THE IZU DANCER, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward Seidensticker. THE COUNTERFEITER; OBASUTE; THE FULL MOON, by Yasushi Inoue, translated by Leon Picon. Singapore, Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 144 pp., $14.95.

Here is a new, reset quality-paperback edition of one of the staples of modern Japanese literature. It is a product of Tuttle's admirable refurbishing of its invaluable backlist of modern Japanese fiction.

Particularly welcome is the return to print of three stories by a neglected author, Yasushi Inoue, whose work has been allowed to languish since his death in 1991. His fine historical reconstructions (translated by Edward Seidensticker, Roger Thomas and the late James Araki, among others) are no longer available, and no local publisher has shown interest in Cameron Hurst's excellent unpublished translation of "The Emperor Goshirakawa."

The three stories here translated by Leon Picon are all modern. In the first, the counterfeiter not only usurps the style of a noted traditional painter, he also appropriates the attention of the narrator (and hence the reader) and consequently swipes the story.