Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present

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One of those city collections is The Book of Tokyo, a perfect introduction to the world of Japanese short story writing. Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyōs; his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1603). After Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582 by Akechi Mitsuhide, his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the nation in 1590 and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. Before the invasion, Hideyoshi tried to hire two Portuguese galleons to join the invasion but the Portuguese refused the offer. [103] How much I admired it, what a lot I learned from it and, above all, how very much I enjoyed it ... M asterly.' Neil MacGregor Between the fourth and ninth centuries, Japan's many kingdoms and tribes gradually came to be unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Emperor of Japan. The imperial dynasty established at this time continues to this day, albeit in an almost entirely ceremonial role. In 794, a new imperial capital was established at Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto), marking the beginning of the Heian period, which lasted until 1185. The Heian period is considered a golden age of classical Japanese culture. Japanese religious life from this time and onwards was a mix of native Shinto practices and Buddhism.

Japanese Short Story Collections to Read 10 Contemporary Japanese Short Story Collections to Read

Inspired by myths and folklore, with occasional reference to Buddhism and the many deities of Shintoism, these stories feature half-humans born in the ocean depths and people possessed by the spirits of gods and ancestors. The opening story, for example, imagines a world in which women existed before men. Then, when men came about, they instilled the patriarchal system we all live in today, before then beginning to die out. In 858, Fujiwara no Yoshifusa had himself declared sesshō ("regent") to the underage emperor. His son Fujiwara no Mototsune created the office of kampaku, which could rule in the place of an adult reigning emperor. Fujiwara no Michinaga, an exceptional statesman who became kampaku in 996, governed during the height of the Fujiwara clan's power [52] and married four of his daughters to emperors, current and future. [50] The Fujiwara clan held on to power until 1086, when Emperor Shirakawa ceded the throne to his son Emperor Horikawa but continued to exercise political power, establishing the practice of cloistered rule, [53] by which the reigning emperor would function as a figurehead while the real authority was held by a retired predecessor behind the scenes. [52] Izumi Suzuki was a very special writer and person. Her colourful career included acting, modelling, and writing. This collection, Terminal Boredom includes a selection of speculative science fiction stories written by Suzuki later in her life. The Japanese military played a key role in Japan's expansion abroad. The government believed that Japan had to acquire its own colonies to compete with the Western colonial powers. After consolidating its control over Hokkaido (through the Hokkaidō Development Commission) and annexing the Ryukyu Kingdom (the " Ryūkyū Disposition"), it next turned its attention to China and Korea. [186] In 1894, Japanese and Chinese troops clashed in Korea, where they were both stationed to suppress the Donghak Rebellion. During the ensuing First Sino-Japanese War, Japan's highly motivated and well-led forces defeated the more numerous and better-equipped military of Qing China. [187] The island of Taiwan was thus ceded to Japan in 1895, [188] and Japan's government gained enough international prestige to allow Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu to renegotiate the "unequal treaties". [189] In 1902 Japan signed an important military alliance with the British. [190] The Japanese Empire in 1939

7. Kachi-kachi yama

While she was celebrated as a feminist in all aspects of her career, she really made her name as a writer, and these stories vividly show why that is. These are the best kinds of science fiction stories; ones which take real-world concerns and twist them into nightmare scenarios. The protagonist of this story is a teenage girl whose Christian parents run an orphanage, and she has grown up with a foster brother from this orphanage. As she has developed, however, she has harbored an increasingly intense obsession with him.

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Japan Story Travel is a Destination Management Company (DMC), specializing in boutique style, bespoke travel services for decerning travelers to Japan. This is a collection of ten tales, all of which sensitively and deftly explore the relationship between time, history, place, and people. Moving across the spectrum of 20th Century Japanese history, these stories have a way of going straight for your heart. Covering the period from 1850 to 2018, the work features a diverse cast of Buddhists and activists, feminists and terrorists, psychotherapists and jazz pianists, and surrealists and avant-garde artists. Initially intended to be about resistance and protest in Japan, Harding says, it ultimately evolved into a modern history. The stories charm, soothe, serenade. They are calming, beautiful, warm tales of love and family and history.

The different styles beautifully — almost romantically — demonstrate Tanizaki’s love for literature and the written word. He is exploring different methods of narration, plotting, and structure, all while presenting us with one core theme in all three stories. Nobunaga was the daimyō of the small province of Owari. He burst onto the scene suddenly, in 1560, when, during the Battle of Okehazama, his army defeated a force several times its size led by the powerful daimyō Imagawa Yoshimoto. [109] Nobunaga was renowned for his strategic leadership and his ruthlessness. He encouraged Christianity to incite hatred toward his Buddhist enemies and to forge strong relationships with European arms merchants. He equipped his armies with muskets and trained them with innovative tactics. [110] He promoted talented men regardless of their social status, including his peasant servant Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became one of his best generals. [111] She attends the gym ritualistically until she becomes a Goliath figure, and all the while her husband fails to notice her transformation. No especially elaborate rites of burial evolved, and the dead were buried in a small pit dug near the dwelling. Sometimes the body was buried with its knees drawn up or with a stone clasped to its chest, a procedure that probably had some religious or magical significance. A large number of clay figurines have been found, many representing female forms that were probably magical objects associated with primitive fertility cults. A couple of freelance writers form the central pairing in Takashi Hiraide’s The Guest Cat. They live in a small cottage in a quiet part Tokyo; a place where life moves at an agreeable pace. Yet they have reached a phase in their relationship where they have begun to drift apart. Then the titular cat appears, and slowly but surely, it binds the couple together again. There really is little more to it than that. But that’s not to discredit the book. The Guest Cat is infinitely Japanese in its understated simplicity, while remaining deeply emotive and beautiful to its core.