
Check out Episode 10 of the Read Japanese Literature podcast.
The father of the Japanese short story shares his dark vision about what it means to be an artist.
We’re taking a look at Japan in the 1910s and 1920s, the era of the Taishō Democracy and the heyday of Japan’s literary magazines and serial novels.
Content warning: This episode addresses addiction, suicide, and sexual assault.
Support this podcast by buying from Bookshop.org.
Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, translated by Jay Rubin
Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 edited by Haruo Shirane
More by Akutagawa:
- The Essential Akutagawa
- Kappa
- Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
- Three Strange Tales
- Featured in Autumn Wind and Other Stories
- Featured in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
Find Out More
Hototogisu Magazine (in Japanese)
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The History of Japan Podcast, hosted by Isaac Meyer
Understanding Japan: A Cultural History by Professor Mark J. Ravina. Produced by The Great Courses, 2015.
- Lecture 18: Three Visions of Prewar Japan
“Literature” at Japanese Wiki Corpus
Japanese Literature at Facebook
Sources
Akutagawa Ryūosuke. Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories. Trans. Jay Rubin, Penguin, 2006.
Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present, 4th ed. OUP, 2019.
Marcus, Marvin. Japanese Literature from Murasaki to Murakami. Association for Asian Studies, 2015.
Yasuda, Anri. “Endeavors of Representation: Writing and Painting in Akutagawa Ryūnosuke’s Literary Aesthetics” in Japanese Language and Literature, 2016.
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