Currently reading: Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburō Ōe, translated by John Nathan. Four novellas centered around themes of losing and regaining a sense of identity and purpose. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
January 29, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Currently reading: Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburō Ōe, translated by John Nathan. Four novellas centered around themes of losing and regaining a sense of identity and purpose. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
Currently reading: He’s Leaving Home: My Young Son Becomes a Zen Monk by Kiyohiro Miura, translated by Jeff Shore. A novella following a father’s thoughts and feelings as his son grows up with wishes to become a monk at a nearby temple. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
January 28, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Currently reading: He’s Leaving Home: My Young Son Becomes a Zen Monk by Kiyohiro Miura, translated by Jeff Shore. A novella following a father’s thoughts and feelings as his son grows up with wishes to become a monk at a nearby temple. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
Currently reading: Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri with illustrations by Yuta Onoda. I already own the first translation by Lynne E. Riggs but I bought this because the second book is finally out in English in August! #BookSky #JapaneseLit #WomenInTranslation
January 26, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Currently reading: Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri with illustrations by Yuta Onoda. I already own the first translation by Lynne E. Riggs but I bought this because the second book is finally out in English in August! #BookSky #JapaneseLit #WomenInTranslation
Satire & Humans
"I am a cat. As yet I have no name."
A cat observes the foolish lives of Meiji-era intellectuals. Soseki mocks the pretentiousness of humans with biting humor. 🐈
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Satire #Cats
"I am a cat. As yet I have no name."
A cat observes the foolish lives of Meiji-era intellectuals. Soseki mocks the pretentiousness of humans with biting humor. 🐈
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Satire #Cats
January 14, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Satire & Humans
"I am a cat. As yet I have no name."
A cat observes the foolish lives of Meiji-era intellectuals. Soseki mocks the pretentiousness of humans with biting humor. 🐈
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Satire #Cats
"I am a cat. As yet I have no name."
A cat observes the foolish lives of Meiji-era intellectuals. Soseki mocks the pretentiousness of humans with biting humor. 🐈
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Satire #Cats
Identity & Performance
"Everyone says I'm quite a cheerful boy, but in fact I'm not."
Mishima’s semi-autobiography. He discovers his homosexuality and sadism, realizing he must wear a "mask" of normalcy to survive in society. Dark and beautiful. 🎭
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #LGBTQ #Aesthetics
"Everyone says I'm quite a cheerful boy, but in fact I'm not."
Mishima’s semi-autobiography. He discovers his homosexuality and sadism, realizing he must wear a "mask" of normalcy to survive in society. Dark and beautiful. 🎭
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #LGBTQ #Aesthetics
January 13, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Identity & Performance
"Everyone says I'm quite a cheerful boy, but in fact I'm not."
Mishima’s semi-autobiography. He discovers his homosexuality and sadism, realizing he must wear a "mask" of normalcy to survive in society. Dark and beautiful. 🎭
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #LGBTQ #Aesthetics
"Everyone says I'm quite a cheerful boy, but in fact I'm not."
Mishima’s semi-autobiography. He discovers his homosexuality and sadism, realizing he must wear a "mask" of normalcy to survive in society. Dark and beautiful. 🎭
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #LGBTQ #Aesthetics
For fans of Japanese literature, here's a list of ten recent English translations of fiction works. Have you read any of these yet?
If not, now is the perfect time to pick one up and get started!
www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_cult...
#Bookworms #JapaneseLit #EnglishTranslation #JETAA #Japan
If not, now is the perfect time to pick one up and get started!
www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_cult...
#Bookworms #JapaneseLit #EnglishTranslation #JETAA #Japan
The Best Translated Japanese Fiction Books of 2025
Introducing ten of our favorite translated Japanese fiction books from 2025, to put on your list for the new year.
www.tokyoweekender.com
January 11, 2026 at 5:07 AM
For fans of Japanese literature, here's a list of ten recent English translations of fiction works. Have you read any of these yet?
If not, now is the perfect time to pick one up and get started!
www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_cult...
#Bookworms #JapaneseLit #EnglishTranslation #JETAA #Japan
If not, now is the perfect time to pick one up and get started!
www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_cult...
#Bookworms #JapaneseLit #EnglishTranslation #JETAA #Japan
Wasted Beauty
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
A love affair that is doomed to go nowhere. Kawabata finds beauty in "wasted effort." The prose is cold, distant, and breathtakingly beautiful. ❄️
#Kawabata #NobelPrize #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
A love affair that is doomed to go nowhere. Kawabata finds beauty in "wasted effort." The prose is cold, distant, and breathtakingly beautiful. ❄️
#Kawabata #NobelPrize #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
January 10, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Wasted Beauty
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
A love affair that is doomed to go nowhere. Kawabata finds beauty in "wasted effort." The prose is cold, distant, and breathtakingly beautiful. ❄️
#Kawabata #NobelPrize #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
A love affair that is doomed to go nowhere. Kawabata finds beauty in "wasted effort." The prose is cold, distant, and breathtakingly beautiful. ❄️
#Kawabata #NobelPrize #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
Egoism & Guilt
"I am a lonely man."
Sensei carries a dark secret from his youth. Soseki explores how modern egoism isolates us from each other. A tragedy about betrayal and the weight of the past. 💔
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Classics #Tragedy
"I am a lonely man."
Sensei carries a dark secret from his youth. Soseki explores how modern egoism isolates us from each other. A tragedy about betrayal and the weight of the past. 💔
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Classics #Tragedy
January 10, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Egoism & Guilt
"I am a lonely man."
Sensei carries a dark secret from his youth. Soseki explores how modern egoism isolates us from each other. A tragedy about betrayal and the weight of the past. 💔
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Classics #Tragedy
"I am a lonely man."
Sensei carries a dark secret from his youth. Soseki explores how modern egoism isolates us from each other. A tragedy about betrayal and the weight of the past. 💔
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit #Classics #Tragedy
Alienation & Masks
"Mine has been a life of much shame."
Yozo fears human beings, so he plays the clown to fit in. Dazai’s bestseller is a suffocating portrait of social anxiety and the feeling of being "disqualified" from humanity. 🤡
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Existentialism #MentalHealth
"Mine has been a life of much shame."
Yozo fears human beings, so he plays the clown to fit in. Dazai’s bestseller is a suffocating portrait of social anxiety and the feeling of being "disqualified" from humanity. 🤡
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Existentialism #MentalHealth
January 9, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Alienation & Masks
"Mine has been a life of much shame."
Yozo fears human beings, so he plays the clown to fit in. Dazai’s bestseller is a suffocating portrait of social anxiety and the feeling of being "disqualified" from humanity. 🤡
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Existentialism #MentalHealth
"Mine has been a life of much shame."
Yozo fears human beings, so he plays the clown to fit in. Dazai’s bestseller is a suffocating portrait of social anxiety and the feeling of being "disqualified" from humanity. 🤡
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Existentialism #MentalHealth
Currently reading: Jackson Alone by Jose Ando, translated by Kalau Almony. Four queer Black-Japanese men team up to get revenge on the bigoted society around them after they’re each mistaken for a man in a viral sex video. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
January 9, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Currently reading: Jackson Alone by Jose Ando, translated by Kalau Almony. Four queer Black-Japanese men team up to get revenge on the bigoted society around them after they’re each mistaken for a man in a viral sex video. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
Only on day 5 but time for a read cosy, the sequel to Days at the Morisaki Bookstore.
#japaneselit #booksky 💙📚
#japaneselit #booksky 💙📚
January 5, 2026 at 3:52 AM
Only on day 5 but time for a read cosy, the sequel to Days at the Morisaki Bookstore.
#japaneselit #booksky 💙📚
#japaneselit #booksky 💙📚
Decline & Revolution
"I am convinced that human beings are born for love and revolution."
Dazai depicts the fall of the Japanese aristocracy after WWII. A hauntingly beautiful story about the "Kazoku" class fading away into the moral twilight. 🌅
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Classics
"I am convinced that human beings are born for love and revolution."
Dazai depicts the fall of the Japanese aristocracy after WWII. A hauntingly beautiful story about the "Kazoku" class fading away into the moral twilight. 🌅
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Classics
December 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Decline & Revolution
"I am convinced that human beings are born for love and revolution."
Dazai depicts the fall of the Japanese aristocracy after WWII. A hauntingly beautiful story about the "Kazoku" class fading away into the moral twilight. 🌅
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Classics
"I am convinced that human beings are born for love and revolution."
Dazai depicts the fall of the Japanese aristocracy after WWII. A hauntingly beautiful story about the "Kazoku" class fading away into the moral twilight. 🌅
#OsamuDazai #JapaneseLit #Classics
radition & Change
"Sachi was the most Japanese of them all."
Often called the "Japanese Pride and Prejudice." Tanizaki portrays the decline of an aristocratic family in Osaka. A luxurious, slow-burning elegy for a vanishing world. 👘
#Tanizaki #JapaneseLit #History
"Sachi was the most Japanese of them all."
Often called the "Japanese Pride and Prejudice." Tanizaki portrays the decline of an aristocratic family in Osaka. A luxurious, slow-burning elegy for a vanishing world. 👘
#Tanizaki #JapaneseLit #History
December 16, 2025 at 11:24 PM
radition & Change
"Sachi was the most Japanese of them all."
Often called the "Japanese Pride and Prejudice." Tanizaki portrays the decline of an aristocratic family in Osaka. A luxurious, slow-burning elegy for a vanishing world. 👘
#Tanizaki #JapaneseLit #History
"Sachi was the most Japanese of them all."
Often called the "Japanese Pride and Prejudice." Tanizaki portrays the decline of an aristocratic family in Osaka. A luxurious, slow-burning elegy for a vanishing world. 👘
#Tanizaki #JapaneseLit #History
Beauty & Destruction
"Beauty, beautiful things... those are now my most deadly enemies."
A monk burns down the most beautiful building in the world. Why? Mishima explores the dark side of obsession. Beauty is so perfect it becomes unbearable. 🔥
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"Beauty, beautiful things... those are now my most deadly enemies."
A monk burns down the most beautiful building in the world. Why? Mishima explores the dark side of obsession. Beauty is so perfect it becomes unbearable. 🔥
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
December 15, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Beauty & Destruction
"Beauty, beautiful things... those are now my most deadly enemies."
A monk burns down the most beautiful building in the world. Why? Mishima explores the dark side of obsession. Beauty is so perfect it becomes unbearable. 🔥
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"Beauty, beautiful things... those are now my most deadly enemies."
A monk burns down the most beautiful building in the world. Why? Mishima explores the dark side of obsession. Beauty is so perfect it becomes unbearable. 🔥
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
Existentialism & Routine
"There is no shaking the sand off."
Kobo Abe’s nightmare. A man is trapped in a sand pit, forced to shovel forever. A Sisyphus-like allegory for modern life. Do we live to work, or work to live? ⏳
#KoboAbe #JapaneseLit #Surrealism
"There is no shaking the sand off."
Kobo Abe’s nightmare. A man is trapped in a sand pit, forced to shovel forever. A Sisyphus-like allegory for modern life. Do we live to work, or work to live? ⏳
#KoboAbe #JapaneseLit #Surrealism
December 14, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Existentialism & Routine
"There is no shaking the sand off."
Kobo Abe’s nightmare. A man is trapped in a sand pit, forced to shovel forever. A Sisyphus-like allegory for modern life. Do we live to work, or work to live? ⏳
#KoboAbe #JapaneseLit #Surrealism
"There is no shaking the sand off."
Kobo Abe’s nightmare. A man is trapped in a sand pit, forced to shovel forever. A Sisyphus-like allegory for modern life. Do we live to work, or work to live? ⏳
#KoboAbe #JapaneseLit #Surrealism
Truth & Ego
"Is there anyone who isn't selfish?"
Akutagawa’s stories ("In a Grove") question objective truth. Everyone lies to protect their own ego. Can we ever really know what happened? A masterpiece of perspective. 👹
#Akutagawa #JapaneseLit #Rashomon
"Is there anyone who isn't selfish?"
Akutagawa’s stories ("In a Grove") question objective truth. Everyone lies to protect their own ego. Can we ever really know what happened? A masterpiece of perspective. 👹
#Akutagawa #JapaneseLit #Rashomon
December 13, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Truth & Ego
"Is there anyone who isn't selfish?"
Akutagawa’s stories ("In a Grove") question objective truth. Everyone lies to protect their own ego. Can we ever really know what happened? A masterpiece of perspective. 👹
#Akutagawa #JapaneseLit #Rashomon
"Is there anyone who isn't selfish?"
Akutagawa’s stories ("In a Grove") question objective truth. Everyone lies to protect their own ego. Can we ever really know what happened? A masterpiece of perspective. 👹
#Akutagawa #JapaneseLit #Rashomon
Beauty & Decay
"Elegance is the violation of life."
Mishima’s prose is suffocatingly beautiful. Set in Taisho-era Japan, it explores a forbidden love that is destined to fail. For Mishima, beauty is inseparable from death. 🌸
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"Elegance is the violation of life."
Mishima’s prose is suffocatingly beautiful. Set in Taisho-era Japan, it explores a forbidden love that is destined to fail. For Mishima, beauty is inseparable from death. 🌸
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
December 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Beauty & Decay
"Elegance is the violation of life."
Mishima’s prose is suffocatingly beautiful. Set in Taisho-era Japan, it explores a forbidden love that is destined to fail. For Mishima, beauty is inseparable from death. 🌸
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
"Elegance is the violation of life."
Mishima’s prose is suffocatingly beautiful. Set in Taisho-era Japan, it explores a forbidden love that is destined to fail. For Mishima, beauty is inseparable from death. 🌸
#YukioMishima #JapaneseLit #Aesthetics
Faith & Suffering
"Lord, I resented your silence."
Shusaku Endo asks the hardest question: Why is God silent when we suffer? A brutal, profound struggle between faith and reality in 17th-century Japan. ✝️
#ShusakuEndo #JapaneseLit
"Lord, I resented your silence."
Shusaku Endo asks the hardest question: Why is God silent when we suffer? A brutal, profound struggle between faith and reality in 17th-century Japan. ✝️
#ShusakuEndo #JapaneseLit
December 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Faith & Suffering
"Lord, I resented your silence."
Shusaku Endo asks the hardest question: Why is God silent when we suffer? A brutal, profound struggle between faith and reality in 17th-century Japan. ✝️
#ShusakuEndo #JapaneseLit
"Lord, I resented your silence."
Shusaku Endo asks the hardest question: Why is God silent when we suffer? A brutal, profound struggle between faith and reality in 17th-century Japan. ✝️
#ShusakuEndo #JapaneseLit
Beauty & Wasted Effort
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
Nobel Prize winner. A story of cold beauty and wasted love. Kawabata’s prose is like a haiku—sparse, evocative, and deeply Japanese. ❄️
#Kawabata #JapaneseLit
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
Nobel Prize winner. A story of cold beauty and wasted love. Kawabata’s prose is like a haiku—sparse, evocative, and deeply Japanese. ❄️
#Kawabata #JapaneseLit
December 2, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Beauty & Wasted Effort
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
Nobel Prize winner. A story of cold beauty and wasted love. Kawabata’s prose is like a haiku—sparse, evocative, and deeply Japanese. ❄️
#Kawabata #JapaneseLit
"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country."
Nobel Prize winner. A story of cold beauty and wasted love. Kawabata’s prose is like a haiku—sparse, evocative, and deeply Japanese. ❄️
#Kawabata #JapaneseLit
Loneliness & Egoism
"I am a lonely man."
Soseki explores the darkness of the modern ego. Sensei’s guilt and isolation represent the transition of Meiji-era Japan. A masterpiece on the difficulty of truly understanding another person. 🇯🇵
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit
"I am a lonely man."
Soseki explores the darkness of the modern ego. Sensei’s guilt and isolation represent the transition of Meiji-era Japan. A masterpiece on the difficulty of truly understanding another person. 🇯🇵
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit
November 30, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Loneliness & Egoism
"I am a lonely man."
Soseki explores the darkness of the modern ego. Sensei’s guilt and isolation represent the transition of Meiji-era Japan. A masterpiece on the difficulty of truly understanding another person. 🇯🇵
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit
"I am a lonely man."
Soseki explores the darkness of the modern ego. Sensei’s guilt and isolation represent the transition of Meiji-era Japan. A masterpiece on the difficulty of truly understanding another person. 🇯🇵
#NatsumeSoseki #JapaneseLit
Loss & Nostalgia
"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
Murakami’s most grounded novel. A quiet, melancholic story about love, mental health, and the pain of growing up in 1960s Tokyo. 🌲
🎥 #HarukiMurakami #JapaneseLit
"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
Murakami’s most grounded novel. A quiet, melancholic story about love, mental health, and the pain of growing up in 1960s Tokyo. 🌲
🎥 #HarukiMurakami #JapaneseLit
November 28, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Loss & Nostalgia
"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
Murakami’s most grounded novel. A quiet, melancholic story about love, mental health, and the pain of growing up in 1960s Tokyo. 🌲
🎥 #HarukiMurakami #JapaneseLit
"Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
Murakami’s most grounded novel. A quiet, melancholic story about love, mental health, and the pain of growing up in 1960s Tokyo. 🌲
🎥 #HarukiMurakami #JapaneseLit
Rie Qudan's Sympathy Tower Tokyo is a short literary novel about architecture, language, culture wars, and LLMs. The book is intellectually demanding but also very fun, and it has Jorge Luis Borges vibes in the best possible way. #Japaneselit #booksky 📚 japaneselit.net/2025/11/22/s...
Sympathy Tower Tokyo
Rie Qudan’s short novel Sympathy Tower Tokyo, which was awarded an Akutagawa Prize in 2023, is a story about language, generative AI, and the culture war discourse surrounding the construction of a…
japaneselit.net
November 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Rie Qudan's Sympathy Tower Tokyo is a short literary novel about architecture, language, culture wars, and LLMs. The book is intellectually demanding but also very fun, and it has Jorge Luis Borges vibes in the best possible way. #Japaneselit #booksky 📚 japaneselit.net/2025/11/22/s...
#incense #fragrance #homefragrance #genji #literature #worldliterature #japaneselit #japaneseliterature #scent #reading #classics
November 17, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Currently reading: My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. An avid mystery fiction fan who encounters mysteries in everyday life gets help solving them from her grandfather with dementia. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
November 14, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Currently reading: My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. An avid mystery fiction fan who encounters mysteries in everyday life gets help solving them from her grandfather with dementia. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
Currently reading: Murder in the Age of Locked Room Fetishism - The Locked Village and the Eight Tricks by Danro Kamosaki. Students trapped in a village built in a limestone cave investigate a series of locked room murders suspected to be part of a curse. #BookSky #JapaneseLit
November 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Currently reading: Murder in the Age of Locked Room Fetishism - The Locked Village and the Eight Tricks by Danro Kamosaki. Students trapped in a village built in a limestone cave investigate a series of locked room murders suspected to be part of a curse. #BookSky #JapaneseLit