Tatsuzo Ishikawa (1905-1985) won the inaugural Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards, in 1935 for his novel Sobo  (蒼氓), a story about a group of Japanese farmers who plan to emigrate to Brazil and their experience at an immigration office in the… Read more »

Some historians believe that Kibyoshi, Yellow Books, which peaked, as a publishing genre between 1775 and 1806 in Japan, during the nation’s Edo period (1603-1868), were Japan’s and perhaps also the world’s first major comic book genre targeting adult readers. Often written by authors and woodblock… Read more »

Japan and the Japanese did not develop their own fully-fledged writing system, but imported one from China during the early 5th century or perhaps even slightly earlier.Use of this writing subsequently expanded as Buddhism arrived in Japan alongside Chinese Buddhist monks, eventually helping elevate calligraphy… Read more »

Essays in Idleness, written in 1330, by the Buddhist monk Kenko Yoshida (1283-1352) is a collection of 243 short essays or notes written in a style which almost takes the form of a stream of consciousness. Some of these essays and notes are a few pages… Read more »