Books

This is literature I've read prior to and following my study trip to Japan in 2002 along with a few still on my list to read.  More about that trip can be found in the travels section of the website.  A list of the works of Haruki Murakami is below.

Literature

	Abe, Kobo.  The Woman in the Dunes.  (Completed.) A bug collector is captured by a village and meets a woman whose job is to shovel the encroaching sand away from the village.  Surreal.  I'll be teaching this novel in LNWW.  (1964)
	Abe, Kobo.  The Face of Another.  A powerful novel of a man hugely disfigured by a lab accident.  Unable to fit into society, unable to even vary his facial expressions--and so he makes a mask.  Thickly-written philosophical discussion of responsibility and identity; kind of psychological horror, but quite difficult to get through! (1966)
	Akutagawa, Ryunosuke.  Kappa.  (Completed.) A satire on society through the fantastic speculations on the culture of the river creatures of folkore, the kappa.  Our ironic protagonist sees the society as strange, but its absurdities are more sane than the human world!  (1927)
	Akutagawa, Ryunosuke.  "Hell Screen."  (Completed.) This short story reflects the Kafka-esque darkness of the human psyche Akutagawa is known for.  An egotistical artist is asked by his lascivious Emperor to paint a screen of hell--all he needs are subjects.
	Bashō, Matsuo, Poetry of.  (Completed.) Famous 17th century writer of haiku.  One you should know changes, of course, based on translation:

Old, silent pond

Then a frog jumps in

The sound of water

	Coerr, Eleanor.  Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes .  (Completed.) This "childrens" book is based on the true story of a young girl who was exposed to the Hiroshima bomb and develops leukemia several years later.  Legend has it that if a sick person can fold 1000 paper cranes, the gods will make her healthy again.  This has become quite a symbol for Hiroshima and for courage.  (1977)
	Dazai, Osamu.  No Longer Human.  (Completed.) A post-Hiroshima novel examining the alienation of a young man who can connect neither to his culture or other people in his life.  Fascinating book (AP-worthy) recommended by to me by Ryoko Namahira (a former foreign exchange student). (1958)
	Dojoji.  (Completed.) Play of Nō theater, the story is of the hanging of a new bell at a temple, but the ritual is damaged by the invasion of a female demon into the temple grounds.  A powerful legend of the power of a woman scorned!
	Ibuse, Masuji.  Black Rain.  (Reading soon.) Story of a young woman who lives through the black rain which fell on Hiroshima following the atomic blast.  Lauded as unsentimental and apolitical.  Drawn from interviews and diaries of real victims.  (1969)
	Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.  Libretto.  (Completed.) Infamous comedy operetta by the duo, a distinctive example of a Europe not connected to Japan at anything but a surface level.  A good example to discuss in terms of Westernization. I taught this in Lit. of the Non-Western World.  (1938)
	Golden, Arthur.  Memoirs of a Geisha.  (Completed.) Story of a geisha in early 20th century Gion, Kyoto, a neighborhood I visited.  From what I can tell, very accurate in capturing personalities, history, and lifestyle.  I'm intrigued by the male author's telling a first-person Japanese female perspective.  I'd like to talk with Japanese women about their feelings here!  This award-winning novel was recommended to me by Gabe Poshadlo and others.  (1997)
	Kawabata, Yasunari. The Master of Go.  (Completed.) Nobel Prize winner Kawabata's story of a competition between a Master and a younger modern challenger, it becomes a metaphor for the engagement of tradition and modern society. Engaging reading, though I'm still not sure why!  (1972)
	Kawabata, Yasunari. Snow Country.  (Completed.) Nobel Prize winner Kawabata's sacrificial love story of a mountain man and a geisha.  Like The Master of Go, the joy is in the scenes. the subtleties of the relationship in lines which belie emotion.  I'll be teaching this in my AP English course.  (1956)
	Kawabata, Yasunari. Palm of the Hand Stories.  (Completed.) A full set of Kawabata's tiny stories, mere images and scenes more than plotted works, which compel readers to find value in the experience of reading them.  One three-page story is a capsulization of Snow Country.  Intriguing, with some beautiful pages.  (various from the 1920s)
	The Kukinshu, selections.  (Completed.)  Early collection of medieval poetry across many authors and periods, commissioned by the emperor.  The poems are linked thematically to one another, encouraging in part the creation of the rengu form as a pastime.

	Mishima, Yukio.  Spring Snow.  (Completed.) A tragic love story set in turn-of-the-century Japan.  I hope to teach this novel in AP English.  (1972)
	Mishima, Yukio.  The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea.   (Completed.) A disconcerted youth attaches himself to a sailor and is then disillusioned.  Violence follows.  Told from several perspectives, with all the characters misunderstanding each other's gestures, making it a sad story in all directions. (1965)

Haruki Murakami

Murakami is fast becoming one of my favorite writers, period.  His explorations

of Japanese and individual identity, his probing into the psychology of "I," his merging

of the absurdities of life and of the darker, even supernatural, side of society

and love, are elusive and provocative.  Read him!

 

	Murakami, Haruki.  I Hear the Wind Sing.  (Completed.) His first novel, and finally translated into English, it reveals the rudiments of characters which appear later. Questions about characters are unanswered, their psychological secrets unresolved, yet Murakami still finds the means to imply that the story is really about the assembly of ideas, the self-worth of his narrators, the cultural sickness of Japan, without ever truly revealing his narrative irony . In this one, boku discovers a nine-fingered woman on the floor of a public bathroom and finds himself ruminating about his last lover's suicide and classic science fiction.  (1979)
	Murakami, Haruki.  Norwegian Wood.  (Completed.) One of Murakami's most important works, the protagonist travels through a number of dysfunctional sexual relationships in his search for true love.  (1987)
	Murakami, Haruki.  The Elephant Vanishes.  (Completed.) A series of odd short stories about ordinary people and surreal encounters; occasionally their is epiphany, but usually the reader is left to forge his own links.  (1993)
	Murakami, Haruki.  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.  (Completed.) Part detective novel, part cybertech conspiracies, it's hard to draw a bead on this lengthy novel, but it raises questions of immortality and the unconscious, of happiness and reality while it relates too parallel stories, one from a future Japan and one from a fantasy village.  (1997)
	Murakami, Haruki.  A Wild Sheep Chase. (Completed.) Murakami's protagonist boku goes in search of an elusive sheep and his long-missing friend, encountering the hints of his own psychological geography and some darker force controlling Japan's bureaucratic monolith. (1982)
	Murakami, Haruki.  Dance Dance Dance. (Completed.) A sort-of sequel to Wild Sheep Chase, the protagonist explores the levels of societal corruption and materialism, encountering prostitution and murder . (1982)
	Murakami, Haruki.  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.  (Completed.) Mythical, surreal mystery story that overlays the history of Japan's treatment of the Chinese in their Manchurian campaign.  I'll be teaching this novel in AP English.  (1997)
	Murakami, Haruki.  After the Quake. (Completed.) A collection of six short works which take place soon after the Kobe earthquake. Some are fantastic (i.e. Superfrog) and consequently unapproachable in my opinion; others are haunting, like the characters compelled to set bonfires.  Murakami seems on the edge of a transition to a more potent form of writing here, and isn't afraid to experiment.(1996)
	Murakami, Haruki.  South of the Border, West of the Sun. (Completed.) An unusual story of romantic regrets and ignorant cruelty as Murakami's narrator hits middle age and must face the consequences of his past indiscretions. (1998)
	Murakami, Haruki.  Sputnik Sweetheart. (Completed.) An odd story of a miscued but only love who then vanishes in Greece, seemingly without a trace--the narrator must find her.  Compelling style, but not the same impact as Hard-Boiled Wonderland or Wind-Up Bird (1999).

 

 

 

	Nakazawa, Keiji.  Barefoot Gen:  The Day After the Bomb; Life After the Bomb.  (Completed.) This is a series of graphic novels of post-Hiroshima.  The illustrator himself is a survivor of the bomb.  I have Volumes 1-3 right now, and the struggles of post-bomb survivors is more than harsh and far more graphic than what we'd ever see in the U.S.  I have to order Vol. 4.  (1999)
	Oe, Kenzaburo.  Nip the Buds, Kill the Kids.  (Completed.) Kind of a Lord of the Flies among 15 teenage boys in a mountain village in war.  Fairly dark diatribe on justice and the absence of humanity in the face of fear.   Recommended by Erica Bell, the author won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature.  I'll be teaching this novel in AP English.  (1958)
	Sawa, Yuki.  Anthology of Modern Japanese Poetry.  (Completed.) Free verse, tanka, and haiku remain strong in contemporary Japanese writing, but perhaps most important continues the simplicity of image:

                                On the tranquil street

                                both people and trees make the air calm

            Tatsuji Miyoshi's poetry is a typical example!  (1988)

	Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji.  (Reading later.) One of the earliest and most powerful works of fiction in the east, high romance and interest in the court intrigues of early medieval Japan. This animal is 1200 dense pages, so it'll have to wait for now! (Early 11th century)
	Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro.  "The Thief."  (Completed.) A short story mystery of four college friends who suppose that a thief is a "different species," even while they suspect that the thief is one of their own.  Fun psychological read for its point of view.
	Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro.  Some Prefer Nettles.  (Completed.) Excellent novel of a couple experimenting with "open Western marriages," but finding different levels of satisfaction with the results.  Wonderful depiction of traditional Japanese puppetry throughout the work.  An AP English selection.

   

 

Lit. Crit.

 

	Keene, Donald.  Japanese Literature.  (Completed.) This is an early post-war study of the Japanese canon and its Western influences.  This book is a bit dated now, though it still outlines some basics of lit. and marks some classical (pre-Meiji) writers. (1955)
	Rubin, Jay.  Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words.  (Completed.) Part biography, part criticism of Murakami and his works, quite thorough in its examination of particular novels.  (2002)
	Yasuda, Kenneth.  Japanese Haiku:  Its Essential Nature and History.  (Reference.) Focuses not just on the history of the development of form, but its philosophy and particular rhythms and figures of speech. (1957)