Just in time for #JanuaryinJapan. Get an overview of the history of Japanese literature in just 31 days of listening.
The texts mentioned on this list are in more-or-less chronological order by publication. Descriptions are adapted from episode descriptions.
Read Japanese Literature’s very first episode covers The Kojiki. Gods having sex, founding of the imperial dynasty, and some of the origins of WWII. Plus thoughts on the role of women in early Japanese history.
- Purchase The Kojiki (translated by Gustav Heldt).
The Uncanny Japan podcast presents “The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Princess”, called Kaguya-hime in Japanese. It’s an old tale—one of the oldest recorded tales in Japanese—that some people believe talks about otherworldly visitors. (Uncanny Japan’s episode page includes a full transcript.)
New Book East Asia’s Tokurō Yamamoto interviews Joshua S. Mostow about his book, An Ise Monogatari Reader: Contexts and Receptions. Tales of Ise is one of the most important works of literature from ancient Japan.
- Purchase The Tales of Ise (translated by Peter MacMillan).
Read Japanese Literature covers Japan’s oldest novel, The Tale of Genji. A hero who is a paragon of beauty with an extreme Oedipus complex.
- Purchase The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (translated by Royall Tyler).
- Purchase The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (translated by Dennis Washburn) as an audiobook.
More on Genji. A History of Japan podcast sets court politics aside to explore the life and work of Murasaki Shikibu, the eleventh-century lady-in-waiting who penned a work which is considered by many scholars to be the world’s first novel.
- Purchase The Tale of the Heike (translated by Royall Tyler).
Read Japanese Literature talks about two central genres of Medieval Japanese literature—the warrior ballad and Noh drama. We’ll see two characters from The Tale of the Heike again, including the valiant female warrior Tomoe. This time, she’s a mournful ghost.
Enjoy the story of a vengeful would-be lover who turns into a 40-foot snake, a sharp-witted woman with criticisms of her husband’s equipment and a curmudgeonly Buddhist priest who learns to love poetry. Read Japanese Literature talks about setsuwa—medieval Japanese anecdotes.
- Purchase Tales of Times Now Past: Sixty-Two Stories from a Medieval Japanese Collection (translated by Marian Ury).
Read Japanese Literature asks the important questions about literature in Edo Japan: How does “this fleeting world” become a name for the red-light district. What did reading look like in early Modern Japan? And how many dildos does a man need to pack for a trip to the Island of Women? (This episode is marked mature.)
New Books East Asia’s Jingyi Li interviews Glynne Walley about his translation of Eight Dogs. Kyokutei Bakin’s 19th-century samurai tale is one of the monuments of Japanese literature.
- Purchase Eight Dogs, or Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin’s Eight Dogs (translated by Glenne Walley).
Read Japanese Literature talks about Ueda Akinari and his Tales of Moonlight and Rain, some of the most influential Japanese ghost stories ever written. A raging intellectual debate A supernatural party game And a friend just dying to keep his promises
- Purchase Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari (translated by Anthony Chambers).
History of Japan profiles one of the great Western interpreters of Japan: Lafcadio Hearn. How did some Anglo-Greek kid end up in Japan by way of New Orleans, and why do we still care about him today?
- Purchase In Ghostly Japan: Japanese Legends of Ghosts, Yokai, Yurei and Other Oddities by Lafcadio Hearn.
- Purchase In Ghostly Japan: Japanese Legends of Ghosts, Yokai, Yurei and Other Oddities by Lafcadio Hearn as an audiobook.
Uncanny Japan presents “The Dream of Akinosuke”, Lafcadio Hearn’s translation of a sweet Japanese (originally Chinese) folktale. In it you’ll learn how insects can manipulate a person’s soul. (Uncanny Japan’s episode page includes a full transcript.)
In this episode, Read Japanese Literature looks at the Meiji Era of Japanese history and its literature. The shogunate is replaced. Japan looks outward to the West, inward toward itself. And a man named Natsume Soseki chronicles it all from the perspective of a stray cat.
- Purchase I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki (translated by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson).
- Purchase I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki as an audiobook (translated by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson).
Read Japanese Literature talks about women as they take up a prominent position in the story of Japanese literature for the first time in almost 1000 years. Special focus on Ichiyō Higuchi and her best-beloved story “Takekurabe”.
- Purchase In the Shade of the Spring Leaves by Robert Lyons Danly.This book includes translations of nine of Higuchi’s stories, including “Child’s Play”.
More on Ichiyo Higuchi. Japan Archives looks into her fascinating life, its hardships, and how she turned herself towards a career of writing. She creating exceptional pieces which are now considered great examples of writing from the Meiji Era.
The father of the Japanese short story shares his dark vision about what it means to be an artist. Read Japanese Literature takes a look at Japan in the 1910s and 1920s, the era of the Taisho Democracy and the heyday of Japan’s literary magazines and serial novels.
- Purchase Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (translated by Jay Rubin).
Read Japanese Literature talks about the I-Novel—the highest form of literature in Japan in the 1910s and 20s. Special focus on the life and work of Osamu Dazai, plus the question, “What does it take to get disqualified as a human being?”
- Purchase No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (translated by Donald Keene).
- Purchase No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai as an audiobook (translated by Donald Keene).
Read Japanese Literature talks about the 1930s and 40s in Japan—fascism, WWII, and the American Occupation. How did 20 years of censorship shape Japanese literature? Also a closer look at the life and work of Akiyuki Nosaka.
- Purchase Akiyuki Nosaka’s short story collection The Whale That Fell in Love with the Submarine (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori).
Read Japanese Literature talks about the literature of change in the 1960s—how writers took on questions about what it meant to be Japanese in the post-war era and what was the continuing role of Japanese tradition. Includes special looks at Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe.
- Purchase Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe (translated by Paul St. John MacKintosh and Maki Sugiyama)
- Purchase Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (translated by Michael Gallagher).
New Books East Asia’s Amanda Kennell interviews manga historian Ryan Holmberg. Holmberg recently translated Murasaki Yamada’s 1980s “feminist examination of the fraying of Japan’s suburban middle-class dreams”, Talk to My Back.
- Purchase Talk to My Back by Murasaki Yamada (translated by Ryan Holmberg).
Read Japanese Literature talks about Japan’s bubble economy of the 1980s and the work of Banana Yoshimoto. Runaway consumer spending. Everything kawaii. A Nobel laureate’s contempt. And a young author whose career challenged the publishing powers that be.
- Purchase Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (translated by Megan Backus).
- Purchase Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel).
- Purchase Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami as an audiobook (translated by Philip Gabriel).
Dr. Rebecca Copeland documents “unruly women” for Meiji at 150—from the goddess Izanami to activists and female writers of the Meiji and Taisho Eras, to contemporary writer Natuso Kirino.
- Purchase The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino (translated by Rebecca Copeland).
Read Japanese Literature explains why there is such a wealth of contemporary books by Japanese women available in English. Special look at Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman, and the translation collective Strong Women, Soft Power.
- Purchase Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori).
- Purchase Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata as an audiobook (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori).
- Purchase Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Allison Markin Powell).
- Purchase The Great Passage by Shion Miura (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter).
- Purchase The Great Passage by Shion Miura as an audiobook (translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter).
The Deep in Japan Podcast speaks with Motoyuki Shibata, premier translator and founder of the English-language literary journal Monkey. Monkey is one of the best sources of contemporary translated short stories.
More to listen to:
Asian Review of Books: The Asian Review of Books is the only dedicated pan-Asian book review publication. Widely quoted, referenced, republished by leading publications in Asian and beyond and with an archive of more than two thousand book reviews, the ARB also features long-format essays by leading Asian writers and thinkers, excerpts from newly-published books and reviews of arts and culture. It provides an unparalleled forum for discussion of key contemporary issues by Asians for Asia and a vehicle of intellectual depth and breadth where leading thinkers can write on the books, arts and ideas of the day. A weekly podcast was added in 2021.
Books and Boba: Books & Boba is a book club and podcast dedicated to spotlighting books written by authors of Asian descent. Every month, hosts Marvin Yueh and Reera Yoo pick a book by an Asian or Asian American author to read and discuss on the podcast. In addition to book discussions, they also interview authors and cover publishing news, including book deals and new releases.
Books on Asia: Books on Asia is your guide to finding quality books on Japan and Asia. By offering thought-provoking content in the form of book excerpts, reviews, literary criticism, author interviews and a podcast, we hope to create an intelligent space for people to explore issues on Asia in-depth.
Deep in Japan: The Deep in Japan Podcast provides rich and insightful interviews with people who have lived in Japan. The show seeks to get under the surface and explore Japan through the rich and variegated experiences of the people who know it best.
- Deep in Japan—Yukio Mishima with Damian Flanagan: In this episode, we speak with author and critic Damian Flanagan about his most recent book, a biography of Yukio Mishima.
- Deep in Japan—Roland Kelts on Contemporary Japanese Fiction & Japanamerica: Roland Kelts is a Tokyo-based writer, journalist, scholar, and authority on Japanese and Western cultures.
Japan Station Podcast: Discover Japan through conversations with fascinating people. Every episode, host Tony Vega is joined by a guest to talk about all aspects of Japan, including the Japanese language, history, Japanese pop culture, food, anime, manga, movies, music, comedy, the impact of Japanese culture around the world, underground social movements, social issues in Japan, and much more.
- Japan Station 72—Black Box: Discussing the Shiori Ito Story (Allison Markin Powell Part 1): On this episode of the Japan Station podcast, translator Allison Markin Powell discusses the story of Shiori Ito and the newly published English version of the book Black Box: The Memoir That Sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement.
- Japan Station 86—J-EN Translations-Chatting About Learning Japanese, Translation & More w. Jenn O’Donnell: On this episode of the Japan Station podcast, we’re talking about translation, learning Japanese and more with translator/podcaster Jenn O’Donnell.
The History of Japan Podcast: For over a decade, Isaac Meyer has been podcasting about Japanese history. The History of Japan Podcast takes listeners from prehistory to the present day.
- History of Japan 5—Dream on a Spring Night: This week we’re going to cover the Genpei War between the Minamoto and Taira families and the collapse of the Heian system. We’ll also be covering the formation of the first samurai-dominated government in history, the Kamakura Bakufu.
- History of Japan 61—Akutagawa Ryunosuke: This week… Akutagawa Ryunosuke, one of the foremost writers of modern Japan.
- History of Japan 355—Tales of Moonlight and Rain: This week, we’re talking about one of Japan’s most famous collections of supernatural tales, the fantastic Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) from 1776.
Meiji at 150: In the Meiji at 150 Podcast, host Tristan Grunow (UBC) interviews specialists of Japanese history, literature, art, and culture. Topics covered will range from the position of the Meiji Restoration and Meiji Period in each scholar’s research, to how they view the significance of the Restoration in Japanese and global history, and finally to how they teach the Meiji Period in their classrooms.
- Episode 6—Dr. Christina Yi: Dr. Yi reads the Meiji Period from the perspective of literary studies and discusses the impacts of the Meiji Restoration on writers in Japan, especially Korean and Korean-Japanese writers composing literature in Japanese.
- Episode 20—Dr. Jack Jacobowitz: Dr Jacobowitz (Yale) chronicles internal sources for Meiji Period developments in Japanese literary practices and techniques, placing Japan in dialogue with global trends and world history.
- Episode 56—Dr. Indra Levy: Dr. Indra Levy underlines the importance of translation in Meiji-period transformations in Japanese language, literature, and culture.
- Episode 71—Dr. Michael Dylan Foster: Dr. Foster guides us into the realm of yōkai, or supernatural spirits and monsters, as an introduction to the study of Japanese folklore.
- Episode 87—Dr. Deborah Shamoon: Dr. Deborah Shamoon redraws depictions of the shōjo, or adolescent women, in Japanese cultural production in the Meiji and Taishō period, drawing connections between literature and new understandings of adolescent women’s roles in society.
New Books—East Asian Studies: New Books in East Asian Studies and New Books Japan Studies are author-interview podcast channels in the New Books Network.
Read Japanese Literature: Read Japanese Literature is a podcast about Japanese literature and some of its best works.
- Episode 16—Writing about Japan’s “Have-Nots”: Post-bubble Japan. The history of socially-conscious Japanese literature. And Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, a powerful examination of Tokyo by one of the most invisible people imaginable—the ghost of a homeless day laborer.
- Episode 17—The Smile of the Mountain Witch: Is she a man-eating crone? Is she a lonely wanderer? Or is she a sensual matriarch? However you define her, she’s the yama-uba—Japan’s legendary mountain witch.
- Episode 18—Cats in Japanese Literature: Today, we’re going to look at cats in Japanese literature. We’ll start with the history of cats in Japan. We’ll move on to cats in Japanese folklore and fiction, including the work of Haruki Murakami. And finally we’ll end with a discussion of our readers’ choice, “The Town of Cats” by Sakutaro Hagiwara.
Uncanny Japan: Uncanny Japan is the brainchild of author Thersa Matsuura. Thersa has lived over half her life in Small Town, Japan, first arriving back in 1990 to study at the University of Shizuoka for two years. Her fluency in the language as well as her immersion in the culture allow her to do quite a bit of research for her books and stories. She is especially passionate about strange legends, unfamiliar folktales, curious superstitions, and all those obscure aspects of the culture that aren’t generally known. As a way to more widely share these fun and fascinating facts, Thersa started the Uncanny Japan Podcast back in 2017.
- Uncanny Japan 38—“Cicada” by Lafcadio Hearn: Listen to Lafcadio Hearn’s whimsical take on the cicada (semi) while enjoying some real time cicada singing in the background.
- Uncanny Japan 82—“At Yaidzu” by Lafcadio Hearn: An essay by Lafcadio Hearn. He wrote it about the town he would stay at during summers, the town I’ve lived in for 25 plus years. Here he talks not just about the lantern floating ceremony, but also the ocean and ghost and gods and how we humans fit into it all.