsurezuregusa

  • by Yoshida Kenkô (Urabe Kenko)
  • Berndt, Joergen. Draussen in der Stille. Berlin: edition q / Quintessenz Verlag, 1993 (ISBN: 3-86124-155-2)
  • McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 1990. [60 of 243 sections translated]
  • Czech trans. Zapisky z volnych chvil : starojaponske literarni zapisniky Praha : Odeon, 1984. [With Makura no soshi and Hojoki]
  • Grosbois, Charles, and Tomiko Yoshida. Les heures oisives par Urabe Kenkô. Suivi de Notes de ma cabane de moine par Kamo no Chomei, traduction du R.P.Sauveur Candau. Paris: Gallimard/Unesco, 1968. [Translations of Tsurezuregusa and Hojoki.]
  • Keene, Donald. Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko. New York: Columbia U.P., 1967. [Tuttle reprint ed. 1981]
  • Benl, Oscar. Betrachtungen aus der Stille. 1963. Reprinted by Frankfurt/M: Insel Verlag/Suhrkamp, 1997
  • Yoshida Kenkô, Essays in Idleness, tr. by G B Sansom, ed. with an introduction by Noel Pinnington, Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1998. Originally published in TASJ in 1911. [UK]
  • studies (Chance 1997; Marra 1991)
  • e-text ed. M. Shibata (KNKBT)
  • e-text ed. Eguchi [check]

    • Tsutsumi chunagon monogatari

  • Garde, René. Contes du conseiller de la digue. Paris: P. Piquier, 2001. [Not confirmed whether a translation directly from classical Japanese.]
  • McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 1990. [Translations of "The Lesser Captain Plucks a Sprig of Flowering Cherry," "The Lady Who Admired Vermin," and "Lampblack"]
  • Kubota, Yoko. Le Concubine Floreali: Storie del Consigliere di Mezzo di Tsutsumi. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1989. [Italian]
  • Backus, Robert L. The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan. Stanford UP, 1985. [complete trans.]
  • Selections trans. in Benl, Der Kirschbluetenzweig,1985.
  • Umeyo Hirano, tr The Tsutsumi Chunagon Monogatari: A Collection of 11th-Century Short Stories of Japan. The Hokuseido Press, 1963.
    105pp.
  • "Hanazakura oru shosho" tr. as "The Minor Captain who plucked the cherry-blossom" in Daniels, Selections from Japanese Literature, 1953.
  • Reischauer, Edwin O., and Joseph K. Yamagiwa, tr. "Tsutsumi chunagon monogatari," in Reischauer and Yamagiwa 1951.
  • Waley, Arthur. The Lady Who Loved Insects. London: The Blackamore Press, 1929, 33 pp. Reprinted in Keene, Anthology, 1955. [Only 550 copies of first edition, the first 50 signed. For details see second-hand copies at B&N]
  • studies (Marra 1991)
  • e-text based on 1925 edition (Taiju)

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    Uji shui monogatari

  • Sieffert, Rene. Supplement aux contes d'Uji. Paris: P.O.F., 1986. 341 p. [Complete] O.P.
  • Mills, D. E. A Collection of Tales from Uji: A Study and Translation of Uji shui monogatari. Cambridge University, 1970. [Complete] // REV Cranston, MN, 27.1 (1972).
  • 21 tales tr. into German by Naumann, Zauberschale, 1973, 219-251.
  • tales 3/16 and 8/3 tr. by Robert Brower in Keene, Anthology, 1955.
  • 55 tales tr. by John S. Foster, MN 20 (1965).

    • Urashima Tarô (otogi-zôshi)

  • Sieffert, René. Le Livre des contes. Paris: P.O.F., 1993. p. 19-32.
  • e-text by H. Shinozaki

    • Urihime (otogi-zôshi)

  • Sieffert, René. Le Livre des contes. Paris: P.O.F., 1993. p. 5-12.

    • Uta-awase genre

  • Genre of poetry competitions / poetry matches (Fr. "concours de poemes")
  • Ito, Setsuko. An Anthology of Traditional Japanese Poetry Competitions: Uta-awase 913-1815. Chinathemen, vol. 57. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1991. // "The muse in competition; Uta-awase through the ages." MN 37.7 (1982): 201-222. // "A study of the development of poetry competitions." Ph.D. London, 1978.
  • Poem and judgement of utaawase of 1186 tr. in Pigeot, Michiyuki-bun, p. 146-7.

    • Utatane

  • Wallace, John R. "Fitful Slumbers: Nun Abutsu's Utatane." MN 43 (1988): 391-416.
  • e-text ed. M. Shibata (GSRJ)
  • e-text ed. A. Okajima

    • Utsuho monogatari (Utsubo monogatari)

  • Uraki, Ziro. The Tale of the Cavern. Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1984.
  • Lammers, Wayne P. "The Succession (Kuniyuzuri): A Translation from Utsuho Monogatari." Monumenta Nipponica 37 (1982): 139-178.
  • Cranston, Edwin A. "Atemiya: A Translation from the Utsubo monogatari." MN 24.3 (1969).
  • see entry on studies page

    • A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - M - N - O - R - S - T - U - W - Y - Z

    Waka translations

  • see individual collections by name.
  • anthologies include:
  • Waley, Arthur. Japanese Poetry: The Uta. [Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1919. 110 pages. Reprinted: London: Lund Humphries, 1946; Allen and Unwin, 1976 [introduction by Carmen Blacker], University Press of Hawaii, 1976. Japanese edition 1989.
  • Edwin A. Cranston, A Waka Anthology: The Gem-Glistening Cup. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.
  • Carter, Steven D. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology: Stanford University Press, 1986. [Pbd. 1993]
  • Recent studies include:
  • Kamens, Edward. Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in Traditional Japanese Poetry. Yale University Press, 1997.

    • Wakan roei shû (Wakanroeishû)

  • Rimer, J. Thomas and Johathan Chaves, eds. and trans. Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing: The Wakan Roei Shû. New York, Columbia UP, 1997.

    • Waka shogaku sho

  • poetry manual written in 1169 by Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (1104-1177)
  • discussed in Pigeot, Michiyuki-bun, 1982, pp. 131-5.

    • Wake no Kiyomaro den

  • (around 830)
  • Bohner, Hermann. "Wake no Kiyomaro den," MN 3 (1940): 240-273.

    • A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - M - N - O - R - S - T - U - W - Y - Z

    Yakamochishû

  • collection of Man'yo poet Otomo Yakamochi
  • [e-text | info]

    • Yamato-hime no mikoto seiki

  • Shinto text in one volume. Now believed to be a mid-Kamakura work, and not 7th century as collophon claims. [NKBD 1851/2]
  • Hammitzsch, Horst. Yamato-hime no Mikoto Seiki. Leipzig, 1937.

    • Yamato monogatari

  • Tahara, Mildred. Tales of Yamato: A Tenth-Century Poem-Tale. Honolulu, 1980. [O.P.]
  • Sieffert, Rene. Contes de Yamato suivis du dit de Heichu. Paris: P.O.F., 1979. 191 p. O.P.
  • Selections in German in Naumann, Zauberschale, 1973, 87-106.
  • Kobayashi, H. "The 'Ashikari Tale,' a Tenth-Century Japanese Story of a Reed Cutter and Its Possible Source." Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 11 (1976): 19-36.

    • Yokobue (medieval tale)

  • Dykstra, Yoshiko, and Yuko Kurata. "The Yokobue-soshi: Conflicts Between Social Convention, Human Love and Religious Renunciation". Japanese Religions 26:2 (July 2001), pp. 117-129.
  • Letten, Linda Kay. "The Declining Status of Women in Early Medieval Japan: 'The Tale of Yokobue' and Heian Court Life." M.A. thesis, the University of Hawaii. Translation: pp. 48-68.
  • Pigeot, Jacqueline. Histoire de Yokobue [Yokobue no soshi]. Bulletin de la Maison Franco-Japonaise, Nouvelle Serie, 9.2. Paris: Presses Univ. de France, 1972. *This contains translations of different accounts of Yokobue, including the episode in Heike monogatari, book 10. See Heike entry for translations of this episode (most recently in German).
  • Ruch, Barbara. "Transformation of a Heroine: Yokobue in Literature and History" in Heinrich, ed., Currents in Japanese Culture, 1997, 99-116.

    • Yoro-ryo

  • Sansom, George, T.A.S.J, 2nd series IX, 1932; XI, 1934. [from books 2, 6, 7, 8]
  • Dettmer, Hans. Die Steuergesetzgebung der Nara-Zeit, Wiesbaden, 1959. [Selections]
  • e-text ed. Koizuka (Nihon kodai reshishi home page) [info]

    • Yoru no nezame / Yowa no nezame

  • Hochstedler, Carol Yoder. The Tale of Nezame, part 3 of Yowa no Nezame-monogatari. Ithaca, New York: China-Japan Program, 1979.
  • Richard, Kenneth Leo. "Developments in Late Heian Prose Fiction: 'The Tale of Nezame.'" Ph.D. dissertation. University of Washington, 1973.

    • Yoru no tsuru

  • by Abutsu
  • e-text ed. M. Shibata (GSRJ)

    • Yotsugi monogatari

  • Guelberg, Niels. Kleine literarische Denkmaeler des japanischen Mittelalters II: Das Yotsugi monogatari. 1989 [unpublished German translation; Internet-edition forthcoming].

    • Yume no kayoiji [monogatari]

  • giko monogatari in six volumes. Late Nanbokucho.

    • Yuyama sangin hyakuin (Yunoyama) (1491)

  • Carter, Stephen D. Three poets at Yuyama. Berkley, University of California, 1983.
  • Carter, Stephen D. "Three poets at Yuyama; Sogi and Yuyama Sangin hyakuin, 1491," MN, 23-2, 1978. pp. 119-149; 23-2, 1978. pp. 241-283.
  • "Three Poets at Yuyama" tr. Sato in Sato and Watson 1981:254-261

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    Zazen yoshinki

  • by Kamakura monk Keizan Jokin
  • Dumoulin, Heinrich. "Das Merkbuch fur die uebung des Zazen des Zen-Meisters Keizan." MN 13 (1957): 329-46.

    • Zazen-ron

  • "On meditation" by Daikaku Zenji 1213-1278
  • Leggett, Trevor. Zen and the Ways. London, 1978.

    • Zeami juroku bushu

  • sixteen treatises by Zeami
  • Giroux, Sakae Murakami. Zeami et ses "Entriens sur le no." Paris: POF, 1991. 334 pp. [Includes translation of Sarugaku dangi]
  • Immoos, Thomas: "Zeami: 'Neun-Stufen-Folge,'" in Referate des 1. Japanologentages der OAG in Tokyo, 1990, p. 63-71.
  • Rimer, Thomas, and Yamazaki Masakazu. On the Art of the No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami. Princeton, 1983. (Fushikaden, Shikado, Kakyo, Yugaku shudo fuken, Kyui, Nosakusho, Shugyoku tokka, Shudosho, Sarugaku dangi.)
  • Nearman, Mark J. "Kakyo, Zeami's fundamental principals of acting." MN 37-38 (1982-3) [in four parts]. // "Zeami's Kyui, the nine levels, a pedagogical guide for teachers of acting." MN 33 (1978)
  • Matisoff, Susan. "Kinto-shu, Zeami's song of exile." MN 32 (1977).
  • Benl, Oscar. Die geheime Uberlieferung des No. Frankfurt, 1961.
  • Sieffer, R. Zeami, La tradition secrete du no suivie de une journee de no. Paris, 1960. [Fushikaden, Kakyo, Shikadosho, Nikyoku santai ezu, Yugaku shudo kenpu sho, Kyui shidai; together with five noh plays (Iwafune, Sanemori, Yugao, Semimaru, Sesshoseki) and five kyogen)
  • Bohner, H. "Seami, der neun Stufen Folge (Kyû-i-shi-dai)" // "Seami, Buch der Hochsten Blume Weg (Shi-kwa-do-sho). MOAG, 1943.
  • Shidebara, M. and W. Whitehouse, "Seami sixteen treatises," MN 4-5 (1941-2).
  • see PCCJL p. 366 for titles of the 21 treatises now ascribed to Zeami; and Herail 1986: 82-83 for other translations.
  • Sieffer, R. L'Ile d'or; suivi de Sumidagawa. Paris: P.O.F., 1995. 94 p
  • Zeshi rokujû igo sarugaku dangi tr. by Sakae Murakami Giroux in Zeami et ses "Entretiens sur le no". Paris: P.O.F, 1991. 334 p.

    • Zenkôji kikô

  • "Account of a Journey to the Zenkô-ji" by Priest Gyôe. tr. in in Four Japanese Travel Diaries of the Middle Ages tr. Herbert Plutschow and Hideichi Fukuda. Cornell East Asia Papers. Cornell, 1981, pp. 77-84.
  • Webcat reads name of author as Gyôkei.

    • first page

    WORK IN PROGRESS. Last update: 2001/03/07
    Michael Watson <watson@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp>
    Contributions and feedback most welcome. [Acknowledgements]
    titles from A - F / G - I / J - K / M - N / O - R / S - / T - Z