summary of japanese literature

Japanese Literature

Writing was introduced to Japan from China in the 5th century via the Korean peninsula. The oldest surviving works are two historical records, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which were completed in the early 8th century. In the 11th century, during the peak of the Heian Period , the world's first novel, The Tale of Genji , was written in Japan.

During the Meiji Period (1868-1912), an influx of foreign texts spurred the development of modern Japanese literature. Influential authors of the time include Higuchi Ichiyo, whose image is on the 5000 yen bill ; Natsume Soseki , who is best known for his Matsuyama -based novel "Botchan"; and Miyazawa Kenji, a poet and children's literature author from Iwate best known for his work "Night on the Galactic Railroad".

Since then, Japan has maintained a vibrant literary culture, and contemporary writers such as Kawabata Yasunari and Oe Kenzaburo have won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 and 1994 respectively.

Below are a few places in Japan where the country's literary heritage can be appreciated:

See also our page about Japanese poetry .

Questions? Ask in our forum .

Links and Resources

The japanese literature home page, introduction to history of japan's literature, literary hot list, national institute of japanese literature.

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Literary history

The information contained in the pages on literary history is such as Japanese high school students are expected to know to be able to pass university entrance examinations. Subtlety may be lacking, but the kind of information found here -- together with the rote memorization of certain key passages -- can perhaps be said to constitute the core of the Japanese literary tradition as it is studied by a large proportion of Japan's population.

Premodern period

• The literature of antiquity
• The literature of middle antiquity
• The literature of the middle ages
• The literature of the recent past

Modern period

• Meiji literature
• Taishō literature
• Shōwa, Heisei, and Reiwa literature

Classical literature ( koten bungaku ), meaning literature from the earliest times up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868, is customarily divided by literary scholars into four major periods: jōdai (antiquity) , chūko (middle antiquity) , chūsei (the middle ages) , and kinsei (the recent past) . This method of periodization largely reflects the traditional terminology employed by Japanese historians. Jōdai covers Japanese literary history through the Nara period (710-794); chūko is used more or less synonymously with "literature of the Heian period," from 794 up to the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate in 1192; chūsei takes in the Kamakura (1185-1333), Muromachi (1336-1573), and Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1600) periods, continuing up to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603; and kinsei is most often used to refer to the Edo period (1603-1867). Two caveats are in order. One is that several of these boundaries are "fuzzy": different events are taken by different scholars to mark the end of one period and the beginning of the next (to take one example, the start of the Kamakura period is now taught in schools to be 1185, but 1192 is still firmly established in the popular imagination). The second is that in practice it is quite acceptable to speak of "Heian literature" or "Edo literature," for instance, instead of using the terms given here.

The literature of antiquity (to 794) Written literature in Japan dates from the Nara period, although an oral tradition existed well before that time. The work that is usually taken to reveal the process of change from an oral to a written tradition and from communal to personal concerns is the collection of poems known as the Man'yōshū (The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves). The literature of middle antiquity (794-1185) Literature in the early Heian period flourished under Chinese (Tang) influence, but became more expressive of native sentiments as Japan withdrew into itself and political institutions based on Chinese models either collapsed or were molded into more congenial forms. Chinese poetry was supplanted by the waka (literally, "Japanese poem") as the preeminent literary form. Imperial collections of poetry were compiled, and prose works, most by women, were written in the newly developed phonetic kana script. The decline of the aristocracy toward the end of the period was paralleled by a loss of creative energy and a growing sense of pessimism, although collections of folktales and popular songs signaled the involvement of a new social class in the production of works of recognized literary value. The literature of the middle ages (1185-1603) The political turbulence associated with the Genpei Wars of 1180 to 1185 and the establishment of the Kamakura bakufu (1192) gave rise to a literature that both centered on military exploits and often expressed disillusion with such exploits. Mujō (impermanence, transience) became a key concept underlying the literature of this period, although at the same time groups devoted to the composition of renga (linked verse) were turning to literature for the purpose of seeking pleasure there. The literature of the recent past (1603-1867) The Edo period was characterized by the growing cultural influence exercised by samurai and townspeople. The commercial class in particular benefited from various economic and technological developments, the result of which was a great flowering of culture in the Genroku period (1688-1704). The haikai master Matsuo Bashō, the novelist Ihara Saikaku, and the dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon are all associated with this enormous outburst of creative activity. The nation's cultural center shifted from the Kyoto-Osaka region to Edo in the second half of the eighteenth century, leading to the production of large quantities of gesaku (frivolous works) by the writers who constituted the last literary generation before the advent of Western influence.

The basis for the periodization of modern literature ( kindai bungaku ) is gradually becoming problematic as the "modern" period grows ever longer. The most common division is the one based on the reigns of the emperors who have ruled since 1868: Meiji (1868-1912) , Taishō (1912-1926) , Shōwa (1926-1989) , Heisei (1989-2019) , and Reiwa (from 2019) . The usefulness of these divisions is mitigated, however, both by the basic political continuity of the past 130 years and by the failure to take into account the single most traumatic disruption of that unity, World War II. Literary histories therefore tend to subdivide the modern era by choosing various historical or cultural events to mark the boundaries of important literary developments, perhaps attaching an explanatory note to identify the reason for the division, resulting in a descriptive heading like "The early-to-middle Meiji period (the creation and development of a modern literature)." The situation is further complicated by the recent questioning of "modernization" as a paradigm for constructing Japan's post-Meiji literary history. The effect all this will eventually have on literature as it is taught in the schools is by no means clear at this point. Meiji literature (1868-1912) The Meiji period was when Japan, under Western influence, took the first steps toward developing a modern literature. The major hallmarks up to the time of the Russo-Japanese War are considered to be Tsubouchi Shōyō's theoretical study Shōsetsu shinzui (The Essence of the Novel, 1885) because of its advocacy of psychological realism, and Futabatei Shimei's Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds, 1887), both for its realistic character portrayal and because the narrative medium is an approximation of everyday speech. Counterpoints are offered by the highly stylized prose of the Ken'yūsha (Friends of the Inkstone) group centering on Ozaki Kōyō, and the kind of romanticism evident in the early stories of Mori Ōgai and, especially, the poetry of Kitamura Tōkoku, Shimazaki Tōson, and Yosano Tekkan. The movement known as Japanese Naturalism gained prominence with the publication of Shimazaki Tōson's novel Hakai (The Broken Commandment, 1906) and Tayama Katai's short story Futon (The Quilt, 1907). Naturalism predominated on the literary scene until around 1910, although such authors as Natsume Sōseki, Mori Ōgai, and Nagai Kafū were not associated with it and might even be considered antagonistic to it. The humanistic idealism of the Shirakaba (White Birch) writers from the second decade of the century is taken to mark a turn away from Naturalism and toward a broader definition of literature. Taishō literature (1912-1926) The intellectual aestheticism of Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and decadence of Tanizaki Jun'ichirō characterize this short period, as do (toward its end) the introduction of elements of Western literary modernism in the early work of Yokomitsu Riichi and Kawabata Yasunari, along with the first stirrings of proletarian literature. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 is sometimes taken as a major cultural divide in this process. Shōwa (1926-1989), Heisei (1989-2019), and Reiwa (2019- ) literature Proletarian literature was the chief literary movement of the 1920s, supplemented by the uniquely Japanese genre of autobiographical fiction known as the "I novel" ( watakushi shōsetsu or shishōsetsu ). Government suppression of proletarian literature in the 1930s was attended by the publication of "conversion" ( tenkō ) novels by writers compelled to renounce their communist ideals. The subsequent patriotic writings of the war years have largely been forgotten. The end of the war witnessed a resurgent cosmopolitanism that has resulted in a striking literary diversity and has led to a reassessment of  the way in which tradition and modernity can be said to contribute to the Japanese sense of identity. This process of reevaluation can be seen in the choice of the two postwar Japanese winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: Kawabata Yasunari (1968), who titled his acceptance speech "Japan the Beautiful and Myself," and Ōe Kenzaburō (1994), who in deliberate contrast chose the title "Japan the Ambiguous and Myself." The situation since the 1980s has been characterized by an ever increasing diversity, with the "postmodernism" of Murakami Haruki often being one of the last topics mentioned in recent general surveys. This means, in other words, that "accepted" literary history has not really caught up with developments since the late Shōwa period. But any future account of Heisei -- and now Reiwa -- literature will surely have to take note not only of growing categorical fragmentation and diversity but also of the profusion of visually oriented and non-print media (manga, anime, streaming, gaming) that is currently working to reshape the very definition of "literature."

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• < Previous chapter

6 What is Japanese literature?

• Published: May 2023
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Like all literatures, Japanese literature is an idiosyncratic idiom that has contributed to a global literary language. For all of the changes over many centuries in historical and literary context, it is possible to discern many threads running through the Japanese tradition that tie the earliest works to the most recent. Perhaps the most enduring strain running through the tradition is the aesthetic and ethical power of the “spirit of words.” There are many histories of Japanese literature than can be written. This history of Japanese literature concludes by returning to its birthright and deepest wellspring, the gift to us of the almost magically unifying, enchanting, and sometimes healing, power of words and their beauty in the face of what it means to be human

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History of Japan's Literature

This page is based on Japan: A Pocket Guide, 1996 Edition ( Foreign Press Center )

Nara Period

Japanese literature traces its beginnings to oral traditions that were first recorded in written form in the early eighth century after a writing system was introduced from China. The Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihon shoki (Chronicle of Japan) were completed in 712 and 720 , respectively, as government projects. The former is an anthology of myths, legends, and other stories , while the latter is a chronological record of history . The Fudoki (Records of Wind and Earth), compiled by provincial officials beginning in 713 , describe the history, geography, products, and folklore of the various provinces .

The most brilliant literary product of this period was the Man'yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), an anthology of 4,500 poems composed by people ranging from unknown commoners to emperors and compiled around 759 . Already emerging was a verse form comprising 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7) known as tanka. In 905 the Kokin wakashu or Kokinshu (Collection of Poems from Ancient and Modern Times) was published as the first poetry anthology commissioned by an emperor; its preface paid high tribute to the vast possibilities of literature .

• Man'yoshu Best 100
• Manyoshu -- Japanese Text Initiative
• Kokin wakashu (260K; binhexed text)
• Kokin wakashu -- Japanese Text Initiative

Heian Period

In the resplendent aristocratic culture that thrived early in the eleventh century, a time when the use of the hiragana alphabet derived from Chinese characters had become widespread, court ladies played the central role in developing literature. One of them, Murasaki Shikibu wrote the 54-chapter novel Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji) [in ealy 11 century, ca 1008 ?] , while another, Sei Shonagon , wrote Makura no soshi (The Pillow Book), a diverse collection of jottings and essays [around 996 ] . Others also wrote diaries and stories, and their psychological portrayals remain fresh and vivid to present-day readers. The appearance of the Konjaku monogatari (Tales of a Time That Is Now Past) around 1120 added a new dimension to literature. This collection of more than 1,000 Buddhist and secular tales from India, China, and Japan is particularly notable for its rich descriptions of the lives of the nobility and common people in Japan at that time.

• Genji Monogatari -- Japanese Text Initiative
• The Tale of Genji Homepage - full text both in Japanese and English
• The Tale of Genji

Kamakura-Muromachi Period

1185 - 1573

In the latter half of the twelfth century warriors of the Taira clan (Heike) seized political power at the imperial court, virtually forming a new aristocracy. Heike mono-gatari (The Tale of the Heike),which depicts the rise and fall of the Taira with the spotlight on their wars with the Minamoto clan (Genji), was completed in the first half of the thirteenth century [before 1219 ] . It is a grand epic deeply rooted in Buddhist ethics and filled with sorrow for those who perished, colorful descriptions of its varied characters, and stirring battle scenes. In former times the tale was narrated to the accompaniment of a Japanese lute. The Shin kokin wakashu (New Collection of Poems from Ancient and Modern Times), an anthology of poetry commissioned by retired Emperor Go-Toba , was also completed around this time [ca 1205 ?] ; it is dedicated to the pursuit of a subtle, profound beauty far removed from the mundane reality of civil strife.

• First book (Spring I) from Shin kokin wakashu (Copyright 1994 by Paul S. Atkins)
• Ogura Hyakunin Isshu - 100 Poems by 100 Poets

This period also produced literature by recluses, typified by Kamo no Chomei 's Hojoki (An Account of My Hut) [ 1212 ] , which reflects on the uncertainty of existence, and Yoshida Kenko 's Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) [ca 1330 ] , a work marked by penetrating reflections on life. Both works raise the question of spiritual salvation. Meanwhile, the profound thoughts and incisive logic of the Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye) [before 1237 ] , one of the first Buddhist texts written in Japanese rather than Chinese, marked a major development in Zen thought. The Taiheiki (Chronicle of the Great Peace), depicting the 50 years from 1318 to 1367 when two rival imperial courts struggled for power, is a valuable historical record, while the noh plays perfected by Kan'ami and his son Zeami are of great literary value. Zeami 's Fushi kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style) [ 1400 ] is a brilliant essay on dramatic art.

• Japanese traditional art in this homepege for informatino of Noh

1603 - 1868

Around this time the function of literature as a means of social intercourse broadened. Composing renga (successive linked verses by several people forming a long poem) became a favorite pastime, and this gave birth to haikai (a sort of jocular renga) in the sixteenth century. It was the renowned seventeenth century poet Matsuo Basho who perfected a new condensed poetic form of 17 syllables (5-7-5) known as haiku , an embodiment of elegant simplicity and tranquility.

• Dhugal J. Lindsay's Haiku Universe

In the Genroku era (1688-1704) city-dwelling artisans and merchants became the main supporters of literature, and professional artists began to appear. Two giants emerged in the field of prose: Ihara Saikaku, who realistically portrayed the life of Osaka merchants, and Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who wrote joruri , a form of storytelling involving chanted lines, and kabuki plays. These writers brought about a great flowering of literature. Later Yosa Buson composed superb haiku depicting nature, while fiction writer Ueda Akinari produced a collection of gothic stories called Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) [ 1776 ] .

• See Japanese traditional art in this homepege for informatino of Kabuki
• Kanadehon Chuushingura is a joruri text first performed in 1748 (Japanese)

Meiji Period to present

In the Meiji era ( 1868 - 1912 ) unification of the written and spoken language was advocated, and Futabatei Shimei 's Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds) [ 1887 ] won acclaim as a new form of novel. In poetry circles the influence of translated foreign poems led to a "new style" poetry movement, and the scope of literary forms continued to widen. Novelists Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki studied in Germany and Britain, respectively, and their works reflect the influence of the literature of those countries. Soseki nurtured many talented literary figures. One of them, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, wrote many superb novelettes based on his detailed knowledge of the Japanese classics. His suicide in 1927 was seen as a symbol of the agony Japan was experiencing in the process of rapid modernization, a major theme of modern Japanese literature.

Naturalism as advocated by Emile Zola dominated Japan's literary world for the first decade of the twentieth century. This school of literature, as represented by Shimazaki Toson, is noted for the "I novel," a style of novel typical of Japan. A number of pre-World War II literary currents, such as proletarian literature and neo-sensualism, petered out during the war but later regained strength, generating a diverse range of works.

In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and Oe Kenzaburo won it in 1994. They and other contemporary writers, such as Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kobo, and Inoue Yasushi, have been translated into other languages. In the last few years works by the remarkably active postwar-generation writers Murakami Ryu (who won the Akutagawa Prize), Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, and others have also been translated into many languages and have gained tremendous popularity.

(note: all the Japanese names here follow the Japanese practice of placeing the surname first)

Reference: Research Institute for Publication, Shuppan shihyo nenpo (Annual Publishing Index), 1996.

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Natsume sōseki and modern japanese literature.

Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) is one of a handful of individuals who both symbolized Japan’s emergence as a modern nation and helped mold an understanding of the modern condition through his life’s work. Literature was Sōseki’s creative vehicle, but his significance in the context of a broader national identity is greater than the sum of his individual works. In short, his stature is akin to that of Mark Twain, a consensus American icon.

Born at the end of Japan’s final shogunal epoch, the Tokugawa period (1603–1868), Sōseki died several years following the death of the Meiji Emperor. His life span essentially overlaps the seminal Meiji period in Japan’s history (1868–1912), and his literature has long been regarded as having captured the so called Meiji no seishin —the spirit of the Meiji Era. Sōseki’s official status as a Japanese cultural property was acknowledged in the form of his image, which long adorned the nation’s thousand- yen banknote.

Natsume Sōseki’s life and writings were indelibly marked by the intersection of late Tokugawa influences and the ambitious modernization project that marked the Meiji period. The Tokugawa shogunate, based in Edo, had succeeded in maintaining an orderly and regimented society through the imposition of a Confucian-style social hierarchy, with the bushi (samurai) class at the top. Rival samurai clans were effectively marginalized, and the threat of Western colonial incursions was countered through the shogunal sakoku policy of national isolation, which effectively cordoned off the nation from most foreign influences for over two centuries. Tokugawa society was subject to an official moral code that stressed duty and obedience, and its leaders instituted a relatively strict regime of edicts, regulations, and widespread censorship in order to ensure social order.

Thanks to the stable society and a productive domestic economy, Tokugawa cities—especially the shogunal capital of Edo and the mercantile center of Osaka—expanded dramatically, and chōnin (an ascendant merchant class) fostered a stunning variety of arts and entertainment. An urban-based secular culture prevailed, and the pleasure quarters, with their geisha houses, stylish restaurants, and kabuki theaters, attracted anyone with money to burn.

Sōseki’s Japan bore the marks of the nation’s rapid transition to modernity, a major catalyst for which was the arrival of a fleet of American kurofune (“Black Ships”) in 1853, under the command of Matthew Perry. Fifteen years later, the shogunal order gave way to the Meiji Era and the advent of modern Japan. Sōseki was witness to the daunting challenges involved in this radical transformation, and his literature, in the aggregate, is both a reflection of and commentary on the new social, political, and cultural order.

The Meiji mission was to create a modern nation with state-of-the-art education, technology, media, and urban development. Tokyo—the erstwhile Tokugawa shogunal capital—would be a showcase of Japanese modernity and the center of the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. Western know-how would be privileged, together with a new social and political agenda that recognized individualism, autonomy, and equality.

Yet these modern developments had to contend with a significant conservative agenda adopted by the powerful Meiji oligarchs— themselves erstwhile samurai. Cognizant of the need to leverage Tokugawa nativist teachings as a hedge against Western hegemony, they restored the emperor as a national sovereign, patriarch, and Shinto divinity. And they promulgated a “uniqueness myth” centered on kokutai, a term meant to invoke a credo of Japanese uniqueness. Harkening back to Japan’s authoritarian past, the nation’s leaders sought to mold a people attuned to their status as loyal subjects of the emperor. In short, Meiji Japan witnessed the confrontation of a resurgent traditionalism, and the new ethic of individualism and freedom inspired by Western models. This seemingly incongruous design in the fabric of Meiji society would inevitably be reflected in the work of its writers and intellectuals—none more so than Natsume Sōseki.

Sōseki’s Early Years

Natsume Kinnosuke (Sōseki is a pen name) was born in Edo in 1867, one year before the city would be renamed Tokyo with the advent of the Meiji period. The Natsume family had long since lost its samurai status, and Kinnosuke’s father served as a local official of no particular significance. The sixth and last child of older parents who felt the burden of an essentially unwanted child, Kinnosuke was sent out for adoption as an infant to a couple of their acquaintance, the Shiobaras—a not-uncommon practice. The lad would spend some eight years with his adoptive parents, who had serious marital problems of their own, and finally returned to his natal home when he was eight. These early experiences, with their complex emotional freight, would figure in much of his subsequent literature.

The young Kinnosuke was a brilliant student with a flair for literature—the legacy of Japanese and Chinese writings initially, then English literature. As a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University, he took on several rural teaching posts in Shikoku and Kyūshū—experiences that would inspire one of his most popular novels. In 1896, at age twenty-nine, he married Nakane Kyōko, who was ten years younger. She would bear him six children, and they remained together despite temperamental differences and a troubled relationship. Marital problems and mutual barriers to communication would emerge as a key theme of Sōseki’s late novels.

In 1900, Sōseki was sent to England at government expense to study English literature at its source. He spent two years in London, a bitterly trying time notwithstanding his far-ranging literary studies. Two serious impediments would come into play here: a chronic stomach disorder that went untreated and led to a series of hospitalizations and an early death at age forty-nine, and a neurotic disorder diagnosed as shinkei suijaku— neurasthenia—treated by early Japanese specialists in clinical psychology. The neurasthenia symptoms, including seemingly erratic behavior and unusual mood swings, essentially signaled that Sōseki was at risk of a nervous breakdown.

Perhaps a reflection of his melancholic temperament, Sōseki embraced a sardonic, occasionally fatalistic view of modern society and the human condition itself. His keen sensitivity to the problems and pitfalls of social relationships—especially in the context of marriage and family—and the corrosive impact of egocentrism, false pride, and mistrust would deeply color his best-known novels.

Sōseki’s Literary Achievements

As with many of his literary contemporaries, poetry was an early passion and a lifelong pursuit. Sōseki would achieve mastery in both the haiku genre—recalling great predecessors such as Bashō and Buson—and the Chinese poetic genre known as kanshi. Indeed, his stature as a poet would alone have established him as a major literary figure. But together with his great contemporary Mori Ōgai (1862–1922), Sōseki went on to distinguish himself across the spectrum of literary production. Fiction, though, would be his enduring legacy.

Having been appointed to a prestigious professorship in English Literature at the Imperial University in Tokyo, Sōseki found himself more interested in creative writing than what had become an increasingly stultifying academic routine. While still teaching, he achieved critical acclaim for a novel improbably titled I Am a Cat and even more accolades for a second novel, Botchan, whose spirited young protagonist was widely admired. By now committed to a literary career, Sōseki resigned from his university position—all but unthinkable at the time—and embarked on what would be a ten-year career as a professional fiction writer on the staff of the Asahi shimbun, one of the nation’s leading newspapers. He published a series of novels, which initially appeared in daily serialization, over the course of a decade. As such, his work became part of the daily reading diet of millions of Japanese.

Once established in the bundan, the Tokyo-based literary community, Sōseki attracted a number of protégés and disciples, and they would meet regularly on Thursdays at the Natsume home near Waseda University—a gathering known as the Mokuyōkai, the “Thursday Group.” It has since become the stuff of literary legend. Sōseki’s extensive personal writings include many anecdotes and episodes set within his circle of literary colleagues and protégés. 1

Major Works

Sōseki’s novels have earned a privileged place in the Japanese literary canon, and they have enjoyed an “afterlife” in various media forms—film, anime, television drama, and so forth. A brief overview of the major works will reveal the trajectory of a literary career that led to the author being regarded as something akin to Japan’s unofficial “novelist-laureate.” 2

I Am a Cat ( Wagahai wa neko de aru , 1905–1906)

Sōseki’s first novel, a masterpiece of satire inspired in part by British literary forerunners, is set in the household of one “Professor Sneeze” and is narrated by the family’s all-knowing and wryly sardonic cat. The nameless feline harbors a distinctly misanthropic attitude as it lampoons the vanity, pomposity, and general cluelessness of its master.

Insofar as Sneeze’s peccadilloes clearly match those of the author, the work is a self-parody. But it also gives ample voice to Sōseki’s jaundiced view of modern civilization, as well as lampoons the patriotic fervor that was then sweeping the nation as it waged its war with Russia. The novel was a great success, and the author, now intent on pursuing fiction writing in earnest, immediately turned to his next literary project.

Botchan (1906)

The rather naïve young man leaves Tokyo following his parents’ death and takes up a teaching post in the provinces. What ensues is his education in the ways of the world—encounters with crass and duplicitous individuals whose chicanery he cannot endure and whom he resolves to unmask so that justice can be done.

Botchan has long held a privileged place among Japanese readers, largely due to its endearing portrayal of the utterly guileless, principled, and intrepid young protagonist who cannot sit idly by without confronting wrongdoers in positions of authority.

Still a relatively inexperienced writer, Sōseki would move on to experiment with fictional genres and themes. For instance, his next novel, The Three-Cornered World (Kusamakura, 1907), is a seeming retreat into a world of aesthetic self-indulgence abounding in lyrical flights, meditations on beauty, and haiku-esque sensibility. Yet here the author poses a challenge to the then-dominant naturalist coterie, whose agenda of unadorned confessional angst and self-pity he rejected. At the same time, Sōseki points to the value of a cultural traditionalism threatened by the juggernaut of modern civilization.

By this point, Sōseki had finally resigned his professorial post and entered the employ of the Asahi shimbun as a professional novelist. His work, which would henceforth appear in daily serialization, essentially established a literary standard for the nation.

A Trilogy of Novels

Following this early phase of his career, Sōseki can be said to have matured as a writer with the appearance of a trilogy written between 1908 and 1911. The first of these, Sanshirō (1908), concerns an eager but naïve young man from the provinces, Ogawa Sanshirō, and his experiences as a student at Tokyo University. Reminiscent of Botchan’s awakening to the harsh realities of life, Sanshirō, who is initially overwhelmed by the clash and clatter of the big city, gradually learns from his mentors at the university. They in turn serve as a comic send-up of academic pretense and puffery—a target of Sōseki’s first novel. Sadly, Sanshirō’s infatuation with Mineko, the very model of modern, independent Japanese womanhood, will bear no fruit. Notwithstanding his elite university training, the young man has yet to “graduate” into the sort of adult who can function in a competitive and unforgiving world. However, it is precisely his innocent and guileless nature that has helped make Sanshirō, together with Botchan, such perennial favorites among Japanese readers.

Essentially a sequel to Sanshirō, And Then ( Sore kara , 1909) centers on a savvy, somewhat world-weary protagonist, Daisuke, who is in effect a version of Sanshirō as a jaded adult. Daisuke is well-off, smug, and entirely self-absorbed. The novel, eschewing an objective view of Daisuke’s circumstance, instead presents a sustained view of his inner world, and in so doing achieves a remarkable degree of psychological plausibility. Like Sanshirō, Daisuke is romantically attracted to someone unattainable—Michiyo, the wife of his best friend. The novel traces his inner rationalizations and compulsions, and ends with the clever but ineffectual protagonist locked in his private world and on the verge of madness—a victim of the alienating forces of modern society and lacking the means of engaging others or escaping his nightmarish reality.

Sōseki would achieve mastery in both the haiku genre—recalling great predecessors such as Bashō and Buson— and the Chinese poetic genre known as kanshi.

The final novel of Sōseki’s trilogy, The Gate (Mon, 1911), tells of another troubled Tokyoite. Unlike Daisuke, though, Sōsuke has a dead-end job and an unhappy marriage to a woman—Oyone—whom he stole away from a friend. Beset by financial problems and at his wits’ end, Sōsuke looks to religion as a means of escape. Intent upon achieving peace of mind through meditation, he goes to a monastery in Kamakura and immerses himself in Zen practice. But Sōsuke is sadly misguided and finds himself back where he started. His personal dilemma, emblematic of the human condition as understood by the author, is movingly captured in the following passage:

[Sōsuke] looked at the great gate which would never open for him. He was never meant to pass through it. Nor was he meant to be content until he was allowed to do so. He was, then, one of those unfortunate beings who must stand by the gate, unable to move, and patiently wait for the day to end. 3

Some years earlier, Sōseki had himself struggled with Zen meditation before abandoning it in frustration—an experience that left him with a deep cynicism regarding religiosity and ritual practice. His literary alter egos would have no recourse other than to endure their lot or opt for the only escape within their power—suicide. The two novels that mark the culmination of Sōseki’s singular career—Kokoro and Grass on the Wayside — explore the world of characters faced with challenges that eventuate in first one, then the other option. Kokoro in particular has been acclaimed as the great Japanese novel.

Kokoro (1914)

Don’t put too much trust in me. You will learn to regret it if you do . . . I bear with my loneliness now, in order to avoid greater loneliness in the years ahead. You see, loneliness is the price we have to pay for being born in this modern age, so full of freedom, independence, and our own egotistical selves. 4

This cautionary pronouncement only serves to reinforce the bond with the enigmatic Sensei, who has come to assume the status of surrogate father. At long last, Sensei does indeed relate his life story. But it is presented in the form of an extended suicide note, delivered to the friend at the moment when his own father was facing imminent death. He abandons the dying father and his family in the provinces and rushes back to Tokyo. On board the train, he (and the novel’s readers) can finally learn of Sensei’s past.

The document, which comprises half the novel, amounts to a confessional autobiography that tells a tragic tale of self-deception, emotional paralysis, betrayal, and unremitting guilt. Haunted by the consequences of the betrayal, which cost his close friend K his life, and unable to confide in his wife, who had unwittingly played a role in K’s death, Sensei has for years been locked in a prison of his own making. The younger friend thus serves as the catalyst for him to emerge from his cell and tell his story, whereupon he is able to take his own life by way of atonement. The novel ends at the point where the letter ends. As for the fate of the young friend and Sensei’s widow—the novel’s two survivors—Sōseki allows us to draw our own conclusions.

The resonance of Sensei’s suicide with that of General Nogi, the heroic military figure who committed ritual suicide on the day of Emperor Meiji’s state funeral in September 1912, underscores the sense in which this extraordinarily moving novel has been said to capture something at the heart—the kokoro—of Meiji Japan, and by extension, the modern condition itself.

Grass on the Wayside ( Michikusa, 1915)

The novel is channeled principally through the husband, Kenzō—a conceited, cranky intellectual who is prone to melancholy reflections on his past. He is beset by haunting memories of childhood in an adoptive family and has recently been badgered by the adoptive father for a cash settlement in exchange for an annulment of the adoption. Worse yet, he is saddled with a wife who simply cannot understand him. Kenzō does harbor a certain affection for his wife but remains entirely incapable of expressing it. For her part, Osumi is driven to distraction by her blowhard of a husband, wishing that he would let down his guard for once and treat her with some kindness.

Grass on the Wayside concludes with one final sparring match, which concerns the agreed-upon payoff intended to settle things with the adoptive father.

“What a relief,” [Osumi] said. “At least the affair is finally settled . . . ” “But it isn’t, you know.” “What do you mean?” . . . “Hardly anything in life is settled. Things that happen once will go on happening . . . ” He spoke bitterly, almost with venom. His wife gave no answer. She picked up the baby and kissed its red cheeks. “Nice baby, nice baby. We don’t know what daddy is talking about, do we?”

The Sōseki Legacy

Natsume Sōseki’s fiction can be said to mark the coming-of-age of modern Japanese literature, from its origins in the early 1880s. The author achieved a mastery of the modern psychological novel, through which he succeeded in capturing the ebb and flow of moods, conflicted emotions, and confusion that marked his own life and that of his literary alter egos. With remarkable sensitivity and subtlety, Sōseki’s literature explores the travails of individualism in the modern age. Insulated from others by circumstance and personal inclination, his characters ponder the meaning of their lives, wondering who they are and how they got to be that way. They mull over the past and sift through the traces and fragments of memory for something that might yield an answer. And they struggle—often in vain—to make sense of relationships freighted with pain, regret, and a numbing banality.

But there is more to the story—namely, a Sōseki legend that has survived his passing, one that plays upon an essential wisdom attributed to the man and his work. At its core is an epigram with which the author is closely associated— sokuten kyoshi , “Be in accord with heaven and reject the self.” Like many such legends, the exact source is unclear, as is the sense in which Sōseki may have meant for it to be understood. Yet generations of disciples and admirers have maintained that the man embodied a higher wisdom. It is either ironic or entirely fitting that an individual so sensitive to the corrosive forces at work in modern society, and so skeptical about the future, should emerge as a sage.

I would like to think that Sōseki’s bemused expression on the iconic photograph represents his response to this curious state of affairs.

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NATSUME SŌSEKI’S MAJOR NOVELS

I Am a Cat . Translated by Aiko Itō and Graeme Wilson. Rutland, Vermont; Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company., 1986.

Botchan. Translated by Joel Cohn. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2007.

The Three-Cornered World . Translated by Alan Turney. London: Peter Owen, 1965.

Sanshirō. Translated by Jay Rubin. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.

And Then . Translated by Norma Moore Field. Baton Rouge: Lousiana State University Press, 1978.

The Gate. Translated by Francis Mathy. London: Peter Owen, 1972.

Kokoro. Translated by Edwin McClellan. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1957.

Grass on the Wayside. Translated by Edwin McClellan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.

1. For a study of this body of writing, see my Reflections in a Glass Door: Memory and Melancholy in the Personal Writings of Natsume Sōseki (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2010).

2. See the appended listing of the novels and their respective English translations.

3. Cited in Jay Rubin, “Sōseki,” Modern Japanese Writers , ed. Jay Rubin (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001), 372. The passage was translated by Edwin McClellan. Rubin’s essay (349–384) provides a detailed and astute commentary on the author’s work. Here I would like to acknowledge Jay Rubin’s important contributions as a Sōseki scholar and translator.

4. Edwin McClellan, trans., Kokoro (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1957), 30.

5. A final novel, Light and Darkness (Meian), was left incomplete at the time of Sōseki’s death on December 9, 1916.

6. Based upon Edwin McClellan, trans., Grass on the Wayside (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), 168–169.

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Japanese Literature

In this collection, discover insightful analyses of iconic Japanese literary texts, including The Tale of Genji, which is widely considered the world’s earliest surviving novel. Learn how the different authors portray a diverse set of topics, from interpersonal relationships and identity, to dystopias and the experience of Japanese internment camps during World War II.

by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 is a novel written by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The book was first published in Japanese in three volumes and released in 2009 and 2010, ahead of an English translation published in 2011. Set in 1984 in Tokyo, the story concerns an assassin who stumbles upon an alternate world she refers to as 1Q84. There, she becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving an abusive religious cult.This study guide refers to the 2011 edition ... Read 1Q84 Summary

A Different Mirror

By ronald takaki.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki is a revisionist account of American history that provides an in-depth view of America as a country populated and built by diverse peoples of the world. Originally published in 1993 by Little, Brown and Company, this study guide uses the updated 2008 edition. In 1994 A Different Mirror received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for its contributions to advancing understandings of racism and human diversity.Takaki’s ... Read A Different Mirror Summary

A Family Supper

By kazuo ishiguro.

Kazuo Ishiguro is an English and Japanese author who is most well-known for prizewinning novels such as The Remains of the Day (1989) and Never Let Me Go (2005), the latter of which was adapted into a film in 2010. “A Family Supper” is a 1983 short story that was originally published in a volume of Ishiguro’s works, titled Firebird 2: Writing Today. The short story begins when an unnamed narrator returns to his homeland ... Read A Family Supper Summary

After Dark was published in 2004 by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The novel follows protagonist Mari Asai through one night in Tokyo. Mari has run-ins with organized crime, people on the run, and others who do not fit into Tokyo’s often conservative society. After Dark was met with lackluster critical reception, partially due to Murakami’s characteristic ambiguity and apparent lack of an ending; however, others argue that this ambiguity allows readers to interpret events ... Read After Dark Summary

All I Asking for Is My Body

By milton murayama.

All I Asking for Is My Body (1975) was written by Milton Murayama and is a fictionalized autobiography based on Murayama’s upbringing on a Hawaiian sugar cane plantation in the 1930s. Kiyoshi Oyama, the American son of Japanese immigrants, narrates the story using a mixture of Standard English with Hawaiian English Creole. The novel explores themes of Japanese filial responsibilities as opposed to American individualism and the treatment of Japanese Americans at the start of ... Read All I Asking for Is My Body Summary

A Pale View of Hills

A Pale View of Hills (1982) is Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel. Born in Nagasaki in 1954, Ishiguro immigrated with his family to the United Kingdom when he was five years old. Despite his family’s Japanese origins, the author frequently states in interviews that his experience with Japanese culture is very limited, as he spent all his adult life in England. Simultaneously, however, growing up in a Japanese family developed in Ishiguro a different perspective compared ... Read A Pale View of Hills Summary

A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase is the third novel by Haruki Murakami, an internationally-acclaimed author who most recently won the Jerusalem Prize, and whose work has been translated into over fifty languages. It was originally published in 1982. The 29-year-old narrator of the novel, who is never named, works for an advertising agency in Tokyo and leads a lonely and regimented life. He is divorced, childless, and has a girlfriend who moonlights as a prostitute, proofreader ... Read A Wild Sheep Chase Summary

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

By toshikazu kawaguchi, transl. geoffrey trousselot.

... Read Before the Coffee Gets Cold Summary

by Masuji Ibuse

Black Rain is a 1965 historical novel by Japanese author Masuji Ibuse. The novel blends authentic accounts and information with a fictional plot to describe the aftermath of the destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by an American atomic bomb in 1945. Black Rain was adapted into a film in 1989. This guide uses an eBook version of the 1979 edition of Black Rain, translated into English by John Bester.Plot SummaryShigematsu Shizuma is a ... Read Black Rain Summary

Breasts and Eggs

By mieko kawakami, transl. sam bett, transl. david boyd.

... Read Breasts and Eggs Summary

Citizen 13660

By miné okubo.

Miné Okubo’s Citizen 13660 is a graphic memoir about the Japanese American author’s experience in Japanese internment camps during World War II. First published in 1946, Citizen 13660 is told from Okubo’s first-person narrator experience, although the author draws herself in third-person in nearly every scene.Plot OverviewAfter Okubo’s mother’s passing, she lived with her brother in Berkeley, California until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. In response, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive ... Read Citizen 13660 Summary

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is a 2014 novel by renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. The novel tells the story of a man who attempts to overcome past emotional suffering to make his present life more rewarding. Through Tsukuru’s point of view, we see the ripple effects of rejection and the necessity of sometimes confronting the past to make sense of who we are in the present. After a group of friends ... Read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Summary

Confessions

By kanae minato, transl. stephen snyder.

... Read Confessions Summary

Confessions of a Mask

By yukio mishima.

Confessions of a Mask is a novel by Yukio Mishima, first published in Japan in 1949. The novel takes place during and immediately after World War II and centers on the struggles of a young man named Kochan. It has significant elements of the coming-of-age (bildungsroman) and queer literature genres, as Kochan is a closeted gay man trying to navigate his complex inner life and sexuality in contrast with his carefully controlled outer persona. The ... Read Confessions of a Mask Summary

Convenience Store Woman

By sayaka murata, transl. ginny tapley takemori.

... Read Convenience Store Woman Summary

Desert Exile

By yoshiko uchida.

Desert Exile tells the story of the author Yoshiko Uchida and the Uchida family’s experience as Japanese-Americans interned in concentration camps by the U.S. government after the Pearl Harbor attacks during World War II. The book follows a linear narrative arc that details the Uchidas’ experience, while Uchida often reflects discursively, using one point in her life as a vortex for connecting that moment to another memory and in turn creating a larger impression of ... Read Desert Exile Summary

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

... Read Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Summary

Heart of a Samurai

By margi preus.

... Read Heart of a Samurai Summary

... Read Heaven Summary

by Kamo no Chōmei

... Read Hōjōki Summary

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Though Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) died at age 35, he is often regarded as the father of the Japanese short story. During the middle of the 20th century, when Japanese cinema became interested in its national history and cultural heritage, Akutagawa’s work was adapted by filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa. Because American Westerns had a close relationship with samurai films, Akutagawa’s stories have even been transposed onto the Wild West, resulting in such films as The ... Read In A Grove Summary

In Praise of Shadows

By jun’ichirō tanizaki, transl. thomas j. harper, transl. edward g. seidensticker.

The essay “In Praise of Shadows” was originally published in 1933 in Japan and was written by the Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1886-1965). His work spanned a wide array of subjects, including the cultural impact of World War II, sexuality, and family relationships. He was especially interested in exploring the cultural differences between Japan and the West. Tanizaki was awarded Japan’s Imperial Prize in Literature in 1949 and wrote novels, short stories, essays, plays, and ... Read In Praise of Shadows Summary

Kafka on the Shore

A coming-of-age story that raises many questions about concepts such as good and evil, reality, time, and memory, Kafka on the Shore describes the journey of a fifteen year-old run-away, Kafka Tamura, from his home in Tokyo to the shores of Takamatsu. Kafka flees home because his father, a famous—but violent—sculptor, cursed him: he will kill his father and sleep with his mother and sister. Kafka’s mother fled with his older sister when Kafka was ... Read Kafka on the Shore Summary

by Banana Yoshimoto

Kitchen is the debut novel of Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto. This short book is a riveting narrative about relationships and how they are tested by extreme circumstances. Kitchen is comprised of two separate stories that are unrelated aside from their focus on interpersonal relationships and the ordeals people endure while on journeys of self-discovery. The overall narrative addresses the themes of death, isolation, and self-forgiveness. By placing its characters in tragic circumstances, the novel investigates ... Read Kitchen Summary

by Natsume Sōseki

Kokoro is a 1914 novel by Japanese author Natsume Sōseki. Set during the end of the Meiji Restoration, the novel explores how changing Japanese society profoundly effects an older and a younger man as they strike up an unlikely friendship. The novel was initially serialized in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper over the course of five months. The serialized novel was titled Kokoro: Sensei no Isho, though this was shortened for the print run of the ... Read Kokoro Summary

Musui's Story

By katsu kokichi, transl. teruko craig, illustr. hiroshige utagawa.

... Read Musui's Story Summary

Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go is a 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro set in an alternative dystopian version of Great Britain in the 1990s in which cloning technology allows for the mass proliferation of organ donation. Medical problems like cancer are cured because organs are harvested from clones through a state-sanctioned program. The cloned “donors” have their organs taken one at a time until they die. The novel is narrated by Kathy, a clone who works ... Read Never Let Me Go Summary

Nisei Daughter

By monica sone.

Nisei Daughter recounts Monica Sone’s childhood in Seattle’s Japanese American community and her experience in the internment camps that housed residents of Japanese ethnicity between 1942 and 1946. The memoir, which has become a seminal text in Asian-American studies, was first published in 1953 and then republished in 1979 and 2014, each time with an introduction that reframes the work in its context.The memoir begins with Sone’s realization that she is “a Japanese” when she ... Read Nisei Daughter Summary

No Longer Human

By osamu dazai.

... Read No Longer Human Summary

by John Okada

The novel dramatizes thestruggles of twenty-five-year-old Ichiro Yamada as he returns home after two years spent in prison. Ichiro is a no-no boy, meaning that in response to the 1943 questionnaire entitled “Statement of U.S. Citizenship of Japanese American Ancestry,” he answered no to questions 27 and 28. These questions asked respondents first, if they would serve in the U.S. military whenever ordered and second, if they would forswear allegiance to the Emperor of Japan or ... Read No-No Boy Summary

Norwegian Wood

First published in 1987, Norwegian Wood is a coming-of-age novel by renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. After becoming a bestseller in Japan, the book was translated into English by Jay Rubin in 2000. Set against the backdrop of the late 1960s, Norwegian Wood tells the story of Toru Watanabe, a young college student who falls in love with two very different women as he struggles to come to terms with the death of his best childhood friend. Told from ... Read Norwegian Wood Summary

Many scholars agree that “Old Pond” (1686) by Matsuo Bashō is one of the most—if not the most—famous haiku of all time. The term “haiku” translates as “play verse,” and though “Old Pond” appears whimsical and simple—a frog jumping into water and the subsequent splash—Bashō utilizes various literary devices such as key words and onomatopoeia to ensure this three-line poem is both didactic and enjoyable. “Old Pond” is instructional, especially for its use of common ... Read Old Pond Summary

Picture Bride

... Read Picture Bride Summary

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s short story, “Rashōmon,” originally published in 1916, is a fictional story that details a man on the brink of death who must decide between maintaining his morals and dying or becoming a thief to save his own life. “Rashōmon” sets about to tackle themes of poverty, morality, and survival. Akutagawa is a renowned Japanese author who has been widely named the “father of Japanese short stories.” In addition, Japan’s most prestigious literary award ... Read Rashomon Summary

Scattered All Over the Earth

By yoko tawada, transl. margaret mitsutani.

... Read Scattered All Over the Earth Summary

Seventeen Syllables

By hisaye yamamoto.

“Seventeen Syllables,” originally published in 1949 by the Partisan Review, is Hisaye Yamamoto’s most anthologized short story. Yamamoto was one of the first Japanese American authors to achieve critical and commercial success after World War II due to her celebrated short stories about life in Southern California and the experiences of Japanese Americans. Her stories were eventually published together in 1988, in a collection titled Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories released by Kitchen Table Press ... Read Seventeen Syllables Summary

Snow Country

By yasunari kawabata.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata was originally published episodically in Japanese literary journals between 1935 and 1937. It was finally published as a complete version in 1948. The novel takes place on the snowy northwestern coast of Japan and tells the story of the ill-fated romance between a geisha named Komako and her wealthy client, Shimamura. In the intimate setting of the onsen, Kawabata explores the Commodification of Female Talent and Affection, Landscapes as Metaphors ... Read Snow Country Summary

by Nina Revoyr

Southland is a 2003 crime novel written by Nina Revoyr. The award-winning novel is her second; her first novel is The Necessary Hunger. Revoyr was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and a Polish-American father and is known for her engaging prose about aspects of Los Angeles that often go unseen. In Southland, themes of racism, redemption, justice, and family form a rich narrative that fleshes out both the past and present. Revoyr weaves ... Read Southland Summary

Spirited Away

By hayao miyazaki.

... Read Spirited Away Summary

The Buried Giant

Set in Arthurian Britain just after King Arthur’s death,The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro’s seventh novel, is told in four parts and focuses on an elderly couple, Axl and Beatrice, and their journey to find their son. Along the way, they must deal with issues of memory, aging, love, loss and death. While the voice of a narrator frames the novel, much of the story is told from the shifting perspectives of the major characters of ... Read The Buried Giant Summary

The Grasshopper and the Bell-Cricket

... Read The Grasshopper and the Bell-Cricket Summary

The Memory Police

By yoko ogawa.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa was translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder in 2019; the Japanese edition was published in 1994. It falls under the umbrella genre of science fiction but more specifically belongs in a dystopian, or Orwellian, sub-genre of speculative fiction. While the unnatural elements—the future ability to erase memories—are vaguely connected to science (specifically genetics), the novel’s style is similar to magical realism in that the story explores the quiet ... Read The Memory Police Summary

... Read The Nose Summary

The Pillow Book

By sei shōnagon.

The Pillow Book is a collection of reflections written by Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon as a kind of journal during the 990s and early 1000s. Though her world would have been familiar to her audience, which experienced her reflections only after they were unintentionally released, parts of The Pillow Book may seem opaque to 21st-century readers unfamiliar with Japan’s 11th-century Heian court.Even so, Shonagon’s vivid descriptions of nature, her fascination with royal spectacle, and her ... Read The Pillow Book Summary

The Tale Of Genji

By murasaki shikibu.

The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, is considered by many to be the world’s earliest surviving novel. The edition/translation used for this guide, edited by Royall Tyler, was originally published in 2001, and reissued in 2006, abridged from the longer pieces of Shikibu’s classic story, which was originally written at the start of the 11thcentury. There are considered to be fifty-four total “chapters” salvaged from the tale Shikibu originally composed. However, Tyler’s edition includes ... Read The Tale Of Genji Summary

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

By haruki murakami, transl. jay rubin.

... Read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Summary

The Woman in the Dunes

By kōbō abe.

Kōbō Abe’s 1962 novel The Woman in the Dunes (Sand Woman in Japanese) is an existential story of an amateur entomologist who goes on holiday to a seaside village. He winds up trapped in a sand pit with a woman engaged in a never-ending battle with the sand that threatens to overwhelm the village. It won the 1962 Yomiuri Prize for literature and the 1967 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (France’s Prize for the Best ... Read The Woman in the Dunes Summary

They Called Us Enemy

By george takei.

They Called Us Enemy is a 2019 graphic memoir written by author, actor, and activist George Takei and illustrated by Harmony Becker. The story chronicles Takei’s childhood experience in the Japanese internment camps in America during World War II. Takei frames the narrative with a modern-day talk he gives at the home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country during the internment period. During the talk, Takei tells his family’s story while ... Read They Called Us Enemy Summary

Thousand Cranes

The novel Thousand Cranes (in Japanese, Senbazuru) was written by Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. It was originally published in serialized form between 1949 and 1951 and compiled with another of Kawabata’s novels, Snow Country (1948), in book form in 1952. The narrative follows Kikuji, an orphaned young businessman, as he navigates the legacy of his father’s infidelity against the backdrop of traditional Japanese tea culture. It explores themes of Decay of Traditions and Values, Legacy: ... Read Thousand Cranes Summary

Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

By karen tei yamashita.

Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990) is a magical realist story from Coffee House Press. Narrated by a sentient floating sphere, the story primarily takes place in Brazil. Utilizing fantastical elements, the novel addresses issues of environmentalism, economic inequality, and faith.Plot SummaryA sentient ball narrates the novel in the first person and provides third person narration for the other characters. The story opens on the shores of Japan, where the ... Read Through the Arc of the Rain Forest Summary