The Tale of Gengi is the most famous piece of Japanese literature and is known to most as the world’s first modern novel. The Tale of Gengi was written during the Heian period which was an important time in this culture. This piece of literature reflects on the Japanese noble culture, role of religion in life, signs of Chinese influence, and differences from the Chinese culture, while also having a special writing style. The noble culture in Japan was something that all nobles wanted to be maintained. This culture and the people in it wanted to keep the nobility within the bloodline. They did not like to marry or have children with people that were not nobles. The purpose of this was to maintain the ranks in the social chain. Religion played a huge role in the lives of…show more content… The main way that the Chinese influenced the Japanese was through social rank. In The Tale of Gengi people were not allowed to marry below their specific rank, but that did not stop the love of the couple in this novel. Differences between the cultures in Japan and China were very prevalent in The Tale of Gengi. The main difference between the Japanese culture and the Chinese culture was the role women played in society. Women in the Japanese culture the women had a lot less freedom than the women in the Chinese culture. While women in the Chinese culture were able to be independent, women in Japan did not have this luxury. The Japanese women were primarily kept away from all men except from their fathers and husbands, and were used to have babies to keep the family growing. The style of writing in The Tale of Gengi was different from most other writings written at this time. At this point in history, most texts were not written in the form of a novel with sections that resembled chapters. Other texts were written in a style that made for informing the reader instead of
