Seeds in the Heart

Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century is the first book in Donald Keene's four book series "A History of Japanese Literature". It is followed by World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867, Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era; Fiction, and the last book in the series, Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era; Poetry, Drama, Criticism.

It covers classical Japanese literature from the Kojiki through the Tale of Genji and major waka poets like Fujiwara no Teika or Ki no Tsurayuki, through the Kamakura period and up to the beginnings of No plays and renga, in 1175 pages of text and endnotes (excluding the bibliography, index, and glossary).