The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi

Literature & Fiction

Junichiro Tanizaki

Contemporary

Vintage

'This year I intend to begin writing freely about a topic which, in the past, I have hesitated to mention even here. I have always avoided commenting on my sexual relations with Ikuko, for fear that she might surreptitiously read my diary and be offended...' So begins The Key - a forthright and moving tale of a middle-aged man deeply in love with his younger wife. In spite of that love, they have grown physically apart, each unsure of the other's thoughts and desires...until the day Ikuko discovers the key to her husband's diary with its desperate hints of jealousy and voyeurism. The key, she realises, to his very soul...

The Key

In Osaka in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a familyâ€“and an entire societyâ€“sliding into the abyss of modernity.Tsuruko, the eldest sister, 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 sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her familyâ€™s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.

The Makioka Sisters

Literary

Alfred.A. Knopf

Quicksand

The voice is insistent, attractive, persuasive - the voice of a cultured Osaka lady, unfortunately widowed young. Sonoko Kakiuchi's story, however, is unsettlingly at odds with her image. It is a tale of infatuation and deceit, of deliberate evil. Its theme is humiliation, its victim Sonoko's mild-mannered lawyer husband. And at its center - seducing, manipulating, enslaving - is one of the most extraordinary characters ever created by the great Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, the beautiful and totally corrupt art student Mitsuko. Partly a black comedy - the plot sometimes resembles bedroom farce - partly an exploration of sexual obsession and pain, Quicksand is the last major Tanizaki novel to be translated, largely because of the extreme difficulty in capturing the narrator's precise tone in English. In this Howard Hibbett has succeeded brilliantly. As a master-work on the level of Some Prefer Nettles and Diary of a Mad Old Man, and as a triumph of the translator's art, Quicksand is both important and utterly engrossing.

Humor & Satire

Brings together stories concerning people with serious psychological and physical defects

Seven Japanese Tales

History & Criticism

Perigee Trade

Some Prefer Nettles

Text: English, Japanese (translation)

Some prefer nettles

Secker Warburg

In Praise Of Shadows

During the period between the World Wars, the narrator describes his marriage to Naomi, a young cafe hostess who is infatuated with Western fashion

Naomi

NORTH POINT PRESS

An essay on aesthetics by the Japanese novelist, this book explores architecture, jade, food, and even toilets, combining an acute sense of the use of space in buildings. The book also includes descriptions of laquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure.

In Praise of Shadows

Essays & Correspondence

Leete's Island Books

Independent Publishers Group (Chicago Review Press)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Junichiro Tanizaki. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Junichiro Tanizaki

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Junichiro Tanizaki. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi

The Key

The Makioka Sisters

Quicksand

Seven Japanese Tales

Some prefer nettles

In Praise Of Shadows

Naomi

In Praise of Shadows

In Praise of Shadows