Nikki bungaku is a traditional Japanese literary genre in the form of a diary. These diaries were traditionally written in Chinese characters as they were originally modeled on the diaries of Chinese government officials; It is also important to note that diaries were written by men, until Ki no Tsurayuki in his Tosa Nikki, written in 935 and the first diary of literary value, took the character of a woman to escape the limitations that his position implied. By using a woman's point of view, Ki no Tsurayuki was able to write his diary using kana rather than the kanji he would otherwise have had to use. Over time, arriving at the medieval period, the way of writing also changed. The Kiko, a form of travel diary of which Tosa Nikki is an example, has become much more common. An example of kiko written during the medieval period is Matsuo Basho's Oku no Hosomichi in 1694, which recounts his 156-day journey to the northern regions of Honshu. The Tosa Nikki and the Oku no Hosomichi are very important examples of Kiko literature. However, partly because of the long time span between them, there are many differences between them. Oku no Hosomichi describes dirty and inelegant things, which are not found in Tosa Nikki; the reasons why the author wrote the kiko are very different, and the paths taken by the authors are incredibly different; Tosa Nikki and Oku no Hosomichi use poetry differently, and Oku no Hosomichi also uses sketches which cannot be seen in Tosa Nikki. Throughout Matsuo Basho's Oku no Hosomichi, he describes many things that would have been considered inelegant, dirty, and even humorous. . Writing about this type of topics was almost middle of paper... Tosa Nikki has a more formal feeling since it was supposed to be from the perspective of a lady from Tosa Governor's party. their return to Kyoto. Both of these literary works are very important in what they represent. Although they are both Kiko, they are written in very different ways, which shows the difference in values ​​and opinions between literature written during the Heian period and literature written during the medieval period.Works CitedBasho, Matsuo. Okay, no Hosomichi. Web.Keene Donald. “Tosa’s Diary.” Anthology of Japanese literature. Ed. Donald Keene. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1955. 82-91. Print.Miller, Marilyn J. “Nikki Bungaku’s Literary Diaries: Their Tradition and Influence on Modern Japanese Fiction.” World Literature Today (1987): Web. March 18, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/pss/40142997