Looks at the history of Japanese literature, identifies major authors and their works, and discusses literary terms, theater, and criticism. "[The] Companion is superb. . . . It is one of the most important reference tools ever to have appeared in the field of Japanese studies and its writers have earned our gratitude as well as our admiration. . . . All this information, a whole library in a single volume, is--thanks to its original structure--extremely easy to use."---Donald Richie, The Japan Times