Mountain High: Junko Tabei's adventures at the top of the world
Junko Tabei was a pioneering alpinist who dramatically changed the landscape of mountaineering around the world. Previously available only in Japanese, excerpts of her writing have been translated and compiled ...
Kenzaburo Oe's 'Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness': Reflections on father-son relationships
In Oe's "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness," the lifelong sense of obsession and profound sense of guilt engendered within his own familial history finds acute literary expression.
Nahoko Uehashi's 'The Beast Player': Fantasy grounded in nature
Beautifully written, thought-provoking and utterly immersive, Nahoko Uehashi's "The Beast Player" uses the genre of fantasy to question the political realities of human tyranny over the natural world.
An English translation of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's latest novel, "Killing Commendatore" ("Kishidancho Goroshi" in Japanese), hit the shelves in ...
Haruki Murakami says good writing is what he can do to help people in times of trouble
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami said Saturday writing good stories is the best he can do for victims of terrorist attacks ...
'Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts': Deliciously sinister, beautifully illustrated supernatural tales
Hard-boiled, multifaceted writer Joel Rose paired up with the late Anthony Bourdain to pen "Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts," an illustrated collection of fright and food evoking the Japanese kaidan (ghost story) tradition.
In "Studies in Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan," leading postwar political scientist Masao Maruyama chronicles the ideas and debates of scholars throughout the Edo Period (1603-1868). Studies in Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, by Masao Maruyama, Translated by Mikiso Hane.383 pages PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, Nonfiction. The central ...
'When I Was a Wolf': Western fairy tales reinterpreted, for better or for worse
Shuji Terayama's "When I Was a Wolf" is a collection of essays that reappraise Western fairy tales, fables and literature and flips them head over heels.
Dirt and difficulty: Life as the wife of a Buddhist monk
Tracy Franz's poignant memoir, "My Year of Dirt and Water," is full of carefully observed details. Organised by the season and dated like a diary, Franz delves into the solitary year she spent in Japan while her husband was cloistered in a Zen monastery.
John Okada's 'No-No Boy': Once overlooked, now a classic tale of identity
"No-No Boy," a 1957 novel by Japanese-American writer John Okada, unravels the complicated, varied perspectives of Japanese-Americans in the aftermath of World War II under the shadow of the internment camps of the American northwest.
Kenji Miyazawa's 'Once and Forever': More than a happy ending
"Once and Forever" is a brand-new selection of 24 lesser-known, but equally delightful and imaginative tales by Kenji Miyazawa expertly translated into English by the late John Bester.
Haruki Murakami's 'Underground' still holds chilling lessons about Japan
Haruki Murakami's sole foray into journalism, "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche," celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. What lessons does it hold today about where Japan has gone as a society?
'The Journey': Jiro Osaragi depicts a society coming to grips with defeat and occupation
Jiro Osaragi's "The Journey" is an intriguing literary and psychological depiction of a society coming to grips with the aftermath of defeat and occupation.
There's a story for every taste in 'Speculative Japan 4'
"Speculative Japan 4" is the latest in Kumamoto-based Kurodahan Press' mission to bring the best of Japanese science fiction and fantasy to the English-speaking world.
'Yakuza Tattoo': Inside the secretive world of the yakuza's tattoos
Andreas Johansson spent almost three weeks immersed in the world of the yakuza, photographing and talking to around 30 gang members for his book, "Yakuza Tattoo."
Mieko Kawakami: A writer's writer who is at once highly readable and immensely popular
From her distinctive style to her choice of topics, Mieko Kawakami is both a writer's writer and an entertainer, a thinker and constantly evolving stylist who manages to be highly readable and immensely popular.
Strongly autobiographical, 'Death by Water' reflects on Kenzaburo Oe's own oeuvre
Written in dialogue with Oe's own, earlier works on similar subjects "Death by Water" is a careful, multilayered contemplation on the methodology and potential of art itself.
