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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late ... - Google Books</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/books/css/_ff77d0f0508c7e0bad470e7d6b7f28fa/kl_about_this_book_kennedy_full_bundle.css" type="text/css" /><link rel="stylesheet"href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Product+Sans:wght@400"><script src="/books/javascript/atb_ff77d0f0508c7e0bad470e7d6b7f28fa__en.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Seeds_in_the_Heart.html?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC"/><meta property="og:url" content="https://books.google.com/books/about/Seeds_in_the_Heart.html?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC"/><meta name="title" content="Seeds in the Heart"/><meta name="description" content="Donald Keene employs his prodigious wealth of knowledge, critical insight, and narrative aplomb to guide readers through the first nine hundred years of Japanese literature--a period that not only defined the unique properties of Japanese prosody and prose but also produced some of its greatest works. Covering courtly fiction, Buddhist writings, war tales, diaries, poems, and more, Seeds in the Heart explores a vast and variegated treasury of writings. Detailed textual examinations of classic texts--from the Kojiki to The Tale of Genji, from The Pillow Book of Sei Sh么nagon to Zeami's N么 plays--allow students, lay readers, and scholars a new understanding and enjoyment of this great literature."/><meta property="og:title" content="Seeds in the Heart"/><meta property="og:type" content="book"/><meta property="og:site_name" content="Google Books"/><meta property="og:image" content="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE73atLWvxCvllNonljpcptAp76q0OJhf7BjQhvKCTPvqcoIno0PV06eF6wDCwjrgAJeQNdp9J6Lw3q8xflLfiYVmV54f0DZCB3_Hou3c6IKnjwyUkpCElGX-G_SwJz6LyJ09VlVk"/><link rel="image_src" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE73atLWvxCvllNonljpcptAp76q0OJhf7BjQhvKCTPvqcoIno0PV06eF6wDCwjrgAJeQNdp9J6Lw3q8xflLfiYVmV54f0DZCB3_Hou3c6IKnjwyUkpCElGX-G_SwJz6LyJ09VlVk"/><script></script><style>#gbar,#guser{font-size:13px;padding-top:1px !important;}#gbar{height:22px}#guser{padding-bottom:7px !important;text-align:right}.gbh,.gbd{border-top:1px solid #c9d7f1;font-size:1px}.gbh{height:0;position:absolute;top:24px;width:100%}@media all{.gb1{height:22px;margin-right:.5em;vertical-align:top}#gbar{float:left}}a.gb1,a.gb4{text-decoration:underline !important}a.gb1,a.gb4{color:#00c !important}.gbi .gb4{color:#dd8e27 !important}.gbf .gb4{color:#900 !important} #gbar { padding:.3em .6em !important;}</style></head><body class=""><div id=gbar><nobr><a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tab=pw">Search</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.google.com.sg/imghp?hl=en&tab=pi">Images</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://maps.google.com.sg/maps?hl=en&tab=pl">Maps</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://play.google.com/?hl=en&tab=p8">Play</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.youtube.com/?tab=p1">YouTube</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://news.google.com/?tab=pn">News</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=pm">Gmail</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://drive.google.com/?tab=po">Drive</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 style="text-decoration:none" href="https://www.google.com.sg/intl/en/about/products?tab=ph"><u>More</u> »</a></nobr></div><div id=guser width=100%><nobr><span id=gbn class=gbi></span><span id=gbf class=gbf></span><span id=gbe></span><a target=_top id=gb_70 href="https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=print&continue=https://books.google.com.sg/books%3Fid%3D_DEwTJq3TbcC%26pg%3DPA616%26redir_esc%3Dy%26hl%3Den&hl=en&ec=GAZACg" class=gb4>Sign in</a></nobr></div><div class=gbh style=left:0></div><div class=gbh style=right:0></div><div role="alert" style="position: absolute; left: 0; right: 0;"><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&pg=PA616&redir_esc=y&hl=en&output=html_text" title="Screen reader users: click this link for accessible mode. 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Covering courtly fiction, Buddhist writings, war tales, diaries, poems, and more, <i>Seeds in the Heart</i> explores a vast and variegated treasury of writings. Detailed textual examinations of classic texts--from the <i>Kojiki</i> to <i>The Tale of Genji, </i> from <i>The Pillow Book of Sei Sh么nagon</i> to Zeami's N么 plays--allow students, lay readers, and scholars a new understanding and enjoyment of this great literature.</div></div></div><div class="search_box_wrapper"></div></td> </tr></table><div id="summary-second-column"></div></div></div></div></div><div class=vertical_module_list_row><h3 class=about_title><a name="citations_module_anchor"></a>References to this book</h3><div id=citations_module class=about_content><div id=citations_module_v><div class="left-column-outer"><div class="left-column-inner"><div class="crsiwrapper"><table class="rsi" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 border=0><tr><td class="coverdstd" align="center"><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=vdchVqMSiDEC&source=gbs_citations_module_r&cad=1" ><img alt="" class="coverthumb hover-card-attach-point" src="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=vdchVqMSiDEC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl" border="0" height="80"></a></td><td valign=top><div class=resbdy><a class="primary cresbdy" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=vdchVqMSiDEC&printsec=frontcover&vq=%22Seeds+in+the+Heart%22&source=gbs_citations_module_r&cad=1"><span dir=ltr>The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa</span></a><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; font-size:-1;"><span><a href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Stephen+Prince%22" class="secondary"><span dir=ltr>Stephen Prince</span></a></span><br/><span><span style="color:#99522e">Limited preview</span> - 1999</span><br/></span></div></td><td align=right></td></tr></table></div><div class="crsiwrapper"><table class="rsi" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 border=0><tr><td class="coverdstd" align="center"><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=AIUvc9FnZ5AC&source=gbs_citations_module_r&cad=1" ><img alt="" class="coverthumb hover-card-attach-point" src="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=AIUvc9FnZ5AC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5" border="0" height="80"></a></td><td valign=top><div class=resbdy><a class="primary cresbdy" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=AIUvc9FnZ5AC&printsec=references&vq=%22Seeds+in+the+Heart%22&source=gbs_citations_module_r&cad=1"><span dir=ltr>The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)</span></a><br><span style="line-height: 1.3em; font-size:-1;"><span><a href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Murasaki+Shikibu%22" class="secondary"><span dir=ltr>Murasaki Shikibu</span></a></span><br/><span><span style="color:#999">No preview available</span> - 2002</span><br/></span></div></td><td align=right></td></tr></table></div><a class="secondary" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?q=cites:ISBN0231114419&id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&source=gbs_citations_module_r&cad=1"><span dir=ltr>All Book Search results &raquo;</span></a></div></div><div style="clear:both"></div> </div></div></div><div class=vertical_module_list_row><h3 class=about_title><a name="about_author_anchor"></a>About the author <span style="color:#666; font-weight:normal">(1999)</span></h3><div id=about_author class=about_content><div id=about_author_v><div class=textmodulecontent>Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author of a multivolume history of Japanese literature, of which Seeds in the Heart is the first part, and at least thirty other books, including many translations from Japanese literature. He has received numerous honors in both the United States and Japan, and is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. </div></div></div></div><div class=vertical_module_list_row><h3 class="about_title">Bibliographic information</h3><div class="about_content" id="metadata_content" style="padding-bottom:.3em"><div class="metadata_sectionwrap"><table id="metadata_content_table"><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label">Title</td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century</span><br><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=bibliogroup:%22History+of+Japanese+literature%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><i><span dir=ltr>History of Japanese literature</span></i></a>, <a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Donald+Keene%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><span dir=ltr>Donald Keene</span></a></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Contributor</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>Donald Keene</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Edition</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>reprint</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Publisher</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>Columbia University Press, 1999</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>ISBN</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>0231114419, 9780231114417</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Length</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><span dir=ltr>1265 pages</span></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Subjects</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">Literary Criticism</span></a></div> › <div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism+Asian%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">Asian</span></a></div> › <div style="display:inline" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb"><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism+Asian+General%22" itemprop="url" dir=ltr><span itemprop="title">General</span></a></div><br><br><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Education+/+General%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><span dir=ltr>Education / General</span></a><br/><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism+/+Ancient+%26+Classical%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><span dir=ltr>Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical</span></a><br/><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism+/+Asian+/+General%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><span dir=ltr>Literary Criticism / Asian / General</span></a><br/><a class="primary" href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=subject:%22Literary+Criticism+/+Asian+/+Japanese%22&source=gbs_metadata_r&cad=3"><span dir=ltr>Literary Criticism / Asian / Japanese</span></a></td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td>&nbsp</td><td>&nbsp</td></tr><tr class="metadata_row"><td class="metadata_label"><span dir=ltr>Export Citation</span></td><td class="metadata_value"><a class="gb-button " href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/download/Seeds_in_the_Heart.bibtex?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&output=bibtex"><span 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