The Kojiki An Account of Ancient Matters [Hardcover]

O no Yasumaro (d. 723) was a nobleman of the Japanese court whose O clan ruled over an area bearing the same name near the eighth-century capital of Nara.

Gustav Heldt is an associate professor of Japanese literature at the University of Virginia and the author of The Pursuit of Harmony: Poetry and Power in Early Heian Japan.Japan's oldest surviving narrative, the eighth-century Kojiki, chronicles the mythical origins of its islands and their ruling dynasty through a diverse array of genealogies, tales, and songs that have helped to shape the modern nation's views of its ancient past. Gustav Heldt's engaging new translation of this revered classic aims to make the Kojiki accessible to contemporary readers while staying true to the distinctively dramatic and evocative appeal of the original's language. It conveys the rhythms that structure the Kojiki's animated style of storytelling and translates the names of its many people and places to clarify their significance within the narrative. An introduction, glossaries, maps, and bibliographies offer a wealth of additional information about Japan's earliest extant record of its history, literature, and religion.An accomplished and approachable translation of a crucially important work that has been desperately in need of such a new rendition.A translation of the Kojiki that is accurate and faithful to the original and at the same time exciting to read. A key element of the Kojiki mythology is the power of naming, and Heldt's decision to translate the names of its various gods and royal figures has brought the narrative alive in a way that it has never been before in English.Heldt's new, complete, and contemporary translation brings vibrancy and clarity to this often politicized work of ancient Japan. The poetry is rendered exquisitely, the narratives unfold wlÃ"