The JICC Library recently received the following books from the Japanese Literature Publishing & Promotion Centre. The Centre aims to introduce and promote translations of modern Japanese literature worldwide through the Japanese Literature Publishing Project (JLPP) which it undertakes on behalf of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese Government.

 

 

RIVALRY: A GEISHA¡ÇS TALE by Kafu Nagai
Translated by Stephen Snyder
New York: Columbia University Press, 2007

Love, intrigue, and rivalry in Tokyo¡Çs Shinbashi geisha quarter around 1912.

 

SHAME IN THE BLOOD by Tetsuo Miura
Tranlated by Andrew Driver
California: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007



The charming title story of this collection features a protagonist who finds love despite being tormented by fears that his family¡Çs bloodline is cursed.

 OKEI by Mitsugu Saotome
 Translated by Kenneth J. Bryson
 London: Alma Books, 2008



 An epic tale of romance and self-discovery set against the backdrop of the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate and exile in the New World.

THE BUDDING TREE; SIX STORIES OF LOVE IN EDO by Aiko Kitahara
Translated by Ian MacDonald
Illinois : Dalkey Archive Press 2008.



Six takes set in mid-19the century Edo portraying the love and lives of single working women struggling for success and daring to make name on their own.

 BEYOND THE BLOSSOMING FIELDS by Jun¡Çichiro Watanabe
 Tanslated by Deborah Iwabuchi and Anna Isozaki
 London Alma Books, 2008



 A novelized account of the life of Ginko Ogino who, divorced by the age of twenty after contracting gonorrhea from her husband, overcome enormous  odds to become Japan¡Çs first woman doctor.

THE TEMPLE OF WILD GEESE/THE BAMBOO DOLL OF ECHIZEN by Tsutomu Mizukami
Translated by Dennis Washburn
Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press, 2008

Two lyrical tales reflecting the tragedy of losing one¡Çs mother in childhood: in one, a Buddhist monk commits murder; in the other, a bamboo craftsman marries a prostitute.

WHITE-HAIRED MELODY by Yoshikichi Furui
Translated by Meredith McKinney
Ann Arbor: Centre for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2008

Sanity and insanity, life and death, past and future underpin this strangely cheerful record of the daily experiences of a man approaching old age.