japanese literature in english

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3 strange tales



A fool’s life.



Kappa : a novel


In Japanese folklore the Kappa is a scaly, child-sized creature with a face like a tiger and a sharp, pointed beak. In the hands of Ryunosuke, one man’s journey to ‘Kappaland’ becomes the vehicle for a critique of Japanese life and customs in the tradition of Swift and Kafka. A …


Rashomon and other stories


This collection gave birth to a new paradigm when Akira Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon”, made famous Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s disturbing tale of seven people recounting the same incident from shockingly different perspectives.


Rashomon and seventeen other stories


Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists, a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour.


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