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A collection of seven great works of Japanese literature in the original language, along with the English translation and a newly-revised custom dictionary - plus downloadable audio. Breaking into Japanese Literature lets readers enjoy seven classic stories in the original Japanese. thanks to a unique 2-page layout featuring the Japanese text in large type, an easy-to-follow English translation, and a custom dictionary, newly revised for this edition. Also includes downloadable audio, notes abou...

This book introduces a world that few early Western visitors to Japan ever saw. This is the world of unusual customs, bizarre superstitions, and enchanting scenery. Included in this classic volume are Hearn's well-known essays on gardens, festivals, the household shrine, and other aspects of Japanese daily life.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. This is the first book-length study in English of the Japanese-language literary activities of early Japanese migrants to Brazil. It provides a detailed history of Japanese-language bookstores, serialized newspaper fiction, original creative works, and critical apparatuses that existed in Brazil prior to World War II. This case study of the reading and writing of one diasporic population challenges the dom...

This collection shows the qualities of literature that have helped earn writers Mishima, Tanizaki and Kawabata international reputations, making Japanese literature highly valued for what it teaches about Japan, the human condition, and the possibilities of art. The anthology also contains a critical introduction by the editor tracing the development of modern Japanese fiction and introductory paragraphs to each story giving information about the author and the story's cultural context.

Winner of the Akutagawa Prize, a sharp, photo-realistic novella of memory and thwarted hope: part of our Japanese novella series, showcasing the best contemporary Japanese writing Divorced and cut off from his family, Taro lives alone in one of the few occupied apartments in his block, a block that is to be torn down as soon as the remaining tenants leave. Since the death of his father, Taro keeps to himself, but is soon drawn into an unusual relationship with the woman upstairs, Nishi, as she...

This book analyses institutional reforms implemented by Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, under his second administration from 2012 to 2020. Also examined is the evolution in the role of such actors in Japanese politics as bureaucrats, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factions, and backbenchers of the ruling party. Chapters offer multi-dimensional explanations for the preconditions of successful gradual institutional change in political systems, characterized by relatively strong veto players,...

The Heike Story is a modern translation of a Japanese classic. Kyoto in the twelfth century was a magnificent city, but crime, disorder, and lust were rampant. The people were abused by the nobility, while armed Buddhist monks terrorized court and commoner alike. In despair, the Emperor called upon the Heike and Genji clans to quell civil disturbances. Although the clans succeeded, they quarreled over the spoils of war and plunged the country into a century of warfare. The Heike Story describes...

Queer Subjects in Modern Japanese Literature: Male Love, Erotics, and Intimacy, 1886-2014 is an anthology of translated Japanese literature about men behaving lovingly, erotically, and intimately with other men. Covering more than 125 years of modern and contemporary Japanese history, this book aims to introduce a diverse array of authors to an English-speaking audience and provide further context for their works. While no anthology can comprehensively represent queer Japanese literature, these...

In the aftermath of World War II, Kuki Kyuzo, a Japanese youth raised in the puppet state of Manchuria, struggles to return home to Japan. What follows is a wild journey involving drugs, smuggling, chases, and capture. Kyuzo finally makes his way to the waters off Japan but finds himself unable to disembark. His nation remains inaccessible to him, and now he questions its very existence. Beasts Head for Home is an acute novel of identity, belonging, and the vagaries of human behavior from an exc...

In 1613 the missionary Father Pedro Velasco's dream comes true. For the first time, the Japanese are going to cross the Pacific Ocean. And he is going with them. As he sets sail with a group of Samurai, for Mexico, then Spain and finally Rome, his zealous hope is that, by opening up relations with the western world, Japan will become ripe for conversion to Christianity - with him as Bishop. But fate has other plans for Father Velasco.A gripping portrayal of an extraordinary historical voyage, fi...

Vivid new translations of Basho's popular haiku, in a selected format ideal for newcomers as well as fans long familiar with the Japanese master. Basho, the famously bohemian traveler through seventeenth-century Japan, is a poet attuned to the natural world as well as humble human doings; "Piles of quilts/ snow on distant mountains/ I watch both," he writes. His work captures both the profound loneliness of one observing mind and the broad-ranging joy he finds in our connections to the larger c...

Follow the brilliant and hilarious adventures of the Zen Buddhist monk who became one of China's greatest folk heroes! During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ji Gong studied at the renowned Ling Yin monastery, nestled in the steep hills above Hangzhou. The Chan (Zen) Buddhist masters of the temple tried to instruct Ji Gong in the spartan practices of their sect, but the young monk, following in the footsteps of other great ne'er-do-wells, distinguished himself mainly by getting expelled. He left t...

Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima and Junichiro Tanizaki are all giants of world literature. It stands to reason that students of Japanese would long to read them in their original language. Ixploring Japanese Literature enables them to do just that. Featuring one each of these writers most characteristic stories - plus linguistic support in the form of a built-in dictionary - the book picks up where the authors previous bestselling text, Breaking into Japanese Literature, left off. The poignancy...