Classics

A new and unabridged 3-book translation of Eiji Yoshikawa's bestselling novel about Miyamoto Musashi the most famous swordfighter in Japanese history! This is the first book of Musashi: The Novel, a...

Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori  The heartbreaking story of two orphans fighting for survival at the end of World War Two, published in English for the first time. In the...

A thrillingly dark novel from 'Japan's Agatha Christie' (Sunday Times)While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart...

Discover Haruki Murakami's first two novels.Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are Haruki Murakami's two first novels - here they are together in one edition.Now I think it's time to tell my...

The haunting, enigmatic love story that turned Murakami into a literary superstar in Japan, and is his bestselling title throughout the worldAutumn 1969, and soon I would be 20.When he...

Haruki Murakami's third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase is the mystery hybrid which completes the odyssey begun in Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973.The man was leading an aimless life, time passing, one big...

Translated by Nick Bradley Discover the original Japanese Cat classic, now in a vibrant new translation by Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City.'I am a Cat. But I...

Translated by Erik Lofgren 1,000 haiku by Sseki Natsume, collected into one volume for the first time! Sōseki Natsume is Japan's most popular writer, well known in the West for...

Twenty-two Short Stories by Japan's Master Storyteller Translated by Richard Medhurst Akutagawa displays an insightful and keenly creative intelligence in prose so lucid its sophistication is hardly visible.' Chris Power, The Guardian...

Records of Ancient Matters The classic story of Japan's origins—now in a fully revised and reader-friendly edition. The Kojiki is Japan's oldest surviving text, chronicling the mythical creation of the...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksKikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father, only to find that the mistress' rival...

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksAll moonlight is moving, wherever it may be...Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon invites us to look behind the painted screens in the Emperor's...

A biting psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Tokyo Express, now available in English for the first time Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman- tall, beautiful, and not afraid to...

A rediscovered classic - a Japanese cosy crime novel in translation set at the foot of Mount Fuji, first published in 1982, and now reissued for a 21st century readership...

Translated by Rebecca Copeland A piercingly beautiful and candid novel of love, sex and independence in 1920s Japan by a trailblazing Japanese writer “Remarkable . . . [Chiyo] has a...

A twisty and ingenious stand-alone classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders Can the brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada solve the mystery of this bizarre house before...

Illustrated by Inko Ai Takita, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson Step into a story of life and love in Kyoto's 10th century royal court. The Tale of Genji tells the...

A thrilling crime classic, from the bestselling author of Tokyo Express Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man's body is found...

New to our Vintage Classics Murakami Collector's Library - a newly translated, unabridged edition of Murakami's most mind-bendingly brilliant novel. A special hardback edition of Murakami's surreal, mind-bending masterpiece, in...

Translated by Van C. Gessel A gripping adventure story from “a masterly historical writer” about a Japanese expedition to cross the Pacific Ocean in the 17th century (David Mitchell) "A...

In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the graveyard shift at a factory. Burdened with heavy debts, alienated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out...

WINNER OF THE JAPANESE DETECTIVE WRITERS CLUB PRIZE This prize-winning railway murder mystery from Japan is a crime classic perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Seichō Matsumoto. Early one...

Considered one of Mishima's masterpieces, this novel is a fictionalised version of real events - the torching of a Kyoto temple by a disturbed Buddhist acolyte in 1950.Mizoguchi grows up...

The second book in Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetraology - this is a story of political violence, traditional samurai values and nihilism.Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical...

The fourth and final book in Mishima's landmark tetralogy, The Sea of FertilityThe dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetraology.It is the 1960s and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers...

The third novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetralogyMishima's literary powers are on full display in his penultimate novel, a meditation on reincarnation and Buddhist philosophy.Honda, a brilliant lawyer and man...

A story of a frustrated, confined woman who becomes lost in a psychological maze of her own creation - a labyrinth of jealousy, loneliness and longing.Etsuko is a trapped woman...

A new selection of lyrically haunting short stories from a Japanese literary iconA writer is seized by apocalyptic visions; a voyeuristic marquis commits a brutal act; and a trio of...

No one really understands how we suffer. One day, when we're adults, we may come to recall this suffering, this misery, as silly and laughable, but how are we to...

A BESTSELLING AND INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED MASTERPIECE An amateur detective races to solve a decades-old murder mystery in this “bloody and bizarre” Japanese crime novel with a twist hailed as “one of...

A twisty and ingenious stand-alone classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders Can the brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada solve the mystery of this bizarre house before...

Classic Japanese Ghost Stories Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries. From Goblin infested caves and haunted...

A powerful, poignant novel about three half sisters in post-war Japan, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Snow CountryWith the Second World War only a few years in the past, and...

A chilling horror story of artistic obsession and the price of perfection, based on the classic tale by Ryunosuke Akutagawa! Hell Screen follows Yoshihide, a renowned but tormented artist who,...

In the late fifteenth century, a young Dominican friar sets out on a journey from Paris to Florence in search of manuscripts of pre-Christian philosophy. Along the way, he encounters...

"A breathtakingly beautiful world…reminding us that we are part of the universe." —Kaori Nagai "A modern classic." —NPR Lonely and awkward, Giovanni struggles with his sick mother, absent father, and...

Translated by Sam Bett For fans of No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai’s darkly bewitching novel about the small redemptions of being a pathetic, miserable writer. A fictional writer in his...

Translated by Edwin McClellan “Soseki is the representative modern Japanese novelist, a figure of truly national stature.” — Haruki Murukami One of the best-selling novels of all time in Japan:...

Translated by Van C. Gessel A group of Japanese tourists journey to the sacred River Ganges, each on a secret personal pilgrimage. Widower Isobe mourns for the devoted wife he...

Translated by Stephen Snyder FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE MEMORY POLICE'A conspicuously gifted writer...To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare, and her stories continue to...

An endlessly ingenious battle across Japan between dogged detective Akechi Kogoro and the many-faced thief Gold MaskA frenzied test of wits between ace detective Akechi Kogoro and the seemingly superhuman...

 'Flawless' – David Mitchell 'A masterpiece’ – Daily Telegraph Winner of the Tanizaki Prize  Published in 1967 in Japan to huge controversy, Silence is Shusaku Endo's most highly acclaimed novel and a classic...

A Life in Twenty Stories "Dazai's brand of egoistic pessimism dovetails organically with the emo chic of this cultural moment and with the inner lives of teenagers of all eras."...

“Delicate and powerful... a haunting, sensitive meditation on memory as well as a wonderful introduction to a master sorely underappreciated in the West. . . timeless, elegiac, and masterful” –...

A beautiful hardback edition of a great Japanese classic, beautiful, lyrical and deeply ominous. A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and...

Two cult-favorite Japanese artists present eerie graphic adaptations of 9 classic Kafka short stories, with hypnotic illustrations that will appeal to fans of Junji Ito Franz Kafka’s work is given...

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai A beautifully written mystery novel that takes on the taboo of Japanese prostitution catering to GIs during the American post-war occupation. Tokyo 1958, Teiko marries...

A timeless psychological study of a young man's deep alienation from society. Set in the early 20th century, Kokoro opens with a chance encounter on a beach near Tokyo that...

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk A classic Japanese mystery —a pair of sleuths investigate a series of bloody murders in 19th century Tokyo Tokyo, 1869. It is the dawn of the...

This eloquent work on the Japanese sense of beauty explores the subtle interplay of shade and light in several important aspects of Japanese life — architecture, drama, food, femininity and...