Japanese /lit/

[Anonymous No.16903574]

Do any of you read Japanese lit outside of Mishima/Dazai/Souseki/Kawabata/Kafka? Share what you've found.

[Anonymous No.16903584]

I was about to make this thread, OP. I really want some recs for Japanese history, philosophy, lit generally.

[Anonymous No.16903585]

I loved No Longer Human and I know Dazai was a huge Akutagawa (lit. "trash river" in Japanese) fan, so I've been thinking of reading his stories.

[Anonymous No.16903597]

>>16903584
The Making of Modern Japan by Jensen is supposed to be really good. It's on my list.

[Anonymous No.16904408]

>>16903574
ugetsu monogotari was really good

[Anonymous No.16904427]

>>16903574
Kafka wrote in German

[Anonymous No.16904440]

NisiOisiN

[Anonymous No.16904441]

>>16903574
I already shilled it on the december reading list thread but the Legend of Genji is absolute kino. It is like a mix of Don Quichot and Lolita, but written in medieval Japan

[Anonymous No.16904445]

>>16903574
>Kafka
Sometimes I forget what kind of people I am talking to here.

[Anonymous No.16904466]

>>16904427
>>16904445
I meant to write Murakami, freudian slip.

[Anonymous No.16904512]

>>16903574
There's Tanizaki who's at his best with fetish shit, and Kobo Abe.
The WW2 books are all pretty decent:
Grass for my pillow, Fires on the Plain, Black Rain, Nip them in the bud.
Endo is pretty monothematic (muh catholicism and muh christian charity) but it's interesting: Silence, The Samurai.
Kenzaburo Oe and Hiromi Kawakami are two of my favorite contemporary writers.

Obscure gems:
Evening Clouds - Junzo Shono (comfiest book I've ever read in my life)
A Dark Night's Passing - Shiga Naoya (Soseki disciple)
All the old school mystery writers if you're into that (Edogawa Ranpo, Kido Okamoto, Seicho Matsumoto).

>Japanese literature
>Kafka
Huh?

[Anonymous No.16904556]

>>16904512
OP fucked up thinking of Kafka on the Shore

[Anonymous No.16905199]

My friend gave me The Silent Cry, haven't read it yet though.

[Anonymous No.16905215]

>>16904466
If you wrote murakami in the first place, Ryu fans would be all up on you anyway.
Tanizaki has a big following here for obvious reasons.

[Anonymous No.16905296]

>>16903574
>Do any of you read
no

[Anonymous No.16905592]

>>16903574
You mean Murakami doncha(Kafka on the Shore)? I've read all his books anyhow. Another Murakami I like is Ryu. >>16905215
Checked

Surprised nobody mentioned Oe, he's worth checking out at least.

[Anonymous No.16905609]

>>16905592
Literally two people mentioned Oe:
>>16905199
>>16904512

[Anonymous No.16905712]

>>16904441
>Legend of Genji
It's take of Genji you dumbass. Had me searching Google looking at seen crap.

[Anonymous No.16905745]

Don't you feel weird reading english translations of japanese lit? The languages are so different from one another, I feel like I would lose a lot in translation.

[Anonymous No.16905764]

>>16905745
>translations
I don't.

[Anonymous No.16905767]

>>16903574
Silence is one of my all-time favorite novels and The Tale of Genji is based even though nobody will read it because it's long and the Heiean custom of not addressing members of the court by their name is a bitch.

[Anonymous No.16905774]

>>16905767
Do you read a modernized version of Genji?

[Anonymous No.16905918]

>>16903574
Mori Ogai
>Kafka
What did OP mean by this?

[Anonymous No.16906063]

>>16903574
I'm the typical mishima, tanizaki and murakami simp

[Anonymous No.16906086]

>>16905764
that's good. I wonder how other anons feel though. I have a feeling not everyone hear can read japanese.

[Anonymous No.16906162]

>>16903584
nishitani keiji's religion and nothingness

[Anonymous No.16906197]

Confessions of a Yakuza - Junichi Saga
Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino

[Anonymous No.16906233]

>>16905745
>feel weird
No. Only verse and prose style cannot be translated properly and this applies to any translation between languages.
For prose, in a sense, that's one of the more superficial aspects of a writing. If that style was the focus of the writer, then too bad. But if there was meaning in it, that meaning was elicited by a human mind, and is, therefore, universal and apprehensible by any other human, no matter their nationalities. The translator's craft will render it more or less accessible or accurate.
So if I'm reading Soseki, who looked in English and Western lit to create a new novelistic language for Japanese fiction, maybe I'll miss on the puns, the wordplays, the tone may be vaguer, but his introspection and the feelings are universal, as long as you're familiar with the customs and manners of the time and Japanese society.
You'd find similar difficulties in reading a book written 100 or 200 years ago in your own language. What the hell does a modern sailor knows of Moby Dick? Why would a Belgian national understand without some effort the themes of Heart of Darkness? Every reading is a process of translating, from language to language (even if it's a simple matter of vocabulary or register), between times, between different people.

It's a meme meant to allow the pretentious their peace of mind in limiting themselves to arbitrary circles of knowledge.

[Anonymous No.16906262]

>>16905767
Have you read any more of Endo’s stuff?

[Anonymous No.16906488]

>>16903574
>>16904441
>>16905767
The tale of Genji is worth a look if you're interested in japanese culture and aesthetics, it is also the originator of now well known tropes like Lolis, Bishonen and Yanderes. It damn long, but surprisingly juicy and entertaining for its age

Heian era diaries are also fascinating, especially Sei Shonagons pillow book

>>16905774
There exists a midernized version?

[Anonymous No.16906495]

>>16903574
Akutagawa and Abe

[Anonymous No.16906666]

>>16905918
Kafka on the Shore

[Anonymous No.16906885]

>>16906162
This seems really interesting. Do you need a strong background in Buddhism or Kierkegard to get much out of it?

[Anonymous No.16906906]

>>16906197
>Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino
coomable

[Anonymous No.16906937]

>>16905609
I saw that after I posted, and it's literally just 2. Surprised op didn't mention him.

Battle Royale by Takami is another one(pretty good film actually, but the book is definitely better feels). It's his only novel but it's long been a favorite of mine (over 20 years at least yungins)

[Anonymous No.16907011]

>>16906906
>coomable
what

[Anonymous No.16907028]

>>16903585
You should. Akutagawa is great.

[Anonymous No.16907040]

>>16903574
Not obscure, but:
Kobo Abe -- great surreal nightmares like The Ruined Map
Lady Murasaki -- The Tale of Genji is one of the best novels I've ever read, very funny and sexy and sad
Yoko Tawada -- When Europe Begins is immersive and strange, very nice
Chikamatsu Monzaemon -- wonderful plays about love and suicide like The Courier for Hell

[Anonymous No.16907043]

Heard this is like a jap lolita that true weeabros?

[Anonymous No.16907096]

>>16903574
I recently finished In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami, great book. Shorter than I expected though

[Anonymous No.16907184]

>>16907043
Nope. It's a good read but the MC is weak and obsessed, as if Lolita dominated HH.

[Anonymous No.16908031]

bump
Maybe someone will post an author or book I haven't heard of (>>16907040 got pretty close with Chikamatsu)

[Anonymous No.16908036]

>>16907184
>as if Lolita dominated HH

[Anonymous No.16908231]

>>16905712
>It's take of Genji

[Anonymous No.16908337]

What's the best translation of Kojiki?

[Anonymous No.16908352]

>>16906488
It was written an extremely long time ago, is the version you read in Japanese nowadays some kind of updated one or is it still feasible to read the original?

[Anonymous No.16908422]

>>16903574
Ryu murakami has some good works, i found 69 hilarious. Sayaka murata's convenience store woman is amazing, earthlings was bad though. The Welcome to the nhk novel was alright.

[Anonymous No.16908496]

Good question.
So far I've only really read Murakami and Mishima myself. Tanizaki is great because he writes about feet. There's a cute little novel written by Sayaka Murata. Other than that I've mostly read Korean and Vietnamese authors.

[Anonymous No.16908624]

>>16908036
Lolita does dominate HH lol

[Anonymous No.16908637]

>>16907184
>MC must be a cool dude so I can self-insert

[Anonymous No.16908938]

>>16908624
The spell is broken after HH fucks her, and if not, he's only prisoner by the possibility of getting caught, and Lolita mostly follows his whims while on the run.
Naomi ends up dominating the MC, which is the opposite of the power dynamic in Lolita. He's an office worker who thinks she'll make a nice Western-style wife. She accepts but makes him act like a dog iirc. In one scene she literally has him on all fours, riding him like a horse around the living room, and is constantly demanding shit and threatening to cuck him and the MC is utterly helpless. And worse, he's happy to be the bottom of the relationship.
Quicksand, by the same writer, is much better imo.
>>16908637
What the fuck does that even mean? I was merely describing the plot, you insufferable retard. Have you even read the book?

[Anonymous No.16909342]

Pic related is beautiful and peak comfy

[Anonymous No.16909375]

>>16909342
He wrote a ton, didn't he? I wonder if one of those big collector's sets on Amazon for him would be worth it

[Anonymous No.16909394]

Hitomi Kawakami is one of just two contemporary authors I like. Strange Weather in Tokyo is the comfiest book I've ever read and her much more literary Manazuru is a book I still think about often years after reading.

[Anonymous No.16909435]

>>16904441
Any advice on how to sample this? Is there a chapter that stands out?

[Anonymous No.16910115]

I like Vaclav Havél, celebrated poet and first President of Japan.

[Anonymous No.16910124]

>>16904512
>Edogawa Ranpo
I always think it's funny that his name is just a Japified Edgar Allan Poe

[Anonymous No.16910135]

>>16904512
What's the best Tanizaki novel?

[Anonymous No.16910146]

>>16910115
Czech people are always so weird.
>>16908496
>Korean and Vietnamese authors
Might as well clue us in while Czech anon is making this thread his garden party. Give us some names/rundowns

[Anonymous No.16910228]

>>16908352
It is updated, reading The Tale of Genji in the original japanese would be akin to reading Beowulf in the original old english

[Anonymous No.16910259]

>>16908496
Any recs for Vietnamese?

[Anonymous No.16910260]

>>16903574
Bushido the soul of japan
Yukio Mishima's works

[Anonymous No.16910453]

Just because I liked Rashomon
https://youtu.be/yEMec_6rWXo

[Anonymous No.16910728]

>>16903584
temple of the golden pavilion is fiction, but it gives great insight into japanese views on beauty. In praise of shadows is god tier as well

[Anonymous No.16910753]

>>16907043
its a brutal book. Not at all like lolita, instead its agony watching someone get destroyed as time passes. The key has similar themes

[Anonymous No.16910910]

>>16909375
He wrote as much as he could in only 14 years before his death.
There's a great biography with literary criticism by John Nathan.

[Anonymous No.16911384]

>>16906666
Holy checked

[Anonymous No.16911499]

>>16910135
I'm not a huge fan of his novels, so maybe Quicksand. It's the sort of Soseki melodrama I enjoy the most, but with a lot of hot deviant stuff (threesomes, lesbian undertones, suicide pacts).
The Secret Story of the Lord Musashi and that short story about the blind musician and her assistant stroke me as quite original for Jap literature, but they're either short stories or novellettes. They're pretty good.
The Makioka Sisters is probably the better known one but it's about of type of conflict so distant in time, I just found it a comfy book, if only a bit tedious.

[Anonymous No.16912029]

>>16903574
I liked Hybrid Child, it was SF with an uncomfortable hippie sex vibe that reminded me of Samuel Delany. I read The Alphabet Wounds and The Groom Was a Dog by Tawada Yoko, I really liked the second one but Alphabet was a little too pomo and it was a slog to finish. Amy Yamada is pretty good. I just re-read Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, it was just as sad and funny as I remembered.

[Anonymous No.16912059]

pic related. anybody ITT who hasnt read musashi is a massive homosexual.

[Anonymous No.16912244]

>>16912029
Oh, yeah, I forgot about this anthology called Monkey Brain Sushi. I read it when I was a teenager and it helped me find other neat Japanese stuff.

[Anonymous No.16912264]

>>16904441
>absolute kino
It's a book you fucking retard, stop abusing language, I really want to fucking smash your head in with a sledgehammer you worthless pile of dogshit.

[Anonymous No.16912459]

>>16911499
Thanks, will check them out

[Anonymous No.16912469]

[Anonymous No.16912875]

Soetsu yanagi and his beauty of everyday objects