After reading Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, I wanted to learn more about Japanese aesthetics and the inspiration for Kawabata’s writing technique. In Praise of Shadows by renownede Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki elaborates on Japanese […]
BOOK
Masturbating in a Box as Metaphor: Thoughts on The Box Man by Kōbō Abe
Like the setting of Beckett plays, Kōbō Abe sets his entire novel in an unknown town. A nameless character in a box narrates the whole book–a “Box Man”, who shed his identity in society and […]
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo: Japanese Literature Book Review
The novel is set in the 17th century and follows a four-year journey made by a group of low-ranking samurai (and retainers) sent on a diplomatic mission by a faction of the Japanese government to […]
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima : Japanese Literature Book Review
An infinitely interesting investigation into the great question beauty. This first time around, I could not recognize if Mishima enounciated a coherent theory of aesthetics or if what was written was a confused collection of […]
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Snow Country starts (and ends) with Yoko, a girl with “such a beautiful voice that it struck one as sad.” Shimamura is only permitted an indirect apprehension of her through Kawabata’s window-mirror (there is an […]
Japanese Literature Book Review
TORJA’s weekly book review column seeks to present readers with ways to read Japanese literature. From contemporary works to classics, TORJA’s book reviewers, will provide readers with analyses, overviews, as well as pinpoint what one […]