Books Nov 21, 2020
A passion project that became a literary journey through Kyoto
by Stephen Mansfield
“Kyoto: A Literary Guide" was painstakingly collated by a group of friends whose dedication to studying the city’s literary legacy spans 10 years.
Film / Reviews Mar 26, 2020
'Mishima: The Last Debate': Careful revival of a battle of wits
by James Hadfield
It was the title match of the decade: the rumble in the academic jungle. On May 13, 1969, literary titan Yukio Mishima strutted onstage in front of a 1,000-strong audience at the University of Tokyo to debate with representatives of the All Campus Joint ...
Books Jan 25, 2020
Is Japan enjoying a new literary golden age?
by Nicolas Gattig and Damian Flanagan
With more and more Japanese novels in translation achieving commercial and critical success, Nicolas Gattig and Damian Flanagan argue over whether a new wave of writers are transcending Japan's literary past.
Books / Reviews | RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN Jan 3, 2020
by Renae Lucas-Hall
The new Japanese Classics series from Vintage Classics presents five seminal Japanese novels, from Junichiro Tanizaki to Yoko Ozawa, with stunning cover art by Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu.
Books Jan 2, 2020
An invisible baseball curves through Japanese literature
by Damian Flanagan
There's a long history of pivotal baseball anecdotes in Japanese literature, with well-known writers such as Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami incorporating their love of the game into their work.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Oct 26, 2019
'The Decay of the Angel': Overshadowed by the death of its author
by Nicolas Gattig
In "The Decay of the Angel," Yukio Mishima concludes his "The Sea of Fertility" tetralogy with musings on modern Japan, the loss of beauty and old age.
Books / Reviews | RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN Sep 7, 2019
'Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist': The brain behind the coup
by Damian Flanagan
In "Mishima, Aesthetic Terrorist," Andrew Rankin takes us to the less-visited corners of Mishima's complete works, the intellectual essays that were the fount for the ideas that played themselves out in his novels.
Voices | FOREIGN AGENDA Sep 1, 2019
Making sense of the oppressiveness of summer in Japan
by Damian Flanagan
Japan has a venerable tradition of quirky and inventive means of escape from the oppression of summer, as well as from rigid social constraints and conventions. Some of them take distinctly weird forms. In Edogawa Ranpo's classic story, "The Stalker in the Attic" (1925), ...
Books Aug 31, 2019
'Life for Sale': Yukio Mishima's comically psychedelic take on the adventure novel
by Damian Flanagan
"Life for Sale" — first serialized in Weekly Playboy in 1968 — was, for long years, dismissed as mere "entertainment." Yet the surprising bestseller is a terrific example of Mishima's fecund imagination at its most free-wheeling and unfettered best.
Books Aug 3, 2019
How Japan's modern literature came under Nietzsche's spell
by Damian Flanagan
To truly understand some of 20th-century Japan's most iconic literary works, you have to go back to ancient Greek tragedy and the "Dionysian" philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Aug 3, 2019
'Mishima: A Vision of the Void': Remembering a literary giant as he would have wanted
by Stephen Mansfield
Marguerite Yourcenar's literary biography of Yukio Mishima delves into the enigmatic author as well as the social conditions that shaped his rise and fall.
Books Jul 6, 2019
Hot new Japan book releases for the sweltering summer
by Iain Maloney
Time travel, yakuza, street photography and more feature in the best upcoming J-Lit releases for this summer (and beyond).