Japan

Teoh Yun Ling was just seventeen when she first heard whispers of a mysterious Japanese gardener named Aritomo. But it is not until years later—after the Japanese occupation of Malaya and the devastating loss of her sister in a brutal war camp—that she seeks...

Set on the richly atmospheric island of Penang during the onset of World War II, this evocative historical tale follows sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton—half-Chinese, half-English, and feeling like he belongs to neither world. Estranged from both sides of his heritage, Philip finds an unexpected bond...

A powerful novel that explores the internment and persecution of Japanese Canadians during and after World War II. Told through the eyes of Naomi Nakane, a quiet and introspective schoolteacher, the story weaves together memory, history and personal trauma. After the death of her beloved...

This vintage book contains Jiro Harada's fascinating treatise on Japanese architecture; "The Lesson of Japanese Architecture". It contains numerous articles introducing Japanese architecture, along with black-and-white photographs of Japanese buildings and establishments - of which many were sadly destroyed during the Second World War....

Tsuruko, the eldest sister of the once-wealthy Makioka family, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger...

Set over several nights, between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., in and around Tokyo, this mind-blowingly constructed book is an elaborate, energetic fresco of human nocturnal existence in all its mystery, an enigmatic literary mix of Agatha Christie, Teju Cole, and...

Tsukiko, thirty-eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei," in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is thirty years her senior, retired, and presumably...

With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters—born to the same father but different mothers—struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the...

After the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Copper must confront inevitable and enormous change, including the aftermath of his own betrayal of his best friend. Between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, letters from his uncle share knowledge and offer advice on life’s big questions. ...

The Sea of Fertility #4. As the dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility, 'The Decay of the Angel' brings together the dominant themes of the three previous novels- the meaning and decay of Japan's courtly tradition and samurai ideal; the essence and value...

The Sea of Fertility #3. Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of Dawn is the third novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Here, Shigekuni Honda continues his pursuit of the successive reincarnations of Kiyoaki Matsugae, his childhood friend. Travelling in Thailand in the early...

The Sea of Fertility #2. Yukio Mishima’s Runaway Horses is the second novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility . Again we encounter Shigekuni Honda, who narrates this epic tale of what he believes are the successive reincarnations of his childhood friend...

Thirteen-year-old Noboru is a member of a gang of highly philosophical teenage boys who reject the tenets of the adult world - to them, adult life is illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental. When Noboru's widowed mother is romanced by Ryuji, a sailor, Noboru is thrilled....

As a young girl from a wealthy family, Ginko Ogino seems set for a conventional life in the male-dominated society of nineteenth-century Japan. But when she contracts gonorrhoea from her husband, she suffers the ignominy of divorce. Forced to bear the humiliation of being...

One of Tsutsui's best-known and most popular works in his native Japan, The Girl Who Leapt through Time is the story of fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Kazuko, who accidentally discovers that she can leap back and forth in time. In her quest to uncover the identity...

Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who...

South of the Border, West of the Sun is the beguiling story of a past rekindled, and one of Haruki Murakami’s most touching novels.Hajime has arrived at middle age with a loving family and an enviable career, yet he feels incomplete. When a childhood...

The Soul of Japan. First published in 1905, Bushido was the first work to introduce Western readers to the ethos of the samurai. Authored by Inazo Nitobe, one of Japan’s leading intellectuals of the era, the book explores the core virtues of Bushido—honor, courage, justice,...

The Soul of Japan. One of the earliest and most insightful examinations of Japanese culture and samurai ethics written in English, Bushido remains the most influential work ever published on Bushido—the samurai’s Way of the Warrior. Nitobe contends that Bushido’s philosophy offers the essential...

The novel is narrated by Etsuko, a Japanese woman living alone in England. Her daughter Keiko, who struggled to adjust to life there, has recently died by suicide. As Etsuko’s younger daughter, Niki, visits, she reflects on her postwar life in Nagasaki. Much of...

The year is 1861. Hervé Joncour, a French silkworm merchant, scours the world for rare, gleaming eggs. When disease devastates Europe’s supply, he is driven beyond the known world to Japan—a land famed for its exquisite silk and fierce suspicion of outsiders. There, he...

A gentle, humorous, and deeply tender novel about found families, the people who shape us, and the quiet complexities of love beyond blood ties. Yuko has lived under four different surnames and grown up in more than one household. Though none of her parental...

Mitch and Yonko haven’t spoken in a year. Once inseparable as children growing up in an orphanage outside Tokyo, they have spent the past year mourning apart after the sudden death of Mitch’s brother. In the shadow of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, they finally...

Teoh Yun Ling was just seventeen when she first heard whispers of a mysterious Japanese gardener named Aritomo. But it is not until years later—after the Japanese occupation of Malaya and the devastating loss of her sister in a brutal war camp—that she seeks...

The Art of Japanese Architecture: History | Culture | Design The Art of Japanese Architecture presents a complete overview of Japanese architecture in its historical and cultural context. The book begins with a discussion of early prehistoric dwellings and concludes with a description of...

Japanese Architecture: An Exploration of Elements & Forms In Japanese Architecture, author Mira Locher explores how each of these stories encompasses the particular development, construction, function and symbolism inherent in historic architectural elements. Japanese architecture developed with influences from abroad and particular socio-political situations...

Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world’s first novel. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. He is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs,...

By day Ogata Shingo, an elderly Tokyo businessman, is troubled by small failures of memory. At night he associates the distant rumble he hears from the nearby mountain with the sounds of death. In between are the complex relationships that were once the foundations...

The long-awaited new novel from Haruki Murakami, his first in six years, revisits a Town his readers will remember, a place where a Dream Reader reviews dreams and where our shadows become untethered from our selves. A love story, a quest, an ode to...

Lying alone on the edge of the sidewalk in an abandoned cardboard box, a nameless narrator contemplates the indifferent world around him. With his mother long gone, his only company is the sound of the nearby train. Just as he fears that the end...

We all hold lost recipes in our hearts. A very special restaurant in Kyoto helps find them...Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner, run by Chef Nagare and his daughter, Koishi. The father-daughter duo have reinvented themselves as “food detectives,”...

In a coastal village in medieval Japan, a young boy called Isaku battles to keep his family alive against the odds. With his father gone, Isaku is forced to grow up well before his time. He must learn how to catch fish, how to...

High-school student Akari has only one passion in her life: her oshi, her idol. His name is Masaki Ueno, best known as one-fifth of Japanese pop group Maza Maza. Akari’s dedication to her oshi consumes her days completely – until he disgraces himself and...