Medieval Japanese poetry: there are several Japanese poetry forms:
- KANSHI: is a japanese term for Chinese poetry, as well as japanese poety written in Chinese by Japanese poets. It was the most popular among aristocrats. Kanshi had multiple forms, but most notable were in 5 or 7 syllables in 4 or 8 lines.
- WAKA: waka has the general meaning of "poetry in Japanese". In the 10th century, waka had become the standard term used for short poems of the tanka form,.
- TANKA: Tanka are poems written in Japanese with five lines having a 5–7–5–7–7 metre. The tanka form has shown some modern revival in popularity.
- HAIKU: is a short, 3-line verse form, which has achieved significant global popularity, and the haiku form has been adapted from Japanese into other languages.
Medieval Japanese books:
Medieval Japanese books belonged to two different types of literature in Japan:
- HEIAN LITERATURE: This was the golden era. Literature was centered in nobility and monks. "The Tale of Genji", written by a woman named Murasaki Shikibu, is considered the pre-eminent novel of Heian fiction. Another piece of fictional Japanese literature was Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of over a thousand stories in 31 volumes.
- KAMUKARA- MUROMACHI LITERATURE: During this period, Japan experienced many civil wars so, there were war tales, histories, and related stories. A representative work is"The Tale of the Heike" an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the twelfth century. There were fewer notable works by female authors during this period, reflecting the lowered status of women.
- Muromachi literature had to do with classical court literature, which had been the focal point of Japanese literature
