Genre: Biography/Memoir
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From Trinity to Trinity
From Trinity to Trinity recounts the pilgrimage of Japanese atomic-bomb survivor Kyoko Hayashi to the Trinity Site in northern New Mexico, where the world’s first atomic bomb test was conducted. Her journey takes her into unfamiliar terrain, both past and present, as she not only confronts American attitudes, disconcertingly detached from the suffering of nuclear…
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Awesome nightfall : the life, times, and poetry of Saigyo
This book captures the power of Saigyo’s poetry and this previously overlooked poet’s keen insight into the social and political world of medieval Japan.
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Undercurrents : episodes from a life on the edge
Assembles 40 episodes that represent the times the author felt most alive, involving his two passions: sailing and scuba diving.
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Letters of four seasons
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Sky above, great wind : the life and poetry of Zen Master Ryokan
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The gossamer years : the diary of a noblewoman of Heian Japan
Kagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji. This frank autobiography diary reveals two tempestuous decades of the author’s unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses. To impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful noblewoman of the…
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Twelve views from the distance
From one of the foremost poets in contemporary Japan comes this entrancing memoir that traces a boy’s childhood and its intersection with the rise of the Japanese empire and World War II. Originally published in 1970, this translation is the first available in English.
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Persona : a biography of Yukio Mishima
A critical biography of a modern Japanese literary giant, whose brilliant career ended in a spectacular ritual suicide.
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The pillow book of Sei Shonagon : the diary of a courtesan in tenth century Japan
Japan in the 10th century stood physically and culturally isolated from the rest of the world. Inside this bubble, a subtle and beautiful world was in operation, and its inhabitants were tied to the moment, having no interest in the future and disdain for the past. In a small diary, a young courtesan of the…
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A literary lady of old Japan.