Blogs > Japanese Text Initiative

Oct 29, 2010

Japanese Text Initiative



In 1992, the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia began mounting text collections online, with the goal of circulating these materials more widely, and rendering them fully searchable for academics interested in close study.

This website forms part of that initiative, making available roughly 300 classic texts of Japanese literature representing a broad sampling of the Japanese literary cannon. Most texts are available in Japanese only, making this website especially useful for scholars. These include Murasaki’s 11th-century The Tale of Genji, Chikamatsu’s 18th-century drama Love Suicides at Sonezaki, and Futabatei’s Floating Clouds.

Some valuable texts are also available in English. These include a selection of poems from two of Japan’s ancient poetry anthologies, the Kokin Wakashu, which is accompanied by English-language commentary, and the Hyakunin Isshu, as well as a selection of 13 Noh plays, and a sampling of poems by Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), a poet who adapted traditional poetic forms for a modern audience. Accompanying these materials is a Japanese-English dictionary.

Read a more in-depth review of the Japanese Text Initiative written by Brian Platt of George Mason University.

Or, explore other website reviews at World History Sources – Finding World History.


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Celine Susie Celine - 3/8/2011

Thank you very much for the quality of your articles are always fascinating . Audiotel ; Bateau occasion .