Yukio Mishima is a controversial figure, to say the least. While he was an out-and-out fascist who committed seppuku after a failed coup, he did provide us with some thought-provoking works of literature that not only allow us a window into his mind and his demons, but also into the shifting modernisation of 20th century Japan. The most clear-cut of his works is The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea: a metaphorical tale about a young boy who becomes obsessed with his mother’s new boyfriend. This boyfriend is a sailor whom the lad respects, until he chooses love over the great wide open, and the boy takes this as a betrayal. It’s a heavy political metaphor and one of the most important works of Japanese literature. Split into two sections, Breasts and Eggs follows the life of narrator Nastuko in long vignettes eight years apart. Natsuko is a novelist who yearns to bear children but is repulsed by the idea of sex, and so weighs up a path generally forbidden to Japanese single women: artificial insemination. The book is a scything dissection of the struggles faced by working-class women in Japan, only heightened by Kawakami’s rough-and-tumble Osaka dialect which is ever-present in her writings.

Japan Story - Penguin Books UK

Why Should I Read This Book? Here is a unique examination of the art and aesthetics of Japan by one of its most beautiful writers. In 784, the capital moved briefly to Nagaoka-kyō, then again in 794 to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto), which remained the capital until 1868. [49] Political power within the court soon passed to the Fujiwara clan, a family of court nobles who grew increasingly close to the imperial family through intermarriage. [50] Between 812 and 814 CE, a smallpox epidemic killed almost half of the Japanese population. [51] In 1156, a dispute over succession to the throne erupted and the two rival claimants ( Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Emperor Sutoku) hired the Taira and Minamoto clans in the hopes of securing the throne by military force. During this war, the Taira clan led by Taira no Kiyomori d The titular Hit Parade of Tears is set in a fascist future reminiscent of modern-day North Korea, and slowly drip-feeds us the context for how such a world could blossom out of contemporary Japan. Revenge by Yoko OgawaThe pottery of the Incipient and Initial periods includes many deep urnlike vessels with tapered bullet-shaped bases. In the Early period the vessels of eastern Japan become roughly cylindrical in shape, with flat bases, and the walls contain an admixture of vegetable fibre. In the Middle period there were rapid strides in pottery techniques; the pots produced in the central mountain areas during this time are generally considered to be the finest of the whole Jōmon era. The surfaces of these normally cylindrical vessels are covered with complex patterns of raised lines, and powerfully decorative projections rise from the rims to form handles. From the Middle period onward there is increasing variety in the types of vessels, and a clear distinction developed between high-quality ware using elaborate techniques and simpler, purely functional pots. The amount of the latter type increases steadily, preparing the way for the transition to Yayoi pottery.

Japan Family In Law - Father in law and daughter in law in Japan Family In Law - Father in law and daughter in law in

These leaders sought and received formal diplomatic recognition from China, and Chinese accounts record five successive such leaders as the Five kings of Wa. Craftsmen and scholars from China and the Three Kingdoms of Korea played an important role in transmitting continental technologies and administrative skills to Japan during this period. [28] In 858, Fujiwara no Yoshifusa had himself declared sesshō ("regent") to the underage emperor. His son Fujiwara no Mototsune created the office of kampaku, which could rule in the place of an adult reigning emperor. Fujiwara no Michinaga, an exceptional statesman who became kampaku in 996, governed during the height of the Fujiwara clan's power [52] and married four of his daughters to emperors, current and future. [50] The Fujiwara clan held on to power until 1086, when Emperor Shirakawa ceded the throne to his son Emperor Horikawa but continued to exercise political power, establishing the practice of cloistered rule, [53] by which the reigning emperor would function as a figurehead while the real authority was held by a retired predecessor behind the scenes. [52] Men Without Women makes its theme clear from its title: this is a Japanese short story collection that explores the relationship between men and women in the modern world. The metaphors at play here, and in the other tales, ranging from the obvious to the subtle, and all end in hilarity and often outright strangeness.Why Should I Read This Book? This is a unique glimpse into the dying world of Japanese gentry in post-war Osaka. The manufacture of pottery, however, was highly developed, and the work of Jōmon peoples has a diversity and complexity of form and an exuberance of artistic decoration. It is customary to regard changes in pottery types as a basis for subdividing the age into six periods: Incipient ( c. 10,500–8000 bce), Initial ( c. 8000–5000 bce), Early ( c. 5000–2500 bce), Middle ( c. 2500–1500 bce), Late ( c. 1500–1000 bce), and Final ( c. 1000–300 bce). Since Jōmon culture spread over the entire archipelago, it also developed regional differences, and this combination of both chronological and regional variations gives the evolution of Jōmon pottery a high degree of complexity.

read books from Japanese literature - BBC Future Five must-read books from Japanese literature - BBC Future

Kyoko Nakajima is an author celebrated in Japan and beyond for her Naoki Prize-winning novel The Little House. She is also author of the to-be-treasured Japanese short story collection Things Remembered and Things Forgotten.Better known as Lafcadio Hearn, Koizumi Yakumo was to the Japanese ghost story what the Grimm Brothers were to European fairytales: a pioneering collector and publisher of long-lost folklore. After settling in Matsue, a castle town on Japan’s western coast, in the late 1800s, he married the daughter of a declassee samurai family, became enraptured by Japanese ghost stories, or kaidan (thanks in part to his deeply troubled childhood), and was eventually anointed as a Japanese subject under the name Koizumi Yakumo. Though he was more a recounter of supernatural fiction than a creator, he believed deeply in the power of these age-old narratives and portrayed them in startling prose that remains just as gripping well over a century later. His collection, Japanese Ghost Stories, is the gold-standard of the genre. Why Should I Read This Book? It is a wildly clever, amusing and unique collection of notes on imperial life more than 1000 years ago. Why Should I Read This Book? These poems capture the unique serenity and dramatic beauty of rural Japan. Why Should I Read This Book? Shunro Oshikawa's vivid storytelling brings to life a tale of exploration, discovery, and epic naval battles beneath the waves, offering a unique blend of adventure and fantasy.

Japan country profile - BBC News Japan country profile - BBC News

Why Should I Read This Book? It’s a rulebook on the way of the warrior from Japan’s greatest ever warrior.The advent of the Yayoi people from the Asian mainland brought fundamental transformations to the Japanese archipelago. The millennial achievements of the Neolithic Revolution took hold of the islands in a relatively short span of centuries, particularly with the development of rice cultivation [14] and metallurgy. Until recently, the onset of this wave of cultural and technological changes was thought to have begun around 400 BC. [15] Radio-carbon evidence now suggests that the new phase started some 500 years earlier, between 1,000 and 800 BC. [16] [17] Endowed with bronze and iron weapons and tools initially imported from China and the Korean peninsula, the Yayoi radiated out from northern Kyūshū, gradually supplanting the Jōmon. [18] They also introduced weaving and silk production, [19] new woodworking methods, [16] glassmaking technology, [16] and new architectural styles. [20] The expansion of the Yayoi appears to have brought about a fusion with the indigenous Jōmon, resulting in a small genetic admixture. [21] A Yayoi period bronze bell ( dōtaku) of the 3rd century AD The Pre-Ceramic era was followed by two better-recorded cultures, the Jōmon and the Yayoi. The former takes its name from a type of pottery found throughout the archipelago; its discoverer, the 19th-century American zoologist Edward S. Morse, called the pottery jōmon (“cord marks”) to describe the patterns pressed into the clay. A convincing theory dates the period during which Jōmon pottery was used from about 10,500 until about the 3rd century bce. Of the features common to Neolithic cultures throughout the world—progress from chipped tools to polished tools, the manufacture of pottery, the beginnings of agriculture and pasturage, the development of weaving, and the erection of monuments using massive stones—the first two are prominent features of the Jōmon period, but the remaining three did not appear until the succeeding Yayoi period. Pottery, for example, first appeared in northern Kyushu (the southernmost of the four main Japanese islands) about 10,500 bce, in an era that is called the Incipient Jōmon period. While continental influence is suspected, the fact that Kyushu pottery remains predate any Chinese findings strongly suggests that the impetus to develop pottery was local. Jōmon is thus best described as a Mesolithic culture, while Yayoi is fully Neolithic. People From My Neighbourhoodsees Kawakami flexing her surrealist and comedic muscles to wonderful effect. This is a tiny collection of even tinier tales that splendidly captures the eccentricities of ordinary people.