japanese literature

in english

search japanese books translated into english:

Translator: MacDonald, Ian McCullough

  • The curious casebook of Inspector Hanshichi : detective stories of old Edo

    Told through the eyes of a street-smart detective, Okamoto Kido’s best-known work inaugurated the historical detective genre in Japan, spawning stage, radio, movie, and television adaptations as well as countless imitations. This selection of fourteen stories, translated into English for the first time, provides a fascinating glimpse of life in feudal Edo (later Tokyo) and…

  • The budding tree : six stories of love in Edo

    In the latter half of the Edo period, the warrior caste was finding itself pushed out of the top echelons of Japanese society & repeated famines swept the countryside. Against this backdrop, a small number of women built themselves independent lives. The stories in this book recount the conditions in which these women lived.