Book excerpt: "With a history stretching back nearly 1,500 years, Japan literature encompasses a vast range of forms and genres. Since the eighth century, poetry and the non-philosophical lyric voice have occupied a central position in Japanese literary expression. The art of narrative blossomed in the eleventh century with one of the world's great literary masterpieces, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and later in the work of the great modern novelists Natsume Sôseki, Tanizaki Jun'ichirô, Kawabata Yasunari, Kôbo Abe, and Ôe Kenzaburô. Beginning with Murasaki and through the present day, Japanese women have occupied a central place in the tradition: Higuchi Ichiyô, Kôda Aya, Takahashi Takako, among others. Japanese literature birthed other genres no less important than poetry and narrative, among them the literary diary, the free-flowing essay, drama, the picture book, and the literary treatise"--