A dictionary of selected forms in classical Japanese literature. Includes examples from identified texts such as Kojiki, Tsurezuregusa, Makura no Soshi, and Genji Monogatari. Specifically explains paradigms of verb and adjective inflexions, conjugations of all inflected forms, principle entries according to the standard Japanese system, honorifics, compound forms by reference to their constituent elements, and differentiating homonyms and other confusing forms.

This complete description of the language of the golden Heian period (794-1185) features an innovative morphological analysis to facilitate reference usage and provides a comprehensive reference work for students of classical Japanese.

Provides an invaluable and very accessible addition to existing biographic sources and references, not least because of the supporting biographies of major writers and the historical and cultural notes provided.

The continuing success of this series, highly regarded by scholars and the general reader alike, has prompted The Japan Society to commission this fourth volume, devoted as before to the lives of key people, both British and Japanese, who have made significant contributions to the development of Anglo-Japanese relations. The appearance of this volume brings the number of portraits published to over one hundred. The portraits cover diplomats (from Mori Arinori to Sir Francis Lindley), businessmen (from William Keswick to Lasenby Liberty), engineers and teachers (from W. E. Ayrton to Henry Spencer Palmer), scholars and writers (from Sir Edwin Arnold to Ivan Morris), as well as journalists, judo masters and the aviator Lord Semphill. In all, there are a total of 34 contributions.

One of the great classics of Japanese literature, "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon" is by far our most detailed source of factual material on life in eleventh-century Japan at the height of Heian culture.