JAPANESE LITERATURE CHALLENGE 13

#JapaneseLitChallenge13 #JapaneseLiterature

So glad DolceBelleza (@bellezzamjs) is organizing this challenge again!
Click here or on the logo to read more about it.

Checked my history, and realized this is my 5th participation. I did the Japanese Literature Challenge from 2012-2015, but for some reasons, I stopped after that, even though I regularly read Japanese Lit.

I have currently 13 Japanese novels I mean to read, so this Challenge, running from January-March 2020, is perfect.

Here is my TBR for this event (my recap is at the very end of this post)

📚 Ebooks received in 2019 through Edelweiss Plus:

1. The Ten Loves of Nishino (2003), by Hiromi Kawakami (transl. by Allison Markin Powell) = reviewed on 2/27/20

2. Inhabitation (1984), by Teru Miyamoto (transl. by Roger K. Thomas)

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📚 Books on my physical shelf:

3. The Sound of Waves (1954), by Yukio Mishima (trans. by Meredith Weatherby)
4. N.P. (1990), by Banana Yoshimoto (trans. by Ann Sherif)
5. Some Prefer Nettles (1928), by Junichirō Tanizaki (trans. by Edward G. Seidensticker)

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📚 For my Classics Club list (besides # 3 and 5 above):

6. Kusamakura (1906), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Meredith Weatherby)
7. The Book of Tea (1906), by Kakuzō Okakura= (listened to) reviewed on 1/12/20
8. Sanshirō (1908), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Jay Rubin) = reviewed on 1/17/20
9. And Then (1909), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Norma Moore Field = reviewed on 1/25/20
10. The Gate (1910), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Francis Mathy) = reviewed on 2/6/20
11. To the Spring Equinox and Beyond (1910), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Kingo Ochiai and Sanford M. Goldstein)
12. The Miner (1908), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Jay Rubin)
13. Devils in Daylight (1918), by Junichirō Tanizaki (trans. by J. Keith Vincent)
14. A Cat, a Man, and Two Women (1936), by Junichirō Tanizaki (trans. by Paul McCarthy)

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📚 Book on my e-shelf:

15. Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami (trans. by Jay Rubin) = read with the online Murakami Book Club (through Discord). = reviewed on 2/19/20

📚 Books checked out at my library:

16. Selected Poems (1902), by Masaoka Shiki (trans. by Burton Watson) reviewed on 2/9/20
17. The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, ed. by Robert Hass = reviewed on 2/23/20

You notice several books by the same authors, it’s just that these have been on my TBR for a long time. Thankfully, most are rather short, so I should be able to read at least 4 per month, besides other books. And I’ll try to listen to some!

NB: there are some other huge Japanese authors not on this list: my favorite, Haruki Murakami, Ishiguro, and many more, because I have already read many by them, or mostly because I don’t need to read them urgently if I don’t have an egalley of them waiting; if they are not collecting dust on my shelf; or they are not on my Classics List to read in 5 years. But your recommendations are welcome for later in the year or this challenge another year!

1/12/20 update: I just discovered that Sanshiro is actually the first volume of a trilogy, so I’ll read And Then and The Gate after it.

2/2/20 update: In Soseki’s books, I found reference to the great master of Haiku Masaoka Shiki, who was actually born the same year as Soeseki and spent some time with him. So of course I had to read that!

RECAP ON MARCH 31

So here are the books I managed to read:

The Ten Loves of Nishino (2003), by Hiromi Kawakami (transl. by Allison Markin Powell) = reviewed on 2/27/20
The Book of Tea (1906), by Kakuzō Okakura= (listened to) reviewed on 1/12/20
Sanshirō (1908), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Jay Rubin) = reviewed on 1/17/20
And Then (1909), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Norma Moore Field = reviewed on 1/25/20
The Gate (1910), by Natsume Sōseki (trans. by Francis Mathy) = reviewed on 2/6/20
Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami (trans. by Jay Rubin) = read with the online Murakami Book Club (through Discord). = reviewed on 2/19/20
Selected Poems (1902), by Masaoka Shiki (trans. by Burton Watson) reviewed on 2/9/20
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, ed. by Robert Hass = reviewed on 2/23/20

And I’m currently reading Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, with my online Murakami book club.

I’m happy with what I managed to read, though disappointed I didn’t get yet to Inhabitation, received in 2019!, nor to the 3 physical books waiting on my shelf.
So I I’ll definitely be reading more Japanese books this year!

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WHICH OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU ENCOURAGE ME
TO READ FOR THIS CHALLENGE?

Mailbox Monday

BOOK RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEK

Some Prefer Nettles:
Japanese Classic first published in 1928
I received it as a gift from Lucy, at The Fictional 100 – thank you Lucy!
While you are here, why don’t you have a look at her fantastic reference book on the classics?

Lucy offered it to me, as she knows my love for Japanese Literature and the classics. I have not yet read any book by this author.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Junichiro Tanizaki’s Some Prefer Nettles is an exquisitely nuanced exploration of the allure of ancient Japanese tradition—and the profound disquiet that accompanied its passing.
It is the 1920s in Tokyo, and Kaname and his wife Misako are trapped in a parody of a progressive Western marriage. No longer attracted to one another, they have long since stopped sleeping together and Kaname has sanctioned his wife’s liaisons with another man. But at the heart of their arrangement lies a sadness that impels Kaname to take refuge in the past, in the serene rituals of the classical puppet theater—and in a growing fixation with his father-in-law’s mistress. Some Prefer Nettles is an ethereally suggestive, psychologically complex exploration of the crisis every culture faces as it hurtles headfirst into modernity.

WHAT BOOK(S) DID YOU RECEIVE?