The aim of this article is to explicate the fictional aspect of the four major kana diaries of the Heian Period, Tosa-nikki, Kagerō-nikki, Izumi-Shikibu-nikki, and Sarashina-nikki. Events in those works are arranged in chronological order after the fashion of diaries, but they are formally constructed in a poetical and narrative style. At that time a diary was not only a private memorandum but also a sort of literary work to be widely read. Thus the authors wrote their diaries in accordance with literary conventions, always conscious of their readership.

Rokujō-no-Miyasudokoro, a character of Genji-monogatari, is generally believed to be modeled on Kishi-Joou, a woman poet who is known for her courageous act to accompany her daughter Saigū to Ise in spite of the emperor's opposition. But it has been often pointed out that there is another model named Chūjō-no-Miyasudokoro. Interestingly enough, however, the woman didn't exist as an actual person, for she was also a fictitious character constructed from the annotations on Genji-monogatari and Ōkagami. Then it means that the figure of Rokujō-no-Miyasudokoro is fiction based on fiction, an imaginary person in history.

Heike-monogatari is often regarded as a “love story.” Indeed, it tells about love repeatedly with the same narrative pattern. But we have much difficulty in finding what the anonymous author wants to say about love; while it is affirmatively described, it is also condemned as uncontrollable passion. The very incompatibility of discourses leaves us to think more seriously of love and encourages us to find our own answer for this eternal question.

Early modern journalistic writings sometimes change into fantastic stories in the process of recording actual events. Although it may seem false and unscientific to us, such fictionalization of facts implicitly demonstrates that nothing will emerge as “fact” without linguistic articulation, a sort of fictionalization itself. Thus the pseudo-journalistic accounts of early modern times make us reconsider the following essential questions; what “fact” is and what the act of writing is.

In modern literature the way of representing “realities” had been sought after at the expense of anything irrational and supernatural. The disappearance of metamorphosis from modern fiction was caused by such an extreme prejudice towards realism which branded our primitive desire to change into someone or something else as unscientific irrationality. This article will follow the process in which the theme of metamorphosis was repressed into the literary unconscious in the rise of realism and naturalism. In so doing, I will also consider the nature of “realities” constructed under the rigid control of the modern superego.

“Saruga-shima,” a short story by Osamu Dazai, is an excellent teaching material as well as a well-written literary work. In this article I will show how to use the text in class for a more effective way of teaching kokugo. First the teacher makes his or her students simply read this interesting story without any explanation and interpretation. Then the teacher leads them to more critically read it so that they can find what the narrator doesn't say. Finally the students will learn a new way of seeing things through such interpretive work.