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My husband emerged from the bedroom, woken by the beeps at the end of the washing-machine cycle. ‘Morning . . . Sorry I overslept. Shall I take over?’ The weekend laundry was his job, but since he’d had to work late at the bank and came home on the last train, I decided I’d do […]
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One of the most celebrated of the new generation of Japanese writers, Sayaka Murata has won not only the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, but the Gunzo, Noma, and Mishima Yukio Prizes as well. Her story, ‘A Clean Marriage’, was featured in Granta 127 Japan. She is 36-years-old and works part-time in a convenience store.
One morning, after a fall of snow. Yasukichi sat on a chair in the physics teachers’ lounge, watching the flames in the heating stove. The flames licked up yellow one moment, then fell to sooty ruins the next, as if they were breathing: proof of their continued struggle against the cold that filled the room. […]
He was a young socialist. His father, a minor official, had thus threatened to disown him. Yet he had remained true to his convictions, for he was possessed of both burning zeal and supportive friends. They formed an organization, distributed ten-page pamphlets, and held lectures. He naturally attended such meetings regularly, and from time to […]
Well now, esteemed readers, I am now in Ōsaka and shall therefore relate a local story. Long ago there was a man who came to the city to seek a position as a menial. Ranking as he did among the kitchen help, he is known only by the generic name of Gonsuke. Gonsuke passed through […]
According to Ashin’s “Essentials of Salvation,” the Ten Pleasures are but a drop in the ocean when compared to the joys of the Pure Land. In that Land the earth is made of emerald and the roads that lead across it are lined by cordons of gold rope. The surface is endlessly level and there […]
It was a chilly evening. A servant of a samurai stood under the Rashōmon, waiting for a break in the rain. No one else was under the wide gate. On the thick column, its crimson lacquer rubbed off here and there, perched a cricket. Since the Rashōmon stands on Sujaku Avenue, a few other people […]
Yukio Mishima, pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake, was considered one of the most important Japanese novelist of the 20th century. He was born in Tokyo in 1925, and died there in 1970. Mishima was the son of a high civil servant and attended the aristocratic Peers School in Tokyo. During World War II, having failed to […]
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is considered the father of the Japanese short story. He wrote more than 150 short stories, including “In a Grove” and “Rashōmon,” on which director Akira Kurosawa based his renowned film. Akutagawa was born in Tokyo to a mentally-ill mother who committed suicide shortly after his birth. His father, who struggled to raise him, transferred the child to his […]
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