Authors of Japan: Yasunari Kawabata

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

The first, and currently only one of two, Japanese nationals to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari Kawabata is one of the original so-called ‘Big Three’ of Japanese literature. For such a successful writer, the main themes that define his work can be hard to pin down. Having lived through the second half of the Meiji, the entirety of the Taisho era and the first forty years of the Showa era, and therefore through countless important historical events, Kawabata's work was generally apolitical. Even after the Second World War, apart from a few references to it happening, his work remained generally unaffected, especially when compared to his protégé, Yukio Mishima, whose life was greatly impacted by his experience of the war. Though some of his works can feel slightly dream-like and strange when taken at face value, his work generally, apart from one exception, stays away from the supernatural and surreal. The dichotomy between the modern and the traditional, though present, is far less evident than it was in the works of other writers, again, especially when compared to Mishima.

How, then, can we define Kawabata’s work? The answer might lie in his youth. Born into a well-to-do family in Osaka in 1899, Kawabata’s early life was certainly a sad one. Both of his parents passed away by the time he was four, and his sister and paternal grandparents had also died less than ten years later. With almost all of his close family gone, Kawabata was to be heartbroken once more when his engagement to Hatsuyo Ito was broken off due to unforeseen complications. This distance, therefore, both physical and emotional, that he experienced when he was younger, and the impact this distance has on people’s relationships, might be best lens with which to view Kawabata’s work. 

After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924, Kawabata worked as a journalist and was involved in literary magazines and journals such as Hiroshi Kikuchi’s Bungei Shunju and Riichi Yokomitsu’s Bungei Jidai. Kawabata’s first major success, The Dancing Girl of Izu (1926), follows a lonely and melancholic student from Tokyo who meets a group of traveling musicians and falls in love with one of them, the young girl Kaoru. Kaoru’s innocent and child-like antics bring the narrator, a stand-in for Kawabata himself, out of his melancholia and he returns to Tokyo refreshed and in higher spirits. The novel contains two themes, both of which revolve around how the narrator cures his depression. At the start of the novel, the narrator is lonely and miserable, but after his interaction with the musicians, particularly with the young Kaoru, he returns to Tokyo refreshed. It is his time with the musicians that cures his depression, thereby showing the importance, to Kawabata, of social interaction, something which he was personally lacking in his youth. It is worth stressing that the student leaves Tokyo, a huge sprawling industrial city, for Shimoda in the far more rural land of the Izu Peninsula. This leads back to a theme common in the writings of almost every Japanese writer of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras; the constant dichotomy of the modern and the traditional. Does swapping the smoke and factories of Tokyo for the cool sea breeze and mountains of Izu parallel the misery of the narrator and the youthful innocent of Kaoru? 

Both of these themes are appears again in another of Kawabata’s work. In my personal opinion, Snow Country (1948) might be one of the greatest pieces of Japanese literature ever written and its opening scene provides one of the clearest example of the modern-traditional dichotomy. The novel starts late at night with the nouveau riche Shimamura making his way by train through the dark snow-covered mountains of Niigata to the remote onsen town of Yuzawa. The imagery of the industrial coal-powered steam train making its way through the dark and frozen land of Tohoku, a heart land of traditionalism, seems to reverse the accepted narrative of ‘old good, new bad’. The warmth and light of the train, the new, cutting its way through the cold and dark mountains, the old. Though it would be foolish to think that Kawabata’ is attempting to fully reverse this accepted point of view. As the novel progresses, Shimura’s complex relationship with Komako, one of the Geisha of the onsen, possibly mirrors Japanese society’s complex relationship with the balance of the modern and the traditional. Shimura and Komako is comparable to the unnamed narrator and Kaoru, though is not the same. As for the narrator and Kaoru, though they are not allowed to pursue each other romantically, their relationship is clearly defined, and their story ends far more positively, whereas Shimura and Komako’s relationship is remains ambiguous, leaving room for conflict. Their story ends with a fire in the town in which one of the passengers on the train, Yoko, perishes. With Shimura and Komako’s relationship still not clearly defined, the end comes in a terrible tragedy and loss of life, possibly foreshadowing Japan’s own final confrontation with the modern against the traditional and the terrible sorrows of war that conflict brings. 

In 1938, the legendary former Go player Hon'inbō Shūsai came out of retirement to play the then up-and-coming prodigy Minoru Kitani. At the time, Kawabata was working as a journalist and covered the game for the Mainichi Shinbun. More than 15 years later, Kawabata adapted a semi-fictionalised version of the game into the novel The Master of Go (1954). On the surface, the novel appears to be nothing than a piece of historical fiction, retailing the epic struggle between an aging grand-master against a young prodigy looking to carve out his own legacy in the world of Go. The American historian and translator Edward Seidensticker thought differently. Seidensticker argued that Kawabata used the game as an allegory for the war between Japan and the West, particularly with the United States. Shūsai representing traditional culture, stood in for Japan, whilst Kitani filled in as the US, a new emerging power posing a threat to the established Empire. Kawabata’s last reference to the modern-traditional dichotomy appeared in the novel The Old Capital (1962). 

Many of Kawabata’s novels concern the idea of love; Thousand Cranes (1952), The Sound of the Mountain (1954), The Lake (1954), The Dandelion (1964) and Beauty and Sadness (1965). But there are two in particular that deserve to be discussed in further detail. The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1930) follows the narrator’s journey through the former entertainment district of Asakusa in Tokyo. Throughout his time there, the narrator meets numerous young prostitutes and brothel workers who explain their way of life and the inner machinations of Tokyo’s dark underbelly. Unlike Kawabata’s other works on love, Asakusa is far more overtly sexual. Although, this is not the only time Kawabata did this. The House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961) follows an old man, Eguchi, who visits a hotel where customers can pay to sleep next to naked girls but are forbidden to engage in sexual activity with them. It is possible that Eguchi is a stand in for Kawabata and that the house represents Kawabata’s inability to truly connect with others; constantly surrounded by people but never able to truly commit himself to them. 

Unfortunately, like seemingly many famous Japanese writers, alongside Dazai, Akutagawa, Arishima and Mishima, Kawabata was another victim of suicide. Mishima's death in 1970 seems to have impacted him greatly and, after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, suffered from nightmares and regularly made jokes about his own death. Despite leaving no suicide note, he was found dead in April 1972 after gassing himself. 

The Blue Sky Library: Japan's Project Gutenberg

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

The Blue Sky Library, or 'aozora bunko', is a Japanese digital library founded in 1997 with the aim of digitizing and storing Japanese literature and Japanese translation of foreign literature so that anyone, from anywhere, may access them freely. The site is ran by volunteers who gather works of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, whose copyright have expired or from authors who have given permission to have their work stored. 

The library has faced some problems with finances and copyright law. Since the group is ran on an entirely voluntary basis and that material can be accessed for free, the library is heavily reliant on donations to pay for server costs. Since 2006, the library also functions as a public-policy advocacy organisation and has been involved in disputes with the Japanese government over copyright law. In 2005, at the suggestion of the US, the Japanese government was urged to extend the date of copyright expiration from 50 years after the author's death to 70 years. This would have meant that many of the books published by the library would now be illegal. However, due to the pressure from volunteers and members of the public, the Japanese government decided not to implement this change, allowing the library to continue its mission of preserving Japanese literature undisturbed. 

You can access the Blue Sky Library here: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/

Authors of Japan: Takeo Arishima

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Arishima was born to an upper-class family in Tokyo on March 4th 1878. He had two brothers, Ikuma Arishima and Ton Satomi, both of which also became writers. His son, Masayuki Mori, was an actor and regularly starred in Akira Kurosawa films in the 1950s. Arishima entered the Gakushuin school at 10 years old, and, after graduating, enrolled in the Sapporo Agricultural College in Hokkaido. After a brief time in Imperial Army, he took English lessons and moved to the US in 1903. During his time in the US, he studied at Haverford College and Harvard University, before working briefly as a foreign correspondent for the Mainichi Shimbun. 

Arishima's literary career began in 1910 when his two brothers introduced him to four other writers: Shiga Naoya, Mushanokōji Saneatsu, Yanagi Sōetsu and Nagayo Yoshirō. Together, the six men formed the shirakabaha, 'White-Birch Society' and published a literary magazine of the same name. The two of Arishima's most famous works worth discussing are The Descendants of Cain (1917) and A Certain Woman (1919). 

The Descendants of Cain was Arishima's first taste of fame and its defining theme of one of  is undoubtedly, nature. In particular, the darker crueller side of nature, The story follows the lives of farmers in Hokkaido and the challenges posed by nature that they must over come in order to survive. This was no doubt inspired by his time studying agriculture at university in Hokkaido. The vicious nature is also seen in his later short story The Siblings Who Almost Drowned (1921). 

Arishima's second work, A Certain Woman, is arguably his most famous. The story follows a young woman called Yōko Satsuki. Yōko is pressured into an arranged marriage with a journalist but ends up divorcing him and moves back home. After the death of her parents, she is encouraged by her friends to marry Kimura, a wealthy Japanese expatriate now living in Chicago. On the boat from Yokohama to the US, Yōko meets a married man known as Kuraji and embarks on an affair. By the time they arrive in the US, Yōko decides not to marry Kurama and takes his money before returning home with Kuraji. It is not until she starts living with him that Kuraji's dark persanlity is revealed. He constantly fights with Yōko before disappearing after being hunted by the police. Repeatedly heartbroken, Yōko resigns herself to the idea that she will never find love in the current socially conservative climate of Japan. She dies not long after her younger sister passes away from illness. Yōko is believed to be based on Nobuko Sasaki, who was the ex-wife of his friend and fellow writer Doppo Kunikida. Considering that the novel was written in the 1910s, the themes of promiscuity and sexual freedom were decades ahead of there time, thereby cementing Arishima's place in the list of great Japanese writers. 

Arishima was not, however, confined to just fiction. In 1922, he published the political manifesto Sengen hitotsu, 'A Manifeso', on the plight of the agricultural and working classes. He argued that it was up to the workers to bring about their own salvation and that he, a member of the upper-class, was powerless to help. This may have been inspired by his time studying in Sapporo as well by the plot of The Descendants of Cain. 

In that same year, like many other great Japanese writers, Arishima, alongside his lover Akiko Hatano, took his own life. Hatano worked as an editor for the women's magazine Fujin Koron but was still married. It is believed that the extramarital affair drove them both to suicide. He had attempted suicide once before during his time in Sapporo College with the economist Kokichi Morimoto but had failed. Arishima and Hatano were found hanged in a forest in Karuizawa in Nagano. 

Three Books for Japanese Reading Practice (Beginners)

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Are your Japanese reading skills not quite at the level to read a full-blown novel but still want to practice? Then this is the article you've been looking for. Lingo Mastery have published three books that, if studied in the order suggested below, can improve your skills enough to move onto short stories and novels.

Conversational Japanese Dialogues (2021)
This first book is the simplest out of the three. It contains 105 example conversations on topics ranging from order a meal at a restaurant to being hunted by pirates. Each line of Japanese is followed immediately by the same line in romaji. This creates a repeating pattern of kanji and kana followed by romaji. The Japanese text is then followed by an English translation. All Japanese is covered with furigana. 

Japanese Short Stories for Beginners (2020)

Japanese Short Stories for Beginners contains twenty simple 2-3 page stories ranging from a self-replicating machine that writes novels to a woman whose house is broken into by mute dwarf that is being hunted by the police. Each text is followed by an English translation and a summary, which also has its own translation. This is then followed by a list of important vocabulary covered in the text and then by five reading comprehension questions to test how well you understood the text. All Japanese is covered with furigana. 

Intermediate Japanese Short Stories (2021)

This intermediate version contains almost the exact same features as the beginners, but with one added twist: there is no translation for each main text. This means that learners cannot rely on a translation to help them, and must instead use their own understanding of the text to answer the comprehension questions. The ten texts are considerably harder than the beginners version and cover topics ranging from short horror stories to brief biographies on famous Japanese figures. Like the beginners version, all Japanese is covered with furigana.

 

Figures from Japanese History: Kyuichi Tokuda

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Born in Nago in Okinawa in 1894, Kyuichu Tokuda is most famous for his chairmanship of the Japanese Communist Party in the 1940s and 1950s. After graduating as a lawyer from the Nihon University, he participated in formation of the party in 1922 and became a key member of its central committee. By the late 1920s, Japanese society had become increasingly right-wing and started to become dominated by the military. The 1925 Peace Preservation Law expanded police powers and allowed the Imperial government to more effectively silence political dissidents. In 1928, Tokuda was arrested by the Tokkō, the 'Special Higher Police', and imprisoned. He spent time in two different prisons across Japan: Abashiri Prison in Hokkaido and Fuchū Prison in Tokyo. He was, however, imprisoned alongside fellow communist Yoshio Shiga. Together they wrote Eighteen Years in Prison (1948), an autobiography about their experiences in prison. 

After their release from prison in October 1945, Tokuda and Shiga were joined by another communist leader who had been away in China, Senzo Nosaka. Nosaka had been leading Japanese People's Emancipation League, a Japanese resistance movement that re-educated captured Japanese soldiers in anti-fascist and socialist ideology. Together, the three men made up the core of the Japanese Communist Party and led them to relative electoral success in the post-war era. The JCP won 9.8% of the votes in the 1949 election, earning them 35 seats in the diet. 

This success, however, would not last. By the 1950s, the United States was becoming more and more engulfed in Cold War-fuelled anti-communist hysteria. Towards the end of the their occupation, the Americans introduced a new policy of 'reverse course'; communists and anyone believed to harbour communist sympathies, were purged from the Japanese administration. This led to a split in the JCP. One faction, led by Tokuda, wanted to pursue Maoist-inspired guerrilla war that would eventually end in revolution, whilst the other faction, under Nosaka, was happy to continue with more peaceful and democratic tactics. Nosaka continued in his role as the head of the party, guiding it in a peaceful direction, until 1958, when he was replaced by Kenji Miyamoto. 

Tokuda, meanwhile, fled to the newly formed People's Republic of China in October 1950, after surviving an assassination attempt. Though in exile, Tokuda was by no means powerless as he still remained in close contact with the party's more militant faction. Japanese communists, alongside Zainichi Korean and the Zengakuren, a left-leaning anarchist students union, rioted on May Day 1952 in protest against the first Japan-US Security Treaty. Tokuda's faction even attempted to emulate the rural Chinese guerilla movements of the 1930s and 1940s. The Mountain Village Operation Unit, though unsuccessful, attempted to wage a guerrilla war in the Japanese countryside in the hope of finally bringing about their revolution. Members of the unit are reported to have attacked police officers, bombed trains and committed acts of arson. The unit also published the pamphlet, 'How to Raise Flower Bulbs', which contained important information on guerrilla warfare tactics and how to do things such as build improvised explosives and make molotov-cocktails. This pamphlet was used as a template by a later Japanese communist group in the 1970s, the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, and their own bomb-making manual Hara hara Tokei. Tokuda passed away in 1953, his time in charge leaving a dark stain on what was otherwise a relatively peaceful and progressive political party. 

J-Horror Watchlist for Halloween 2021

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Any true horror fan will be at least partially familiar with J-horror and even those who spend Halloween night behind the couch crutching a torch and a crucifix may still be aware of the yuurei, the quintessential and internationally recognised image of a Japanese ghost; female, long black hair and dressed in a white burial kimono. To celebrate this, the spookiest time of the year, I've put together a suggested watch list to enjoy the very best of modern Japanese horror cinema. 

The Ring Franchise (1996-2019)

Based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel of the same name, the original Ring movie was was released in 1998 as a generally faithful adaption of the novel, although there were a few slight differences. The male lead, Kazuyuki Asakawa, was changed to a woman, Reiko Asakawa, and the lead's assistant was changed from a male lead to an ex-husband. Other than that, the main plot remained virtually identical; after watching a curse video tape containing the spirit of a vengeful ghost, Sadako Yamamura, a person receives a phone call telling them they will die in seven days. It is then up to Reiko to find Sadako's remains and give her a proper burial in order to appease her spirit. A sequel to Ring, Spiral (1998), was adapted from Suzuki's second book but was released to generally negative reviews. A sequel, Ring 2 (1999), was then created but it's plot was completely separate from the original novels. This split led to the creation of two separate timelines. One, independent from the books, that contains Ring 2 and Sadako (2019) and another, adapted faithful from the novels, containing Spiral, Sadako 3D (2012) and Sadako 3D 2 (2013). A prequal to the original film, and therefore applicable to both timelines, Ring:0 Birthday, was released in 2000. Three television series based on the first and second books were produced. The first, pre-dating the original film, in 1995 and the other two both in 1999. Outside of Japan, Ring has been remade for both Western and Korean audiences. The Ring Virus was released in Korea in 1999. The Western Hollywood series contains four films. The Ring (2002) is similar to the Japanese original as Hollywood kept the female lead, but the main difference is that Sadako, who was always a groan woman, was replaced by Samara, a ten year old girl. Young Samara remained constant through out all the Western remakes. The Ring was then followed by a short film, Rings, and a sequel, Ring 2, both released in 2005. The last and and most recently released entry is the vaguely related sequel Rings, released in 2017. 

The Ju-On Franchise (1998-2020)

If the Ring is not the most famous J-horror franchise, then this is the next strongest candidate. Unlike the Ring, however, Ju-On, or 'The Grudge' as its known in English, is not based on a book. However, novelisations of almost every film have been written retroactively. The plot revolves around a cursed house inhabited by the spirits of a young wife, Kayako Saeki, and her son, Toshio, who were killed by their abusive father/husband. The fact that Kayoko's death rattle has become one of the most famous noises in the whole of horror, is a testament to the fame and success of the series. Like the Ring, the series contains multiple timelines. The first timeline can be traced back to the two short films Katasumi (Corner) and 4444444444, both released in 1998. This was followed by Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On: The Curse 2, both released in 2000 and then Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) and Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003). These six were followed by two ten-year-anniversary specials, Ju-On: Black Ghost and Ju-On: White Ghost, both released in 2009. The second timeline consists of two films, a 2014 reboot of the series, Ju-On: The Beginning of the End and it's 2015 sequel Ju-On: The Final Curse. The third timeline is currently only one film; the crossover movie with the Ring Sadako vs Kayako (2016). All three timelines were followed by an exceptional prequal series, Ju-On: Origins, that was produced by Netflix and released in 2020. It consists of six episodes set between 1988 and 1997 and functions as a prequal to the original timeline. Like the Ring, Ju-On was adapted by Hollywood for a Western audience. The Western series currently consists of four films: The Grudge (2004), The Grudge 2 (2006), The Grudge 3 (2009) and, most recently, The Grudge (2020). One difference between the Western Ring and the Western Grudge is that, in The Grudge, the antagonist ghost, remained Japanese. Unlike in the Ring, were Sadako was replaced by Samara. Given the prevalence of the stereotypical 'ghost girl' in Western horror since the early 2000s, both the Ju-On and Ring franchises can be credited with introducing the yuurei to the West.

Uzumaki (2000)

Adapted from the Junji Ito manga of the same name, Uzumaki, literally 'Spiral', takes place in a fictional town that is plagued by a curse causing people to become obsessed with spirals before eventually succumbing to madness and eventual suicide. The film is quite gory at parts and includes a scene where a woman commits suicide by jumping into a washing machine. An anime adaptation of the original manga will be released in October of next year. 

Suicide Club (2001)

One of two more philosophical novels on this list, Suicide Club, known as 'Suicide Circle' in Japan, tackles a serious sociological problem particular to Japan. Following the release of the fictional J-pop group's new song Mail Me, Japan is hit by wave after wave of mass suicide amongst the nations the youth. The most poignant and infamous scene being a moment where 54 schoolgirls commit suicide en masse by throwing themselves in front of a train. The police are left with almost no leads until they find rolls of skin made from the victims. This, as well as a call-in by an anonymous hacker leads them to a strange underground glam-rock group lead by a man known as 'Genesis' who is thought to be linked to the suicide craze. The main theme of the film is obvious, however, the prevalence of J-pop groups and music may be alluding to either a) how prevalent suicide in Japanese society, or b) how copycat suicides can spread easily in the modern world due to the increased power of the media. Unsurprisingly, this film is extremely disturbing as it contains numerous scenes of suicide as well as an extremely graphic rape scene. A novelisation was written in 2002 and a prequal, Noriko's Dinner Table, was released in 2006. 

Dark Water (2002)

Based on one of the short stories from Koji Suzuki's anthology of the same name, Dark Water follows a single mother and her daughter as they move into a run-down and dilapidated apartment building. Before long, a leak appears on the celling from which water from the roof's water tank begins to drip through. The daughter, Ikuko Matsubara, begins to see the ghost of girl, Mitsuko Kawai, who disappeared mysteriously the previous year, before she herself vanishes. It is up to her mother, Yoshimi, to find her daughter before its too late. A Western remake of the same name was released in 2005. 

Kairo (2001)

As the other of the two more philosophical films on this list, Kairo, literally 'Pulse', contains two parallel story lines where the characters must deal with a seemingly unstoppable number of ghosts that are bleeding over into the physical via the internet. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who served as both director and writer of the film, deserves enormous praise for predicting, more than 15 years before the true rise of the social media, that the internet, something that designed to bring people together, would have the opposite effect and up making the world a lonelier and emptier place. 

Battle Royale (2000)

Based on the 1999 novel of the same name, Battle Royale takes place in an alternate Japan controlled by the dystopian Republic of Greater East Asia regime where, every year, in order counter act increasing anti-social behaviour amongst the nation's youth, a high-school class is picked to fight to the death until only one student remains. When both the film, and the original novel, were originally first released, they were extremely controversial, as the Japanese diet was concerned about the impact that showing such graphic student-on-student violent could have on Japanese society. The diet was partially proved right in 2004 when a 12 year old girl, Satomi Mitarai, murdered her classmate with a box cutter after having both read the book and seen the film. It took 10 years for the original un-edited version to be shown in the West. A sequel, Battle Royale 2: Requiem, that further expanded the lore, was released in 2003. 

Noroi (2005)

Noroi, literally 'curse', is the only found-footage film on the list, a trope taken from the West that does not appear to be as popular in Japan then it is in its homeland. The film is presented as a documentary, fictional of course, and follows an director who wants to produce a documentary on the paranormal. His discoveries and investigations into the supernatural lead him to a cursed remote village being terrorised by a demon that had accidently been set loose in a Shinto ritual that went wrong. 

Japanese Horror Novels for Halloween 2021

By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble 

Horror has long has a strong presence in Japanese literature. The kaidan, literally 'strange narratives' originate from the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with other specific legends, such as yuki-onna, going back even further. To celebrate this, the spookiest time of the year, I've put together a suggested reading list to enjoy the very best of modern Japanese horror. 

The Crimson Labyrinth (Yusuke Kishi, 1999)

A  sort of survival horror mixed with battle royal, The Crimson Labyrinth stars with a group of nine strangers wakening up in an unknown desert landscape with no knowledge as to how they got there. Though at first believing they are on Mars, the group eventually discover they have been drugged and taken to the Australian outback where they where they must complete a series of tasks before fighting each other to death for the amusement of their captors. 

Parasite Eve (Hideaki Sena, 1995)

As the only true sci-fi horror on this list, Parasite Eve follows a scientist, Toshiaki, who's wife, Kiyomi, is killed in a car crash. What he does not know, however, that Kiyomi's cells have been infected with a conscious life-form, known as Eve, that is composed of mitochondria. Eve attempts to manipulate Toshiaki so that she can take over the world.  Interestingly, the author, Hideaki Sena, had a background a pharmacologist and so had considerable knowledge of biology that allowed him to write such a scientifically accurate book. The novel has been adapted quite extensively as a series of three video games, two manga series and a film. 

The Graveyard Apartment (Mariko Koike, 1986)

The token haunted house style horror of the list, The Graveyard Apartment is a horror/suspense novel about a young family who move into a new apartment building that was built next to a graveyard. Their new life seems to going well until strange noises start coming from the basement and the other tenants start moving out. Before long, only the family are left in the entire apartment building, left alone with whatever lurks in the basement. 

The Ring Series (Koji Suzuki, 1991-2013)

It is interesting to speculate if Suzuki could have predicted that his original 1991 novel Ring would become the genesis of one of Japan's most famous franchises, a franchise that spawns countless novels, movies, spin-offs, sequels and prequels and even international adaptations. The novel series contains an original trilogy that was followed by a collection of in-universe short stories as well as two sequels written in the 2010s. The novels shares the same general premise as the films; after watching a curse video tape containing the spirit of a vengeful ghost, Sadako Yamamura, a person receives a phone call telling them they will die in seven days. Unlike the films, however, the novel series goes deeper into the lore of Sadako's past and the exact nature of her curse. 

Out (Natsuo Kirino, 1997)

If you're interested in how women are depicted in horror, then this is the novel for you. Though perhaps more of a crime than a true horror, Out follows four women, all factory workers, and their attempt to cover up a murder after one of the group, Yayoi, strangles her abusive husband to death after suspecting him of having an affair with a hostess at a bar in which he regularly gambles. The novel has been adapted into a 2002 film of the same name. 

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales (Yōko Ogawa, 1998)

Revenge is the only anthology book on the list and contains a collection of eleven different short stories. The stories are generally distinct from each other but some have over lapping setting or motifs. For example, kiwi fruits are mentioned in a couple of stories. The book is noted for being quite gruesome at times and contains stories from genres ranging from crime, the supernatural and body horror. 

Goth (Otsuichi, 2002)

Goth follows two death-obsessed high school students who discover in a café the diary of a local serial killer who mutilates his victims bodies by removing their hands. The novel is split into six short stories, each of which follows a different case linked to the serial killer. Goth has been adapted into a film and a manga series, both of the same name.

Audition (Ryū Murakami, 1997)

Audition is a novel that places women in the centre of the horror. The story follows a forty-two year old widower who, under the guise of auditioning for a non-existent film, attempts to find a new wife. Aoyama, a young aspiring actress, catches his eye and he instantly falls in love her. What he doesn't know, however, is that Aoyama is hiding a dark and unstable past. The novel was adapted into a 1999 film of the same name. 

Dark Water (Koji Suzuki, 1996)

Known in Japanese as From the Depths of Dark Waters, Dark Water is a short story anthology collection. As well as the titular Dark Water, of which the 2002 film of the same name was adapted from, the book contains six other stories, all in which water appears as a motif. Interestingly, the anthology contains some historical value as every story is set in the 1990s and so contains references to the asset bubble crisis and how ordinary people dealt with the economic instability that was sweeping Japan at the time. A manga adaptation of the collection was released in 2004. 

The Another Series (Yukito Ayatsuji, 2009-2020)

A mixture of horror and mystery, Another takes place in 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara and the class pariah Mei Misaki in their attempt to rid their school of a terrible curse known as 'The Calamity'. The curse presented in the novel is quite complicated. In 1972, a student died tragically in a house fire. To remember him, the rest of his class and teacher pretended that he was still alive; talking to his empty desk, pretending to walk home with him, and left a space where he would have stood in their graduation picture. Next year's class find that they are short desk, and there seems to be one extra student in the class then there should be. That extra student, yet no one can tell who it is is, is the 'extra' a dead soul who doesn't know they're dead. For as long as the extra remains unknown, the curse will kill members of the class and people around them indiscriminately. The series consists of the original novel, a spin-off novel 'Another: Episode S/0' and a sequel 'Another 2001'.

The Summer of Ubume (Natsuhiko Kyogoku, 1994)

The Summer of the Ubume is both  a mixture of mystery and horror as well as the first novel in Natsuhiko Kyogoku's series about the amateur investigator Akihiko Chuzenji. Chuzenji is tasked with investigating the mysterious case of a woman who has been pregnant for twenty weeks and still hasn't given birth. This seemingly impossible case is believed to be connected to the Ubume, a creature in Japanese folklore that is created by the spirit of a woman that had died in childbirth. It was adapted into a 2005 film of the same name. 

In the Miso Soup (Ryū Murakami, 1997)

The only the book on this list to properly involve people from outside of Japan, In the Miso Soup is an interesting look at how foreigners, specifically Americans, are perceived in Japan. The book follows Kenji, a tour guide working in Tokyo's red-light district of Kabukichō during the midst of a serial killer spree. One day, he is contacted by a suspicious American tourist, Frank, to show him around the underbelly of Tokyo's nightlife. Kenji begins to wonder if Frank has any connection to the on-going killings.

Confessions (Kanae Minato, 2008)

After the traffic death of her daughter, the life Yuko Moriguchi, a mother and middle school teacher, begins to fall apart. She breaks of her engagement to her husband and becomes obsessed with tracking downing and getting revenge on the group of students in her class that contributed to her daughter's death, The book was adapted into a film 2010 with the same name. 

Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse (Otsuichi, 1996)

Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is, technically, an anthology collection and contains two stories. The first story is similar to the Western novel 'The Lovely Bones'. It's set in the POV of a dead girl who's killer are attempting to hide her body. The second story is about a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. In this new eye, however, she can see experience the memories of its previous owner. This story is possibly the basis for the 2002 Hong Kong horror film 'The Eye' and it's many sequels and remakes. 

Battle Royale (Koushun Takami, 1999)

As the progenitor of the entire battle royal genre, Battle Royale might be one of the most important books in, not just within the horror horror, but in the whole of Japanese literature in the last 25 years, especially when considering the impact that the genre has had on world-wide media since its release. Interestingly, though published in 1999, Takami actually finished writing the book in 1996, but delayed publication due to the novel's rejection from a horror fiction contest due to its graphic subject matter. The book follows a middle school class who are sent to a deserted island and ordered to fight each other to the death until only one student remains. This creates a scenario where middle school issues that may seem trivial to adults, such as teenage relationships, friendship groups and bullying, are resolved extremely violently as student take revenge on each other during the game.

The Classic Literature Club Series (Honobu Yonezawa, 2001-2017)

Though less of a true horror and more of a mystery, the Classic Literature Club Series, also known as the Hyouka Series, follows the members of a high school literature club and their amateur detective work. The club has tackled a wide range of mysteries ranging from their schools troubled past during student protest movement of the late 1960s as well as more supernatural incidents like the case of a supposed ghost haunting a rural hot spring. The series has been reproduced as both an anime and a manga and contains six main books and one collection of short stories. Yonezawa has confirmed on social media that a seventh novel is currently being worked on. 

2021 Cultural Festival

A big thank you to everyone who came and visited or helped out with us at the Cultural Festival yesterday. I hope enjoyed getting a deeper insight into Japanese culture; kimono, yukuta, kendama, oni masks, koma and lots of great snacks! Below is some of the great pictures from yesterday. We look forward to seeing everyone again after reading week!

- Tom Wilkinson-Gamble (Vice-Chair)

Four Books for Japanese Reading Practice

 By Tom Wilkinson-Gamble

Are you looking to improve your Japanese reading skills but don’t feel confident enough to jump headfirst into that volume of manga you bought from eBay or that novel you scoured Amazon for? Then this is the list for you. 

Japanese Stories for Language Learners (2018)

As probably the easiest of the four books, Japanese Stories for Language Learners is one in a series of Asian-language study books published by Tuttle. The others being Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese. The book contains numerous extras to help you with your studies. Every story has not just an English translation but translation notes, a vocabulary list and reading comprehension and discussion questions. As an added bonus, it also comes with a CD containing audio versions of all five stories. This means that, if you want to practice both your reading and listening comprehension together, you are able to try a sort of audio-assisted reading using the CD. If you have an interest in Japanese mythology, it is worth noting that this is the only book to contain stories written before the 20th century. The introduction contains a brief overview and analysis of each story. 

This book contains five stories:

• Urashima Taro (Unknown, c. 8th century)
• Snow Woman (Unknown c. 14th century)
• The Spider's Thread (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1918)
• The Siblings Who Almost Drowned (Takeo Arishima, 1921)
• Gauche the Cellist (Kenji Miyazawa, 1934)

Breaking into Japanese Literature (2012)

The first of the two Giles Murray books on this list, Breaking into Japanese Literature contains four stories in seven chapters. One of the stories, Natsume Sōseki's Ten Nights of Dreams is in four parts. Each of the seven chapters contains an introductory page explaining the story and its relation to the rest of the author's work. Both writers, Natsume Sōseki and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, receive their own biographies, containing information about both their professional lives as writers and their personal lives. In terms of educational value, it does not contain any comprehension questions, but every chapter is followed by a vocabulary table, allowing you to revise the words you've just practiced. It also uses furigana in a way that forces the reader to memorise the readings of kanji by showing every reading only once.  

This book contains four stories, one of which is in four parts:

• 1st, 3rd, 5th & 7th nights of Ten Nights of Dreams (Natsume Sōseki, 1908)
• In a Grove (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1922)
• The Nose (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1916)
• Rashōmon (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, 1915)

Exploring Japanese Literature (2013)

The second of the two Giles Murry books is almost identical to its predecessor in every way other than its different selection of stories. Exploring contains works from Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata, a change from the same late-Meiji/early-Taisho era seen in the previous two books. Like Breaking, it contains the same biographies and vocabulary lists. 

This books contains three stories:

• Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata, 1948)
• Patriotism (Yukio Mishima, 1960)
• The Secret (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 1911)

New Penguin Parallel Texts; Short Stories in Japanese (2011)

As what is probably the most challenging of the four, this book is a part of a much larger series of parallel texts by Penguin that includes Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, French and Soviet/Russian. Short Stories in Japanese does not contain any of the more education aspects of the other three, other than an English translation; there are no reading comprehension questions, discussion questions or vocabulary lists. The book, however, does contain a very interesting introductory chapter discussing how the book was put together as well as an overview of each of the stories and their position with modern Japanese literature. Given the highly complex and philosophical nature of some of the stories selected, this is almost certainly the most difficult of the four. Yet, for for the same reasons, it is also possibly the most rewarding. 

This book contains eight stories:

• On the Efficacy of Fiction (Haruki Murakami, 1995)
• A Little Darkness (Banana Yoshimoto, 2000)
• Genjitsu House (Masayo Koike, 2004)
• The Silent Traders (Yūko Tsushima, 1982)
• Mogera Wogura (Hiromi Kawakami, 2001)
• The Maiden in the Manager (Kazushige Abe, 2004)
• Where the Bowling Pins Stand (Shinji Ishii, 2005)
• Love Suicide at Kamaara (Sueko Yoshida, 1984)

Amazon Links

• Japanese Stories for Language Learners (2018): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Stories-Language-Learners-Bilingual/dp/4805314680
• Breaking into Japanese Literature (2012): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-Into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568365896
• Exploring Japanese Literature (2013): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/477003041X
• New Penguin Parallel Texts; Short Stories in Japanese (2011): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-Stories-Japanese-Penguin-Parallel/dp/0143118331/