Japanese Lit

[Anonymous No.10667310]

I've pretty much exhausted Kobo Abe and Mishima and want some more great japanese lit. What are your recommendations /lit/? I see Dazai posted a lot around here but am I right in thinking No Longer Human is somewhat grouped with existentialist novels?

[Anonymous No.10668237]

bumped

[Anonymous No.10668244]

[Anonymous No.10668253]

[Anonymous No.10668263]

I've also heard Lafcadio Hearns books on Japan are quite good so check those out.

[Anonymous No.10668264]

>>10667310
Why not Natsume Sōseki, Japan's greatest novelist?

[Anonymous No.10668293]

i really like kawabata
ryu murakami is great too if you want some modern existential gory violence porn

[Anonymous No.10668300]

all i want right now is a free digital version of 千羽鶴

[Anonymous No.10669284]

Edogawa Ranpo is pretty fun and easy to read.

[Anonymous No.10669409]

I've been reading some Kawabata stories in Japanese for a uni course and he's pretty great. Akutagawa is also, of course, a master of short stories. As far as novels go I will never stop shilling Tanizaki.

[Anonymous No.10669435]

THIS ARMENIAN SHITPOSTING HAS TO STOP

[Anonymous No.10669468]

>>10668293
No way anyone can describe Ryu as being great.

[Anonymous No.10669474]

>>10667310
Read Rashōmon by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, beautiful book. The movie by kurosawa is also god-tier

[Anonymous No.10669479]

>>10669468
i can; fight me

[Anonymous No.10669489]

>>10669474
the movie isn't even based on that story, it's based on the bamboo grove one
i mean both stories are great but gosh get your facts in line

[Anonymous No.10669569]

OP here, cheers guys, appreciate it

[Anonymous No.10669745]

>>10667310
>Dazai
I finished The Setting Sun yesterday. Fucking dope. Highly recommend u.

[Anonymous No.10669753]

>>10668293
>ryu murakami
What book of his have you read? I read In the Miso Soup and didn't find great stuff...

[Anonymous No.10669839]

Enzo's Silence is solid, weird mix of catholicism and japan.

[Anonymous No.10670186]

>>10667310
>Kobo Abe

What did you think of The Ruined Map? Picked it up and read a nice chunk but the seemingly unnecessary observations by the detective are exhaustive. Not sure if I should continue

[Anonymous No.10670855]

>>10669753
my favourite was piercing but if you didn't like in the miso soup you probably just don't like him desu

[Anonymous No.10670882]

>>10667310
>great japanese lit
tell me how I know you're not interested in philosophy or religious studies and haven't read a book longer than 700 pages in the last 6 months

[Anonymous No.10670899]

>>10670882
It's okay, not everybody has to always be reading City of God at all times. Japanese lit is fun

[Anonymous No.10670958]

>>10667310
have you heard of a little series called "sword art online"

[Anonymous No.10670969]

Makioka Sisters is the comfiest book I've ever read

I'll also vouch for Silence, very aesthetic, also a fucking trip.

[Anonymous No.10670996]

>>10670899
>japanese lit is fun
>fun
>lit is fun
like pottery

[Anonymous No.10671029]

Kawabata. Not as vigorous as Mishima but plenty of slow peace, sensuality and nostalgy.

[Anonymous No.10671075]

>>10670882
>interested in philosophy
not everyone on 4chan is 18 anon

[Anonymous No.10671094]

>>10670186
Not OP but I've read most of his major books and it's my least favorite. Try Woman in the Dunes before you brush him off.

[Anonymous No.10671193]

Kafu Nagai

[Anonymous No.10671328]

If you can read Spanish, you can read H. Murakami's new novel on April 4th (of course, if you can read Japanese, you can read it now). If you only can read English, you'll have to wait till 2019.

There are two Akutagawa prizes awarded each year. Unfortunately, none of these get translated very quickly.

J. Watanabe's A Lost Paradise was a huge bestseller in Japan. I never see it posted on these threads.

Sgt. Tanizaki's blog has summaries of a lot of the recent prize winners.

[Anonymous No.10671337]

>>10671094

thanks. If I give him another chance I'll go with that.

>>10671193

this

[Anonymous No.10671494]

http://djt.netlify.com/

[Anonymous No.10671636]

>>10670882
>he fell for the philosophy meme

[Anonymous No.10671694]

Kokoro is a great book

[Anonymous No.10671831]

>>10667310
Kiyohira Miura's "He's leaving home". Got the Akutagawa price in the early 80s. Impossible to find online though.

[Anonymous No.10671979]

Kawabata's stuff is great.

[Anonymous No.10672741]

>>10669753
I've read Piercing, Almost Transparent Blue, Popular Hits of the Showa Era, 69, Audition, In the Miso Soup, Coin Locker Babies and Ecstasy. My favourites were Almost Transparent Blue and Coin Locker Babies. All in high school though, so I can't help but wonder if I'd still like them now.

>>10667310
You can try Banana Yoshimoto too, her books are so comfy. I loved NP.

[Anonymous No.10672754]

>>10670882
>Religious studies

[Anonymous No.10673819]

>>10672741
>Banana Yoshimoto
Is "kitchen" good?
I bought a German edition on an impulse because it looked interesting by the premise.

[Anonymous No.10673828]

>>10673819
i'm a different person and i liked it a lot
i read another one after and didn't like it as much, but kitchen was really nice

[Anonymous No.10673840]

>>10667310
Yasutaka Tsutsui is super underrated. Some of the funniest shit I've ever read. Check out Salmonella Men on Planet Porno (not just that story but the whole collection)

[Anonymous No.10673846]

>>10667310
Kazuo Ishiguro

[Anonymous No.10673849]

>>10673846
He is not japanese

[Anonymous No.10673856]

>>10667310
Heike Monogatari for sure. I suppose you ought to read Genji Monogatari as well, although it's not as good.

[Anonymous No.10673888]

>>10673849
>implying that the country you reside in changes your ethnicity

[Anonymous No.10673904]

>>10673888
so is the interesting (and notably 'japanese') thing about japanese authors their intrinsically japanese linguistic dna and hereditary traits rather than their cultural upbringing and subsequent literary output?

[Anonymous No.10673949]

>>10673888
He went to British schools and got a British upbringing. He writes in English.

[Anonymous No.10675606]

bvmp

[Anonymous No.10675613]

>>10673949
But his thoughts and mind are Japanese

[Anonymous No.10675623]

>>10671636
>he fell for the shallow fiction meme
>>10672754
(You)

[Anonymous No.10675628]

>>10675613
What does that even mean? Do you even read yourself?

[Anonymous No.10675636]

>>10667310
Tale of Genji good? I wanted to order this lovely set but it was way out of my price range at the time. I need to read it for an online course within a few months though - but I downloaded an eBook for that.

[Anonymous No.10675674]

>>10675636
I'm about 500 pages in and taking a break from it, but it's got excellent atmosphere and characters, and there's nothing quite like it (barring other, less famous Heian era lit, I suppose). If you're interested in that period of Japanese history it's especially interesting. Of course if you're not, you better prepare yourself for 1300 pages of detailed description of that era.

[Anonymous No.10675688]

>>10675674
Never looked into Japan's history much, all I know about it is Meiji because of school, and Sengoku because I played Shogun Total War as a teen. I'm sure I'll enjoy it though. Do you recommend getting up to date on some of the history, or is this a good source on its own?

[Anonymous No.10675735]

>>10675688
It's an excellent source, but you might be a bit confused at times by all the business with ranks and promotions. There are lots of weird titles and ranks, and as the book goes on these people change in rank and thus get reffered to by a different title, as nobody really has a "name" as far as the narrator is concerned. It takes a little getting used to but the edition you're looking at includes a list at the beginning of each chapter of who's who so that helps. There are also tons of footnotes. The intended audience of the book is basically the extremely specific demographic of "10th century Japanese nobels" so it's inevitable that there'll be some explanation needed.

[Anonymous No.10675745]

>>10675735
*11th century, actually

[Anonymous No.10676374]

>>10667310
Ryunosuke Akutagawa
>>10669474
The movie is based on Rashomon mixed with In A Grove, and In A Grove is generally considered the masterpiece. It's even an expression in Japanese now, to be 'in a grove' is to be in a situation where it's impossible to discern truth from fiction.

[Anonymous No.10676388]

>>10676374
"Kumo no ito" (spider's thread) is also a common expression and a story everyone is familiar with, the story itself being based on the "Spring onion" story Grushenka talks about in The Brothers Karamazov. Akutagawa has a lot of memorable stories. My favorite that I've read is probably Hell Screen.

[Anonymous No.10676535]

>>10670882
Japanese literature is aesthetic as fuck, especially anything from the Heian period. Lighten up and read some Oscar Wilde.

[Anonymous No.10676539]

>>10676388
Oh yeah but the spider's thread is more aimed at kids though

[Anonymous No.10676550]

>>10667310
Whats the point of reading so much class jap lit?

All decent classical jap masters were incredibly inspired/influenced by west masters like Poe, Woolf and etc. And 90% of the japanese work is just fetichist as fuck with the other 10% being pure vanilla.

Not even trying to start shit, a book or two of japanese lit can be a breath of fresh air, but why people would go out to read multiple of those I just don't understand, specially if you already haven't read the masters from the west

Is it weeb/yellow fever shit or a pseudo/poser/hipster kind of thing?

[Anonymous No.10676565]

>>10676550
What "classical" Japanese literature have your read? How were Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon influenced by the west? How was to Kokin wakashu influenced by the west? How was the Gosen Wakashu influenced by the west?

[Anonymous No.10676575]

>>10676550
Is Heidegger not worth reading since he was influenced by Japanese philosophers?
No, they influence each other to create something new and different.

[Anonymous No.10676578]

>>10676550
What "classical" Japanese literature have you read? How were Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon influenced by the west? How was the Kokin Wakashu influenced by the west? How was the Gosen Wakashu influenced by the west?

[Anonymous No.10676617]

>>10675688

The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan
by Ivan Morris

[Anonymous No.10676686]

>>10676578
He's clearly only familiar with 20th century Japanese lit, not sure why he's using the term "classical" when he just means modern classics. That being said I've never been able to get too into classical Japanese lit outside of Genji. I've read parts of Tsuredzuregusa and Houjouki and they were kind of interesting as glimpses into Japan's past, but the bulk of Japanese lit was of course poetry, which I'm basically too dumb for. I usually can't understand them well in the original archaic language and the English versions never seem too charming for some reason.

[Anonymous No.10676695]

>>10676686
>which I'm basically too dumb for.

Try Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book by penguin classics. They spell out the poetic meanings and refernces. It's essentially a culture of lit freaks constantly trying to one up each other, you would think /lit/ would love it. I started to read the poery that the Japanese classics refered to just so I can keep up. Waka poerty is magically once you get it.

[Anonymous No.10676703]

>>10676686
>He's clearly only familiar with 20th century JapaneseI doubt even that because you still have guys like Kenji Miyazawa and Motojirou Kajii, not every Japanese writer is Souseki Natsume or Murakami.

[Anonymous No.10676706]

>He's clearly only familiar with 20th century Japanese

I doubt even that because you still have guys like Kenji Miyazawa and Motojirou Kajii, not every Japanese writer is Souseki Natsume or Murakami.

[Anonymous No.10676730]

>>10676695
Yeah it's so referential I always feel like I need to become more familiar with the classic poem anthologies (though I'll never be able to really "appreciate" it if I don't pick up archaic Japanese). Genji is so full of references they still haven't found the sources for everything quoted or paraphrased, and lots of it is probably stuff that's been lost to time completely. It's kind of sad that that kind of literary culture is a thing of the past.

[Anonymous No.10676737]

>>10676730
Thankfully I learned Japanese when I was a student so switching to kobun has only been slightly difficult. A lot of the poems referenced in genji and pillow book can be found in kokin wakashu which is translated

[Anonymous No.10676758]

>>10676730
>It's kind of sad that that kind of literary culture is a thing of the past.

Literary culture has never been a thing of the masses. Even Heian period Japan was 99% illiterate provincial and unwashed.

[Anonymous No.10676780]

>>10676535
so fucking gay

[Anonymous No.10676817]

>>10676780
What is? Oscar Wilde? Sure, but he is still one of the most aesthetic writers ever.

[Anonymous No.10676961]

>>10671694
Yes. Get the meredith translation as well.

[Anonymous No.10677069]

>>10667310
Personally I was pretty split on No Longer Human. I liked it but I don't think I enjoyed it that much.

[Anonymous No.10677071]

What do people think of Murakami? I see Norwegian Wood posted a lot but I didn't enjoy it as much his other works.

[Anonymous No.10677073]

>>10677071
He is a westaboo hack.

[Anonymous No.10677099]

>>10672741
>>10673819
Was Kitchen your favorite? I'm interested too now, and would like to start with her best work if possible (but I don't know which one that is).

[Anonymous No.10677144]

>>10667310
Tite Kubo

[Anonymous No.10678260]

I wish more people were into actual literature and not psud /pol/ posting and Marxism.

[Anonymous No.10678312]

>>10676737
Yeah I can read modern literature untranslated but I need to git gud when it comes to Edo period stuff, let alone farther back.

[Anonymous No.10678394]

>>10678312
It's not that much harder just a few more verb conjugations and then the rest is archaic vocabulary, nothing a month of hardcore Anki grinding won't fix.

[Anonymous No.10679011]

>>10676617
Seconding, one of the best history books I've read.

The Pleasures of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene isn't so much history, but it's a good look at how poetry was understood throughout Japanese history and will put you into the mindset very well.

[Anonymous No.10679164]

>>10679011
>The Pleasures of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene

I have heard good things about it. Have you read it? Sadly japanese lit gets a bad rap because of weeabo and otaku culture. Also even in Japan, Heian era literature and poety is pretty fucking niche. I had a conversation exchange with Japanese college student who is learning English she told me most people only bother reading the ancient classics becauase it's required reading to get into a good college and even of those people almost none of them bother with the poerty besides knowing a few of the imporant names. I had read more of the imperial waka collections than she had and knew the titles of more of the classics than she did. She had never head of Sagoromo Monogatari or the Shuui Wakashu.

[Anonymous No.10680116]

>>10679164
I've read it and I like it. A lot of it wasn't exactly new information to me but it explains the thoughts behind Japanese forms of literature very well.

A lot of it was written as kind of a defense of Japanese style in a time before it was as highly-regarded in the west, so it has something of an agenda that way, but it's not overbearing in the least.

For me, it most helped me get a better grasp on how Noh theater fits into the larger picture of Japanese aesthetics, which wasn't quite as direct to me before.

[Anonymous No.10680165]

I've been reading this OP on my train rides to work and really enjoy it. It's about a guy who wants to stab his newborn baby with an ice pick. I

[Anonymous No.10680832]

>>10667310
Pretty much anything by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. The ones I enjoyed the most would be "Kappa" and "Jigokuhen".
You can also try "Kōya Hijiri" by Izumi Kyōka, though I don't know if there's an English translation.
If you're looking for something more like war literature then try "Fires on the Plain" by Shōhei Ōoka.
Sōseki is a must. Anything from him would be ok, but I can only recommend "Rondontō", "I am a Cat" and "Kokoro", because I have not read his other works yet.
Osamu Dazai is alright I guess. Shayō is better than Ningen Shikkaku in my opinion, but as Shayō shows more about the life of the fallen aristocrats, Ningen Shikkaku is just about Dazai himself to be honest, so take your pick however you would like. Ningen Shikkaku is also a lot more dark and "edgy".
Kawabata's "Yukiguni" is extremely important, but it's also extremely boring. That's just my opinion though, so don't take my word for it.
"The Peony Lantern" by San'yūtei Enchō should also be in your list. It's an important piece, especially if you like stories with supernatural feel to them.
Oh, and "Maihime" by Mori Ōgai. Should be read in line with Sōseki's "Rondontō", as both of them show different perspectives of how the authors felt during their time abroad. Though, Maihime is about Ōgai's stay in Germany, and "Rondontō" is about Sōseki's stay in London.
And that would be a good start I guess.

[Anonymous No.10681417]

>>10680832
>You can also try "Kōya Hijiri" by Izumi Kyōka, though I don't know if there's an English translation.

There's one in this volume. The other stories are great too.

There's one in this volume.

Izumi Kyôka is a fascinating author: the perfect transitory figure between classic kaidan tales and modern western-style ghost stories.

[Anonymous No.10681419]

>>10681417
Disregard the repeated sentence there...