Research Guides: Japan Studies: Literature

Literature

Snow Country (雪国) by Yasunari Kawabata (川端康成); Edward G. Seidensticker (Translator)
Call Number: PL832.A9K63 1987
ISBN: 9780679761044
Publication Date: 1956
From Japan's first Nobel laureate in literature, known for his stark, minimalist style, a story of an affair between a a wealthy man and a geisha at a rural hot springs. Kawabata, while something of a modernist, was intensely concerned with Japanese identity and tradition.
The Crab Cannery Ship (蟹工船) by Kobayashi Takiji (小林多喜二)
ISBN: 9780824837426
Publication Date: 1929
Originally published in 1929, this seminal work of Japanese proletarian literature has become a best seller since the 2008 financial crisis. For his writing and support of the Communist Party, he was repeatedly arrested and eventually tortured to death by the Tokko secret police in 1933.
Confessions of a Mask (仮面の告白) by Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫); Meredith Weatherby (Translator)
Call Number: PL833.I7K33
ISBN: 9780811201186
Publication Date: 1958
A semi-autobiographical account of a young, homosexual man coping with identity and conformity in Imperial Japan. Mishima himself was a complex and controversial figure: a giant of Japanese post-War literature, but also an extreme nationalist, who committed suicide after a failed coup.
The Tale of Genji (源氏物語) by Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部); Royall Tyler (Translator)
Call Number: PL788.4.G4 E3 2001
ISBN: 9780142437148
Publication Date: 2002
A character-centered story of aristocratic life written during the Heian period (794-1185CE). A classic of Japanese literature and widely considered to be the first novel.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (ねじまき鳥クロニクル) by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹); Jay Rubin (Translator)
Call Number: PL856.U673 N4513 1998
ISBN: 0679775439
Publication Date: 1998
This surreal book about an unemployed man looking for a lost cat is possibly the most globally known works of modern Japanese literature.
A Personal Matter (個人的な体験) by Kenzaburo Oe (大江健三郎); John Nathan (Translator)
Call Number: PL858.E14K613 1982
ISBN: 9780802150615
Publication Date: 1964
The dark, semi-autobiographical story of a man's struggle to deal with his son's severe congenital brain damage, from Japan's second Nobel laureate in literature, noted for his embrace of existentialism, pacifism and rejection of Japanese nationalism, something that has earned him numerous death threats.
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Call Number: PS3615.T88 B83 2011
ISBN: 9780307700001
Publication Date: 2011
A masterfully poetic glimpse into the Japanese-American experience through the eyes of a group of mail-order brides, leading up to WWII and the Exclusion.
Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン) by Keiji Nakazawa (中沢啓治)
Call Number: PN6790.J33N33 1987b
ISBN: 9780867196023
Publication Date: 1982
A fictional account based on the author's own experience of living through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The bombing itself is only the beginning; the story is primarily concerned with the consequences, both of the bomb and the war itself.

Nonfiction

Showa: A History of Japan (コミック昭和史) by Shigeru Mizuki (水木しげる); Zack Davisson (Translator)
Call Number: DS888.2 .M5913 2013
ISBN: 9781770461352
Publication Date: 2013-11-12
A four volume graphic memoir/history of the Showa period (1926-1989) from one of Japan's greatest manga artists.
An Introduction to Japanese Society by Yoshio Sugimoto
ISBN: 9780521705196
Publication Date: 2010
A standout among other textbooks for its critical approach and attention to the diversity and complexity of Japanese society. Available as an eBook.
Daughters of the Samurai by Janice P. Nimura
Call Number: E184.J3 N484 2015
ISBN: 9780393077995
Publication Date: 2015
A history of the Westernization of Japan told through the biographies of three elite women whose lives straddled the last years of the Tokugawa era and the Meiji period.
Slurp! a Social and Culinary History of Ramen by Barak Kushner
ISBN: 9789004220980
Publication Date: 2012
Just what it says in the title. A relatively light bit of nonfiction reading. Available as an eBook.

Poetry

The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill (Translator); Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉)
Call Number: PL794.4 .A24 1998
ISBN: 9781570622823
Publication Date: 1999-03-30
A collection of poetry and prose writing, including The Narrow Road to the Interior, from one of the masters of haiku:
furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto
an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water
For All My Walking by Burton Watson (Translator); Santoka Taneda (種田山頭火)
Call Number: PL817.A62 A17 2003
ISBN: 9780231125161
Publication Date: 2003-11-12
An early 20th century practitioner, albeit rather freely, of the haiku form:
Kafe ni dekadan o ronzu natsu no chō toberi
In a café we debate decadence a summer butterfly flits
A Long Rainy Season by Akemi Tomioka (Editor); Leza Lowitz (Editor); Miyuki Aoyama (Editor)
Call Number: PL782.E3L66 1994
ISBN: 9781880656150
Publication Date: 1998-07-01
A collection of 15 post-war women poets (English only):
Twilight at a port of call / smell of daffodils / and steel. (Itami Kimiko)
Like Underground Water by Edward Lueders (Translator); Naoshi Koriyama (Translator)
Call Number: PL782.E3L45 1995
ISBN: 1556591020
Publication Date: 1995-10-01
A collection of poetry from 80 of the most prominent modern Japanese poets (English only):
Even sorrow adds to my bones' sharp glitter / Pain makes my flesh smell sweet from within / Nothing it without use / I open myself / towards woods where resin seeps, / toward you. (Ooka Makoto [(大岡信])

Japan Studies: Literature

Sesson Shūkei - Tree & Boat

Literature

Nonfiction

Poetry

Sesson Shūkei - Tree & Boat