<P> The earliest works of Japanese literature include the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki chronicles and the Man'yōshū poetry anthology, all from the 8th century and written in Chinese characters . In the early Heian period, the system of phonograms known as kana (hiragana and katakana) was developed . The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest Japanese narrative . An account of Heian court life is given in The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, while The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is often described as the world's first novel . </P> <P> During the Edo period, the chōnin ("townspeople") overtook the samurai aristocracy as producers and consumers of literature . The popularity of the works of Saikaku, for example, reveals this change in readership and authorship, while Bashō revivified the poetic tradition of the Kokinshū with his haikai (haiku) and wrote the poetic travelogue Oku no Hosomichi . The Meiji era saw the decline of traditional literary forms as Japanese literature integrated Western influences . Natsume Sōseki and Mori Ōgai were the first "modern" novelists of Japan, followed by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima and, more recently, Haruki Murakami . Japan has two Nobel Prize - winning authors--Yasunari Kawabata (1968) and Kenzaburō Ōe (1994). </P> <P> Japanese Philosophy has historically been a fusion of both foreign; particularly Chinese and Western, and uniquely Japanese elements . In its literary forms, Japanese philosophy began about fourteen centuries ago . </P> <P> Archaeological evidence and early historical accounts suggest that Japan was originally an animistic culture, which viewed the world as infused with kami (神) or sacred presence as taught by Shinto, though it is not a philosophy as such, but has greatly influenced all other philosophies in their Japanese interpretations . </P>

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