Heian Period (795-1185)

In the resplendent aristocratic culture that thrived early in the eleventh century, a time when the use of the hiragana alphabet derived from Chinese characters had become widespread, court ladies played the central role in developing literature. One of them, Murasaki Shikibu wrote the 54-chapter novel Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji) [in ealy 11 century, ca 1008?], while another, Sei Shonagon, wrote Makura no soshi (The Pillow Book), a diverse collection of jottings and essays [around 996]. Others also wrote diaries and stories, and their psychological portrayals remain fresh and vivid to present-day readers.

The appearance of the Konjaku monogatari (Tales of a Time That Is Now Past) around 1120 added a new dimension to literature. This collection of more than 1,000 Buddhist and secular tales from India, China, and Japan is particularly notable for its rich descriptions of the lives of the nobility and common people in Japan at that time.