Japanese Fiction
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Natsume Sōseki, Edwin McClellan |
Tuttle
Publishing
Heart (English version) - Kokoro (Tuttle Classics)
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Goodreads rating: 4.05
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Нацумэ Сосэки заслуженно считают одним из наиболее ярких авторов Японии, ключевой фигурой литературы нового времени. Его ранние работы обрели популярность благодаря яркому стилю и тематике, а две трилогии, написанные уже зрелым мастером, являются точным портретом японской интеллигенции на стыке эпох Мэйдзи и Тайсё. Центральные темы поздних романов автора — внутренний надлом, изоляция личности, кризис окружающего мира и катастрофа внутреннего. Нацумэ Сосэки известен не только художественной прозой, но также эссеистикой и поэзией. Его работы переведены на многие языки мира. Роман «Кокоро» Нацумэ Сосэки впервые увидел свет в 1914 году на страницах газеты «Асахи Симбун». Произведение состоит из трёх частей и включает в себя сто десять глав. Центральная тема романа, обозначенная в самом заглавии, — внутренний мир человека, его «кокоро» в эпоху драматичных событий, которые переживала Япония на рубеже веков и формаций. На родине автора роман является настоящим бестселлером и не раз был экранизирован. «Кокоро» — одно из первых, знаковых произведений современной японской литературы, переведённых на русский язык. В 1935 году вышел перевод академика Н. И. Конрада, а в 1943 году — перевод С. Шахматова и Х. Хираи. И в том и в другом случае название романа было переведено как «Сердце». Данное издание представляет собой третий перевод романа на русский язык.
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Kakuzo Okakura, who was known in America as a scholar, art critic, and Curator of Chinese and Japanese Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, directed almost his entire adult life toward the preservation and reawakening of the Japanese national heritage — in art, ethics, social customs, and other areas of life — in the face of the Westernizing influences that were revolutionizing Japan around the turn of the century.This modern classic is essentially an apology for Eastern traditions and feelings to the Western world — not in passionate, oversentimental terms, but with a charm and underlying toughness which clearly indicate some of the enduring differences between the Eastern and Western mind. Okakura exhibits the distinctive "personality" of the East through the philosophy of Teaism and the ancient Japanese tea ceremony. This ceremony is particularly revelatory of a conservative strain in Japanese culture; its ideals of aesthetic tranquility and submission to the ways of the past find no parallel in the major cultural motifs of the West.Not only does he discuss the tea ceremony and its rigid formalities, and the cult and patterns of belief surrounding tea and tea-drinking, but Okakura also considers religious influences, origins, and history, and goes into the importance of flowers and floral arrangements in Japanese life — their proper appreciation and cultivation, great tea-masters of the past, the tea-room with its air of serenity and purity, and the aesthetic and quasi-religious values pervading all these activities and attitudes.Okakura's English style was graceful, yet exceptionally clear and precise, and this book is one of the most delightful essay-volumes to the English language. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of American readers to Japanese thinking and traditions. This new, corrected edition, complete with an illuminating preliminary essay on Okakura's life and work, will provide an engrossing account for anyone interested in the current and central themes of Oriental life.
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"The Remains of the Day" is like a quiet conversation that stays with you long after it's over. Through Stevens' meticulously detailed life as a butler and his quest for self-assurance, Ishiguro weaves a narrative that not only delves into the complexities of duty and service but also exposes the deep undercurrents of personal sacrifice and regret. The subtlety in its exploration of a life lived in the shadows of greatness makes it a profoundly moving read for anyone who appreciates nuanced character studies and the bittersweet beauty of introspection.
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Edwin McClellan, Natsume Sōseki |
Digireads.com
Kokoro
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Goodreads rating: 4.04
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"Kokoro" isn't just a novel; it's an experience that delves into the profound shifts within Japanese culture and the introspective journey of its characters. As you navigate through the narrative's richly layered exploration of guilt, societal changes, and existential loneliness, you'll find the pages resonating with the struggles of modernity versus tradition. Soseki's storytelling might just change the way you perceive the 'heart' of human experience.
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"Birthday" would be a great read for horror fans who want to explore the world of the "Ring" universe from the perspective of memorable female characters. The book's unique and distinctive feature is its exploration of birth as a theme, and the way it ties into the horror elements of the story. The book has been adapted into a hit movie, so readers can expect a thrilling and engaging read.
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Dr. Ando who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances. The corpse, that of cynical philosophy professor Ryuji Takayama, has something to tell him. And Ryuji isn't the only one who chooses to make a reappearance in this story.You don't know what the RING is yet. The terms of the curse of the videotape undergo a jaw-dropping reconfiguration in this novel, the horror master's stunning reinvention of his own bestselling tale. Spiral is written as a stand-alone work; for Ring fans, its' a sequel that redefines the word.
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In Osaka in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family–and an entire society–sliding into the abyss of modernity.Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.From the Hardcover edition.
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Edward G. Seidensticker, Yasunari Kawabata |
Tuttle
Publishing
Thousand Cranes
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Goodreads rating: 3.72
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Thousand Cranes is a story of love given and love withheld. Set against the backdrop of Japan's traditional tea ceremony, it is a taut, highly dramatic novel gleaming with sudden passages of poetic beauty. In one of the book's strongest scenes, the two characters are symbolized by the two fine old China bowls, one female and one male, that sit before them.The novel opens with Kikuji on his way to a tea ceremony given by Chikako, one of his father's former mistresses. He is also on his way to act out the unfinished drama of his father's life. Kikuji's father had been a cultivated man, an art lover and a pleasure seeker. He had cast off one mistress, Chikako, but had loved another, Mrs Ota, until his death. Kikuji, like his father, tries to escape from Chikako, now masculine and meddlesome. Like his father, too, he is drawn to Mrs Ota, who has remained young, alluring and pliant even though her daughter, Fumiko, is only twenty years old. Kikuji's guilty passion for Mrs Ota and Fumiko's efforts to alter the family fate lead to the novel's stunning climax.
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Kyōichi Katayama, Akemi Wegmüller |
Viz
Media
Llc
Socrates in Love
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Goodreads rating: 3.67
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Kyoichi Katayama's Socrates in Love depicts a sweet high school romance between an average guy and a beautiful girl. Sakutaro is a dry-witted teenage boy--precocious and slightly sarcastic, he's the perfect counter-part to Aki, a popular girl-next-door type. The two meet in junior high, and puppy love slowly blooms into a more serious relationship. But tragedy ensures when Aki falls ill with leukemia, and Sakutaro proves his love to be true enough to test the bounds between life and death. Socrates in Love is a bittersweet journey of young love, enduring devotion, and heartbreaking loss. Affectionately known in Japan as Sekachu (short for Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu ), the incredible popularity of Katayama's novel developed into a social phenomenon in Japan and drove it to become one of the classic love stories of all time. Socrates in Love took the Japanese publishing industry by storm, becoming the all-time best-selling novel in Japan! Finally, U.S. readers will be able to experience the phenomenon that became the inspiration for a blockbuster movie, a hit TV show, and a popular manga. A national sensation that touched over three million readers, Kyoichi Katayama brought innocent love and romance to the forefront of Japan's ultra-hip mass market.
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Satoko Izumo, Fuminori Nakamura, Stephen Coates |
Corsair
The Thief
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Goodreads rating: 3.52
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Nishimura is a seasoned pickpocket, weaving through Tokyo's crowded streets, in search for potential targets. He has no family, no friends, no connections...But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when his old partner-in-crime reappears and offers him a job he can't refuse. Suddenly, Nishimura finds himself caught in a web so tangled and intricate that even he might not be able to escape.
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Nanase cannot remember when she first realized she could read people's minds, but not once during her eighteen years has she ever thought that it was a particularly unusual ability. Yet, when she gets a job as a live-in maid, she is inevitably drawn into the lives, thoughts and desires of her employers, with dangerous and, at times, hilarious consequences. From the sexual rapaciousness of her first boss, to the grime and stench of the house where she works next and her third employer's inability to accept she's no longer young, Nanase's adventures are a picaresque journey into the inner sanctum of the lives and psyches of ordinary Japanese people.
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Masamune Shirow
|
Kodansha
Comics
Ghost In The Shell, The: Vol. 1
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Goodreads rating: 4.16
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Deep into the 21st century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred as humans rely on the enhancement of mechanical implants and robots are upgraded with human tissue. In this rapidly converging landscape, cyborg super-agent Major Motoko Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including "ghost hackers," capable of exploiting the human/machine interface by re-programming human minds to become puppets to carry out their criminal ends. When Major Kusanagi tracks the cybertrail of one such master hacker, the Puppeteer, her quest leads her into a world beyond information and technology where the very nature of consciousness and the human soul are turned upside-down and inside-out.This edition includes a new Introduction from Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson, and a fascinating Postscript from author Masamune Shirow.
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If you appreciate stories that weave together different cultures and periods, "A Tale for the Time Being" offers a captivating experience. Ruth Ozeki's novel cleverly bridges the gap between a troubled Japanese teenager's diary and the life of a novelist across the Pacific, playing with elements of time, connection, and mystery in a way that feels both profound and genuinely personal. This book could speak to you on multiple levels - intellectually through its engagement with quantum physics and philosophically through its exploration of shared humanity.
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Miyamoto Musashi, D.E. Tarver |
Iuniverse
The Book of Five Rings : Miyamoto Musashi
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Goodreads rating: 3.98
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Setting down his thoughts on swordplay, on winning, and on spirituality, legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi intended this modest work as a guide for his immediate disciples and future generations of samurai. He had little idea he was penning a masterpiece that would be eagerly devoured by people in all walks of life centuries after his death. Along with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Five Rings has long been regarded as an invaluable treatise on the strategy of winning. Musashi's timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant was addressed to the readers of earlier times on the battlefield, and now serves the modern reader in the battle of life. In this new rendering by the translator of Hagakure and The Unfettered Mind, William Scott Wilson adheres rigorously to the seventeenth-century Japanese text and clarifies points of ambiguity in earlier translations. In addition, he offers an extensive introduction and a translation of Musashi's rarely published The Way of Walking Alone. This gift-book edition also features original art by Musashi himself as well as new calligraphy by Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura.About the AuthorMiyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) was a renowned swordsman and painter. A masterless samurai, he developed the two-sword style of fighting and emerged victorious in more than 60 sword fights in his travels throughout Japan. The author of The Book of Five Rings, he is also the subject of the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. William Scott Wilson, the translator, was born in 1944 in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Florida. He received B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and an M.A. in Japanese literary studies from the University of Washington. His long-selling translations of Hagakure, The Unfettered Mind, The Roots of Wisdom: Saikontan, and Taiko have become standards. Hagakure was featured prominently in the film Ghost Dog.
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Seishi Yokomizo, Louise Heal Kawai |
Pushkin
Vertigo
The Honjin Murders
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Goodreads rating: 3.67
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Reasons to Read:
- Are you a fan of gripping murder mysteries with a haunting atmosphere? Dive into the snowy world of "The Honjin Murders" where a sinister masked man, a shocking murder, and an impossible crime await.
- Join amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi on a quest to unravel the secrets of the Ichiyanagi family and the village of Okamura. With its captivating blend of suspense, eerie music, and a bloody samurai sword, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
- Step into the intriguing world of 1930s Japan and delve into a meticulously plotted murder mystery that will challenge your deductive skills. "The Honjin Murders" is a must-read for fans of classic detective stories.
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William Theodore de Bary, Saikaku Ihara |
Tuttle
Publishing
Five Women Who Loved Love
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Goodreads rating: 3.53
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"Five charming novellas...which have astonishing freshness, color, and warmth." The New YorkerFirst published in 1686, this collection of five novellas was an immediate bestseller in the bawdy world that was Genroku Japan, and the book's popularity has increased with age, making it today a literary classic like Boccaccio's Decameron, or the works of Rabelais.The book follows five determined women in their always amorous, erotic and usually illicit adventures. The five heroines are Onatsu, already wise in the ways of love the tender age of sixteen; Osen, a faithful wife until unjustly accused of adultery; Osan, a Kyoto beauty who falls asleep in the wrong bed; Oshichi, willing to burn down a city to meet her samurai lover; and Oman, who has to compete with handsome boys to win her lover's affections.But the book is more than a collection of skillfully told erotic tales, for "Saikaku…could not delve into the inmost secrets of human life only to expose them to ridicule or snickering prurience. Obviously fascinated by the variety and complexity of human love, but retaining always a sense of its intrinsic dignityhe is both a discriminating and compassionate judge of his fellow man."Saikaku's style, as allusive as it is witty, as abbreviated as it is penetrating, is a challenge that few translators have dared to face, and certainly never before with the success here achieved in a translation that recaptures the heady flavor of the original.
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This is a true story of love for the internet generation - the international bestseller that sold over a million copies. This wonderfully unique book from Japan derives from a series of postings over a three-month period to a particularly computer-geeky thread of 2 Channel, the world's largest anonymous Message Board. The events all took place in Tokyo. One day a shy otaku computer geek mentioned on the message forum how he had met a girl on a subway train. As things developed he continued to post updates to the message board. He gained the nickname 'Train Man'. With each update from bashful Train Man, his fellow correspondents throw in own colourful speculations, boyish encouragements, tongue-in-cheek warnings, and fabulously inventive ascii text drawings. Train Man tries to take on board their comments as events unfold. Eventually he finds love with the girl, Hermes, and reveals to her the entire history of the thread. The true identity of Train Man remains a closely guarded secret.
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Polly Barton, Kikuko Tsumura |
Bloomsbury
Publishing
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
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Goodreads rating: 3.61
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If you're feeling disillusioned with the relentless grind of your 9-to-5 or seeking a story that plunges into the sheer oddness of modern labor, "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" could be just the quirky companion you need. It's a peculiar, yet relatable journey that encapsulates our collective quest for significance beyond the paycheck, wrapped in a package of dark, sharp wit. It might just alter how you view your daily toils or at least give you a laugh about them.
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Lucy North, Hiromi Kawakami |
Pushkin
Press
Record Of A Night Too Brief
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Goodreads rating: 3.22
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The Akutagawa Prize-winning stories from the author of Strange Weather in Tokyo.In these three haunting and lyrical stories, three young women experience unsettling loss and romance.In a dreamlike adventure, one woman travels through an apparently unending night with a porcelain girlfriend, mist-monsters and villainous monkeys; a sister mourns her invisible brother whom only she can still see, while the rest of her family welcome his would-be wife into their home; and an accident with a snake leads a shop girl to discover the snake-families everyone else seems to be concealing.Sensual, yearning, and filled with the tricks of memory and grief, Record of a Night Too Brief is an atmospheric trio of unforgettable tales.
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Tomihiko Morimi, Emily Balistrieri |
Yen
On
The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl
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Goodreads rating: 3.99
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A college student spends an evening out, unwittingly attracting the attention of various men whose paths she crosses. One in particular, an upperclassman who has been nursing a crush on her for some time, has chosen this night to make his true feelings known.Will the two come together, or will this girl just keep on walking...?
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"A sense of unease permeates this disturbing and exceptional collection of stories centered on unhappy women in postwar Japan...," wrote Publishers Weekly. World Literature Today proclaimed: "Reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor’s works, Kono’s stories explore the dark, terrifying side of human nature that manifests itself in antisocial behavior." Toddler-Hunting Other Stories introduces to American readers a startlingly original voice. Winner of most of Japan’s top literary prizes for fiction, Kono Taeko writes with a disquieting and strange beauty, always foregrounding what Choice called "the great power of serious, indeed shocking events." In the title story, the protagonist loathes young girls, but she compulsively buys expensive clothes for little boys so that she can watch them dress and undress. The impersonal gaze Kono Taeko turns on this behavior transfixes the reader with a fatal question: What are we hunting for? And why? Now available in paperback for the first time, Toddler-Hunting Other Stories should fascinate any reader interested in Japanese literature––or in the growing world of transgressive fiction.
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Polly Barton, Tomoka Shibasaki |
Pushkin
Press
Spring Garden - Japanese Novellas
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Goodreads rating: 3.25
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If you're interested in the quiet poignance of everyday life and the relationships that subtly shape our existence, "Spring Garden" could resonate with you. Tomoko Shibasaki offers a glimpse into the lives of two neighbors bound by shared sentiments over what's disappearing around them. It’s for introspective readers who find beauty in transience, the subtleties of human connections, and the deeply personal relationship with our surroundings.
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A startling novella from the heir to Haruki Murakami and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.Trapped in Tokyo, left behind by a series of girlfriends, the narrator of Slow Boat sizes up his situation. His missteps, his violent rebellions, his tiny victories. But he is not a passive loser, content to accept all that fate hands him. He attempts one last escape to the edges of the city, holding the only safety net he has known – his dreams.Filled with lyrical longing and humour, Slow Boat captures perfectly the urge to get away and the necessity of finding yourself in a world which might never even be looking for you.
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Yamamoto Tsunetomo
|
Shelter
Harbor
Press
The Art of the Samurai
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Goodreads rating: 4.02
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The way of the samurai is found in death. These words, written 300 years ago by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, offer a seemingly grim introduction to a practice and philosophy that was in fact anything but morbid. Offering a fascinating glimpse into the secretive inner world of the samurai, the Hagakure remained closely guarded and was shown only to a chosen few for more than a century. This was a culture in which death was embraced, not as a morbid fascination, but as a method for eliminating fear. Yamamoto tells his readers how to foster courage, how to serve selflessly, how to become a skilled master of your own destiny, and how to infuse life with beauty while acknowledging its transience. Yamamoto's penetrating insights and profound aphorisms reflect important moral principles that still apply to us today. This masterpiece, preserved for generations in northern Kyushu by warrior chiefs as moral and practical instruction for themselves and their samurai retainers, is now presented in this beautifully illustrated edition that will enlighten anyone with an interest in Japanese culture and world literature.
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Meredith McKinney
|
Penguin
Classics
Travels with a Writing Brush : Classical Japanese Travel Writing from the Manyoshu to Basho
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Goodreads rating: 4.02
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A rich, exquisite and original anthology that illuminates Japanese travel writing over a thousand years'Oh journey upon journey, my life is a brief moment, and I cannot hope that we will meet again'Roaming over mountains and along perilous shores, this anthology illuminates over a thousand years of Japanese travel writing. It takes in songs, diaries, tales and poetry, and ranges from famous works including The Pillow Book and the works of Basho to pieces such as the diary of a young girl who longs to return to the capital and her beloved books, or the writings of travelling monks who sleep on pillows of grass. Together they illuminate a long literary tradition, with intense poetic experience at its heart.
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Ryōtarō Shiba, Juliet Winters Carpenter |
Kodansha
America
Last Shogun: The Life Of Tokugawa Yoshinobu
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Goodreads rating: 3.79
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In Ryotaro Shiba's account of the life of Japan's last shogun, Perry's arrival off the coast of Japan was merely the spark that ignited the cataclysm in store for the Japanese people and their governments. It came to its real climax with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the event which forms the centerpiece of this book. The Meiji Restoration—as history calls it—toppled the shogunate, and brought a seventeen-year-old boy emperor back from the secluded Imperial Palace in Kyoto to preside over what amounted to a political and cultural revolution. With this, Japan's extraordinary self-modernization began in earnest. Coming to power just as the Tokugawa regime was suffering the worst military defeat in its history, Yoshinobu strongly suspected that the rule of the Tokugawas—the third and longest lived of Japan's three warrior governments - was swiftly becoming an anachronism. During a year of frenetic activity, he overhauled the military systems, reorganized the civil administration, promoted industrial development, and expanded foreign intercourse, with the farsighted aim of creating a unified Japan. Alarmed by these reforms, pro-imperial interests moved against him, precipitating the Boshin Civil War and the final defeat of the shogunal armies. To the surprise of his enemies, Yoshinobu capitulated. It was this surrender of authority at a crucial point that made the transfer of sovereignty relatively peaceful. He then retired to Mito and lived quietly for the rest of his life, studying the new art of photography. Ennobled a prince in the new European-style nobility of the Meiji era, he died in 1913.
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Ha Jin
|
Vintage
Books
Waiting
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Goodreads rating: 3.54
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"Waiting" is a poignant exploration of love constrained by societal norms. As you walk through Lin Kong's life, you navigate the complex terrain of duty versus desire. Ha Jin paints a deeply moving portrait of a man caught between modern affection and traditional obligation. This book speaks to the heart of anyone who has ever struggled with the choices that define us.
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Louise Heal Kawai, Seichō Matsumoto |
Bitter
Lemon
Press
A Quiet Place
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Goodreads rating: 3.57
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While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly-spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife—who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings—ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood?When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife’s death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...
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Avery Fischer Udagawa, Shogo Oketani |
Stone
Bridge
Press
J-Boys : Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965
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Goodreads rating: 4.11
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Kazuo Nakamoto's life in inner-city Tokyo is one of tea and tofu, of American TV and rock 'n' roll. Kazuo is nine. It is the mid-1960s, just after the Japan Olympics, and Kazuo dreams of being a track star. He hangs out with his buddies, goes to school, and helps with household chores. But Kazuo's world is changing. This bittersweet novel is a deft portrait of a year in a boy's life in a land and time far away, filled with universal concerns about fitting in, escaping the past (in this case World War II's lingering devastation), and growing up. J-Boys author Shogo Oketani is a writer and novelist who grew up in Tokyo in the mid-1960s.
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Kazuo Ishiguro
|
Vintage
International
An Artist of the Floating World
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Goodreads rating: 3.78
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In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into World War II. Now, as the mature Ono struggles through the aftermath of that war, his memories of his youth and of the “floating world”—the nocturnal world of pleasure, entertainment, and drink—offer him both escape and redemption, even as they punish him for betraying his early promise. Indicted by society for its defeat and reviled for his past aesthetics, he relives the passage through his personal history that makes him both a hero and a coward but, above all, a human being.
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Recommendation: This book is a heart-wrenching exploration of the fragility of life and the bonds that hold us together. Through Kathy's gripping narration, Ishiguro crafts a story that will leave you contemplating the nature of identity, sacrifice, and the inevitability of fate. Prepare to be moved and haunted by this beautifully written tale that lingers long after you turn the last page. Perfect for those who appreciate introspective and thought-provoking literature.
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Ryder, a renowned pianist, arrives in a Central European city he cannot identify for a concert he cannot remember agreeing to give. But then as he traverses a landscape by turns eerie and comical – and always strangely malleable, as a dream might be - he comes steadily to realise he is facing the most crucial performance of his life.Ishiguro's extraordinary and original study of a man whose life has accelerated beyond his control was met on publication by consternation, vilification – and the highest praise.
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Deborah Stuhr Iwabuchi, Miyuki Miyabe |
Kodansha
Usa
The Devil's Whisper
$6.52
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Goodreads rating: 3.58
$6.52
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Three deaths come in quick one girl jumps from the roof of a six-story building; another falls in front of a train; and a third is hit by a late-night taxi. But how are they related? And are they accidents, suicides -- or murder?Slowly, the answers are uncovered by sixteen-year-old Mamoru, the nephew of the taxi driver currently being held by the police on charges of manslaughter for the death of the third victim.Determined to help his uncle, Mamoru discovers that the girl killed by his uncle's taxi had participated in a devious scam to separate vulnerable men from their money, and that three of the four girls involved in the plot are now dead. When a powerful businessman reveals new evidence that could freeMamoru's uncle, Mamoru decides he must go all out if he is to save the last of the four girls being targeted by the real killer.And then the killer contacts him...
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Juliet Winters Carpenter, Miyuki Miyabe |
Kodansha
Shadow Family
$7.22
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Goodreads rating: 3.36
$7.22
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Shadow Family could be a good read for those interested in exploring the psychological tension between reality and fantasy, as well as the dangers of anonymous online interactions. The unique and distinctive feature of this book is its exploration of the "shadow lives" people can lead online and the consequences that can emerge in reality. Users may review this book as a thought-provoking and suspenseful page-turner that raises important questions about technology and human behavior.
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John Nathan, Kenzaburō Ōe |
Grove
Press
A Personal Matter
$7.64
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Goodreads rating: 3.9
$7.64
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Kenzaburō Ōe, the winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, is internationally acclaimed as one of the most important and influential post-World War II writers, known for his powerful accounts of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and his own struggle to come to terms with a mentally handicapped son. The Swedish Academy lauded Ōe for his "poetic force [that] creates an imagined world where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."His most personal book, A Personal Matter, is the story of Bird, a frustrated intellectual in a failing marriage whose utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth to a brain-damaged child.
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Sōji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji, Ho-Ling Wong |
Locked
Room
International
The Decagon House Murders
$8.40
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Goodreads rating: 3.82
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Students from a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly multiple murder the year before. Predictably, they get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer. Is there a madman on the loose? What connection is there to the earlier murders? The answer is a bombshell revelation which few readers will see coming.
The Decagon House Murders
is a milestone in the history of detective fiction. Published in 1987, it is credited with launching the shinhonkaku movement which restored Golden Age style plotting and fair-play clues to the Japanese mystery scene, which had been dominated by the social school of mystery for several decades. It is also said to have influenced the development of the wildly popular anime movement.This, the first English edition, contains a lengthy introduction by the maestro of Japanese mystery fiction, Soji Shimada.
$7.41
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As indicated by the title, Bødy is a collection of horror stories, all thematically linked to people's perception of their bodies, and the consequences of vanity and low self-esteem. In the vein of the psychological suspense of the Twilight Zone, each story ends with a shock, leaving the reader unsettled with the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for," echoing in their bones. Appropriately, each of the five stories in Bødy gets its title from the body parts featured, buttocks, blood, face, hair and chin.
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A seductive psychological thriller about obsession, jealousy and deceit, and a Japanese classic Sonoko Kakiuchi is a cultured Osaka lady in an uninspiring marriage. When she decides to take an art class in town she meets the extraordinary Mitsuko, a woman as beautiful and charismatic as she is cunning. They begin a passionate affair and Sonoko soon finds herself infatuated by Mitsuko, and ensnared in a web of sex, humiliation and deceit. With an introduction by Kristen Roupenian, author of 'Cat Person'
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Yei Theodora Ozaki
|
Tuttle
Publishing
Japanese Fairy Tales
$9.01
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Goodreads rating: 3.69
$9.01
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English translation of 22 tales include ghouls, goblins and ogres; sea serpents and sea kings; kindly animals and magic birds; demons and dragons; princes and princesses. Some are "Momotaro, "The Son of a Peach", "The Jellyfish and the Monkey", "The Mirror of Matsuyama", "The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child", "The Stones of Five Colors and the Empress Jokwa."
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Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.In his highly acclaimed debut, A Pale View of Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwelling on the recent suicide of her daughter. Retreating into the past, she finds herself reliving one particular hot summer in Nagasaki, when she and her friends struggled to rebuild their lives after the war. But then as she recalls her strange friendship with Sachiko - a wealthy woman reduced to vagrancy - the memories take on a disturbing cast.
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Satoru Saitō, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Ellery Queen |
Tuttle
Publishing
Ellery Queen's Japanese Mystery Stories - From Japan's Greatest Detective And Crime Writers
$10.68
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Goodreads rating: 3.76
$10.68
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"As an anthologist, Ellery Queen is without peer, his taste unequalled. As a bibliographer and a collector of the detective short story, Queen is, again, a historical personage. Indeed, Ellery Queen clearly is, after Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction." -- Otto Penzler, from Detectionary: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Characters in Mystery FictionA newspaper receives a letter from a man claiming to have been murdered--it's impossible but the truth is not so simple; five strangers who share the same initials are invited to spend the night in a luxury hotel but one of them is a murderer.The 12 stories in this book will lead you through dramatic twists and unexpected turns. The legendary Ellery Queen selected these stories by award-winning Japanese authors from among many thousands published in postwar Japan. Each story features an unusual crime and a complex set of clues investigated by a diverse and colorful cast of characters that includes a calculating inspector, a tenacious journalist, and a determined scientist.The thrilling stories in this volume include:Ellery Queen's Japanese Mystery Stories is a collection that is sure to delight lovers of great detective and crime fiction. The book features a new foreword by Japanese detective fiction expert Satoru Saito which places the stories within the context of Japanese society and modern Japanese literature.
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Royall Tyler, Minora Sugai, Murasaki Shikibu |
Penguin
The Tale of Genji
$15.97
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Goodreads rating: 3.72
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Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world’s first novel. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent epic. Royall Tyler’s superior translation is detailed, poetic, and superbly true to the Japanese original while allowing the modern reader to appreciate it as a contemporary treasure. Supplemented with detailed notes, glossaries, character lists, and chronologies to help the reader navigate the multigenerational narrative, this comprehensive edition presents this ancient tale in the grand style that it deserves.
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$5.77
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A literary crime masterpiece that follows a Japanese pickpocket lost to the machinations of fate. Bleak and oozing existential dread, The Thief is simply unforgettable. The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves in and out of Tokyo crowds, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes he doesn’t even remember the snatch. Most people are just a blur to him, nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims. He has no family, no friends, no connections.... But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when Ishikawa, his first partner, reappears in his life, and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It’s an easy tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of the safe. No one gets hurt. Only the day after the job does he learn that the old man was a prominent politician, and that he was brutally killed after the robbery. And now the Thief is caught in a tangle even he might not be able to escape.From the Hardcover edition.
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Kazuo Ishiguro has been acclaimed in the Sunday Times for 'extending the possibilities of fiction. In Never Let Me Go he has fashioned another remarkable story - a story of love, loss and hidden truths - that takes its place among his finest work.Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were pupils at Hailsham - an idyllic establishment situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special, and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for what reason were they really there?It is only years later that Kathy, now aged thirty-one, finally allows herself to yield to the pull of memory. What unfolds is the haunting story of how Kathy, Ruth and Tommy slowly come to face the truth about their seemingly happy childhoods - and about their futures.Never Let Me Go is a uniquely moving novel, charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of our lives.
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Scholar. Warrior. Samurai.His name was Bennosuke, son of the great Munisai Shinmen, known throughout the empire as one of the greatest warriors who ever lived.His destiny was to become a great warrior like his father - a Samurai, one of the most feared and respected in the world.But before fame comes action, and Bennosuke must prove himself on the battlefield before he can claim his inheritance. And in his way stands the vengeful Hayato, son of Lord Nakata, the face of the enemy, a man who is determined to kill Bennosuke.It is a battle between honour and vengeance, pride and reputation. And Bennosuke must look death in the eye before he can call himself a warrior. Before he can call himself Musashi, the greatest warrior of all time…
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Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami, Ted Goossen |
Knopf
Men Without Women : Stories
$15.24
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Goodreads rating: 3.76
$15.24
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This book could be a good read for those who are interested in stories about life and relationships. The stories in this book have a unique way of exploring the complex emotions of characters without important women in their lives. Each story is filled with wry humor and pathos, and leaves readers with more questions than answers. Murakami brings out the loneliness in each character and shows how they seek a connection with others, making it a relatable and moving read for those who enjoy thought-provoking literature.
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Liedewy Hawke, Denis Thériault |
Oneworld
The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
$8.90
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Goodreads rating: 3.65
$8.90
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The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman could be for you if you're intrigued by the idea of someone else's secret world providing an escape from everyday monotony. Denis Thériault weaves a narrative that's both poetic and suspenseful, allowing you to glimpse into the intimate exchanges of strangers through the eyes of a voyeuristic postman. It's a compact tale that explores the consequences of living life vicariously through others' words.
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$6.63
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Two prostitutes are murdered in Tokyo.Twenty years previously both women were educated at the same elite school for young ladies, and had seemingly promising futures ahead of them.But in a world of dark desire and vicious ambition, for both women, prostitution meant power. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting thriller, a chilling exploration of women's secret lives in modern day Japan.
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Alfred H. Marks, Yukio Mishima |
Vintage
Books
Forbidden Colors
$7.47
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Goodreads rating: 3.91
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From one of Japan's greatest modern writers comes an exquisitely disturbing novel of sexual combat and concealed passion, a work that distills beauty, longing, and loathing into an intoxicating poisoned cocktail. An aging, embittered novelist sets out to avenge himself on the women who have betrayed him. He finds the perfect instrument in Yuichi, a young man whose beauty makes him irresistible to women but who is just discovering his attraction to other men.As Yuichi's mentor presses him into a loveless marriage and a series of equally loveless philanderings, his protégé enters the gay underworld of postwar Japan. In that hidden society of parks and tearooms, prostitutes and aristocratic blackmailers, Yuichi is as defenseless as any of the women he preys on. Mordantly observed, intellectually provocative, and filled with icy eroticism, Forbidden Colors is a masterpiece.
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$8.90
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"Norwegian Wood" might just linger in your thoughts long after you've turned the last page. It's Murakami at his finest, weaving a tapestry of emotions that resonate with the heartache and beauty of youth. The narrative takes you through a delicate dance of memories, drawing you into a world where love and pain are deeply intertwined. If you enjoy stories that explore the profundity of human connections and the passage of time, this book is a compelling pick.