JAPANESE LITERATURE CHALLENGE 15
#JapaneseLitChallenge15 #JapaneseLiterature
Thanks to DolceBelleza (@bellezzamjs) who has been organizing this challenge for many years! This is my 7th participation.
Click on the logo to read more about it, to join us, and to read reviews as they will be posted.
The Challenge runs January-March 2022. I’m going to try to read 4 books each month, so that’s a total of 12 books.
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Here is my TBR (in chronological order) for this event – my recap, with links to my reviews, will be updated at the end of this post:
📚 For the Classics Club:
- The Wild Geese (1911), by Ogai Mori (trans. by Sanford Goldstein and Kingo Ochiai)
- How Do You Live? (1937), by Genzaburo Yoshino (trans. by Bruno Navasky)
- Dōjōji (1957), by Yukio Mishima (not sure yet for the translator, will specify later when I read it)
- The Waiting Years (1957), by Fumiko Enchi (trans. by John Bester)
- Star (1961), by Yukio Mishima (trans. by Sam Bett)
- Les Dimanches De Monsieur Ushioda (1970), by Yasushi Inoue (not sure yet for the translator, will specify later when I read it). I don’t think it has been translated into English. Let me know
- The Box Man (1973), by Kōbō Abe (trans. by E. Dale Saunders )
- The Year of My Life (1973), by Kobayashi Issa (trans. by Nobuyuki Yuasa)
- When I Whistle (1974), by Shūsaku Endō (trans. by Van C. Gessel)
📚 More recent:
10. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (1981), by Sōji Shimada (trans. by Shika MacKenzie and Ross MacKenzie)
11. Murder in the Crooked House (1982), by Sōji Shimada (trans. by Louise Heal Kawai)
12. Confessions (2008), by Kanae Minato (trans. by Stephen Snyder)
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RECAP FOR MARCH 31
So here are the books I managed to read – with one not on the above list!:
- The Wild Geese (1911), by Ogai Mori (trans. by Sanford Goldstein and Kingo Ochiai)
- How Do You Live? (1937), by Genzaburo Yoshino (trans. by Bruno Navasky)
- Dōjōji (1957), by Yukio Mishima (trans. into French by Dominique Aury)
- The Waiting Years (1957), by Fumiko Enchi (trans. into French by Anne Bayard-Sakai and Cécile Sakai)
- Star (1961), by Yukio Mishima (trans. by Sam Bett)
- Les Dimanches De Monsieur Ushioda (1970), by Yasushi Inoue (trans. into French by Jean-François Laffont and Tadahiro Oku)
- The Box Man (1973), by Kōbō Abe (trans. by E. Dale Saunders)
- River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko (1878-1942). Trans. by Sam Hamill and Keiko Matsui Gibson (1996)
CLICK ON THE BEAUTIFUL LOGO TO JOIN!
WHICH BOOKS DO YOU FEEL LIKE READING?
WHICH ONES HAVE YOU ALREADY READ AND ENJOYED?
Words And Peace 
I’m glad to hear you’re participating. I will also do so next year. 4 books a month sounds incredible. I am excited to follow your progress. The Waiting Years
is such a wonderful classic. How I wish I could read again as if for the first time! I will probably choose some detective story from Japan again. I think Pushkin Press has a new detective book lined up.
,
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Good to know about The Waiting Years!
I see Pushkin highlights The Village of Eight Graves and The Master Key in their new releases. I preferred The Master Key.
Besides the 12 Japanese books for this challenge this year, I read 6 other books translated from the Japanese in the rest of 2021. I do like Japanese lit.
Looking forward to your list
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I meant The Village of Eight Graves. Such an intriguing title. I think I’ll order it today. I didn’t know about The Master Key, thanks. The synopsis sounds great.
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Yes, I had the feeling it was this one. I wrote a short review on it, I was actually a bit disappointed: great ambiance, but too many characters and too complex for me. And actually Detective Kosuke Kindaichi only appears near the end: https://wordsandpeace.com/2021/09/05/sunday-post-45-9-5-2021/
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I’m planning to take part too and there’s definitely some Mishima on my list!!
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Woohoo! Looking forward to your list
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You have an ambitious, and worthy, goal! I wonder if I could read twelve books for the challenge in three month…maybe.😌 From your list am especially liked Confessions and Murder in The Crooked House. The author of Confessions, Kanae Minato, wrote another intriguing book entitled Penance. Both of them are intriguing, but also perhaps a bit disturbing. The Japanese are so good at creating a dramatic mood, aren’t they?
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Looks like you had an issue while commenting. Both actually worked, and as they are a bit different, I’m keeping both. Yes, I love the mood in Japanese books! I often wonder what it is I like in them. I was never able to pinpoint it, but I think you got it. That’s the mood, and it applies whatever the genre and the style of the author
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It’s amazing that you have participated for seven of the fifteen years! And, even more so is that you’re planning to read twelve books for the challenge…now, that is making it a challenge!☺️ I really liked Confessions by Kanae Minato, as well as the book she wrote after that entitled Penance. Both were eerie and intriguing and a bit disturbing.
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Well, I did read 12 this year during the challenge, plus 6 during the rest of the year, so it’s actually not that big of a challenge for me. Thanks for recommending Penance
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I’ve not heard of any of these books. I will have to check each of these out for sure. There are so many books I have never heard of!
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Several of them are big classics. How Do You Live? is getting very popular again, as Miyazaki is coming out of his retirement to prepare an anime on it in 2022. I can’t wait (didyou get the hint I’m a big Miyazaki fan?), but I want to read it before watching it
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I will see if I can participate in this challenge. I do love Japanese Literature.
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That would be great to see you there!
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