This book addresses "Jōdai Kayō songs" in old Japanese literature which is pioneer work on this subject in Turkey. It is written by Esin Esen a scholar of classical Japanese literature who also has previous works on Man'yōshū and Japanese women's literature of the Heian- Manyō Period.
Jōdai Kayō [ancient songs] appears with the emerge of Japanese literature which can be dated back to the Jōmon Period and covers a range of time periods until the end of Nara Period (785). These songs were part of the oral literature during ancient times and they extended to the written era through oral tradition. It was then when they were recorded in the first Japanese works such as histories or anthologies after 710. These songs were created within social life and/or as a result of activities within society; and were maintained over time through these social interactions.
On the basis of the existing literature the first part of the book subject addresses the following questions: 1) What is Jōdai Kayō 2) What are the origins of Jōdai Kayō and its development at that time? How they emerged? Who created them? 3) What are the written sources of Jōdai Kayō? 4) What is the structure of Jōdai Kayō genres and contents?
In the second part of the book ten ancient songs covering a wide period of time by authors from different social positions are analyzed using the genetic structuralist method. This method understands a literary work as a work of the society in which it is created and analyzes the work from different aspects including literary analysis on the text and political social economic religious cultural levels which also led to set forth the worldview and function of the songs.
In the last part of the book the results gathered in this study are set forth and are compared with the author's previous study on Man'yōshū which also provides results on the origins and development of Japanese literature and poetry.