| Life: | b.1862 d.1922 |
| Genres: | Poetry, Biography, Realistic Fiction |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, articles, reviews |
| Active: | 1884-1905 |
| Genres: | Folklore, Realistic Fiction |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English | |
| Criticism: | Books, articles, reviews |
| Lifetime: | 1864-1913 |
| Genres: | Poetry, Fairytales, Satire |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles |
| Active: | 1892-1996 |
| Genres: | Poetry, Short Story, Essays |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles |
| Lifetime: | b.1896 d.1933 |
| Genres: | Poetry, Children's |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books |
| Active: | 1914-1927 |
| Genres: | Short Story |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
| Active: | 1910-1946 |
| Genres: | I-Novel |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Book, Reviews |
| Career: | 1954-1994 |
| Genres: | Historical Fiction |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles |
| Career: | 1909-1963 |
| Genres: | fiction, drama, essays, silent film scenarios |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
| Career: | 1941-1970 |
| Genres: | Drama, Fiction, Plays |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: |
| Career: | 1957-2013 |
| Genres: | fiction, short story, essay |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, articles, reviews |
| Career: | 1926-1972 |
| Genres: | Novels, Short Story |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
| Career: | 1926-1976 |
| Genres: | Play, Novels about sexuality, gender, identity |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles |
| Career: | 1988-present |
| Genre: | Realistic Fiction |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Book |
| Career: | 1986-present |
| Genres: | Magical Realism |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
| Career: | 1984-present |
| Genres: | Mystery, Thriller |
| Writings: | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
| Career: | 1979-present |
| Genres: | Magical Realism, Science Fiction |
| Writings: | |
| Japanese | |
| English (trans.) | |
| Criticism: | Books, Articles, Reviews |
The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature by 
Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater by 
Modern Japanese Writers
This is the first encyclopedia in the Scribner Writers Series to focus on Asian writers and genres. It highlights 25 of the most widely translated Japanese authors, such as Yukio Mishima, Kobo Abe, Junichiro Tanizaki and Fumiko Enchi.
Handbook of Modern and Contemporary Japanese Women Writers by 
Japanese Fiction Writers since World War II by
Dictionary of Literary Biography systematically presents career biographies and criticism of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods.
Manga by
Manga covers the high spots of this Japanese form, with many dozens of alphabetically arranged entries. Each is highly structured, offering basic bibliographic and publication information (including information on the original Japanese and first English publications); a plot synopsis; character summaries; brief discussions of "artistic style," "themes," and "impact"; and references to further reading and media adaptations (if relevant).
Japanese Women Writers by 
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture by 
Japanese Literature: From Murasaki to Murakami by
Japanese Literature: From Murasaki to Murakami provides a concise introduction to the literature of Japan that traces its origins in the seventh century and explores a literary legacy--and its cultural contexts--marked by the intersection of aristocratic elegance and warrior austerity. Coverage extends to the present day with a focus on the complex twists and turns that mark Japan's literature in the modern period. In under one-hundred pages of narrative, Marcus's account of Japanese literature ranges from the 712 CE publication of Japan's first literary work, the Kojiki, to internationally-famous 21st century authors. Readers get a sense of past and contemporary literary themes and well written vignettes of the men and women who produced works that are an integral part of Japan's literary traditions. Readers are introduced to Japanese literature, but Marcus's linkages to history and culture increase the likelihood that many readers will be inspired to learn more about Japan and its rich history. Marcus's compelling interpretations of significant works of Japanese literature and their historical moments complement carefully selected passages of literary prose, poetry, and images from Japan's long literary and cultural history. This small gem of a book is essential for students, teachers, and general audiences interested in Japan and its long literary traditions.
Use these databases to find scholarly articles on Japanese Literature. While databases do have some overlapping content, each database also includes unique academic journals. Searching more than one database will provide you with different resources. For detailed information about each database, click the relevant "Information Icon" 
.
EBSCO Databases
These databases can be searched at the same time by clicking on the "Choose Databases" link above the search bar. The more databases you add, the more likely you are to find articles, but it can also take longer to load.
The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese Literature by
John Whittier Treat takes up both canonical and forgotten works, the nonliterary as well as the literary, and pays special attention to the Japanese state's hand in shaping literature throughtout the country's nineteenth-century industrialization, a half-century of empire and war, its post-1945 reconstruction, and the challenges of the twenty-first century to modern nationhood.
Representing the Other in Modern Japanese Literature by
epresenting the Other in Modern Japanese Literature looks at the ways in which authors writing in Japanese in the twentieth century constructed a division between the "Self" and the "Other" in their work. Drawing on methodology from Foucault and Lacan, the clearly presented essays seek to show how Japanese writers have responded to the central question of what it means to be "Japanese" and of how best to define their identity.
Age of Shojo by
Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase examines the role that magazines have played in the creation and development of the concept of shōjo, the modern cultural identity of adolescent Japanese girls.
Japanese Writers and the West by
This volume discusses six Japanese authors (Soseki, Mishima, Akiko Yosano, Hiroshi Yosano, Endo and Murakami), analysing the encounter between their traditional Japanese group-consciousness and western individualism.
Reading Japan Cool by
Manga literacy, the practices of the readers, the diversity of titles, and the sheer number of works provide the basis for the movement recognized as Japan Cool. Reading Japan Cool is directed at an audience of students of Japanese studies, discourse analysts, educators, parents, and manga readers.
Manga by
Containing sections addressing the manga industry on an international scale, the different genres, formats and artists, as well the fans themselves, Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives is an important collection of essays by an international cast of scholars, experts, and fans, and provides a one-stop resource for all those who want to learn more about manga, as well as for anybody teaching a course on the subject.
Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs by
These wildly imaginative and boundary-bursting stories reveal fascinating and unexpected personal responses to the changes raging through today's Japan.
Four from Japan by
This revolutionary volume represents the first book of its kind, a bilingual anthology dedicated to women working in modern and cross cultural poetry milieus.
Modern Japanese Drama by
resents five post-war Japanese plays as an introduction to a genre which is gradually supplanting the more exotic Japanese theaters of No, Kabuki, and Bunraku.
Ayumi by
This is a collection of Japanese-American stories.
To Find Books in Japanese:
If you know the author or title you want:
Look up the book in the library catalog using Kanji 漢字, or Kana かな, or Hepburn Romanization.
Click for detailed rules on Romanization
If you have a suggestion for what the library should order, fill out this form. You must have a library account to do so.
How can you save your friend's life if she doesn't want to be rescued? In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find the mirrors in their bedrooms are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives into to a wondrous castle filled with winding stairways, watchful portraits and twinkling chandeliers. In this new sanctuary, they are confronted with a set of clues leading to a hidden room where one of them will be granted a wish. But there's a catch -- if they don't leave by five o'clock, they will die.
Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyoku stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it. As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko's past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.
In this translation of a best-selling novel first published in Japan in 1987, the young narrator, Mikage, moves into the apartment of a friend whose mother is murdered early in the tale. What seems like a coming-of-age melodrama quickly evolves into a deeply moving tale filled with unique characters and themes. Along the way, readers get a taste of contemporary Japan, with its mesh of popular American food and culture. Mikage addresses the role of death, loneliness, and personal as well as sexual identity through a set of striking circumstances and personal remembrances. (From Library Journal Review)
Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of "Smile Mart," she finds peace and purpose in her life... Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It's almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action...
In this witty and exuberant collection of linked stories, Aoko Matsuda takes the rich, millenia-old tradition of Japanese folktales-shapeshifting wives and foxes, magical trees and wells-and wholly reinvents them, presenting a world in which humans are consoled, guided, challenged, and transformed by the only sometimes visible forces that surround them...This is a realm in which jealousy, stubbornness, and other excessive "feminine" passions are not to be feared or suppressed, but rather cultivated; and, chances are, a man named Mr. Tei will notice your talents and recruit you, dead or alive (preferably dead), to join his mysterious company."-- Provided by publisher.
"Hiromi Kawakami tells the story of an enigmatic man through the voices of ten remarkable women who have known him. Each woman has succumbed, even if only for an hour, to the seductive, imprudent, and furtively feline man who drifted so naturally into their lives. Still clinging to the vivid memory of his warm breath and his indecipherable silences, ten women tell their stories as they attempt to recreate the image of the unfathomable Nishino."--Publisher description.
"One rainy night, Kazu sees a strange figure in a white kimono sneak out of his house--was he dreaming? Did he see a ghost? The next day at school, the very same person is sitting in his class--and all his friends are convinced that the ghost-girl Akari has been their friend for years. If that isn't weird enough, Kazu learns that his house is in the exact location of an ancient temple called Kimyō, which, legend has it, could bring the dead back to life! Kazu sets out to discover what happened to Kimyō Temple and if the rumors of its power are true..."--Provided by publisher.
In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold... Toshikazu Kawaguchi's beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?
"Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, Kazu's life is tied by a series of coincidences to Japan's Imperial family and to one particular spot in Tokyo; the park near Ueno Station - the same place his unquiet spirit now haunts in death. It is here that Kazu's life in Tokyo began, as a labourer in the run up to the 1964 Olympics, and later where he ended his days, living in the park's vast homeless 'villages', traumatised by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and enraged by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics." -- ‡c Provided by publisher.
A winner of Japan's prestigious Aktugawa Prize for rising literary talent, "I Want to Kick You in the Back" follows Hatsu, who is in her first year of high school and having a hard time fitting in with her classmates. She meets Ninagawa, an outcast who is obsessed with a model/pop idol but who has no interest in the actual girls around him. Gradually, Hatsu develops an impulse towards Ninagawa, not of love or infatuation, but one that can best be described as a desire to kick him in the back.This novella does a great job of exploring the ambivalent feelings of a teenager in search of a meaningful relationship.
Enchanted by the snake-like tongue of a stranger called Ama, nineteen-year-old Lui takes a walk into another side of life. On the Tokyo streets, she finds a world where pain bleeds into pleasure. Where day fades into night. And where right turns into wrong.
"In these eleven stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien - and, through it, find a way to liberation."
"Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he has inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. However, one day, a talking cat named Tiger appears and asks Rintaro to save books with him. Of course, "ask" is putting it politely -- Tiger is demanding Rintaro's help. The world is full of lonely books, left unread and unloved, and only Tiger and Rintaro can liberate them from their neglectful owners..."-- Provided by publisher.
All books published in Asian languages are located on the 4th Floor in the Asian Collection. English materials on Asian topics are located in different parts of the library. All Japanese Language and Literature
If you are looking for an English translation, it will be on the 5th floor. But if you are looking for a book in Japanese, it will be on the 4th floor. The exception is children's books which will be on the 1st floor regardless of language.
Only a fraction of the library's books are available in digital format. Those who browse the stacks always discover additional research materials! Books on the same topics are shelved next to each other, so if you find one relevant book, you will likely find others next to it on the shelf. You can also do this online by using the alphabetic browse or the "search books nearby" function on the library website.
If you have trouble finding a book ask the Asian Studies Librarian or inquire at any library help desk.
