I’m looking forward to reading Chris Harding’s new book on modern Japan, but in the meantime he’s been doing some promotion for it – including this piece in the Guardian on The Top 10 Books About Japan. I think I’d probably include maybe three of his list in my 10 favourites – I’m not sure if that’s a lot or a little. Anyway, here’s an alternative list of 10 great books about Japan:
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. Vastly superior to The Tale Of Genji, in my opinion, this is a geniuine world classic, a miscellany of romantic anecdotes, poetry competitions and lists that makes real the weird society that was the imperial court of Heian Japan. It gets into my 10 favourite books, period.
- Zen In The Art Of Archery, Eugen Herrigel. This list inevitably divides into the books written by Japanese writers and those written by non-Japanese. One of the key insights is that the latter are often as revealing about the author’s own preoccupations and times as they are about Japan. Subsequent history has shown that much of what Herrigel read into his archery lessons was the product of his own assumptions, but it’s still a fascinating read that examines the (possibly imagined) role of zen in Japanese arts and even wider culture.
- The Makioka Sisters, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is a definite candidate for the list but Tanizaki is probably my favourite of the modern Japanese writers. Naomi, another of his more famous novels, is much more in your face than this one, but I think this is all the better for it.
- Memories Of Silk And Straw, Saga Jun’ichi. This is a set of brief recollections of the 1930s assembled by a doctor practising in the hills north of Tokyo. It’s still just about within the realm of living memory, and yet it’s almost unrecognisable when you’re sat in a cafe somewhere in the heart of Tokyo. Farmers, soldiers, merchants, men and women, a whole rural community is represented and given their own voices.
- Inventing Japan, Ian Buruma. This is a slender history of modern Japan, and yet it covers a lot of ground and has an entertaining style to boot. There are other, bigger textbooks that are also good, but for my money this is the best per page.
- Akira, Otomo Katsuhiro. I might as well include the manga that started my interest in Japan. Is it still a classic? Or has it been forgotten by the tidal wave of other manga and anime that’s reached us over here since the 90s?
- Rising Sun, Michael Crichton. This is a classic example of a book that is more about imagining Japan than Japan itself. It’s the literary result of America’s anti-Japanese paranoia of the 1980s – a police procedural featuring a murder in a new Japanese-built American skyscraper. The film includes Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes speaking Japanese.
- Looking For The Lost, Alan Booth. Booth was an ex-pat travel writer whose earlier book, Roads To Sata is better known and has a similar nostalgic tone. There are other postwar travel books about Japan that are worth considering, but Booth’s early death has left him a little unfairly sidelined, I think. He walks through the backroads of Japan exploring the slightly disappointing hinterland of modernisation. Drinking a bottle of beer in a grocery store after a day spent walking in the rain never sounded so appealing.
- Lost Japan, Alex Kerr. Harding has Dogs And Demons on his list, but I’ll allow this one as a separate title, even if they’re better read together. There are some humorous moments in this book (naming his house with an ancient character the meaning/reading of which has been lost…) but Kerr’s passion for Japanese arts and traditions shines through and is infectious.
- A Discourse on Government By Three Drunkards, by Nakae Chomin. Lots of candidates for number ten, and this is a bit niche, but it’s a great book to teach and a fun read. Nakae Chomin was a late nineteenth century moderniser who was influenced by French Revolution ideals when those around him were taken by more government-centred principles. This short essay offers no answers but explores the challenges facing nineteenth century Japan in a much funnier and entertaining manner than others wrestling with the same questions.
Fireflies 