22 Japanese Books You Must Read Before You Die

 

When I started my blog Japan Kaleidoskop, one of my first posts was about creating a reading list of Japanese literature (see here). My reference was the famous “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list of 2008. The list has been revised several times, and I was curious how many Japanese books there are on it today in 2023.

The original list was published by Peter Boxall in several revised editions. It is advertised as an “authoritative selection of novels, reviewed by an international team of writers, critics, academics, and journalists, provides a new take on world classics and a reliable guide to what’s hot in contemporary fiction”. According to the list of “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” displayed on Goodreads (July 2023), and where readers can vote, we have the following 22 (!) titles on the list in this particular order.

1. Murakami Haruki: Kafka on the Shore
2. Murakami Haruki: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
3. Murakami Haruki: 1Q84
4. Murakami Haruki: Sputnik Sweetheart
5. Akutagawa Ryûnosuke: Rashomon
6. Shûsaku Endo: Silence
7. Banana Yoshimoto: Kitchen
8. Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji
9. Natsume Sôseki: Kokoro
10. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Artist of the Floating World
11. Murakami Haruki: After the Quake
12. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Pale View of Hills
13. Shûsako Endo: Deep River
14. Mishima Yukio: The Sea of Fertility (four books)
15. Miyabe Miyuki: Crossfire
16. Kenzaburô Ôe: Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
17. Mishima Yukio The Sound of Waves
18. Yasunari Kawabata: Thousand Cranes
19. Murakami Ryû: Almost Transparent Blue
20. Sawako Ariyoshi: The Twilight Years
21. The Tale of The Bamboo Cutter
22. Tanizaki Jun’ichrô: Some Prefer Nettles

Let’s have a look at the list

• 5 books by Haruki Murakami
• 2 books by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 2 books by Shûsaku Endo
• 1 book by Banana Yoshimoto
• 1 book by Tanizaki Jun’ichirô
• 2 titles by Mishima Yukio (1 book, 1 tetralogy)
• 1 folk tale
• 4 books written by women
• 18 books written by men

Although one can question the selection I think there are all important works here. The selection could have included more books of the last 20 years but I think they had to cut somewhere and have chosen books that are relevant to a broader readership. I would have chosen other works by Tanizaki Jun’ichirô and would have thought about adding more women writers. Although I like most books by Murakami Haruki and Kazuo Ishiguro, maybe it would have been sufficient to list two or three of the most important books and come up with some other authors instead. But it is, what it is and it is a good starting point.

• I have already reviewed seven titles.
• I have read 19 books, most of them in my pre-blogging time before 2013.
• I have not read 3 of the 22 books.
• I have only mentioned Japan-related books by Kazuo Ishiguro. There are three  more of his works on the overall “1001” list.

I will take the list as a reminder for my upcoming book reviews, as there are three books I have not read yet or books I wanted to re-read for a long time.

I will pick up a title randomly. Maybe I start with Murakami Haruki and read my way through the unknown Kazuo Ishiguro’s works. What do you think?  Do you know a book on this list?

Editor’s Note: This post was first published on Japan Kaleidoskop, a blog about Japanese literature and art. (July 11, 2023)

Book Review: The Three-Cornered World

 

„An artist is a person who lives in the triangle which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed from this four-cornered world.“  Natsume Sôseki

Natsume Sôseki 夏目 漱石 (1867-1916) is one of the most famous writers of Japan and an icon for many Japanese authors, often cited by modern writers such as Murakami Haruki.

“The Three-Cornered World” is a key to Natsume Sôseki’s literary work. This book among others of his works was accepted by the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.

In substance, it is about his aesthetic theory. But it is not academic, the narration flows naturally and includes thoughts about art painting and poetry. You might even say, his story resembles a painting and it reads like a poem.

Underlying is a simple story: A young man wanders to a Japanese village. There, he rests at a tea house. An old lady tells him a story about a mysterious woman who lives nearby in a family hotel: She had been divorced after her husband went bankrupt and returned to her father’s house full of shame. Then, she fell in love with a priest, who fled from her. It seems she is now cursed like in an ancient fairy tale: Like a young maiden who couldn‘t decide between two lovers and therefore threw herself into the water. Most village inhabitants regard her as mad and despise her.

The young wanderer checks in at this hotel and lives there for a couple of days. He is on a journey to relax and find peace in painting and composing poetry. He has nothing more to do than to stroll through the village. Leisurely he is drawing sketches and encounters the silence and the beauty of nature. Whereas sometimes in a dreamlike state of mind, he is reflecting and making art.

The divorced woman is flirting with him in a mysterious play of hide and seek. She comes to visit him at night in his room, only to vanish again. She strolls through the garden, then escapes. Dressed as a bride she floats through the building or enters his hot spring bathtub. The painter is lost in love.

Natsume Sôsekis scenes are painted like pictures, very beautiful and emotional. He is very skilled in drawing scenarios. Lively, directly into the heart, moving, he can catch the divine, the momentariness. His words are magic.

Natsume Sôseki combines his thoughts about Japanese and Western aesthetics. At times when his writing colleagues took over Western ideas eagerly, he strengthened the standpoint of the Japanese. This made him appear as a traditionalist, but he is a very good observer and critic of the rapid modernization in Japan after the Meiji Restauration of 1868. His imagination of modernity is sharp and clear and his warnings and visions are wise. Sometimes he refers to Western literature as to “Tristram Shandy” of Laurence Sterne or to Oscar Wilde as well as to Chinese poetry.

His description of art painting and poetry is very impressive. Speaking as an artist his view is encouraging and enjoyable to everyone who is making art.

Original: 草枕 Kusa Makura (Grass Pillow), 1906 by Natsume Sôseki. Translation by Alan Turney: The Three-Cornered World, 1965.

Natsume Sôseki wrote : 草枕 “Kusamakura“ in 1906. The first translation was named “Three-Cornered World”. A new English translation was published in 2008 as “Kusamakura”.

Editor’s Note: This post was first published on Japan Kaleidoskop, a blog about Japanese literature and art. It was originally published on March 12, 2013, and was rewritten and updated on July 4, 2023.

5 Japanese Books I did not finish (dnf)

 

I hate when this happens: I am choosing a book full of expectations because I have read enthusiastic reviews and I kind of like the author, but soon after some pages I realize this is not the book I want to read. For whatever reasons. And then I find excuses not to read. The book stays around but I find other books more interesting and wonder what is wrong with the book I want to like but cannot.

When I borrow books from the library I can let go of the book half finished. It has a natural expiring date because I have to give it back after 4 weeks. It is different when I buy a book. Then I have regrets because it is not only a waste of time but I also wasted money.

Most of the time I buy translations of Japanese books. I have a collection of physical books and ebooks as well. I would say that I like 90 percent of the Japanese books I bought. And about the remaining 10 percent of Japanese books I did not finish I never write on my blog. But today I just want to share my thoughts about Japanese books I have read half through but I could not finish. They are still sitting on my shelves or my Kindle.

These are the Japanese books I did not finish:

1. Higashino Keigo: Salvation of a Saint. Translation of 2012. Japanese original: 聖女の救済, Seijo no Kyūsai), 2008.
2. Furukawa Hideo: Slow Boat. Translation of 2017. Japanese original: 中国行きのスロウ・ボートRMX, 2003.
3. Natsume Sôseki: Kusamakura. Translation of 2008. Japanese original: 草枕 (Kusamakura), 1906.
4. Yokomizu Seishi: The Inugami Curse. Translation of 2020. Japanese original: 犬神家の一族, 1972.
5. Sukegawa Durian: Sweet Bean Paste. Translation of 2017. Japanese original: あん, 2013.

Higashino Keigo : Salvation of a Saint

I could not finish “Salvation of a Saint“ because the introduction feels so long and dragged out that I lost interest in reading until the end of the book. I am disappointed because I like other books of the author but this one is just not my cup of tea. I am not giving up hope and will try another title.

Furukawa Hideo: Slow Boat

I thought it would be a nice easy read. And it was, but nothing interesting happened in the first half and the language was juvenile. The author describes his way into a boarding school for drop-outs where he meets a girl. Well, this is interesting but the author just tells us how awful it was but does not show it and he uses “or something“ in every other sentence. So, I lost interest and tossed the ebook.

Natsume Sôseki: Kusamakura

Natsume Sôseki wrote his book “Kusamakura“ in 1906. The first translation was named “Three-Cornered World”. A new translation was published in 2008 with the same title as the original “Kusamakura”. When I bought “Kusamakura” in English I was not aware that I already have read the book (see my review here). I thought I would get a new book but I already own a copy of „The Three-Cornered World“. That was a little confusing. Now I had two copies I compared both texts and was surprised.

And now I asked myself: How can two translations of the same Japanese book be so different? I know how “difficult” it is to translate Japanese into German or English. That there is room for interpretation and every translator has his style. The new translation of “Kusamakura” reads differently and sometimes I wonder if this is a different book now, I suppose it is an accurate translation though. I wonder why someone translates a book a second time when the first translation is very good. I do not know the reason, but for me there was no need for another translation. Why make a new translation when there are so many Japanese books untranslated?

Yokomizu Seishi: The Inugami Curse

“The Inugami Curse“ by Yokomizu Seishi is just another example of a boring mystery crime book. Maybe the solution to the case is brilliant but I will never know. Feels constructed, repetitive and dragging. I should have been warned by the ugly cover.

Sukegawa Durian: Sweet Bean Paste

And maybe you cannot believe that I did not finish “Sweet Bean Paste“ because it is so popular in Japan. There is even a movie! And it has all the ingredients of an interesting book: Japan, cherry blossoms, an ex-convict, sweet bean paste and an old lady with a past. But it was all too much: the sweetness and the story behind it.

So, those are the Japanese books I tried so hard to finish and wanted to like, but they were not for me. I am not saying these are bad books, I just feel sorry, that they were just not to my taste. Maybe you like one of the books I mentioned? What about you? Do you finish all of your books?

Editor’s Note: This book review was first published on Japan Kaleidoskop, a blog about Japanese literature and art. (June 27, 2023)