Contemporary Japanese Literature

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It is a reflection on sexual discovery, with touches of humour, complete with geishas and tea houses, Japanese pornographic engravings and youthful homosexual relationships. In spite of this setting, what interests the author is the role that sex plays in human life. This novel was published in 1909 and censored three weeks after it came out.

The protagonist is teacher Ushimatsu Segawa, also an eta. He hides his origins because of a promise he made to his father and to keep his status in society. The debate between standing up for his position or exposing his secret and feeling free is the central theme of the story. This is part of the Japanese literary movement of naturalism, where we constantly find opposing sides, like good and evil or tradition and modernity.

The events take place in the last third of the nineteenth century and are marked by the childhood of Shunkin, who is left blind, forced to give up dancing and ends up excelling at performing with stringed instruments. Sasuke cares for her every whim and turns it into his life’s work. The basis of the novel is the relationship between the two characters, of servant and lady, as far as society is concerned, and of lovers.

A clash of titans between the infallible and immortal detective Kogorō̇ Akechi, a character the author used in numerous works, and the sensual and treacherous Madame Midorikawa, who’s trying to seize the most prized jewel in Japan. The detective will have to hone his abilities to thwart the plans of femme fatale Midorikawa. The author uses a mix of American pulp, English detectives like Sherlock Holmes, and a touch of humour.

Shimamura feels attracted to the land of snow, to its traditional lifestyle and the beauty of the landscape in winter. But he also goes back every year for Komako, both beautiful and vulnerable, who grows before him as he escapes a dark marriage in Tokyo. Alongside these two characters is Yoko, who lives in the same house as Komako. These are the three sides of a disturbing love triangle.

Disowned by his family after a suicide attempt, he scrapes by drawing comic strips, with the help of the women who fall in love with him despite his alcoholism and morphine addiction. The story takes a turn when one of the women takes over the narrative and tells us about Yozo’s life from a very different viewpoint.

In the midst of the dunes is a house, half-hidden by the sand. The woman who lives there allows the teacher to spend the night and then convinces him to stay with her forever. The people in the area have declared war on the sand that threatens to bury their homes and the women’s task, and now the man’s, is to keep the sand in check. The teacher realises this and wants to escape his captivity, but the day-to-day routine traps him there.

Mizoguchi is an awkward young man, hung up about his stutter and invaded by tragic thoughts. The only thing he cares about is the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, where his father is a monk. Mizoguchi enters as a novice and the temple turns into an obsession that keeps him from love and affection. To recover his freedom, he will have to destroy the Golden Pavilion.

In the community, the women dive to collect oysters and other types of shellfish, while the men do other chores on land. The beauty of the island, the strict customs and the hard life of the people are the backdrop that sees love grown between a beautiful young woman and a fisherman.

The story begins one snowy night in 1936 when an artist is beaten to death in his studio in Tokyo. He leaves a record where he describes the plans to build Azoth, the perfect woman, from different parts of the bodies of young women. Various bodies are found according to the astrological data left by the artist. Detective Kiyoshi Mitarai and his assistant will be the ones to solve the puzzle.

The protagonists live near a US military base, taking all kinds of drugs, going to concerts and organizing orgies for the American soldiers. Set in the mid-1970s, the novel won the Akutagawa Prize.