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Literature - Coggle Diagram
Literature
World's first Novel
The tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu, is generally considered the world's first novel.
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It was composed in the early 11th century, while Shikibu was a lady in attendance at the Japanese Court. (Ray, 2020)
The tale of Genji was an absorbing introduction into the works of aristocracy in the Heian Period. This includes
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Poetry(Waka)
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Choka
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Similar to the tanka, however it has alternating lines of 5 and 7 syllables, its length is indefinite.
Writing
Kanji
Kanji was introduced to Japan in the 5th century, coming from China
Each character is an ideagram, meaning each one has its own meaning
Kanji was the first writing script in Japan, and its sounds and pronunciations were changed from Chinese to Japanese's native pronunciations. Nowadays, it still exists, and is one of the three main scripts in Japan. Most characters have at least two pronunciations, one that is Japanese, and one that is Chinese. (JapanGuide)
Kana
Kana is the second and third script in Japan, and like kanji, is still used today. It has 46 basic symbols, while further sounds can be produced by combining sounds, or adding tentens and maru, which changes the starting sound.
Hiragana
Hiragana was developed in the 9th century as simplifications of the Kanji. It was developed to act as a more casual alternative to kanji, and was mostly used by women.
Overtime, it filled in the grammatical functions that Kanji could not be used in.(Lambe,2019)
Katakana
Katakana was also developed in the 9th century, however it was made by Buddhist monks as a simplified phonetic script.
Overtime, it was used for foreign words. (Lambe,2019)