Bored with the intellectual black holes of commercial translation, I decided to apply the knowledge and capabilities of Intercom to publishing Japanese literature in English. I talked to two close friends, Chris Ryall and Stephen Carter, and they were both very interested. We decided to go ahead with it.

Kurodahan Press was established as an internal department of Intercom Ltd. in mid-2002. Legally everything was Intercom and all expenses were paid by Intercom, but except for a few places where legal issues mattered we always used the name Kurodahan Press, named after the Kuroda-han that used to control the Fukuoka region where I was located at the time. Chris Ryall, a Canadian with extensive experience at a real publisher, also lived in Fukuoka, while Stephen Carter was in Nagoya.

We had a lot of grandiose ideas at the start but a little research into offset printing costs, wholesale discount rates, warehouse space and a few other things led us to the Print On Demand (POD) route. I tried a few POD places—it was still a new technology at the time—and we ended up with Booksurge LLC in the US. It did not go well for a number of reasons, primarily because we needed distribution and lower prices, neither of which they could help us with.

Lightning Source (LSI) of the US worked out much better. As a subsidiary of Ingram, the largest book distributor in the US, they had an established distribution network and already knew the business. They weren't much help lowering our costs, but to be honest that wasn't their problem. At about that time, as it happened, BookSurge was acquired by Amazon, and promptly renamed CreateSpace (and later renamed Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP).

I'm compressing time here, but eventually we ended up with two distribution networks: KDP to Amazon stores worldwide, and LSI to everyone else. Since the same POD data was used for both books (except for a mark on the copyright page to indicate which one had printed it), they both used the same Japanese ISBN, and it made no difference where a customer purchased the book.

When ebooks finally became popular enough to be worth marketing, I learned how to generate ebooks from the same InDesign data I used to design the printed books. Both LSI and KDP handled ebooks, but LSI was geared toward major publishers, and while they a range of really good services they were simply too expensive. KDP, on the other hand, was basically designed to handle ebooks, and was excellent but rigid (and so highly automated it could take weeks to get an answer to a pressing question). As per ISBN guidelines we assigned each ebook a unique number, although Amazon did not require them.

Administrator MAYUMURA Taku Translated by Edward Lipsett

Administrator, or Shiseikan in Japanese, took the Japanese SF community by storm when first published in 1974. Unlike traditional space opera, it pushed technology into the background to present a compelling portrait of colonial governors, the Administrators, trapped between the conflicting demands of Federation government, native inhabitants, and Terran colonists.This collection of four novelettes, the first volume of an extensive series of works set in the same universe, touches on key stages in the development of the Administrator system and the robots designed to support and protect it.

The Administrator Series

This series consists of two collections and two novels. The titles shown here are the romanized Japanese. Official English titles have not yet been decided for works other than Administrator, so the other English titles given below are merely literal translations of the Japanese.

Shiseikan (Administrator), published 1974, including:

• Haruka naru Mahiru (A Distant Noon)
• Honō to Hanabira (The Flame and the Blossom)
• Iseki no Kaze (The Wind in the Ruins)
• Genkai no Janus (Bound Janus)

Nagai Akatsuki [Long Dawn], published 1980, including:

• Nagai Akatsuki [Long Dawn]
• Terikaeshi no Oka [Reflecting Hill]
• Tobira no Hiraku Toki [When the Door Opens]

Shōmetsu no Kōrin [Vanishing Halo], published 1979 in 3 volumes

Hikishio no Toki [Time of the Ebb Tide], published 1989 to 1995 in 5 volumes

Based on internal evidence, these can be put in rough chronological order as follows:

• Nagai Akatsuki [Long Dawn]
• Terikaeshi no Oka [Reflecting Hill]
• Honō to Hanabira (The Flame and the Blossom)
• Tobira no Hiraku Toki [When the Door Opens]
• Haruka naru Mahiru (A Distant Noon)
• Iseki no Kaze (The Wind in the Ruins)
• Genkai no Janus (Bound Janus)
• Shōmetsu no Kōrin [Vanishing Halo]
• Hikishio no Toki [Time of the Ebb Tide]

Aphrodite YAMADA Masaki Translated by Edward Lipsett

This important work of Japanese science fiction presents the story of Yūichi, a youth who escapes the regimented world of Japanese society for the beauty and freedom of Aphrodite, a floating island city built by the visionary Mr. Caan. Excited by the seemingly limitless potential of Aphrodite and confident of his own future, Yūichi encounters a new world: friendship, responsibility, love, and growing up.

Seen through the pattern of Yūichi’s life, however, is the evolution and development of the true heroine of the work: the island city Aphrodite--ever beautiful, ever filled with the limitless energy of creation. And as the global economy spirals downward, leaving Aphrodite a deserted slum slated for destruction, perhaps Yūichi is the only person who can save her…

Ideal for young adult readers, but with a philosophical depth to make it a thought-provoking and rewarding book for adult readers as well.

Kuunmong: The Cloud Dream of the Nine KIM Manjung Translated by James S. Gale

Kuunmong - literally “Nine Cloud Dream” or “The Cloud Dream of the Nine” - has been an immensely popular work in Korea for centuries. Originally written in about 1689, it is hailed as one of the earliest works of literary prose fiction to emerge from the Korean cultural background. Although this classic novel remains in print in many editions in Korea, China, and Japan, it has long been out of print in the English language. We are proud to make this monumental work available again.

In addition to the complete text translation by James S. Gale, Susanna Fessler of the State University of New York at Albany provides an introduction to the novel, and Francisca Cho of Georgetown University contributes a detailed literary analysis of the work. We also reproduce the original introduction and notes, and numerous illustrations, from the first English edition of the Gale translation.

Herbert A. Giles and China: Two Early Classics of Modern Sinology Herbert A. Giles

Modern sinology--the study of things Chinese--may trace its roots back centuries to Marco Polo, Byzantium and even Imperial Rome, but to a great extent it was built on foundations laid and extended by Herbert Giles, a consul for the United Kingdom in China and later a professor at Cambridge University. Even after his 26-year tour in China was completed and he returned to his native England, he continued to author a large number of scholarly works and translations on China and the Chinese.

Two of these, Chinese Sketches (1876) and The Civilization of China (1911), are now available in a single volume, revealing once again his piercing observations and a glimpse of a very different China.

Crystal Silence FUJISAKI Shingo Translated by Kathleen Taji

It is 2071, and Mars is being slowly terraformed by many nations often cooperating in an uneasy truce that reflects tensions back on Earth. The water of the polar ice cap, the most important resource for all the Mars colonies, is jointly controlled by the US, China, Japan and Russia, and doled out to the second-tier colonizing groups (Europe, Canada, Australia, India) only grudgingly. A military build-up is under way as different groups jockey for control of this all-important resource, and then the bodies of what appear to be intelligent aliens are found under the Martian ice.

Saya Askai is dispatched from Earth in realtime, separating herself from the virtual reality network that encompasses civilization, to investigate... and finds herself in a battleground of cyborgs, virtual reality plagues, and Schwarzchild traps that she may only be able to navigate through safely with the help of people who probably don't exist...

We are delighted to be able to add a short story to the expanded world of Crystal Silence, with the release of the eBook edition of Left Alone, which explores the life—and death—of the cyborg named Jirō. He wasn't always a cyborg; he began life as a pretty normal kid who just loved playing games at the arcade... until he met someone who pointed him at Mars!

Originally published in 1999, Crystal Silence (クリスタルサイレンス) was promptly voted the best Japanese SF novel of the year in the annual poll run by Hayakawa SF Magazine. The book remains popular, both for its own qualities and more recent science fiction masterpieces by the author, and a revised edition was recently released as a two-volume paperback. Nominated for the 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards.

The author has published multiple novels and short stories and is rapidly being recognized as a leading writer of hard SF in Japan.

Kaiki—Uncanny Tales from Japan Volume 1: Tales of Old Edo

Selected and with commentary by HIGASHI Masao and preface by Robert WEINBERG

The first volume in our Kaiki series introducing the world of Japanese weird and supernatural literature, Tales of Old Edo presents a selection of outstanding works drawn from centuries of creativity in the field, with an in-depth introduction to the genre by recognized authority Higashi Masao.

Robert Weinberg
Preface: "An Ordinary World, Interrupted"

Higashi Masao 東雅夫
Introduction: "The Origins of Japanese Weird Fiction"
translated by Miri Nakamura

Lafcadio Hearn
"The Value of the Supernatural in Fiction" (1898)
"In a Cup of Tea" (1902)

Ueda Akinari 上田秋成
"The Chrysanthemum Pledge" (菊花の約; 1776)
translated by Pamela Ikegami

Kyōgoku Natsuhiko 京極夏彦
"Three Old Tales of Terror" (『旧耳袋』; 2005;「誰が作った」「何がしたい」「どこに居た」)
translated by Rossa O'Muireartaigh

Miyabe Miyuki 宮部みゆき
"The Futon Room" (布団部屋; 2000)
translated by Stephen A. Carter

Okamoto Kidō 岡本綺堂
"Here Lies a Flute" (笛塚; 1925)
translated by Nancy H. Ross
This translation won the 2008 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

Tanaka Kōtarō 田中貢太郎　
"The Face in the Hearth" (竈の中の顔; 1928)
translated by Edward Lipsett

Kōda Rohan 幸田露伴
"Visions of Beyond" (幻談; 1938)
translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Inagaki Taruho 稲垣足穂
"The Inō Residence, Or, The Competition with a Ghost" (稲生家＝化物コンクール; 1972)
translated by Jeffrey Angles

Yamamoto Shūgorō 山本周五郎
"Through the Wooden Gate" (その木戸を通って; 1959)
translated by Mark Gibeau

Sugiura Hinako 杉浦日向子
"Three Eerie Tales of Dark Nights" (『百物語』より「闇夜の怪三話」; 1993)
translated by Dan Luffey; graphics by Dorothy Gambrell

Kaiki—Uncanny Tales from Japan Volume 2: Country Delights

Selected and with commentary by HIGASHI Masao and preface by Robert WEINBERG

The second volume in our Kaiki series moves from Edo, the center of Japan during the Shogunate, into the country, where old traditions and older fears are preserved. Enjoy a deeper and very different glimpse into the world of Japanese weird and supernatural literature, with superlative works drawn from centuries of literary creation. Includes an in-depth introduction to the genre by recognized authority Higashi Masao.

Robert Weinberg
"Preface—The Subtle Ambiance of Japanese Horror"

Higashi Masao
Introduction: "The Rise of Japanese Weird Fiction"
translated by Miri Nakamura

Yanagita Kunio 柳田國男
"Selections from 'Legends of Tōno'" (『遠野物語』より「序」「第三話」「第七話」「第八話」; 1910）
translated by Pamela Ikegami

Natsume Sōseki 夏目漱石
"The Third Night, from 'Ten Nights' Dream'" (『夢十夜』より第三話; 1908）
translated by Kathleen Taji

Izumi Kyōka 泉鏡花　
"Sea Daemons" (海異記; 1906）
translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Hirai Tei’ichi 平井呈一
"Midnight Encounters" (真夜中の檻; 1960）
translated by Brian Watson
This story was a finalist in the 2011 SF&F Translation Awards.

Takahashi Katsuhiko 高橋克彦
"Reunion" (大好きな姉; 1993)
translated by Andrew Cunningham

Uchida Hyakken 内田百閒
"A Short Night" (短夜; 1921）
translated by Andrew Clare

Komatsu Sakyō 小松左京
"The Kudan's Mother" (くだんのはは; 1968）
translated by Mark Gibeau

Hikage Jōkichi 日影丈吉
"The Clock Tower of Yon" (猫の泉; 1961）
translated by Rossa O'Muireartaigh

Nakajima Atsushi 中島敦
"The Mummy" (木乃伊; 1942）
translated by Ruselle Meade

Akiyama Ayuko 秋山亜由子　
"Only Child" (一人娘; 1992）
translated by Stephen Carter; graphics by Dorothy Gambrell

Kaiki—Uncanny Tales from Japan Volume 3: Tales of the Metropolis

Selected and with commentary by HIGASHI Masao and preface by Robert WEINBERG

The third and final volume of our Kaiki series returns us to the Capital City: Tokyo. While Japan has modernized, renaming old Edo as new-born Tokyo, strange secrets remain hidden under the chrome and spotlights, unaffected by our beliefs in Science and Technology. Enjoy a new collection of stories introducing the strange denizens and happenings of the shadowy world of Japanese uncanny literature. Selected and with commentary by Higashi Masao, a recognized researcher and author in the field.

Nominated for the 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards!

Robert Weinberg
Preface

Higashi Masao
Introduction: "Earthquakes, Lightning, Fire, and Father" translated by Miri Nakamura

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke 芥川龍之介
"A Bizarre Reunion" (奇怪な再会; 1921）
translated by Steven P. Venti

Murayama Kaita 村山槐多
"The Diabolical Tongue" (悪魔の舌; 1915）
translated by Jeffrey Angles

Tanizaki Jun’ichirō 谷崎潤一郎
　
"The Face" (人面疽; 1918）
translated by Kathleen Taji

Toyoshima Yoshio 豊島与志雄　
"Ghosts of the Metropolis" (都会の幽気; 1924)
translated by Rodger Swan and Jeffrey Angles

Edogawa Rampo 江戸川乱歩　
"Doctor Mera's Mysterious Crimes" (目羅博士の不思議な犯罪; 1932)
translated by Seth Jacobowitz

Minagawa Hiroko 皆川博子
"The Midsummer Emissary" (文月の使者; 1996)
translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Hisao Jūran 久生十蘭
"In Thy Shadow" (妖翳記; 1939）
translated by Derek Lin

Endō Shūsaku 遠藤周作
"Spider" (蜘蛛; 1959）
translated by Rossa O'Muireartaigh

Yamakawa Masao 山川方夫
"The Talisman" (お守り; 1960）
translated by Karen Sandness

Kawabata Yasunari 川端康成
"The Arm" (片腕; 1964）
translated by Mark Gibeau

Akae Baku 赤江瀑　
"Expunged by Yakumo" (八雲が殺した; 1981）
translated by Nancy H. Ross

Morohoshi Daijirō 諸星大二郎　
"A Sinister Spectre" (不安の立像; 1973）
translated by Mark MacWilliams; graphics by Dorothy Gambrell

Lairs of the Hidden Gods, Volume 1 Night Voices, Night Journeys Edited by ASAMATSU Ken Introduced by Robert M. Price

This massive collection of original stories and articles inspired by the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ created by H.P. Lovecraft was published in Japan in 2002 as a two-volume set under the name Hishinkai. The list of contributing authors is a who’s-who of Japanese horror fiction, featuring some of the finest writers in Japan today.

In cooperation with Tokyo Sōgensha, the Japanese publishers, and the anthology editor, Asamatsu Ken, we are proud to present these dark visions of the Mythos as interpreted by Japanese authors. You will find some stories that return like old friends, carrying on the Lovecraft tradition, while others will shock you with totally new and unexpected vistas of horror. Each story is accompanied by a thought-provoking introduction by Robert M. PRICE, the recognized master of the Mythos.

The cover is by YAMADA Akihiro, who has handled many of the covers for the Japanese-language editions of Lovecraft and other Mythos works, and has established a name for himself in the States as well.

This volume, the first of the four-volume English translation, features the following stories and articles (in the order in which they appear):

ASAMATSU Ken
Foreword: “Recollections of Tentacles”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Robert M. PRICE
Introduction: “Rush Hour of the Old Ones”

ASAMATSU Ken
“The Plague of St. James Infirmary”
translated by R. Keith ROELLER

YAMADA Masaki
“The Import of Tremors”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

KAMINO Okina
“27 May 1945”
translated by Steven P. VENTI

INOUE Masahiko
“Night Voices, Night Journeys”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

MURATA Motoi
“Sacrifice”
translated by Nora Stevens HEATH

MAKINO Osamu
“Necrophallus”
translated by CHUN Jin

SHIBATA Yoshiki
“Love for Who Speaks”
translated by Stephen CARTER

YONEZAWA Yoshihiro
“Four Decades of H.P. Lovecraft and Manga”
translated by Ryan MORRIS

HOSHINO Satoshi
“Cthulhu Mythos Manga List”
translated by Ryan MORRIS

HISADOME Kenji
“The Cthulhu Mythos in Japan”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Lairs of the Hidden Gods, Volume 2 Inverted Kingdom Edited by ASAMATSU Ken Introduced by Robert M. Price

This massive collection of original stories and articles inspired by the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ created by H.P. Lovecraft was published in Japan in 2002 as a two-volume set under the name Hishinkai. The list of contributing authors is a who’s-who of Japanese horror fiction, featuring some of the finest writers in Japan today.

In cooperation with Tokyo Sōgensha, the Japanese publishers, and the anthology editor, Mr. ASAMATSU Ken, we are proud to present this second volume of the series. Here you will find new vistas of horror - some stories with shock you, others force you to look at your daily life through new eyes. Each story is accompanied by a thought-provoking introduction by Robert M. Price, the recognized master of the Mythos.

The cover is by Yamada Akihiro, who handled the cover of Vol. 1 of the series, “Night Voices, Night Journeys,” and many of the covers for the Japanese-language editions of Lovecraft and other Mythos works. He has built up a loyal following in the States as well for his work.

This volume, the second of the four-volume English translation, features the following stories and articles (in the order in which they appear):

ASAMATSU Ken
Foreword: “Life with Gills”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Robert M. PRICE
Introduction: “Cults of the Ghouls”

ASHIBE Taku
“The Horror in the Kabuki Theatre”
translated by Sheryl HOGG

MATSUDONO Rio
“Taste of the Snake’s Honey”
translated by Erin S. BRODHEAD

MATSUO Mirai
“Inverted Kingdom”
translated by Usha JAYARAMAN

KONAKA Chiaki
“Terror Rate”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

NANJO Takenori
“A Night at Yuan-Su”
translated by Usha JAYARAMAN

TANAKA Fumio
“Secrets of the Abyss”
translated by Bruce RUTLEDGE and ENOMOTO Yuko

HIRAYAMA Yumeaki
“Summoned by the Shadows”
translated by Sheryl HOGG

YASUDA Hitoshi
“The Cthulhu Mythos in Gaming”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Lairs of the Hidden Gods, Volume 3 Straight to Darkness Edited by ASAMATSU Ken Introduced by Robert M. Price

This well-received collection of original stories and articles inspired by the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ created by H.P. Lovecraft was published in Japan in 2002 as a two-volume set under the name Hishinkai. The list of contributing authors is a who’s-who of Japanese horror fiction, featuring some of the finest writers in Japan today, and reviews demonstrate that the Japanese taste for horror can send shivers up English-speaking spines as well!

In cooperation with Tokyo Sōgensha, the Japanese publishers, and the anthology editor, Mr. ASAMATSU Ken, we are proud to present this third volume of the series, with a new selection of eerie masterpieces to delight and chill you. Each story is accompanied by a fascinating introduction by Robert M. Price, the recognized master of the Mythos.

The cover is by Yamada Akihiro, who is already winning fans with his “four seasons” approach to the four books in this series. In addition to handling many of the covers for the Japanese-language editions of Lovecraft and other Mythos works, he has built up a loyal following in the States as well for his work.

This volume, the third of the four-volume English translation, features the following stories and articles (in the order in which they appear):

ASAMATSU Ken
Foreword: “Quivering Brainstems”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Robert M. PRICE
Introduction: “Cthulhu versus Godzilla:
Was Toho Filming the Lovecraft Mythos?”

TANAKA Hirofumi
“The Secret Memoir of the Missionary (Prologue)”
translated by Daniel DAY

KIDA Jun’ichirō
“A Keepsake of the Grandfather”
translated by K. Bird LINCOLN

SANO Shirō
“Horror Special”
translated by Daniel DAY

ARAMATA Hiroshi
“The Road”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

TAKEUCHI Yoshikazu
“She Flows”
translated by Nora Stevens HEATH

KOBAYASHI Yasumi
“C-City”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

TOMONO Shō
“Straight to Darkness”
translated by Toshiya A. KAMEI

SHIMOTSUKI Aoi
“Sounds Out of Space, or, Cthulhu Metal”
translated by Jerome WOODS

Lairs of the Hidden Gods, Volume 4 The Dreaming God Edited by ASAMATSU Ken Introduced by Robert M. Price

This well-received collection of original stories and articles inspired by the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ created by H.P. Lovecraft was published in Japan in 2002 as a two-volume set under the name Hishinkai. The list of contributing authors is a who’s-who of Japanese horror fiction, featuring some of the finest writers in Japan today, and reviews demonstrate that the Japanese taste for horror can send shivers up English-speaking spines as well!

In cooperation with Tokyo Sōgensha, the Japanese publishers, and the anthology editor, Mr. ASAMATSU Ken, we are proud to present this fourth and last volume of the series, with a new selection of eerie masterpieces to delight and chill you. Each story is accompanied by a fascinating introduction by Robert M. Price, the recognized master of the Mythos.

The cover is by Yamada Akihiro, who is already winning fans with his “four seasons” approach to the four books in this series. In addition to handling many of the covers for the Japanese-language editions of Lovecraft and other Mythos works, he has built up a loyal following in the States as well for his work.

This volume, the fourth of the four-volume English translation, features the following stories and articles (in the order in which they appear):

ASAMATSU Ken
Foreword: “The Core of Japanese Mythology”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Robert M. PRICE
Introduction: “Lost Worlds of Weird Tales”

TACHIHARA Tōya
“Quest of the Nameless City”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

KURASAKA Kiichirō
“A Night at Exham Lodge”
translated by Daniel K. DAY

AZUCHI Moe
“…Which Art in Heaven”
translated by R. Keith ROELLER

TOMONARI Jun’ichi
“Inside Out”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

IINO Fumihiko
“Quagmire”
translated by R. Keith ROELLER

FUSHIMI Kenji
“Rshanabi Street”
translated by C.F. RYAL and Yaemi SHIGYO

SENO Yufuko
“City of the Dreaming God”
translated by Kathleen TAJI

HARADA Minoru
“H.P. Lovecraft and Modern Occultism”
translated by Naomi OTANI

WASHIZU Yoshiaki
“The Cthulhu Mythos on Screen”
translated by Michiyo MAYUMI

AOKI Jun
“Filmography of the Cthulhu Mythos Films”
translated by Edward LIPSETT

Kara Monogatari: Tales of China Ward Geddes

This work includes a study and a complete, annotated translation of the late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century Japanese tale collection, the Kara monogatari (Tales of China). The twenty-seven tales are interesting as stories, literate as short written pieces, and important as a Japanese cultural source, as well as being of interest to students of China. The Kara monogatari gave Japanese readers vernacular translations of some of the most well-known stories about China. It offers an interesting example of the transition in Japanese literature from the uta monogatari (poem tale) form to the setsuwa bungaku (story literature) form.

This was one of the works from the collection of the Arizona State University Center for Asian Studies, published with their permission and cooperation.

Toward Dusk and Other Stories YOSHIYUKI Junnosuke translated by Andrew Clare preface by James Dorsey

Yoshiyuki Junnosuke was a sensual writer, whose style is reminiscent of that of novelists such as Tanizaki Jun'ichirō and Nagai Kafū. His works deal with the possibility of emotional purity in the relationships between men and women. Often, the relationship is examined through the agency of the protagonist's association with prostitutes.

In the preface to New Writing in Japan, Mishima Yukio says of Yoshiyuki: "The delicacy of Yoshiyuki's language and sensibility is probably more subtle and sophisticated than that of any Japanese writer since the war...The idée fixe of Japanese youth today—that love is impossible and impracticable—lies deep at the root of Yoshiyuki's thinking."

His elegant prose style is often likened to that of Albert Camus. Howard Hibbett said of Yoshiyuki (in Contemporary Japanese Literature: an Anthology of Fiction, Film and Other Writing Since 1945): "The cool, polished surface of his fiction faithfully reflects a world of mingled frivolity and futility...The urbane refinement of his astringent prose style is much admired."

"Toward Dusk", which in 1978 won the Noma Prize, Japan's highest literary award, is considered to be Yoshiyuki's best work in the rensaku form: a series of stories or chapters bound by common theme.

The story ostensibly revolves around Sasa, the middle-aged protagonist, his fascination with virginity and, in particular, his obsessive quest for an emotional purity in his mistress, Sugiko.

In many ways, the main theme is similar to that in "The Dark Room" (winner of the prestigious Tanizaki Prize; translated into English by John Bester). As the critic James Kirkup pointed out, "The postwar mood of disillusionment made Yoshiyuki see the love lives of men and women as fragile and unreliable, fleeting, irresponsible." Like Nakata in "The Dark Room", Sasa also lives for his assignations. And, although (unlike Nakata) he is married with a daughter, his family life is empty and meaningless and his home simply somewhere to stay when he is not seeing his mistresses.

Sasa wished to keep his relationships casual, at arms' length, and he arranges them to suit himself. But, ultimately, he realizes that he and Sugiko must go their separate ways, and that nothing lasts forever.

"Toward Dusk" is joined here by a selection of some of his finest short stories, and all of the pieces in this collection are published here for the first time in English.

• Burning Dolls (Ningyō o yaku)
• The Molester (Chi)
• At the Aquarium (Suizokkan ni te)
• Treatment (Chiryō)
• Straw Wedding Anniversary (Wara konshiki)
• Midnight Stroll (Shinya no sanpo)
• Flowers (Hanataba)
• Voice of Spring (Haru no koe)
• A Bad Summer (Warui natsu)
• Toward Dusk (Yūgure made)

Speculative Japan 2 "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales Introduction by Darrell Schweitzer

The second book of the groundbreaking Speculative Japan series, this volume presents a selection of never-before published translations covering a broad range of speculative fiction... from gritty SF to soft fantasy, it offers glimpses into the diverse and rich imaginations of modern Japanese authors.

While the first volume in the Speculative Japan series concentrated on outstanding works from authors positioned solidly in the SF field, we have deliberately widened the scope of this volume to include stories that are a bit outside the usual definition of "science fiction" , choosing instead to concentrate on "speculative" in an attempt to explore a bit of the immense universe of the Japanese imagination. Most of these authors are appearing in English for the first time, and are sure to open up new dimensions in reading pleasure in a variety of genres.

AWA Naoko 安房 直子
"A Gift from the Sea" 海からの贈り物
translated by Sheryl A. HOGG

ENJOE Toh 円城 塔
"Freud" Freud
translated by Kevin STEINBACH

ŌHARA Mariko 大原 まり子
"The Whale that Sang on the Milky Way Network" 銀河ネットワークで歌を歌ったクジラ
translated by Nancy H. ROSS

OGAWA Issui 小川 一水
"Old Vohl's Planet" 老ヴォールの惑星
translated by Jim HUBBERT

ONDA Riku 恩田 陸
"The Big Drawer" 大きな引き出し
translated by Nora Stevens HEATH

KAJIO Shinji 梶尾 眞治
"Emanon: A Reminiscence" おもいでエマノン
translated by Edward LIPSETT

KITAKUNI Kōji 北國 浩二
"Midst the Mist" 靄の中
translated by Rossa O'MUIREARTAIGH

KOBAYASHI Yasumi 小林 泰三
"The Man Who Watched the Sea" 海を見る人
translated by Anthea MURPHY

TAKAGI Nobuko 高樹 のぶ子
"Melk's Golden Acres" メルクの黄金畑
translated by Dink TANAKA
This translation won the 2009 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

TANI Kōshū 谷 甲州
"Q-Cruiser Basilisk" 仮装巡洋艦バシリスク
translated by Simon VARNAM

NAKAI Norio 中井 紀夫
"Mountaintop Symphony" 山の上の交響楽
translated by Terry GALLAGHER

HORI Akira 堀 晃
"Open Up" 開封
translated by Roy BERMAN

YAMAO Yūko 山尾 悠子
"Perspective" 遠近法
translated by Ginny Tapley TAKEMORI

Akutagawa and Dazai: Instances of Literary Adaptation James O’Brien

James O’Brien’s work contains translations of three short stories by Dazai Osamu – “Hear my Plea”, “Melos, Run!” and “Crackling Mountain” – as well as the following short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke: “The Clown’s Mask”, “The Immortal”, “Rasho Gate”, “Hell Screen”, “Within a Grove”, and “The Shadow.” The introduction interprets the short stories by these two twentieth-century Japanese authors and outlines the nature of literary adaptation in their work.

This was one of the works from the collection of the Arizona State University Center for Asian Studies, published with their permission and cooperation.

The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows EDOGAWA Rampo translated by Ian Hughes introduction by Mark Schreiber

Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Tarō, 1894-1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan’s golden age of crime and mystery fiction. Kurodahan Press takes great pleasure in presenting the first English language translations of these two short novels.

<i<The Black Lizard (Kurotokage) first appeared as a magazine serial, published in twelve monthly instalments between January and December, 1934. It features Rampo's main detective character, Akechi Kogorō: a figure who combines elements of Poe’s Auguste Dupin with the gentleman adventurers of British golden age detective literature. The Black Lizard herself is a master criminal and femme fatale, whose charged relationship with detective Akechi and unconcealed sadism have inspired shuddering admiration in generations of readers. The story has been adapted for film and television several times, most notably in a 1968 feature film that included a cameo by Mishima Yukio, and a title song with lyrics by the celebrated novelist. Mishima was also involved in the stage adaptation the same year conceived and directed by Miwa Akihiro, in which Miwa himself played the part of the Black Lizard. It is largely thanks to this classic of 1960s Japanese theatre that the story remains associated with sexual transgression and blurred boundaries between male and female, hunter and hunted, detective and criminal.

Themes of deviance and sado-masochism are central to Beast in the Shadows (Inju), a tale from the height of Rampo’s grotesque period, which appeared in serial form between August and October, 1928. This tale of secret identities, violent sexuality, and dark crimes stands in stark contrast to the genteel detective stories then popular in English literature. It bears comparison with the American pulp fiction serial, the genre that led to the classic modern American crime novel, and with the more extravagant moments of film noir. Beast in the Shadows, however, recalls classic themes in Japanese popular fiction, with origins in the illustrated novels and mass market shockers of the Edo period (1600-1868). Rampo’s special contribution was to combine this strain in Japanese literature with styles and atmospheres imported from Europe: from Oscar Wilde and Maurice Maeterlinck, to Rampo’s own contemporaries in the American pulps and English novels.

Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles: Wo, the Land of Yamatai, and Queen Himiko Massimo SOUMARÉ translated by Davide Mana edited by Anthony J. Bryant and Mark Hall

For the first time in English, this work presents a comparative study of the content of famous Chinese historical texts that are fundamental in the knowledge of Japan’s ancient history. Soumaré translates documents from the Chronicle of the Wei to the History of the Song, thus providing an unparalleled resource for scholars, students, and general readers with an interest in Japanese history and culture.

Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles is a stimulating and valuable investigation into the earliest periods of Japanese recorded history. Archaeological finds from Japanese tombs can be better understood by combining Japanese historical resources such as the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki with precise dating of the Chinese dynastic histories. Massimo Soumaré’s original research sheds new light on formerly obscure aspects of intercultural exchange, and contributes to our knowledge of the whole of Eastern Asia.

The cultural foundations of Japan are intimately linked to continental Asia. China and Korea in particular helped shape the early Japanese states in many ways, over centuries of immigration and cultural exchange. The introduction of rice agriculture, the Chinese writing system, and the Chinese system of bureaucratic imperial government are perhaps the most well-known examples, but the influence of mainland cultures on the Japanese archipelago was pervasive.

Although there are many works covering important dates and discussing how various cultural and other elements entered Japan, until now there has never been a comprehensive study of how the Japanese (the "Wo") were viewed by the Chinese in ancient times. Independent Italian scholar Massimo Soumaré corrects this imbalance with Japan in Five Ancient Chinese Chronicles.

The book serves as a guide for scholars in the field, providing information on date of first publication, content, and authors of the different histories, with the original text accompanied by translations and explanatory notes. Reprints and related academic publications are covered in an extensive multilingual bibliography, making this an essential textbook for any student of ancient Japan, and a key reference work for investigations into the spread and influence of Chinese culture.

Queen of K’n-Yan ASAMATSU Ken translated by Kathleen Taji introduction by Darrell Schweitzer

The mummy of a beautiful young girl from Shang Dynasty China is found in an ornate and astonishingly large underground tomb. Preliminary research shows that her cells contain reptilian DNA, and a Japanese research lab is asked to investigate further…

Working under the stern Dr. Li, molecular biologist Morishita Anri begins to probe the mysteries locked in the mummy’s genetic code, while experiencing strange hallucinations of being a young girl imprisoned in one of the infamous experimental facilities established in China by Japanese Unit 731 for biological warfare.

As Dr. Li hints at prehuman intelligences and huge caverns under the earth, Anri begins to wonder why uniformed soldiers of the PRC Liberation Army are present in the research center in Tokyo. Hallucinations and reality fuse as innocents begin to die in both realities…

A classic work of modern horror from the fevered brain of Asamatsu Ken, recognized as a master of weird fiction and horror in Japan.

The Red Star of Cadiz ŌSAKA Gō translated by Usha Jayaraman

Kurodahan Press is proud to present the first English translation of Red Star of Cadiz, an international suspense thriller that won author Osaka acclaim as a new master of the genre in Japan. The work has won three prestigious awards: the 96th Naoki Prize, the 40th Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and the 5th Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. The perfect hard-boiled introduction to Japanese crime and suspense fiction!

Spain was still under the domination of the Franco dictatorship in 1975, and Japan itself harbored fears of terrorism by the radical left.

Freelance public relations expert Urushida Ryō is asked by one of his major clients, Hino Musical Instruments, to help locate a man sought by famous Spanish guitar craftsman Jose Ramos: a Japanese guitarist known as Santos, who had visited Ramos’ workshop twenty years earlier. In spite of his outstanding guitar technique, it had proved impossible to find him in Japan’s flamenco guitar world. Urushida begins to trace Santos’ footsteps from the scarce leads remaining…

Ōsaka draws heavily on his own experiences in the advertising industry to portray the intense competition surrounding advertising agencies and their musical instrument manufacturing clients, as well as behind-the-scenes deals with consumer action groups. The story delves into the secrets surrounding the “Red Star of Cadiz,” a legendary guitar created by a master craftsman during the Spanish Civil War, and the desires and losses of the people around it. And as Urushida pursues Ramos’ granddaughter Flora and Paco, whom he suspects is Santos’ son, he is gradually pulled in a vortex of intrigue involving the Spanish ultra-left and secret police.

Multiple story lines intersect, doubling back on one another and weaving a rich tapestry of memories, including Urushida’s love for Risayo, at a rival PR firm; the activities of the staff at Urushida’s agency; and the search for Santos, that began as a simple and heartwarming request. The action shifts to Spain and accelerates, drawing the reader into a gripping story all the more real for the stunning visual imagery of Spain, and instilling a newfound love for flamenco guitar.

The book includes an introduction to the author and his works by Japanese literary critic IKEGAMI Fuyuki, and a foreword by Dr. Amanda Seaman (U. Mass. Amherst), author of Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan.

The Edogawa Rampo Reader Stories and essays by EDOGAWA Rampo EDOGAWA Rampo edited and translated by Seth Jacobowitz introduction by Tatsumi Takayuki

Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Tarō, 1894-1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan's golden age of crime and mystery fiction. He is also a major writer in the tradition of Japanese Modernism, and exerts a massive influence on the popular and literary culture of today's Japan.

The Edogawa Rampo Reader presents a selection of outstanding examples of his short fiction, and a selection of his non-fiction prose. Together, they present a full and accurate picture of Rampo as a major contributor to the Japanese literary scene, helping to clarify his achievements to the English-speaking world.

All the content of The Rampo Reader is brand-new to English. His non-fiction work has never been translated into English before. This is the only place to find a comprehensive one-volume introduction to the world of Edogawa Rampo.

I. The Fiction

1. The Daydream (Hakuchūmu)
2. The Martian Canals (Kasei no Unga)
3. The Appearance of Osei (Osei Tōjō)
4. Poison Weeds (Dokusō)
5. The Stalker in the Attic (Yaneura no Sanposha)
6. The Air Raid Shelter (Bōkūgō)
7. Doctor Mera’s Mysterious Crimes (Mera Hakase no Fushigina Hanzai)
8. The Dancing Dwarf (Odoru Issun Bōshi)

II. The Essays

1. The Horrors of Film (Eiga no Kyōfu)
2. Spectral Voices (Koe no Kyōfu)
3. A Fascination with Lenses (Lens Shikōshō)
4. The Phantom Lord (Genei no Jōshū)
5. My Love for the Printed Word
(Katsuji to Boku to - Shōnen no Dokusha ni Okuru)
6. Confessions of Rampo (Rampō Uchiakebanashi)
7. Dickens vs. Poe (Dickens no Senben)
8. Fingerprint Novels of the Meiji Era (Meiji no Shimon Shōsetsu)
9. An Eccentric Idea (Kikyō na Chakusō)
10. A Desire for Transformation (Henshin Ganbō)

Speculative Japan: Outstanding Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy selected and edited by Gene van Troyer and Grania Davis

The first book in an ongoing series, Speculative Japan presents a selection of outstanding works of Japanese science fiction and fantasy in English translation… and a glimpse into new worlds of the imagination. It was first released at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan, and then made available worldwide.

Japanese fiction has assumed a position of significance in many genres of world literature as it continues to chart its own creative course. Whereas science fiction in the English-speaking world developed gradually over a period of evolutionary change in style and content, SF in Japan took off from a very different starting line. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese SF writers worked to combine their own thousand-year-old literary tradition with a flood of Western SF and other fiction. Contemporary Japanese SF thus began in a jumble of ideas and periods, and ultimately propelled Japanese authors into a quantum leap of development, rather than a steady process of evolution.

The result has been phenomenal. As new authors developed in this exotic environment, they invented new ways to view SF, and used the genre to form new images of themselves and their culture. The time is long overdue to present the work of Japanese science fiction and fantasy writers to the world in English. We hope this shared world of speculative fiction produces a creative feedback relationship, which can only encourage new and more stimulating visions of tomorrow.

Grania DAVIS
“Judy-san - Judith Merril, 1923-1997”

David BRIN
“Preface”

Gene VAN TROYER
“Introduction: Phase Shifting”

KOMATSU Sakyō
“The Savage Mouth”
translated by Judith MERRIL

HIRAI Kazumasa
“A Time for Revolution”
translated by David AYLWARD

KŌNO Tensei
“Hikari”
translated by Dana LEWIS

MAYUMURA Taku
“I’ll Get Rid of Your Discontent”
translated by HATTORI M. & Grania DAVIS

ISHIKAWA Takashi
“The Road to the Sea”
translated by Judith MERRIL & YANO Tetsu

YAMANO Kōichi
“Where Do the Birds Fly Now”
translated by Dana LEWIS

TOYOTA Aritsune
“Another ‘Prince of Wales’”
translated by David AYLWARD

FUKUSHIMA Masami
“The Flower’s Life Is Short”
translated by Judith Merril & YANO Tetsu

ŌHARA Mariko
“Girl”
translated by Alfred BIRNBAUM

TSUTSUI Yasutaka
“Standing Woman”
translated by Dana LEWIS

HANMURA Ryō
“Cardboard Box”
translated by Dana LEWIS

YANO Tetsu
“The Legend of the Paper Spaceship”
translated by Gene VAN TROYER

KAJIO Shinji
“Reiko’s Universe Box”
translated by TOYODA T.

KAWAKAMI Hiromi
“Mogera Wogura”
translated by Michael EMMERICH

YOSHIMASU Gōzō
“Adrenalin”
translated by the author & Marilyn CHIN

SHIBANO Takumi
“Collective Reason: A Proposal”
(non-fiction) translated by Xavier BENSKY

ASAKURA Hisashi
Afterword: “From Vertical to Horizontal”

Grania DAVIS
Editor’s afterword: “Translator as Hero”

Masaharu Anesaki (1873-1949) was a leading member of Japan’s most interesting generation: the second generation of Meiji scholars, who lived in a highly-educated if not rarefied world that blended Japanese and Western traditions in a way that made them unique in their country’s long history.

This neglected classic of travel writing, philosophy, history, and comparative religion has been out of print in Japan for nearly a century. Its publication in English translation will open a fascinating vista for scholars and general readers, into the mind of modern Japan — as it stood at the crossroads of modernity.

In the late fall of 1907, Anesaki left Japan to travel around the world on a travel grant from the Kahn Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funded scholars’ overseas travel in the interest of promoting international understanding. Three months of his journey in the spring of 1908 were spent in Switzerland and Italy. He wrote at length about his experience, focusing on a few key subjects: St. Francis of Assisi, whom he admired, the painter Fra Angelico, whom he also admired, and their connection (as he saw it) to the Japanese Buddhist saint Hōnen.

Published in 1909, Hanatsumi Nikki is the record of his travels in Italy. But it is more than a memoir: it is an extended meditation on art, human life, European and Japanese culture, Buddhism, Christianity, and faith. Anesaki was a leading member of a generation of Japanese scholars and public intellectuals who helped to introduce Japan to the West. He also attempted to integrate his understanding of Western culture in his own study of Japanese religion. The full range of his erudition, sensibility, and passionate humanity shines through the pages of The Flowers of Italy.

This translation by Susanna Fessler includes the text of Anesaki’s article "How Christianity Appeals to a Japanese Buddhist".

Speculative Japan 3: "Silver Bullet" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy Introduction by Darrell Schweitzer

The third book of our well-received Speculative Japan series, this volume brings more outstanding authors from the Japanese archipelago to English, with a selection of never-before published stories covering a broad range of speculative fiction... from gritty SF to dark fiction, enjoy a whole new dimension of the imagination!

This, the third volume of the Speculative Japan series, introduces a few touches of horror, gently flavoring the mix to give an extra tang to the usual shot of science fiction. And, as always, all of the stories and many of the authors are coming to English for the first time in English.

Introduction by Darrell Schweitzer

ASAMATSU Ken 朝松 健
"A White Camellia in a Vase" 立華　白椿
translated by Joe EARLE

AYATSUJI Yukito 綾辻 行人
"Heart of Darkness" 心の闇
translated by Daniel JACKSON

UEDA Sayuri 上田 早夕里
"Fin and Claw" 魚舟・獣舟
translated by Daniel HUDDLESTON

OGAWA Issui 小川 一水
"To the Blue Star" 青い星まで飛んでいけ
translated by Edward LIPSETT

ONDA Riku 恩田 陸
"The Warning" 忠告
translated by Mikhail S. IGNATOV
This translation won the 2010 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

KAMON Nanami 加門七海
"A Piece of Butterfly's Wing" 蝶の断片
translated by Angus TURVILL
This translation won the 2011 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

SUGA Hiroe 菅 浩江
"Five Sisters" 五人姉妹
translated by Ginny Tapley TAKEMORI

TAKANO Fumio 高野 史緒
"Lest You Remember" 空忙の鉢
translated by Jim HUBBERT

TACHIHARA Toya 立原 透耶
"Invisible" インビジブル
translated by Nancy H. ROSS

FUJITA Masaya 藤田 雅矢
"Angel French" エンゼルフレンチ
translated by Pamela IKEGAMI

MATSUZAKI Yuri 松崎 有理
"The Finish Line" あがり
translated by Nora Stevens HEATH

MINAGAWA Hiroko 皆川 博子
"Sunset" 夕陽が沈む
translated by Karen SANDNESS

MORI Natsuko 森 奈津子
"It's All Thanks to Saijō Hideki" 西城秀樹のおかげです
translated by Anthea MURPHY

YAMADA Masaki 山田 正紀
"Silver Bullet" 銀の弾丸
translated by Stephen CARTER

Marc SCHULTZ
"Green Tea Ice Cream"

Edogawa Rampo's The Fiend with Twenty Faces A Tale of the Boy Detectives Club EDOGAWA Rampo translated by Dan Luffey

The Fiend with Twenty Faces, the first in the Boy Detectives series by Japan's master of mystery Edogawa Rampo, helped create a new genre in Japan and enthralled thousands of young readers.

When 1930s Tokyo is threatened by a master thief who claims he can take on any disguise and stymie any matter of law enforcement, the people of the city have nowhere else to turn but Japan's greatest detective, Akechi Kogorō. Unfortunately for Tokyo, however, Akechi Kogorō is off on overseas business, so it becomes the job of his 12-year old assistant, Kobayashi Yoshio, to track down the thief and desperately keep him at bay until his mentor returns.

In the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Baker Street Irregulars, The Fiend with Twenty Faces is a classic mystery tale by a world-renowned author filled with disguises, tricks, "A-ha!" moments, and spiced with a unique Japanese flair. Will Kobayashi's intrepid band of little detectives be able to outwit the nefarious fiend, or will Tokyo be forever at the mercy of the face-swapping phantom?

The Japanese text is from the original edition published (and still in print!) by Poplar Publishing (ポプラ社). Rampo himself wrote the first two dozen or so books in the series　(and Poplar was nice enough to put them in a boxed set!), and had the remaining two dozen titles or so ghostwritten while retaining much control over the product.

Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Tarō, 1894–1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan's golden age of crime and mystery fiction. He is also a major writer in the tradition of Japanese Modernism, and exerts a massive influence on the popular and literary culture of today's Japan.

Murder in the Red Chamber ASHIBE Taku translated by Tyran C. Grillo

Murder in the Red Chamber, first published in Japanese by Bungei Shunjū as part of its "Mystery Masters" series, is set in the world of the original Dream of the Red Chamber, the masterwork of eighteenth-century Chinese fiction by Cao Xueqin. Building skillfully on that famous background, Ashibe plays out a most formidable murder mystery set in Peking during the late Qing dynasty. The tale opens with the visitation of Jia Yuan-chun, esteemed daughter of the prosperous Jia family and newly instated concubine to the emperor.

In preparation for her arrival, the Jias have constructed a magnificent homage in land known as Prospect Garden. After an all too brief celebration, as a parting gift to her beloved family Yuan-chun decrees that her sisters and closest female cousins relocate from their homes to the Garden proper, along with her brother Bao-yu.
Little do they know what horrors await them.

During an evening gathering, one of the young maidens of the Garden is brutally murdered in plain sight. This spectacle sets off a series of mysterious deaths. Lai Shang-rong, a local magistrate and Chief Inspector in service to the Jias, is specially commissioned to investigate the goings on and get to the root of the evil that has darkened this otherwise idyllic setting.

Bao-yu, however, has designs of his own. As the only male inhabitant of Prospect Garden, and with the pressure of success breathing down his neck as the next in line to the Jia throne, Bao-yu feels obliged to protect those dearest to him and decides to launch a private investigation. Bao-yu's methods confuse Shang-rong, who is certain that a more orthodox approach will flush out the killer in due course. As luck would have it, Bao-yu is soon assigned as an assistant to Shang-rong, who is content to work alone. In spite of the inconvenience, Shang-rong knows that Bao-yu's status as an insider might prove helpful.

Yet as time goes on and more murders are committed right under his nose, Shang-rong begins to suspect that Bao-yu may in fact be behind them all. Shang-rong is expected to cooperate with Bao-yu all the same, and so he must face a difficult choice: point the finger at his exalted sidekick, or crack the case before imminent dangers destroy him.

Ashibe's tragic conclusion leaves us with a heavy moral question while presenting even the most seasoned mystery fan with a refreshing and innovative take on the detective novel formula.

Fair Dalliance: 15 Stories by Yoshiyuki Junnosuke YOSHIYUKI Junnosuke translated by Lawrence Rogers, Hiroko Igarashi, and William Matsuda preface by Donald Richie

This collection has come into being out of the conviction that the short stories of Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, if they were made accessible in English under one cover, would certainly be appreciated and enjoyed abroad as they have been in Japan. The prolific Yoshiyuki Junnosuke has left us a vast body of literature, a feast of short stories, novels, novellas, essays on a wide range of topics, translations from English, and light fiction whose function is simply to entertain. An edition of his complete works published in 1983, eleven years before death stilled his pen, came to 20 volumes.

In the preface to New Writing in Japan, Mishima Yukio says of Yoshiyuki: "The delicacy of Yoshiyuki's language and sensibility is probably more subtle and sophisticated than that of any Japanese writer since the war...The idée fixe of Japanese youth today—that love is impossible and impracticable—lies deep at the root of Yoshiyuki's thinking."

His elegant prose style is often likened to that of Albert Camus. Howard Hibbett said of Yoshiyuki (in Contemporary Japanese Literature: an Anthology of Fiction, Film and Other Writing Since 1945): "The cool, polished surface of his fiction faithfully reflects a world of mingled frivolity and futility... The urbane refinement of his astringent prose style is much admired."

• My Bed Is a Boat (Nedai no fune)
• Japanese Handball (Temari)
• On Houses (Kaoku ni tsuite)
• The Man Who Fired the Bath (Furo taku otoko)
• Perfume Bottles (Kōsuibin)
• The Illusionist (Tejinashi)
• Hydrangeas (Ajisai)
• I Ran Over a Cat (Neko funjatta)
• Something Unexpected (Fui no dekigoto)
• Three Dreams (Yume mittsu)
• Twins (Sōsei)
• A Certain Married Couple (Aru fūfu)
• The Flies (Hae)
• The Battle of the Clays (Nendo gassen)
• Katsushika Ward (Katsushika)

Otogizōshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu DAZAI Osamu translated by Ralph McCarthy introduction by Joel Cohn

Momotarō, Click-Clack Mountain, The Sparrow Who Lost Her Tongue, The Stolen Wen, Urashima-san . . . The father reads these old tales to the children. Though he's shabbily dressed and looks to be a complete fool, this father is a singular man in his own right. He has an unusual knack for making up stories.

Once upon a time, long, long ago . . .
Even as he reads the picture book aloud in a strangely imbecilic voice, another, somewhat more elaborate tale is brewing inside him.

Dazai Osamu wrote The Fairy Tale Book (Otogizōshi) in the last months of the Pacific War. The traditional tales upon which Dazai's retellings are based are well known to every Japanese schoolchild, but this is no children's book. In Dazai's hands such stock characters as the kindhearted Ojī-san to Obā-san ("Grandmother and Grandfather"), the mischievous tanuki badger, the fearsome Oni ogres, the greedy old man, the "tongue-cut" sparrow, and of course Urashima Tarō (the Japanese Rip van Winkle) become complex individuals facing difficult and nuanced moral dilemmas. The resulting stories are thought-provoking, slyly subversive, and often hilarious.

The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn Roger Pulvers

This fascinating fictional account of the life and times of Lafcadio Hearn probes the question: "What was the nature of this man, born wanderer, informant of the fiendish details of Japanese lore ... a man who chose to live his life 'in defiance of the season'?"

Though now largely forgotten in the West, he is, in the 21st century, still considered by the Japanese to be the foreigner with the most insight into their mind and mores.

Orphan of Europe, chronicler of the eerie and the grotesque, journalist and ethnographer of subcultures, Greek-Irish author Lafcadio Hearn arrived in Yokohama from the United States in 1890. During his 14-year stay in Japan he wrote 14 books about the country, becoming known, in the decades succeeding his death, as the foremost interpreter of things Japanese in the West.

The Dream of Lafcadio Hearn is a novel not only about Hearn in Meiji Japan but about any person in any era who may feel, for a time or forever, more at home in a foreign land than in their own. The novel is preceded by a detailed introduction on Hearn from the time of his birth in Greece in 1850 until his death in Japan in 1904.

Phantom Lights and Other Stories MIYAMOTO Teru translated by Roger K. Thomas

Presenting a new collection of stories exploring the perennial themes of Miyamoto Teru's fiction, narrative sketches of the working-class world of the Osaka-Kobe region of his childhood employing memory to reveal a story in layered frames of time with consummate skill. His work examines the mutual proximity—or even the identity—of life and death, often touching on such grim topics with a touch of humor. Stories of personal triumph and hope are often set in situations involving death, illness, or loss, but what might be the stuff of tragedy in the hands of some writers turns into stepping stones for his characters to climb upward and onward.

Miyamoto's considerable and devoted following in Japan has come increasingly to be mirrored in other Asian countries and parts of Europe as his fiction has been translated into various languages. With renditions of only three of his works currently available in English, however, Anglophone readers have for the most part been unaware of the "Teru" literary phenomenon. The present collection aims to fill part of this lack by offering a selection of some his finest short stories along with one of his most admired novellas—Phantom Lights—which was made into the internationally acclaimed 1995 movie Maborosi by Koreeda Hirokazu.

The will to live, karma, and death are themes developed through the lives of Miyamoto's fictional characters, who struggle to achieve closure with their respective pasts and in their often difficult relations with others. The comments of Washington Times writer Anna Chambers in her review of Kinshu: Autumn Brocade aptly apply to the works presented here as well: ". . . existential crisis after existential crisis force the characters to question whether one can shape one's own karma—rather than construct one's own soul, as a Western reader might have put it. And herein lies the Westerner's entree into the book as more than an observer of Japanese culture." And like Kinshu, the stories in the present collection provide "a satisfying taste of what it means to grapple with fate at the intersection of modernity and tradition."

Miyamoto deftly weaves his tales using scenes and settings from his native Kansai region, and all are flavored with the language of western Japan. Like the depressed areas described in much of his fiction, his characters too are "left behind" by post-war Japan's rapid economic growth, by unexpected changes in their lives, or by the deaths of loved ones. His heroes are ordinary people who, as he puts it, "are trying to lift themselves up, who are struggling to live," and who achieve quiet triumphs.

Citadel in Spring —A Novel of Youth Spent at War— AGAWA Hiroyuki translated by Lawrence Rogers

Published in Japanese in 1949, Citadel in Spring is, at its heart, an autobiographical novel of the author's life from university through induction into the Imperial Japan Navy, assignment to intelligence service in China, and Japan's final defeat. In addition to details of actual code-breaking activities, it also paints grimly honest pictures of some of the fiercest naval battles of the war, and the horrors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. As a witness to World War II and its effects on the people and culture of Japan, this document—although cast as fiction—is a crucial reminder of the real costs of war to a generation who have never experienced it.

The Nobility of Failure Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan Ivan Morris preface by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Alexander, Robin Hood, Wellington, George Washington... The Western literatures are packed with the stories—real and otherwise—of diverse heroes, but most of them share the common element of victory. Many of them died heroically to achieve their goals. In Japan, however, many of the most revered heroes lost their lives without achieving their goals, and in many cases fought their battles in full realization that they would end in abject defeat and death.

This cultural background remains a bedrock underlying the modern Japanese psyche, and continues to shape the Japanese as individuals and a society even today, unconsciously, in the same way the West is still affected by the myths and legends passed down from Greece and Rome.

Long recognized as a core book in any study of Japanese culture and literature, The Nobility of Failure examines the lives and deaths of nine historical individuals who faced overwhelming odds, and, realizing they were doomed, accepted their fate--to be killed in battle or by execution, to wither in exile, or to escape through ritual suicide. Morris then turns his attention to the kamikaze pilots of World War II, who gave their lives in defense of their nation in the full realization that their deaths would have little effect on the course of the war.
Through detail, crystal-clear prose and unmatched narrative sweep and brilliance, Professor Morris takes you into the innermost hearts of the Japanese people.

Supported by extensive notes and bibliography, the chapters cover:

• Yamato Takeru
• Yorozu
• Arima no Miko
• Sugawara no Michizane
• Minamoto no Yoshitsune
• Kusunoki Masashige
• Amakusa Shirō
• Ōshio Heihachirō
• Saigō Takamori
• and the kamikaze fighters of World War II

Yamato Andrew Clare

Yamato is a tense alternative-history thriller set in 1953 during the American occupation of Japan. Lieutenant Harvey Brice, an army intelligence officer, is found in his apartment with a bullet in his head. But was it suicide or homicide? World-weary CIA agent Ralph Carnaby, together with his Japanese-American sidekick, Dan Morita, are unwittingly drawn into a conspiracy which is unfolding in the very heart of the occupation headquarters in Tokyo—a conspiracy which ultimately threatens to change the course of Japan's postwar history. With a style reminiscent of Robert Harris' Fatherland, Clare weaves a web of intrigue and espionage which sees Carnaby and his fellow agents pitted against internal rivalries, yakuza gangsters, and a far more menacing and invisible force, in a nail-biting race against time.

On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi KADOTA Ryūshō translated by Simon Varnam technical supervision by Akira Tokuhiro

March 11, 2011.

The Tōhoku earthquake struck just before three on a Friday afternoon. Massive earthquake damage was followed by tsunami rising to heights of 40 meters that swept 10km inland, scouring the land of homes, schools, communities, and people. The earthquake and tsunami alone were disasters of incredible proportion, resulting in over 15,000 deaths, over 100,000 buildings destroyed, and economic losses estimated as high as $235 billion by the World Bank.

And that was only the natural disaster.

The manmade disaster began the same day, as the tsunami swept over the seawall of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, flooding the facility and destroying much of its equipment, including its onsite emergency power generators. Cut off from all external power sources, the reactors and spent fuel-rod assemblies began to overheat. Three reactors suffered meltdowns. Hydrogen gas explosions blew apart the outer containment buildings on three reactors. And the world watched as Japan struggled to bring the situation under control before the worst scenario came to pass.

Despite further natural and manmade obstacles, the men and women at the plant succeeded in their efforts, gradually bringing the reactors under control, restoring power, and edging back, one inch at a time, from the very brink of disaster.

This is their story, based on extensive interviews with the people who fought and won that battle, and especially with Masao Yoshida, the man who drove them all to get the job done.

Here at last is the inside story of what they faced, what resources and information they had to work with, and why they made the decisions they did.

Blue Bamboo: Tales by Dazai Osamu DAZAI Osamu translated by Ralph McCarthy

Scholars and fans often divide the career of Dazai Osamu (1909–1948) into three periods: early, middle, and late. The early and late periods tend to get all the attention, but in fact Dazai was at his very best in the middle period, which corresponds roughly to the years of the Pacific War. All the stories in this collection, with the exception of the early "Romanesque," were written during that time.

The majority of these translations were first published by Kodansha International in 1993, as Blue Bamboo: Tales of Fantasy and Romance, which has been out of print for decades now. The prior translations have been massively revised by the translator, and new material added to make this a book that reveals an intelligent and humorous Dazai seldom encountered in existing English translations.

• On Love and Beauty
• The Chrysanthemum Spirit
• The Mermaid and the Samurai
• Blue Bamboo
• Alt Heidelberg
• Romanesque
• Lanterns of Romance

Rivers MIYAMOTO Teru translated by Roger K. Thomas and Ralph McCarthy

Miyamoto Teru has established a considerable and devoted following in Japan, and is rapidly building a devoted readership in other Asian countries and parts of Europe as his fiction is translated into various languages. With only a few of his works currently available in English, however, Anglophone readers have for the most part been unaware of the "Teru" literary phenomenon. This book brings together his most famous work, the superlative Rivers Sequence: "Muddy River," which was published in 1977 and won the 78th Akutagawa Prize; "River of Fireflies," published the following year and promptly winning the 13th Dazai Osamu Prize; and "River of Lights," also published in 1978 but later extensively rewritten and expanded into a novel. All three works have been released as major films in Japan.

Rivers explores the perennial themes of Miyamoto's fiction, drawing extensively on his own childhood in working-class Osaka neighborhoods to recreate a vivid and powerful world with consummate skill. While he frequently deals with perennial themes of life, death, and loss, his writing is touched with a pathos and humor to bring out the essential humanity of each character. Like the depressed areas described in much of his fiction, his characters too are often "left behind" by post-war Japan's rapid economic growth, by unexpected changes in their lives, or by the deaths of loved ones. His heroes are ordinary people who, as he puts it, "are trying to lift themselves up, who are struggling to live," and who achieve quiet triumphs.

• Muddy River (泥の河), tr. Ralph McCarthy
• River of Fireflies (蛍川), tr. Ralph McCarthy
• River of Lights (道頓堀川), tr. Roger Thomas

Edogawa Rampo: The Early Cases of Akechi Kogorō EDOGAWA Rampo translated by William Varteresian

Akechi Kogorō, detective extraordinaire.

In Japan, this is a name that fires the hearts and imaginations of readers young at heart. Cool and sophisticated, Akechi moves effortlessly through the world of Japan in the golden era between the wars, defeating masterminds and saving the day. He has been the hero of Japanese children for generations, and starred in a host of movies.

The stories in this volume predate all of that; his secret origin, if you will. Readers familiar with the exploits of the great detective Akechi Kogorō might have some difficulty recognizing the impeccably dressed and universally respected man of action in the amateur detective, an eccentric twenty-something of little means with disheveled hair and a shabby kimono. The Akechi who appears in this volume is a hobbyist in crime whose identity is not yet fixed either in the eyes of the reading public or in the mind of his creator. Supporting characters such as Akechi's wife and his young assistant have not yet been introduced, and the first confrontation between the great detective and the Fiend with Twenty Faces is still a decade away.

Rampo initially conceived of Akechi Kogorō only as a protagonist for 'The Case of the Murder on D___ Hill,' never intending to make further use of the character, but the positive reactions of Rampo's friends and colleagues prompted him to make Akechi a recurring protagonist in his detective fiction. The first five Akechi mysteries, 'The Case of the Murder on D___ Hill,' 'The Psychological Test,' 'The Black Hand Gang,' 'The Ghost,' and 'The Stalker in the Attic,' were all published in the first half of 1925 as part of Rampo's first serial for Shin-Seinen magazine.

• The Case of the Murder on D Hill 「D坂の殺人事件」
• The Black Hand Gang 「黒手組」
• The Ghost 「幽霊」
• The Dwarf 「一寸法師」

Teiunshū: Wandering Clouds ANESAKI Masaharu translated by Susanna Fessler

Masaharu Anesaki (1873-1949) was a leading member of Japan’s most interesting generation: the second generation of Meiji scholars, who lived in a highly-educated if not rarefied world that blended Japanese and Western traditions in a way that made them unique in their country’s long history.

Following our first-English publication of Hanatsumi nikki, his neglected classic of travel writing, philosophy, history, and comparative religion, we are delighted to be able to offer the second volume of his fascinating examination of America, Europe, and India in the very first years of the 20th century. For scholars and general readers both, here is a glimpse into the mind of modern Japan as it stood at the crossroads of modernity, and a look into a very different, and gentler, West viewed through Japanese eyes.

Anesaki kept a detailed diary of his travels around the world, including one journey on a travel grant from the Kahn Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funded scholars’ overseas travel in the interest of promoting international understanding.

Published in 1909, Teiunshū combines the records of several trips, opening a window into his thoughts on art, human life, European and Japanese culture, Buddhism, Christianity, and faith. Anesaki was a leading member of a generation of educated, humanistic, and surprisingly global Japanese scholars and intellectuals who helped to introduce Japan to the West. He also attempted to integrate his understanding of Western culture in his own study of Japanese religion.

Oh, Tama! KANAI Mieko translated by Tomoko Aoyama and Paul McCarthy

Oh, Tama! takes the reader deep into the haphazard lives of Natsuyuki, the protagonist, and his loosely connected circle of dysfunctional acquaintances and family. Trying to keep some semblance of order and decency in his life, working as an occasional freelance photographer, Natsuyuki is visited by his delinquent friend Alexandre, who unexpectedly entrusts him with his sister's pregnant cat, Tama. Despite his initial protests, Natsuyuki accepts his new responsibility and cares compassionately for Tama and her kittens.

Hanatsumi Nikki—The Flowers of Italy ANESAKI Masaharu translated by Susanna Fessler

Masaharu Anesaki (1873-1949) was a leading member of Japan’s most interesting generation: the second generation of Meiji scholars, who lived in a highly-educated if not rarefied world that blended Japanese and Western traditions in a way that made them unique in their country’s long history.

This neglected classic of travel writing, philosophy, history, and comparative religion has been out of print in Japan for nearly a century. Its publication in English translation will open a fascinating vista for scholars and general readers, into the mind of modern Japan — as it stood at the crossroads of modernity.

In the late fall of 1907, Anesaki left Japan to travel around the world on a travel grant from the Kahn Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funded scholars’ overseas travel in the interest of promoting international understanding. Three months of his journey in the spring of 1908 were spent in Switzerland and Italy. He wrote at length about his experience, focusing on a few key subjects: St. Francis of Assisi, whom he admired, the painter Fra Angelico, whom he also admired, and their connection (as he saw it) to the Japanese Buddhist saint Hōnen.

Published in 1909, Hanatsumi Nikki is the record of his travels in Italy. But it is more than a memoir: it is an extended meditation on art, human life, European and Japanese culture, Buddhism, Christianity, and faith. Anesaki was a leading member of a generation of Japanese scholars and public intellectuals who helped to introduce Japan to the West. He also attempted to integrate his understanding of Western culture in his own study of Japanese religion. The full range of his erudition, sensibility, and passionate humanity shines through the pages of The Flowers of Italy.

This translation by Susanna Fessler includes the text of Anesaki’s article ‘How Christianity Appeals to a Japanese Buddhist’.

The Erinys Incident TANI Kōshū translated by Simon Varnam

Erinys, tiny moon of Uranus, home to a tinier and almost forgotten colony. Left behind in the debris of the failed Outer Planet Revolt in 2099, Erinys is quietly decaying. For the hunted remnants of the Outer Planet Alliance (OPA), however, it offers a potential hiding place, and, possibly, a way to independence for the Outer Planets.

With a highly detailed background, realistic technology, and convincing characters, The Erinys Incident is a fascinating journey from deep in the gravity well of the sun, to lonely outposts far beyond the rings of Saturn.

When it comes to gritty, realistic Space Opera, Tani Kōshū's name is always high on the list. With an extensive future history stretching from the early 21st century (and already partially overwritten by the pace of history!) into the far future, he writes of people and spaceships with quirks and "issues," facing life-and-death problems with creativity and dogged determination. Tani's first story in English, "Q-Cruiser Basilisk," was published to acclaim in Speculative Japan Volume 2, and Erinys reveals another part of his saga of the development of starfaring humanity. The author is currently revising his works to take recent astronomical discoveries (and technological developments) into account, and continuing to write new adventures set in the same universe.

Long Belts and Thin Men: The Postwar Stories of Kojima Nobuo translated by Lawrence Rogers

Kojima Nobuo is best-known in English for his outstanding novella, "Amerikan sukuuru" (1954, "The American School"), which earned the Akutagawa Prize that year. Strongly affected by World War II and the postwar era, his style evolved into a powerful, often painfully honest satire depicting the Japanese male as a Milquetoast, under the thumbs of women and society in general. Influenced by Gogol and other giants of Russian literature, Kojima's style and technique immerse the reader in the doubts and dilemmas of his characters to powerful effect.

Kojima's award-winning story, "The American School," depicts the visit of a group of Japanese English-language teachers to an international school for the children of Americans and others living in Japan. The reactions of the educators as they walk four miles to the school and come into contact with transplanted American culture for the first time are both touching and comical; the perfect satire. Many of his stories from this period deal with the irony, pain, and internal turmoil of men who have not come to grips with the society of post-War Japan, or their place within it.

In addition to "The American School," this volume contains a number of his other important works, illuminating the trials faced by the Japanese following World War II, individually and as a society, through the eyes of a succession of world-weary and ineffectual protagonists.

• The Rifle (小銃)
• The Smile (微笑)
• Voices (声)
• The American School (アメリカン・スクール)
• The Black Flame (黒い炎)
• Buffoon in an Alien Land (異郷の道化師)
• A Certain Day (或る一日)
• The House of the Hooligans (狼藉者のいる家)
• In Our Forties (四十代)

Tokyo Decadence: 15 Stories by Murakami Ryu translated by Ralph McCarthy

A cream-of-the-crop selection of Murakami's brilliance and piercing wit.
This collection shows sides of Ryu Murakami that even avid fans may not be expecting.

The intriguing, somewhat disturbing stories that Topaz was based on are included here, as are three entertaining and revealing portraits of the artist as a young man back in the Transparent Blue period of the late sixties and early seventies. We hear tales told by four very different individuals living in eighties Tokyo, each with his or her own problems but all with a thing about a certain pro baseball player, and we meet a brokenhearted young woman who finds an unexpected moment of love in the nineties and a single mother who stumbles on a ray of hope in the hard times of the noughties.

Mixed in there somewhere are three linked stories about desire and obsession, with the timeless, seductive rhythms of Cuban music in the background.

From Run, Takahashi! (1986, 走れ！タカハシ)

• Whenever I Sit at a Bar Drinking Like This (カウンターで飲んでいる時、いつも思うのだが、バーテンダーというのは何と崇高なのだろう)
• I Am a Novelist (私は小説家である)
• It All Started Just About a Year and a Half Ago (あれはちょうど一年半くらい前のことだった)
• Each Time I Read Your Confession (調書を全部何回読んでも、わからん事がある、どうしてお前はあの女を殺さなかったんだ？)

From Topaz (1988, トパーズ)

• Topaz (トパーズ)
• Lullaby (子守唄)
• Penlight (ペンライト)

From Ryu's Cinematheque (1995, 村上龍映画小説)

• The Last Picture Show (ラストショー)
• The Wild Angels (ワイルドエンジェル)
• La Dolce Vita (甘い生活)

From Swans (1997, 白鳥)

• Swans (白鳥)
• Historia de un Amor (或る恋のものがたり)
• Se Fué (彼女は行ってしまった)
• All of Me (わたしのすべてを)

From At the Airport (2003, 空港にて)

• At the Airport (空港にて)

Mr. Turtle KITANO Yusaku translated by Tyran Grillo

In a world of humans, what's a cyborg turtle to do?

It's a fair question in the bizarre, compelling story of Mr. Turtle.
Yusaku Kitano's science fiction masterpiece, originally published under the eponymous title Kame-kun, renews the visionary integrity that won it the Nihon SF Taisho (Japan's equivalent of the Nebula) Award in 2001 as it finds its way into English at last. Kitano's protagonist is a hero in a half shell of an altogether different sort, a killing machine designed for combat who wants only to enjoy the simple pleasures of his daily life—working a blue collar job, going to the library, and typing on his laptop—even as he is haunted by vague memories of a war on Jupiter.

In order to determine his future, he must piece together his past, navigating an unsympathetic society toward revealing the novel's philosophical heartbeat. A character study of surreal wit, Mr. Turtle delivers action and insight, all the while crafting an homage to its chosen genre unlike any other.

Speculative Japan 4: "Pearls for Mia" and Other Tales

The fourth book of our well-received Speculative Japan series introduces new talents from Japan, and fresh new stories by some of the outstanding authors we've introduced to the English-speaking world already. From deep in the mountains of the Japanese countryside to the plains of frigid Pluto, from a warm South Pacific isle to a freezing mountainside, to Mars or inside a lonely psyche... a positive smorgasbord of speculative enjoyment, in English for the first time!

ASAMATSU Ken "Genesis: Dark Birth - Shining Death"
朝松 健 「一休暗夜行・発端　暗生/明死」
translated by Tyran GRILLO

AZUMA Hiroki "The Fish in Chryse"
東 浩紀 「クリュセの魚」
translated by Ginny Tapley TAKEMORI

HANMURA Ryo "The Sparrow Valley"
半村 良 「雀谷」
translated by Nick JOHN
This translation won the 2015 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

HORI Akira "Encounters on the Solar Wind"
堀 晃　「太陽風交点」
translated by Daniel HUDDLESTON

INOUE Masahiko "Last Words"
井上 雅彦 「残されていた文字」
translated by Iain ARTHY
This translation won the 2014 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

KAJIO Shinji 　"Pearls for Mia"
梶尾 真治 「美亜へ贈る真珠」
translated by Milo BARISOF

KOBAYASHI Yasumi "Prototype No. 3"
小林 泰三 「試作品三号」
translated by Nora Stevens HEATH

MAKINO Osamu "Dancing Babylon"
牧野 修 「踊るバビロン」
translated by William ADAMS

MASE Junko "The Ebb and Flow of the Aurora Sea"
間瀬 純子 「オーロラの海の満ち干」
translated by Keith ROELLER

MINAGAWA Hiroko "Morceaux"
皆川 博子 「断章」
translated by Milo BARISOF
This translation won the 2013 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

SUZUKI Miekichi "Nightfall"
鈴木 三重吉 「たそがれ」
translated by Lawrence E. TURNER
This translation won the 2016 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

TAKAHASHI Takako "Communion"
高橋 たか子 「交わり」
translated by Lucy NORTH

TSUKIMURA Ryoe "The Burning House"
月村 了衛 「機龍警察 火宅」
translated by Pamela IKEGAMI

UEDA Sayuri "Vermilion"
上田 早夕里 「真朱の街」
translated by Jim HUBBERT

YAMADA Masaki "Matsui Seimon, on the Case"
山田 正紀 「松井清衛門、推参つかまつる」
translated by Kevin STEINBACH

Bullseye! TSUTSUI Yasutaka translated by Andrew Driver

A new collection of stories by Tsutsui Yasutaka, famed in Japan and worldwide for his darkly humorous, satirical handling of a vast range of themes central to the human condition. Although often criticized for his treatment of "taboo" subjects such as disabilities, the Emperor, and old age, he is also recognized as one of the founders of post-modern science fiction in Japan.

A number of his works have been published to widespread acclaim in English including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, and Paprika.

• Bullseye
• Call for the Devil!
• The Onlooker
• It’s My Baby
• Zarathustra on Mars
• Having a Laugh
• The Good Old Days
• Running Man
• Sleepy Summer Afternoon
• Cross Section
• Narcissism
• Sadism
• The Wind
• A Vanishing Dimension
• Oh! King Lear
• Meta Noir
• The Agency Maid
• The Night they Played Hide and Seek
• The Countdown Clock
• Animated Realism

Into A Black Sun KAIKO Takeshi translated by Cecilia Segawa Seigle

Recognized as the author's finest work, Into A Black Sun blurs the line between literature and journalism, drawing on his experiences as a war correspondent in Vietnam to present an immersive depiction of the war. This is not a combat novel, but rather an Asian perspective on one of the wars that shaped modern America.

He tells his stories of the men and women of the land, of the conflicted turmoil of their beliefs and lives and deaths, through prose brought to life through the five senses, realizing the jungles, brothels, and camps of the Vietnam War, with the diverse people entrapped by it.

And in the telling, he reveals the enormous contradictions that the war revealed in friend and foe alike.

Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems ŌOKA Makoto translated by Janine Beichman

One of the most important poets of contemporary Japan, Makoto Ōoka's works continue to resonate powerfully among readers today. He speaks to the spirit, not of Japan and the Japanese, but of humanity, and of the world we are a part of.

Winner of the 2019-2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. It is an honor and a delight to be able to bring such an important work to the English language, and to re-introduce the genius of the author, Ōoka Makoto, to the community of global literature.

This new edition brings together some of his best work in English translation by Janine Beichman, who worked with Ōoka for many years. Also included are the original Japanese poems, the author's own calligraphy and drafts, and selected photographs from his personal life... a book to be savored for a depth and beauty that surpasses any single cultural identity.

When I Was a Wolf Outlaw Takes on Fables and Fairy Tales TERAYAMA Shūji translated by Elizabeth L. Armstrong

First published in 1982, this delightful collection of essays and rewrites reinterprets, from a nonconformist perspective, such well-known and canonical Western stories as Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Mother Goose stories, and Aesop’s fables.

Like Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, the author "breaks open classic fairy tales to find new things in them." Both Carter and Terayama give the tales a radical twist laced with dark taboo-violating undertones. The first half of this book includes Terayama’s subversive analysis of such stories as The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Bremen Town Musicians, Pinocchio, and Puss in Boots. In the latter half, he offers his own rewrites of Thumbelina, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. In every case, he turns the story on its head, and then having thrown the reader off balance, asks them to follow him into new territory of unorthodox interpretation, arguing that the conventional interpretation of a story we have read for pleasure since childhood is ill-conceived and thoughtless.

Vampiric: Tales of Blood and Roses from Japan

Japan has always had its own vampire tradition, and has eagerly naturalized Western vampires and vampire literature to produce exotic new hybrids and species of horror, of terror, and of sensual, exquisite beauty. Here are a few of their masterpieces.

The Japanese word for vampire is kyūketsuki, which translates literally to "blood-sucking monster," but the literary tradition is far, far more complex.

The practice of Buddhism permeates Japan, and burials are almost always by cremation... leaving the Count and his relatives with no coffins to sleep in! But there is more than one way to sip a little blood, as these authors reveal. Thanks to Bram Stoker, Christopher Lee, and countless others who have popularized the Western vampire, modern Japanese authors have an extensive range of traditions and tales to weave into their own creations.

• Masaya SHIMOKUSU — "A Cultural Dynasty of Beautiful Vampires: Japan’s Acceptance, Modifications, and Adaptations of Vampires"
• INOUE Masahiko—"Blue Lady"
  井上 雅彦 「ブルー・レディ」
  translated by Neil WEBB
• ASUKABE Katsunori — "Kingdom"
  飛鳥部 勝則 「王国」
  translated by Laura Woolley DOMINGUEZ
• KIKUCHI Hideyuki — "The Stone Castle"
  菊地 秀行 「石の城」
  translated by Jonathan BUNT
• OKAMOTO Kidō — "The One-Legged Woman"
  岡本 綺堂 「一本足の女」
  translated by Neil WEBB
• HIKAGE Jōkichi — "Vampire"
  日影 丈吉 「吸血鬼」
  translated by Jo ASH
• ASAMATSU Ken — "The Crimson Cloak"
  朝松 健 「緋衣」
  translated by Aragorn QUINN
• SUNAGA Asahiko — "Vow"
  須永 朝彦 「契」
  translated by Irit WEINBERG
• KAJIO Shinji — "The Husk Heir"
  梶尾 真治 「干し若」
  translated by Ben CAGAN
• KAMON Nanami — "A Piece of Butterfly's Wing"

加門 七海 「蝶の断片」
translated by Angus TURVILL
This translation won the 2011 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

• OKUDA Tetsuya — "Unnatural"
  奥田 哲也 「非業」
  translated by Hayley SCANLON
• IINO Fumihiko — "Paradise Missing"
  飯野 文彦 「楽園回帰」
  translated by Lucy GALBRAITH
• FUKUZAWA Tetsuzō — "Dracula’s House"
  福澤 徹三 「ドラキュラの家」
  translated by Irit WEINBERG
• KONAKA Chiaki — "Birth of a Vampire"
  小中 千昭 「吸血魔の生誕」
  translated by Lauren BARRETT
• MIKAWA Yū — "Halvires"
  三川 祐 「混血の夜の子供とその兄弟達」
  translated by Jonathan BUNT
• INOUE Masahiko — "Parasol"
  井上 雅彦 「パラソル」
  translated by YAN Yijun
  This translation won the 2018 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize.

The majority of the stories in this book were translated through a translation program hosted by the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University, which culminated in a translation workshop in April 2019. The program is designed to nurture the development of new translators by providing them with hands-on experience in the commercial literary translation process. Translators were paired with mentors experienced in translating fiction for publication and who assisted them in refining their translations.

Strokes of Brush and Blade Tales of the Samurai Selected by Edward Lipsett

The samurai were more than just warriors, although of course when war came they were ready. For a thousand years they were, in a very real sense, the glue that held Japan together through all the emperors and shoguns who wielded the power.

While many children in the West grew up with The Lone Ranger or Bonanza, and newer generations instead rooted for Adam-12 or CSI, in Japan the heroes wore topknots and swords: Abarenbō Shogun, Tōyama no Kin-san, and the other sword-wielding heroes of Old Japan.

The tradition of the samurai remains an integral part of Japanese society even today, constituting a social background as pervasive as the archetypal cowboy or cop in America. But there was a lot more to their lives than just waving swords...

This anthology brings together some of the best authors in the genre today, with immersive tales that will transport you back to the good old days, in Japan.

• AKIYAMA Kano 秋山 香乃
  Izō 「以蔵」
  translated by Pamela Ikegami
• ARAYAMA Tōru 荒山 徹
  The Fox Sword, Unbroken 「狐剣は摧れず」
  translated by Tyran Grillo
• ASAMATSU Ken 朝松 健
  Zui 「甤（ずい）」
  translated by Dan Luffey
• ASHIBE Taku 芦辺 拓
  The Mummy and the Unicorn 「木乃伊とウニコール」
  translated by Nancy Ross
• HAYAMI Shun 早見 俊
  Ieyasu’s Scroll 「神君の掛け軸」
  translated by Richard Donovan
• HAYAMI Shun 早見 俊
  The Demise of Yoshitatsu 「義龍最期の日」
  translated by Matthew Carpenter
• HONDA Ryūichi 誉田 龍一
  Seppuku 「切腹」
  translated by Nick John
• KAMIYA Masanari 神家 正成
  Left-Hand Man 「添え手」
  translated by Steve Venti
• KANBARA Jirō 蒲原 二郎
  The Princess Is the First Spear 「姫こそが一番槍」
  translated by Kristi Fernandez
• KARIGINU Yayoi 狩衣 弥生
  The Thirteenth Night 「十三夜」
  translated by Ralph McCarthy
• KATAKURA Izumo 片倉 出雲
  Throw the Witness in the River! 「証人は濁流に流せ」
  translated by Kevin Steinbach
• NIIMI Ken 新美 健
  The Three Retirees of Komachi Row House 「古町長屋の三隠居」
  translated by James Balzer
• SUZUKI Ayako 鈴木 彩子
  Memento Mori 「忘れ形見」
  translated by Sharni Wilson
• SUZUKI Eiji 鈴木 英治
  Lingering Fragrance 「残り香」
  translated by Richard Medhurst
• YATSU Yaguruma 谷津 矢車
  The Contest 「通し矢をもう一度」
  translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Kthulhu Reich ASAMATSU Ken translated by Jim Rion

World War II was a world-spanning conflict that engulfed dozens of countries, a maelstrom that dragged nations and religions and millions of people to their deaths.
But it was fought with more than merely guns and machines...

Even before the War was begun in earnest, Nazi Germany had sent expeditions to the darkest hiding places of the world: to shadowed Africa, to the towering peaks of Tibet, and even to the frigid wastes of Antarctica. Their goal was to locate occult weaponry and "aid" for the glory of the Third Reich.

And they were successful.

But were those they sought truly allies? Or were they the old Gods themselves, waiting for their chance to remold the world of Man in their own image once again?

This collection of related stories is another masterpiece of the War, the Cthulhu Mythos, and humanity trapped in the middle.

The Sheltering Rain HANMURA Ryō translated by Jim Hubbert

A diverse cross-section of Japan passes through the bar Lui, and the bartender tends to them all, with all their hopes and their fears. Underneath the black suits—whether crumpled or designer—and the cosmetics, they're all people on the way to somewhere else in Tokyo's glittering boom era. The bartenders and Mama-sans who keep everything running smoothly rely on their own camaraderie, night after night.
Winner of the 1975 Naoki Prize.

Amayadori (雨やどり) originally appeared as a series of short stories in various magazines from 1973–74, later compiled into this book as Amayadori, with the subtitle "Shinjuku baka monogatari," which could be roughly translated as "Tales of Shinjuku naifs." Written while Japan was close to the peak of the post-War economic boom, Hanmura captures the "economic animals" of Japan, and the countless men and women in their periphery who kept the bars and cabarets running all night long to let them blow off steam.

Japan of the 21st century is vastly different, and Hanmura's depiction of a very different era is still popular among those who fondly remember "the way it used to be." While the settings have changed and smartphones provide new modes of interaction, the same archetypical salesmen, bartenders, and bargirls still haunt the night spots of Tokyo, searching for something better.

Somehow, Crystal TANAKA Yasuo translated by Christopher Smith

A journey into the carefree, today-centric generation of Japan's economic boom years, as they enjoy the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Tokyo while exploring new dimensions in Japanese society and self-image. It won the coveted Bungei Prize partly because it was so completely different from the relatively staid, traditional literature of the time, but also because it served as a guide into the evolving world of a rich, global, commercialized nation and a younger generation who grew up never knowing war.

Winner of the 1980 Bungei Prize
Finalist for the 1981 Akutagawa Prize.

The Japanese students inhabiting these pages pursue pleasure, fashion, and the recognition of their peers, forging new senses of identity through brand-name goods and music, but even as they drift from encounter to encounter they remain aloof from serious involvement, isolated from the essential interactions and demands of Japanese society. The book is clearly a product of the time, with a bewildering array of names and events that fix it in the young college scene of the 70s and 80s, and presents a dazzling cross-section of a generation.

Gold Mask EDOGAWA Rampo translated by William Varteresian

Gold Mask is Edogawa Rampo's sixth novel featuring detective Akechi Kogorō, as he investigates the crime spree of the uncanny costumed “Gold Mask.” Lovers of crime fiction will be delighted to discover that this resourceful thief, confounding Akechi’s every move, is none other than Maurice Leblanc's famous "gentleman burglar," Arsene Lupin! Given Lupin's obvious influence on Rampo's own Fiend with Twenty Faces, this work serves as a fascinating precursor to his Boy Detectives series, and marks another major step in the development of Japanese detective fiction in the period between the Wars.

The novel was originally published as a newspaper serial in 1930-31, and has since been collected and released by a variety of publishers, including a revised children's edition from Poplar as part of the Boy Detectives series and in the definitive Kōbunsha edition of Rampo's complete works, on which this translation is based.

Obey Not Know Essays on Japanese Law and Society Colin Jones

Like many things Japanese, the Japanese legal system has its peculiarities... and Professor Jones applies his decades of legal and teaching experience to shed light on its mysteries. As with most legal systems there is method to its madness, and while the reasoning behind it all is a bit different from the approaches of Western nations, it works. Usually.

Based on the author's long-running feature in The Japan Times, the book offers a selection of his most important columns, plus other articles drawn from numerous sources, and including a number of never-before published pieces. Older articles have been updated to reflect more recent developments, but remain vitally important to understanding how things work in Japan. And in spite of being written by an attorney, the book is in everyday English, peppered with entertaining and sometimes stinging asides.

Here, at last, is a glimpse into the Japanese legal system, ideal for foreign residents of Japan as well as legal researchers and practitioners.

West of Innsmouth: A Cthulhu Western KIKUCHI Hideyuki translated by Jim Rion

Bounty hunter Shooter searches the badlands of 1880s Kansas for four outlaws—the “Dreams Made Flesh” minions born of the fleeting thoughts of Cthulhu—and manages to shoot one, but the outlaw’s corpse vanishes to leave only mysteries: he shot bullet after bullet, but never reloaded, and his gun was icy cold.

In Dodge City he meets up with Bat Masterson, Doc Holiday, and Wyatt Earp, employing the powers of the Esoteric Order of Dagon to kill the four Dreams before they attract undue attention to the Church’s own attempts to awaken the Master.
The shootout at the OK Corral will decide the victor—and possibly the fate of humanity.

A unique mash-up blending two of America’s favorite literary genres—the western and the Cthulhu Mythos—with a dash of Japanese ninja for added zest, brought to life with the humor and bold imagination that made his Vampire Hunter D series such a success in English translation.

The Cthulhu Helix UMEHARA Katsufumi Translated by Jim Hubbert

"DNA contains two types of base pair sequences. Exons are meaningful templates for making proteins. Introns are meaningless, random sequences. Yet introns account for ninety-five percent of human DNA. Why is such a huge proportion of the genome reserved for useless code?"

What if all that genetic information wasn't really useless? What if it was put there by someone, something, in the impossibly distant past, for a purpose? And what if humanity's interest in understanding and engineering human DNA unlocks something that should have remained hidden?

Award-winning science fiction author Umehara Katsufumi drags you screaming into a darker future as the monsters of our own genetic code come to life, revealing all too clearly humanity's fatal misunderstanding of its place in the universe... and its very reason for existence, weaving the Cthulhu Mythos, genetic engineering, and the battle against extinction into a masterpiece of horror.

The first part of this book was originally published in Shibano Takumi's famous Uchujin fanzine, promptly winning the 9th SF Fanzine Award, and the book was nominated for both the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Seiun Award.

The cover to this edition is by Noriyoshi Ohrai, and was originally used on the first book edition, published in 1993 by Asashi Sonorama as a matched, 2-volume edition. Both books had "ELI ELI LAMA SABACHTANI" printed across the front cover.

Okamoto Kidō: Master of the Uncanny OKAMOTO Kidō translated by Nancy H. Ross

Born just after Japan transitioned from the Shogunate to Meiji, Kidō grew up in a samurai-oriented world being transformed by the West in many ways. As a reporter he covered domestic developments and overseas wars, while also marrying a traditional geisha, eventually becoming a playwright and author. In addition to a number of well-received plays, he also penned more than fifty horror stories over a roughly ten-year period starting in the mid-1920s. Just prior to this period, the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed almost everything in Tokyo that remained from the Edo era, and Japanese horror itself was transitioning from the traditional uncanny stories to more modern horror structures.

While many of Kidō’s stories are retellings of tales from China and other nations, he also drew on a diverse range of traditions, including the heritage of Edo-era storytellers such as Ueda Akinari and Asai Ryōi, to produce a dazzling array of work covering the entire spectrum from time-honored ghost tropes to modern horror. The majority of his stories were collected in four volumes: Seiadō kidan (1926), Kindai iyō hen (1926), Iyō hen (1933), and Kaijū (1936).

Kidō remains popular for his elegant, low-key style, subtly introducing the “other” into the background, and raising the specter of the uncanny indirectly and often indistinctly. His fiction spans an enormous range of material, much of it dealing with the uncanny, and as a pioneer in the field his work formed the foundation for the new generation of Japanese authors emerging in post-Restoration literature.

This selection presents a dozen of his best stories: pieces which remain in print almost a century later, and continue to enchant readers—and writers—today. Finally, English-reading audiences can enjoy his strange visions as well.

• The Kiso Traveler (木曽の旅人)
• The Green Frog God (青蛙神)
• Tone Crossing (利根の渡)
• The Monkey’s Eyes (猿の眼)
• The Snake Spirit (蛇精)
• The Clear-Water Well (清水の井)
• Crabs (蟹)
• The One-Legged Woman (一本足の女)
• Here Lies a Flute (笛塚)
• The Shadow-Stepping Game (影を踏まれた女)
• The White-Haired Demon (白髪鬼)
• The Man Cursed by an Eel (鰻に呪われた男)

Lonely people trapped in webs of their own design, seeking hope, love, forgiveness, validation... Five stories reveal the innermost hopes and fears of ordinary women, and men, facing the demands of others and of themselves in cool marriage and cold betrayal, exploring new avenues through new encounters.

Mukōda, renowned for her piercing depictions of loneliness, family, and inner turmoil, examines the roles of women and the 'man of the house,' whether husband, father, or even daughter. Her work explores the pain lurking in unmet expectations of family and love, and the resilience of women and men in finding purpose where none is forthcoming.