Richard Medhurst📚️🇯🇵
@richardmedh.bsky.social
Brit in Yokohama, translator at https://www.nippon.com/en/
Translator of The Essential Akutagawa (Sep 2025)
Interested in Japanese language, literature, and history.
Translator of The Essential Akutagawa (Sep 2025)
Interested in Japanese language, literature, and history.
Next up to read. The Japanese book is Shiokara Pass by Miura Ayako.
November 4, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Next up to read. The Japanese book is Shiokara Pass by Miura Ayako.
Thank you, Bear, for protecting Maruzen.
October 7, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Thank you, Bear, for protecting Maruzen.
I just had to track it down. The Essential Akutagawa on sale in Maruzen, Tokyo. On sale in other places too.
October 7, 2025 at 4:18 AM
I just had to track it down. The Essential Akutagawa on sale in Maruzen, Tokyo. On sale in other places too.
Beer wars heating up.
October 5, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Beer wars heating up.
A longer quotation on translation.
www.goodreads.com/quotes/95472...
www.goodreads.com/quotes/95472...
October 3, 2025 at 5:24 AM
A longer quotation on translation.
www.goodreads.com/quotes/95472...
www.goodreads.com/quotes/95472...
I admit I haven't read that much Iris Murdoch, but I didn't know she could write this kind of light, breezy comedy. Her debut novel, great fun to read.
"Under the Net" by Iris Murdoch
"Under the Net" by Iris Murdoch
October 3, 2025 at 5:15 AM
I admit I haven't read that much Iris Murdoch, but I didn't know she could write this kind of light, breezy comedy. Her debut novel, great fun to read.
"Under the Net" by Iris Murdoch
"Under the Net" by Iris Murdoch
Twice as long, soft as a song toilet paper.
October 1, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Twice as long, soft as a song toilet paper.
Next up to read, some Oe Kenzaburo.
September 30, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Next up to read, some Oe Kenzaburo.
Program explaining literature (to JHS students?) on NHK now. Here's a scene from Akutagawa's Du Zichun. (Great story, in my new collection of Akutagawa translations.)
September 27, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Program explaining literature (to JHS students?) on NHK now. Here's a scene from Akutagawa's Du Zichun. (Great story, in my new collection of Akutagawa translations.)
Morning ice cream. Enjoying this Giant series recently. Today, Creamy Caramel.
September 17, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Morning ice cream. Enjoying this Giant series recently. Today, Creamy Caramel.
My idea of a good time: 10 books covering 100 years of Japanese short stories (1914-2013).
September 5, 2025 at 4:36 AM
My idea of a good time: 10 books covering 100 years of Japanese short stories (1914-2013).
Ninja senbei.
August 31, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Ninja senbei.
Next I'll read this collection with works by Hino Keizo and Kaiko Takeshi.
August 25, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Next I'll read this collection with works by Hino Keizo and Kaiko Takeshi.
I've been reading some manga today for a change. This is Tsuge Yoshiharu.
August 20, 2025 at 7:55 AM
I've been reading some manga today for a change. This is Tsuge Yoshiharu.
Very much enjoyed Dazai Osamu's The Setting Sun in the new translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter. First-class translation, and I think this is my favourite Dazai.
August 20, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Very much enjoyed Dazai Osamu's The Setting Sun in the new translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter. First-class translation, and I think this is my favourite Dazai.
This is the part in The Brothers Karamazov that's one of the inspirations for Akutagawa's The Spider's Thread. From the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
August 6, 2025 at 1:57 AM
This is the part in The Brothers Karamazov that's one of the inspirations for Akutagawa's The Spider's Thread. From the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
Next I'm reading Onda Riku's 蜜蜂と遠雷, which won the Naoki Prize in 2017. It has been translated as Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Philip Gabriel.
July 28, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Next I'm reading Onda Riku's 蜜蜂と遠雷, which won the Naoki Prize in 2017. It has been translated as Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Philip Gabriel.
I came across this mention of a very short haiku by Taneda Santoka (freeform or 自由律 haiku doesn't have to follow 5-7-5. This is just 7 sounds.)
おとはしぐれか
Is that the sound of rain?
Plenty of room for different translations here
おとis a sound and しぐれ a shower of rain.
おとはしぐれか
Is that the sound of rain?
Plenty of room for different translations here
おとis a sound and しぐれ a shower of rain.
July 25, 2025 at 4:14 AM
I came across this mention of a very short haiku by Taneda Santoka (freeform or 自由律 haiku doesn't have to follow 5-7-5. This is just 7 sounds.)
おとはしぐれか
Is that the sound of rain?
Plenty of room for different translations here
おとis a sound and しぐれ a shower of rain.
おとはしぐれか
Is that the sound of rain?
Plenty of room for different translations here
おとis a sound and しぐれ a shower of rain.
Giraffes on the loose in Tokyo. 🦒
July 22, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Giraffes on the loose in Tokyo. 🦒
This morning's news already turned into a craft project.
July 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
This morning's news already turned into a craft project.
Some dubious snack I found in the cupboard. Possibly intended to wean impressionable young people off eating dishwasher tablets.
July 13, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Some dubious snack I found in the cupboard. Possibly intended to wean impressionable young people off eating dishwasher tablets.
Japanese literature as marketed in 1948. Akutagawa's Kappa subtitled as "Gulliver in a Kimono" (admittedly, the Swift influence is clear, but...). The quotation from Time magazine: "To American readers, Akutagawa's satire seemed almost too good to have been written by a Japanese."
July 11, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Japanese literature as marketed in 1948. Akutagawa's Kappa subtitled as "Gulliver in a Kimono" (admittedly, the Swift influence is clear, but...). The quotation from Time magazine: "To American readers, Akutagawa's satire seemed almost too good to have been written by a Japanese."
Currently reading 安土往還記 by Tsuji Kunio, depicting Oda Nobunaga's life from the perspective of a fictional Italian traveler to Japan. (Apparently there's an English translation out there by Stephen Snyder called The Signore.)
July 7, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Currently reading 安土往還記 by Tsuji Kunio, depicting Oda Nobunaga's life from the perspective of a fictional Italian traveler to Japan. (Apparently there's an English translation out there by Stephen Snyder called The Signore.)