japanese literature

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Genre: Fiction

  • The tattoo murder case

    A Japanese mystery set in 1947 Tokyo featuring Kenzo Matsushita, a young doctor who has an affair with a married woman with a tattooed torso. One day he finds her murdered, the torso missing, and sets out to find the killer. A look at the art of tattooing in Japan where it is banned.

  • J-Boys : Kazuo’s world, Tokyo, 1965

    Kazuo Nakamoto’s life in inner-city Tokyo is one of tea and tofu, of American TV and rock ‘n’ roll. Kazuo is nine. It is the mid-1960s, just after the Japan Olympics, and Kazuo dreams of being a track star. He hangs out with his buddies, goes to school, and helps with household chores. But Kazuo’s…

  • The informer

    A Japanese novel on an industrial spy assigned to obtain a formula from a company. On the verge of success, having worked himself into the owner’s good graces and the arms of his wife, the owner is murdered and the spy’s problems begin.

  • The woman with the flying head and other stories

    A collection of fantasy stories by Yumiko Kurahashi.

  • Villain

    January 6, 2002. The body of a female insurance saleswoman is found in the southernmost region of Japan, at a spot rumored to be a home to ghosts. Shortly thereafter Yuichi, a young construction worker, is arrested by the Nagasaki police on suspicion of murder….

  • Realm of the dead

    A collection of short stories, where the lands of both the living and the dead are equally dark and mysterious worlds where logic and reality are subject to constant change and where ideas about identity and self are continually questioned.

  • Parade.

  • Shanghai : a novel

  • Belka, why don’t you bark?

    Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? begins in 1943, when Japanese troops retreat from the Aleutian island of Kiska, leaving four military dogs behind. One of them dies in isolation, and the others are taken under the protection of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, in the USSR, a KGB military dog handler kidnaps the daughter of a Japanese…

  • The tale of the Heike

    With a reflection on the fleeting nature of power and glory begins The Tale of the Heike, an epic from twelfth-century Japan. Comparable in stature to The Tale of Genji, The Tale of the Heike narrates with wit, energy, and compassion the stories of such unforgettable characters as the ruthless warlord Kiyomori, who dies still…