TOPIC · 13 BOOKS

Japanese literature

Books I have read about japanese literature, brought together across genres, periods and countries.

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Cover of The Kamogawa Food Detectives

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

Hisashi KashiwaiIt's been a lot of fun, because it's a mix of culinary novels with different cases to investigate. It's like Netflix's "Midnight Dinner" series but with a different approach. Different chapters where the owner of the Kamogawa Bar and his daughter research and recreate dishes that are in the memory of their customers.

Cover of Paseos de un gourmet solitario

Paseos de un gourmet solitario

Jiro Taniguchi, Masayuki KusumiIt's the second part of the manga that inspired Samurai Gourmet, a Japanese food series about food that I love (Netflix).

Cover of In Praise of Shadows

In Praise of Shadows

Junichirō TanizakiA short essay on Japanese beauty, architecture and aesthetics. It's very easy to read, it's simple and very visual. Tanizaki writes about darkness, materials, silence and everything else that loses some of its beauty when we light it up too much. Every time I read it I end up looking differently at a room, a restaurant or an everyday object.

Cover of El gorrión de Java

El gorrión de Java

Natsume SōsekiA collection of short stories written between 1908 and 1912. Very intimate, nostalgic and with everyday stories that are very well situated in Japan at the time.

Cover of To the Spring Equinox and Beyond

To the Spring Equinox and Beyond

Natsume SōsekiWritten in 1912, this novel tells the story of Keitaro, a recent graduate, who is desperately looking for work, leading him to witness the stories and dramas of several people, sometimes intertwined with each other.

Cover of Inspector Imanishi Investigates

Inspector Imanishi Investigates

Seichō MatsumotoThe one I least liked was Matsumoto, too twisted, and with so many Japanese personalities and names that I'm confused.

Cover of Tokyo Express

Tokyo Express

Seichō MatsumotoA Japanese crime novel set in 1947, in which an inspector and an elderly policeman try to solve the apparent suicide of a couple on a beach. I loved it and devoured it. Highly recommended.

Cover of Pro Bono

Pro Bono

Seichō MatsumotoA girl from a village in southern Japan travels to Tokyo to ask the country's best lawyer for help to save her brother from the death penalty.

Cover of Point Zero

Point Zero

Seichō MatsumotoA good mystery novel by Matsumoto, with postwar Japan always present and a disappearance that reveals a much more complicated story.

Cover of A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place

Seichō MatsumotoA Japanese official is on a trip when suddenly he is informed that his wife has just passed away. Then he begins to investigate the cause of his death. I love Seicho Matsumoto's novels, intrigue, investigations, and always good endings.

Cover of Beauty and Sadness

Beauty and Sadness

Yasunari KawabataKawabata’s final novel tells the story of a famous married writer who seeks out a former lover, now a painter living with a jealous young apprentice. I cannot say much more without spoiling it. The novel is beautifully written and atmospheric, although it is not one you race through.

Cover of Snow Country

Snow Country

Yasunari KawabataJapanese melancholy novel from the 1930s that tells the story of a wealthy man in Tokyo and a geisha from a remote snowy village in northern Japan.

Cover of After the Banquet

After the Banquet

Yukio MishimaA very Japanese novel about an independent and vital woman who falls in love with a retired politician and ends up getting involved in his return to public life.