Seven Japanese Tales


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Naomi


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A hilarious story of one man’s obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation’s cultural confusion—from a master Japanese novelist. When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from the naïve girl of his fantasies. And, in Tanizaki’s masterpiece of lurid obsession, passion quickly descends into comically helpless masochism.




Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan


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In Japanese culture, oni are ubiquitous supernatural creatures who play important roles in literature, lore, and folk belief. Characteristically ambiguous, they have been great and small, mischievous and dangerous, and ugly and beautiful over their long history. Here, author Noriko Reider presents seven oni stories from medieval Japan in full and translated for an English-speaking audience. Reider, concordant with many scholars of Japanese cultural studies, argues that to study oni is to study humanity. These tales are from an era in which many new oni stories appeared for the purpose of both entertainment and moral/religious edification and for which oni were particularly important, as they were perceived to be living entities. They reflect not only the worldview of medieval Japan but also themes that inform twenty-first-century Japanese pop and vernacular culture, including literature, manga, film, and anime. With each translation, Reider includes an introductory essay exploring the historical and cultural importance of the characters and oni manifestations within this period. Offering new insights into and interpretations of not only the stories therein but also the entire genre of Japanese ghost stories, Seven Demon Stories is a valuable companion to Reider’s 2010 volume Japanese Demon Lore. It will be of significant value to folklore scholars as well as students of Japanese culture.




The Seven Gods of Luck


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Fifteenth Anniversary Edition with new notes by author David Kudler Sachiko and Kenji just want to welcome the new year in the proper way, but their mother tells them they don't have the money for a New Year's feast. An act of generosity brings help from an unexpected source in this heartwarming Japanese classic. May the Seven Gods of Luck visit you! "A lively adaptation of a Japanese folktale.... The well-paced, carefully plotted text has a sprightly partner in its stylized, gently colored illustrations." - School Library Journal "A sweetly illustrated retelling" - The New York Times




Seven Japanese Tales


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The Maids


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A major discovery: Tanizaki's wonderful final novel--now in English




Seven Japanese Tales


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The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories


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Beginning with the first writings to assimilate and rework Western literary traditions, through the flourishing of the short story genre in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Taisho era, to the new breed of writers produced under the constraints of literary censorship, and the current writings reflecting the pitfalls and paradoxes of modern life, this anthology offers a stimulating survey of the entire development of the Japanese short story.




Japan


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This introduction to life and culture in Japan presents a captivating portrait of the island nation, home to 127 million people and one of the most robust economies in the world. This volume focuses on an often misunderstood nation with vast economic and cultural influence in the United States and around the world. It combines thoroughly up-to-date coverage of Japan's history, geography, politics, economics, and society, with a range of helpful reference tools. Delving deeper than typical reference books, Asia in Focus: Japan is the ideal authoritative introduction to Japanese life for students, businesspeople, travelers, and other interested readers. The volume offers a contemporary look at the Japanese economy, extensive cultural coverage, and a rich collection of photographs. This resource also dispels long-running stereotypes and misconceptions to show Japan's surprising diversity and creativity.




Narrating the Self


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Narrating the Self examines the historical formation of modern Japanese literature through a fundamental reassessment of its most characteristic form, the 'I-novel, ' an autobiographical narrative thought to recount the details of the writer's personal life thinly veiled as fiction. Closely analysing a range of texts from the late nineteenth century through to the present day, the author argues that the 'I-novel' is not a given form of text that can be objectively identified, but a historically constructed reading mode and cultural paradigm that not only regulated the production and reception of literary texts but also defined cultural identity and national tradition. Instead of emphasising, as others have, the thematic and formal elements of novels traditionally placed in this category, she explores the historical formation of a field of discourse in which the 'I-novel' was retroactively created and defined.