The Truth of the Classics: The Tale of Genji was Written in the Edo Period

Recommended by Takahiko Soejima — "An Extraordinary Writer Has Appeared"

This book examines great Japanese and global classics (Heian period literature such as The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book; medieval literature such as The Tale of the Heike and The Hojoki; Edo period literature such as The Hosomichi and The Life of a Man of Love; and foreign literature such as Homer and Shakespeare), turning the history of books in Japan and around the world upside down by arguing that they were not written in the eras known today or by the authors known today.

Murasaki Shikibu, Sei Shonagon, Basho, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and other super-famous authors we learned about in school and whose existence we do not doubt were really the people we have been told they were.

This book explores the astonishing possibility that all of these works were forgeries, forgeries, or ghostwritten by later generations, and explores the birth of earth-shattering works.

[Chapter Contents] Part 1: Unraveling the Mystery of the Birth of Japanese Classics Chapter 1: Approaching the Mystery of Murasaki Shikibu Chapter 2: The Uncertainty of Heian Literature: Written in the Edo Period Chapter 3: Approaching the Mystery of The Pillow Book Chapter 4: Authors of Medieval Japanese Literature: Hidden Great Figures of the Edo Period Part 2: Unraveling the Mystery of the Birth of Western Classics Chapter 5: The Uncertainty of the Renaissance Chapter 6: Uncertainty of Homer's Two Great Epic Poems Chapter 7: Leonardo da Vinci: His True Identity as Galileo Galilei Chapter 8: Uncertainty of Machiavelli Chapter 9: Solving the Shakespeare Problem Chapter 10: Exploring the Hidden Side of Enlightenment Thought Part 3: Reviving Edo Classics in the Modern Age Chapter 11: Exploring the Hidden Side of Edo Literature Chapter 12: Solving the Sharaku Problem Chapter 13: Uncertainty of the Shin'ei-do of Nature