This is the second volume of Annotated Japanese Literary Gems, which makes available representative examples of Japanese short stories and novellas from Meiji to the present. This multi-volume set of books-six volumes are planned-provides rubi for nearly all kanji at first use. Each story is also included in a plain-text version. Along with the extensive annotations provided, the collection serves as a resource for students of modern Japanese literature and can also be used as an intermediate to advanced language text. The volume is printed Japanese-style, with pages ordered from right to left. The present volume introduces stories by three distinguished authors. Natsume Soseki, considered the greatest Meiji author along with Mori Ogai, is well known for his Botchan and I Am a Cat. Tomioka Taeko, an Osaka-born contemporary author, favors writing about nameless or marginal, yet unusual, individuals with their distinctive fears and desires. Inoue Yasushi is acclaimed for historical narrative and autobiographical fiction.

The garden as a poem. Not simply a beautiful design to be appreciated by looking, but a living poem that can actually be read. That is the way gardens were thought of in Japan during the Heian period (794-1185). In that ancient society, a detailed understanding of poetry was an essential part of life for people in the literate classes. Poetic anthologies were learned by heart and all manner of communications either included poems or were interwoven with references to poetry. A central aspect of Heian-period poetry was that it employed images of nature as symbols of human emotions. A lonely pine tree on a windswept, rocky seashore evoked the bitter sadness of someone waiting for their lover. A scene of cut reeds, fallen and scattered this way and that, was a standard epithet to express unsettled, scattered emotions. When gardens were built, many of those same elements of nature - pines and reeds and so many more - were also incorporated into the designs. When gardens were viewed, they were understood not simply as objects of visual beauty, but as being filled with allegorical meanings drawn from poetry. These visual cues triggered in the minds of people in the garden the memory of poems they knew, and acted as catalysts in the creation of new ones. The word for poem, "uta," was the same as that for song, and poems at that time were often sung or chanted, rather than spoken. In this way, the poetic elements were like songs in the garden. The author, Marc Peter Keane, is well-known both as a garden designer and writer. Having lived 18 years in Kyoto, Japan, he brings ample first hand knowledge to the subject. "Songs in the Garden" not only describes the nature of gardens in Japan 1000 years ago, but also suggests a new paradigm for understanding what gardens can mean to us today.

In this engaging tale, Honda Katsuichi reconstructs the life of an Ainu woman living on the northern island of Japan over five hundred years ago. Harukor's story, created from surviving oral accounts of Ainu life and culture as well as extensive research in the scholarship, takes place in the centuries before the mainland Japanese nearly destroyed the way of life depicted here.

In the first person, the fictional Harukor tells us of her childhood, her adolescence, and her motherhood, drawing on tales and songs performed by her grandmother and other bards. She describes festivals, weddings, childbirth and midwifery, traditional healing methods, battles, and funerals in detail. Her story is followed by the adventures of her oldest son, Pasekur, which end by foreshadowing an early Ainu rebellion against Japanese encroachment.

Amply illustrated and prefaced by an extensive introduction to Ainu history, the natural surroundings, and the sources used to construct Harukor and her world, this volume is a unique portrait of Ainu gods and humans, of matters sacred and mundane, and of the distinctive Ainu respect for nature's bounty.

This is the second volume of Annotated Japanese Literary Gems, which makes available representative examples of Japanese short stories and novellas from Meiji to the present. This multi-volume set of books-six volumes are planned-provides rubi for nearly all kanji at first use. Each story is also included in a plain-text version. Along with the extensive annotations provided, the collection serves as a resource for students of modern Japanese literature and can also be used as an intermediate to advanced language text. The volume is printed Japanese-style, with pages ordered from right to left. The present volume introduces stories by three distinguished authors. Natsume Soseki, considered the greatest Meiji author along with Mori Ogai, is well known for his Botchan and I Am a Cat. Tomioka Taeko, an Osaka-born contemporary author, favors writing about nameless or marginal, yet unusual, individuals with their distinctive fears and desires. Inoue Yasushi is acclaimed for historical narrative and autobiographical fiction.

This is the second volume of Annotated Japanese Literary Gems, which makes available representative examples of Japanese short stories and novellas from Meiji to the present. This multi-volume set of books-six volumes are planned-provides rubi for nearly all kanji at first use. Each story is also included in a plain-text version. Along with the extensive annotations provided, the collection serves as a resource for students of modern Japanese literature and can also be used as an intermediate to advanced language text. The volume is printed Japanese-style, with pages ordered from right to left. The present volume introduces stories by three distinguished authors. Natsume Soseki, considered the greatest Meiji author along with Mori Ogai, is well known for his Botchan and I Am a Cat. Tomioka Taeko, an Osaka-born contemporary author, favors writing about nameless or marginal, yet unusual, individuals with their distinctive fears and desires. Inoue Yasushi is acclaimed for historical narrative and autobiographical fiction.