London. Abacus. 2016. Originally published in Japanese as Byakuyako. 539pp, paperback. A twenty-year-old murder A chain of unsolvable mysteries Can one detective solve this epic riddle? When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins... More
United States: Columbia University Press, 2018. Black and white illustrations, 443pp, paperback. Very good. Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds is a collection of twenty-five medieval Japanese tales of border crossings and the fantastic, featuring demons, samurai, talking animals, amorous plants, and journeys to supernatural realms. The most comprehensive compendium of... More
United Kingdom: Penguin Books Ltd, 2014. 224pp, paperback. These two works on life's fleeting pleasures are by Buddhist monks from medieval Japan, but each shows a different world-view. In the short memoir Hojoki, Chomei recounts his decision to withdraw from worldly affairs and live as a hermit in a tiny... More
United States. University of Hawaii Press. 2010. Black and white illustrations, viii + 165 pages, index, paperback. Pierre Loti's novel "Madame Chrysantheme" (1888) enjoyed great popularity during the author's lifetime, served as a source of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, and remains in print to this day as a classic in... More
United States: Kodansha America, Inc, 2017. 970pp, hardback in dustjacket. The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the... More
