/lit/ - Literature

What are some good Japanese authors other than the ones everyone knows? (Ishiguro, Oe, Mishima, both Murakamis, etc.) Particularly women. I've never read something by a Japanese woman.

Bannana Yoshimoto, 'Kitchen' is neato.

Also Tanizaki Junichiro 'Naomi'. Is like. Japanese fixation on West. Lolita style.

>>1573003

Ishiguro isn't Japanese.

>>1573023

Yoshimoto is god awful.

Jesus christ, you guys. Get it together.

>>1573048

Ishiguro has dual nationality. Born in Japan. Dick.

Yoshimoto is sweet as fuck. And hot too.

halfway through 'Religion and Nothingness'

good stuff

Manga isn't literature.

>>1573074
What's manga?

I am an ignoramus but... pic related.

>>1573003
I can give you a few. Higuchi Ichiyo was popular for both her diary and short stories right at the end of the 19th century. Ariyoshi Sawako and Fumiko Enchi are both rather popular female novelists whose writings concern women's place in society/history (Sawako is especially good). If you're alright with poetry, definitely check out Yosano Akiko! There are a couple collections of her poems published in English. Kanoko Okamoto is another, right around the beginning of the Showa period. She has a short story collection and a novel translated into English, but I'd definitely recommend checking out the story collection - it has a very interesting biography on her. I can give you a bit more than those if you like, but all that I listed are amazing female Japanese authors.

>>1573088

What manga is this? Want to torrent. :)

>>1572991

A Personal Matter was fun

>>1573094

Thank you! I will look into these.

>>1573096
Westward journey of the Sage Noko also called Musashi Miyamoto.

>>1573003
Oh, and for the lesser discussed male authors, I could give you tons. I'll go in chronological order.

Ihara Saikaku has a lot of his works published in English - he wrote 17th century amorous/erotic stories mostly. Ueda Akinari also has a nice volume translated of his Tales of Moonlight and Rain, which are supernatural tales drawing on Chinese and Japanese Folklore. There are plenty of collections of plays (puppet plays) by Chikamatsu Monzaemon out there, which are definitely worth checking out. Matsuo Basho you are probably already familiar with, but there are tons of collection of his haiku out there. Though I don't own them all, so I can't be a good judge on which are the best.

For the Meiji period, Shimei Futabatei is considered to have written the first modern novel. It's not actually so great, but in terms of literary significance, you should still check it out. Mori Ogai is relatively popular, so you might already know him, but he's most well known for The Wild Geese. Aside from that he wrote tons of historical short stories that are wonderful, though the collections are OOP and getting hard to get. Koda Rohan also has one volume out, Pagoda, Skull, and Samurai, which contains three of his stories/novellas. Katai Tayama has had two volumes translated, though both are out of print now and getting expensive. His short story The Quilt is definitely worth getting ahold of though. A few others who I can't say much about yet who are also around this time period: Kafu Nagai, Takeo Arishima, Toson Shimazaki, and Riichi Yokomitsu.

For Taisho and around that time (I'm thinking you probably already know Akutagawa), there's Kyoka Izumi. He wrote supernatural tales, two volumes of which have been translated into English. He also has a weird 'mother' fixation. Shiga Naoya has his one novel and a collection of short stories translated, and I'd recommended starting with the short stories if you'd like to get into him. A few of them are especially haunting. There's also Edogawa Ranpo, who wrote many horror tales, a lot of which have been collected and translated (he even oversaw the translation on one of them!). Some others around this time period-ish: Kenji Miyazawa, Kan Kikuchi, and Haruo Sato.


>>1573106
No problem! I've been on a women writer thing lately. There's a good anthology called The Modern Murasaki which has excerpts from a range of Meiji period female authors you might also look into.

>>1573124
>>1573145

This is great info, don't know how to thank you.

>>1573155
Hah, the best way to thank me would be by reading them! But if you need any other suggestions/info, you can ask and I'll try to help.

>>1573159

I've been hunting down harder-to-find books for my collection lately and I'll definitely add a bunch of these to my list. Thank you so much, /lit/ needs more people like you (i.e. people who read).

>Kenzaburo Oe - Silent Cry

fuck yesssss. one of my favorite authors. one of my favorite books too. but it's pretty brutal so i don't recommend it to many people. if you ever get a chance read oe's, "the catch." its one of the best short stories ever.

i just finished musashi by yoshikawa. it was really fun in a count of monte cristo way.

oh yeah. i just watched the "animated classics of japanese literature." i saw botchan, the sound of waves, and the [dancing] girl of izu. all of them sucked compared to the books.

i've been thinking about mailing them to some anon here who would watch them. not sure just yet. they have other stories on them that i'm not familiar with.

I'm reading Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness right now, and in the introduction there's an anecdote related, about Mishima's Christmas Eve party in 1964 where Oe went up to Mishima's wife and called her a cunt (in English). And how Oe was chilling with his best friend Abe the whole time. so cute.

>>1573071

Jap lit is generally sad. As in 'boo-hoo' sad not pathetic sad. The Silent Cry just made me feel bad for the protagonist's shitty life but not really sad for it.

>>1572991

I read 'Asleep' by Yoshimoto which was a book of some of her shorter stories. They were all gash and really boring. Is there anything that she has done which is any good? I hear Kitchen is good, but is it actually?

>>1573708
If you didn't enjoy Asleep, I wouldn't really bother with her other stuff. She's probably just not to your tastes (she's definitely not to mine most of the time). If you want another contemporary female Japanese author, you could try out Yoko Ogawa. The Diving Pool is a good collection of three stories by her to start out with.

>>1572991
What other Japanese literature have you been reading, OP?

Has anyone else read The Sea of Fertility series by Yukio Mishima? I'm thinking of starting on it soon, but I've only read Patriotism by him before. Not entirely sure what to expect.

bump

>>MEETS GIRL IN A CLUB, SHE ASKS WHY I'M IN JAPAN, HOW LONG FOR ETC.
>>LET HER KNOW I'M THERE FOR 2.5 MORE MONTHS, STAYING IN HOTEL
>>SHE TELLS ME TO STAY WITH HER
>>I TAKE HER FOR DRUNK, AND JUST "YEAHHH....." IT
>>WE TALK OVER FACEBOOK AND MEET UP AGAIN JUST BEFORE I GO TO TOKYO, VISIT HER PLACE, SEEMS ALRIGHT. ARRANGE TO COME BACK AFTER TOKYO
>>COME BACK FROM TOKYO, MEET HER PARENTS
>>FATHER IS EXCITED WHEN HE REALISES MY KINDLE IS FOR READING BOOKS, AND ASKS WHAT TYPE OF BOOKS I LIKE
>>TELL HIM SOME AUTHORS' NAMES, INCLUDING SOME JAPANESE
>>SAYS YUKIO MISHIMA, HE SAYS SOMETHING IN JAPANESE THAT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, BUT CAN TELL FROM HIS FACIAL EXPRESSION HE IS NOT HAPPY
>>I ASK MY FRIEND, AND SHE SAYS HE HATES HIM
>>AWKWARD MOMENT ENSUES, AS THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME WE MET, AND I JUST SAID I LOVED THE GUY

>>1574843
Damn, awkward. You probably should have said Kawabata instead.

From what I have read so far:
Snow Country (Kawabata)
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea (Mishima)
Silence (Endo)
Musashi (Yoshikawa)

>>1574843
>threads about capsguy's make-believe life

>>1574872
Ryoko ************ 07 February at 19:05 Report
My parent worry ab u(>_<)
N they like u!
Ru coming home tonite?!
I go to namba now.
Where ru going tonite?

>>1574872
it's more entertaining than the usual cool stories. stfu

Ryoko ************14 February at 10:21 Report
U arrived at Brisbane ?!
I n my family miss u alot(>_<)
N u have to come back here in November !

Talk to u soon! N rest well!
Xox

Ryoko ************8 14 February at 10:28 Report
Thank for staying my house too!
We feel ur part of our family.so welcome back anytime u want!

>>1574874
>>1574879
>>1574885
Yeah, that's totally evidence. You totally didn't write that yourself. There's no way you could have.

>>1574876
>I always imagine myself as the protagonist of his tales

>>1574910
YEAH, I COULDN'T JUST CAME UP WITH THEM JUST LIKE THAT, OUT OF FUCKING NO WHERE IN THAT TIME FRAME. ESPECIALLY HAVING TO GET THE TIMING RIGHT, SINCE SO MANY ANONS KNOW EXACTLY WHEN I STARTED STAYING AT HER PLACE, AND EXACTLY WHEN I LEFT JAPAN ETC.

FOR YOU, I SCREEN CAP.

>>1574931
I think you forgot something.

>>1574934
BEAT YOU TO THE BALL. I GOT WRONG VERIFICATION CODE, SO I PRESSED BACK, FORGOT THAT THE UPLOAD FILE SECTION REFRESHES TO NOTHING

>>1574933
Shopped.

Pixels, etc.

>>1574938
YES, I TOTALLY SHOPPED IT WITHIN SIX MINUTES, INCLUDING THE TIME IT TOOK ME TO POST MY REPLY.

FACE IT FUCKWIT, YOU'RE WRONG.

Really enjoyed "No Longer Human"

>>1574947
When did I imply that?

You had this all prepped just in case someone called you out.

>>1574950
I TOTALLY PLANNED AHEAD OF TIME THAT THIS THREAD WOULD BE CREATED, JUST SO THAT I COULD TELL MY STORY, AND IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT THAT SOMEONE CALLED ME A LIAR, I WOULD HAVE EVERYTHING SORTED OUT JUST IN CASE.

YOU DO REALISE HOW RETARDED THAT SOUNDS, RIGHT?

>>1574948
Dazai is awesome. Have you checked out any of his other works?

>>1574961
Only as retarded as something that could happen on 4chan.

Just finished The Woman in the Dunes by Abe. One of the better things I've read in quite a while.

>>1574969
WELL, UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU IT IS ALL FACT.

IT MATTERS NOT. I AM GOING BACK THERE IN NOVEMBER. I LOVE MY LIFE

>>1574979
I'll continue to call bullshit. Regardless of any "EVIDENCE"

>>1574996
WELL, COOL MAN. BUT I HAD SHOWN SOME PEOPLE FROM /LIT/ MY HOTEL ROOM AND THE VIEW ETC.

What would you guys think of making a 100 Recommended Works of Japanese Literature chart, a la 100 novellas recommendation image? I know we already have >>1573099, but this could be like an extended version or something.

>>1575050
Heh, well, I made one anyway! Even if it's only for myself. Here's my work in progress. I'm going to add in the titles and names after I get everything in it's place. I can easily think of eleven more to put on here, but I thought it'd be better to get someone else's opinion.

If anyone has suggestions, especially on more contemporary stuff, I'd love to hear them. Also if I put something on there twice, tell me, because it's kind of becoming all a blur now.

And finished! Constructive comments still definitely welcome though. I'll probably tweak it a bit more in the morning.

>>1575536

Nice list, anon. Though it would be good if it were a bit more ordered, because there doesn't seem to be any order to it at all. I mean, at least maybe put all the works by one author together, instead of scattering them all over the place.

>>1575543
I was kind of going for the randomness/poster look of the 100 novellas list. I figured the regular recommendations chart served as the ordered thing, as it has most of the same titles and authors, and groups by time period too. Eh, I don't really know.

>>1575547

Maybe just alphabetise it? It seems a little TOO random this way, to me at least.

>>1575552
Well, another reason I had was that having too many obscure-ish authors in one spot might make a viewer not want to keep viewing. I wanted to intersperse it with the well-known works to keep anyone interested still interested. If I had all the Murakami and Soseki in one place, no one's going to leave them and go to the Taruho section. At least, that was my weird justification for it. I might make two versions or something though!

OP here again. That this turned into a pretty comprehensive recomendation thread for Jap lit restores my faith in lit.

It beats the Literature module of my Japanese degree considerably.
Might try adding to your suggestions later today.

>>1575558

Well, fair enough, anon. It's a good list whatever the order.

Glad to see Yasushi Inoue on there. I read the Hunting Gun recently and really liked it.

bump

Bumping for >>1575625

Dazai, is definatly one to look into, especially his personal life, /lit/ would sympathise.
Also, yukio mishima, Very cool. look into, work and personal life, maybe we debate that? his ideals an shit

I just finished reading The Silent Cry. Zzzzzzzzz.

one last bump

>>1574168
The first is beautiful, the second is tragic, the third is puzzling, and the fourth is pure concentrated poison.

>>1575536

Can you you set it out like the original Japanese recommendations where everything is all nice and categorised/chronological rather than all over the place?

>>1579414
Bah, alright, done. Very roughly organized, but moreso by far than the first one (though I like it better random).

>>1579557

Nice work, anon. I've uploaded it to the Wiki next to the original image.