The Square Persimmon and Other Stories is an introduction to Takashi Atoda—one of Japan's most popular and versatile writers of fiction. Takashi Atocia is a master storyteller. Like the bar madam in "The Glow of Lipstick," he is capable of weaving a tale that captures the reader's attention from beginning to end. His plots deal with ordinary people, yet the emotional impact of each story is unusually strong. His down-to-earth characters inhabit a world that may at first appear familiar, but Atoda can so manipulate a scene that suddenly the reader is wondering whether it is reality or illusion that he is observing. Many stories feature bizarre endings. In these eleven stories, Atoda examines universal themes-first love, lost love, change, fate-through unmistakably Japanese eyes. The dreamlike quality of some stories invites the reader to draw his own conclusions in the denouement. Yet, in each one, Atoda brings to bear his precise style and his own unique vision, by turns mysterious, romantic, darkly humorous, and even bizarre.

"Lane Dunlop's translations read elegantly, and his selection of modern Japanese Stories is both fresh and persuasive." —Donald Keene, Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. The fourteen distinct voices of this collection tell fourteen very different stories spanning sixty years of twentieth-century Japanese literature. They include a nostalgic portrait of an aristocratic Meiji family in Kafu Nagai's "The Fox," a surprisingly cheerful celebration of postwar chaos in Sakaguchi Ango's "One Woman and the War," a chilly assessment of the modern society in Watanabe Junichi's "Invitation to Suicide," and much more. The writers also represent a wide spectrum, from renowned figure of Yasunari Kawabata, winner of the Noble Prize for Literature in 1968, to authors whose works have never before been translated into English. Westerners familiar only with stereotypical images of bowing geisha and dark-suited businessmen will be surprised by the cast of characters translator Lane Dunlop introduces in this anthology. Lovers of fiction and student of Japan are certain to find these stories absorbing, engaging and instructive.

Readers of medieval Japanese literature have long been captivated by its romance and philosophy. In this volume, two acclaimed thirteenth-century classics, The Ten Foot Square Hut and Tales of the Heike, are presented in translation. The Ten Foot Square Hut (the Hojoki) takes its title from a four and half mat sized Tearoom, the size of the hut in which the hero of the story, Chomei, lives. It offers the memorable reflections of this sensitive aristocrat who has retired from a world filled with violent contrasts and cataclysms to find refuge in nature and Buddhist philosophy. Though this narrative was written 700 years ago, its message continues to have an astonishing timeliness. Tales of the Heike (selections from the Heike Monogatari) deals with the same period but from a different point of view, supplying the background of Chomei's meditations. It is a collection of episodic stories, written in poetical prose, related to the rise and fall of the Taira clan in twelfth-century Kyoto, one of the great turning points in Japanese history. The translations, by the late Professor A. L. Sandler, are complemented by an informed Introduction on the background to these masterpieces of Japanese literature.

Strange but True Stories from Japan is a fascinating collection of vignettes, ranging from historical to the personal. Here you will be exposed to the goings-on of Americans serving time in Japanese prisons and the many who claimed the identity of Tokyo Rose. And learn about the bizarre habits of the eels that roam the Chikugo River. In this eclectic and, well, strange, book you'll relive-from a distance-Kamakura's hara-kiri bloodshed and discover the surprising fate of the armless geisha, Tsuma-kichi. Seward also weaves touching memoir pieces between chapters that recount hilarious instances of fractured English and shocking-to-the-average-American Japanese cuisine. Written with an eye and ear for the theatrical and for the rhythm of Japanese life, this delightful but serious romp through modern Japan brings Seward's wide and varied cultural and military background to center stage.

Originally published as Garusudo no Uchi in daily serialization in the Asahi newspaper in 1915, before appearing in book form, this is the first time Inside My Glass Doors has been published in English. It is a moving literary reminiscence, a collection of thirty-nine autobiographical essays penned a year before the author's death. Written in the genre of shohin (little items), the personal vignettes provide a kaleidoscopic view of Natsume Soseki's private world and shed light on his concerns as a novelist. Readers are at once ushered into Soseki's book-lined study, in his residence in Kikui-cho, as he muses on his present situation and reflects on the past. The story is filled with flashbacks to Soseki's youth-his classmates, his family, and his old neighborhood-as well as episodes from the more recent past, all related in considerable detail. There are his characteristic ruminations about his physical well-being, and from the quiet spaces inside the glass doors of his study, he also calmly observes the clamorous state of the world outside. The essays in this book, crafted with extraordinary subtlety and psychological depth, reflect the work of a great author at the height of his powers.

Written in eight days, in December 1905, and published in the January 1906 issue of the magazine Teikoku Bungaku (Imperial Literature), Shumi no iden (The Heredity of Taste) is Soseki Natsume's only anti-war work. Chronicling the mourning process of a narrator haunted by his friend's death, the story reveals Soseki's attitude to the atrocity of war, specifically to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, and to the personal tragedies and loss of individuality of young men like his hero Ko-san, and the sacrifices made by both the living and the dead. Although the first part of the story powerfully describes the narrator's visions of the war dead, including the recurring vision of Ko-san who cannot climb out of a ditch and return from the war, it is the second half, in which a beautiful and mysterious woman appears before the narrator at Ko-san's grave, with the promise of transcendence, that grips our attention. The story centers on finding out the identity of this woman and her relationship with Ko-san, with it's implication that what should have been a love story has been shattered by the reality of war-a reminder of the magnitude of Japan's sacrifice for it's so-called victory.

This compilation of twenty-one favorite fairy tales introduces the rich world of Japanese fantasy, a world of ghouls, goblins, and ogres; sea serpents and sea kings; kindly animals and magic birds; demons and dragons; princes and princesses. In "My Lord Bag of Rice" goldfish dancers and carp musicians delight the brave warrior Hidesato; in "The Mirror of Matsuyama" a lonely daughter endures her fate with the help of a "shining disc" given by her departed mother; "The Jellyfish and the Monkey" explains how that sea creature lost its bones; and the hero of "Momotaro," a tale familiar to every child in Japan, is born from a peach that washes up on a riverbank. Settings and characters vary from tale to tale but the effect of each story in this volume is the same—to transport the reader, young or old, to mysterious shores, magical kingdoms, and mythical lands. The Japanese Fairy Book is a wondrous introduction to Japan's rich fantasy tradition.

The River With No Bridge (Hashi no nai kawa) explores with outspoken frankness a subject still taboo in Japan: the intolerance and bigotry faced daily by Japan’s largest minority group, the burakumin. Racially no different from other Japanese, over the centuries burakumin have been cruelly ostracized for their association with occupations considered defiling. Spanning the years 1908 to 1924, the original six volumes of this novel trace the developing awareness of burakumin of their rights and dignity as human beings. Volume 1, translated into English for the first time in 1990, is a story about childhood in a burakumin village. It tells of young Koji Hatana’s questioning of the rigid social order and his growing sense of injustice as he meets prejudice from other children at school and from his teachers who try to instill in him their belief that since he was born defiled he should resign himself to his fate. Told against the backdrop of Japan’s struggle to shed its feudalistic past and enter the modern age, the novel is a courageous work and a compelling read.

"One of the first and in many ways still one of the best books on Japan." --The Japan Times First published in 1871, Tales of Old Japan has withstood the test of time and taken its place as one of the classic volumes of Japanese literature. The book presents a broad cross section of Japanese prose—historical tales like the famous story of the Forty–seven Ronin; nonfiction reporting on marriage, funerals and the author's gory eyewitness account of hara–kiri; fairy tales and stories of superstition featuring vampire cats and magic foxes; even three sermons written by a priest belonging to the Shingaku sect, which professes to combine Buddhist, Confucian and Shinto teachings. The books thirty–three chapters cover practically every sector of Japanese life. Thirty–one reproductions of woodblock prints illustrate the various tales and essays. Author Robert Louis Stevenson cited Tales of Old Japan in his essay "Books Which Have Influenced Me." Over a hundred years have passed since Stevenson justly praised A.B. Mitford's book, but his work remains an important and fascinating sourcebook on Japan and the Japanese.

First published as Hanamushiro in 1948, the setting for The Flower Mat is eighteenth-century Japan, a time when familes were bound together by a rigid code of honor and individual lives were of necessity valued far less than the interests of the group. It tells of a young bride, Ichi, born into such a tradition, groomed in the virtues of ideal womanhood, and finally tempered by tragedy. Her life and fate are bound up inexorably with the fortunes of her in-laws, high-ranking officials. She soon becomes aware that something is dreadfully wrong, that something is threatening her home and her peaceful way of life. Uneasy and frightened, she tries to put clues together, but her questions go unanswered. Political intrigue and sudden tragedy force her into a new and unfamiliar world. We follow Ichi as she grows from passive observer--a wife suppressing her own passions--to active agent--a woman who will risk anything for justice. Struggling for truth and justice, Ichi finds her only weapons are her own strength and the lovely mats, decorated with delicate flowers, that she designs. Readers everywhere will find this a solid account of personal development and responsibility in the life of one Japanese woman.