Comrade Loves of the Samurai

Comrade Loves of the Samurai PDF

Author: Ihara Saikaku

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-06-07

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1462900437

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In Comrade Loves of a Samurai, the theme of homosexual love between the samurai is explored. To the old Japanese such love among samurai was quite permissible. The sons of samurai families were urged to form homosexual alliances while youth lasted, and often these loves matured into lifelong companionships. Saikaku describes Japanese love scenes of all kinds with a frankness that has made him a favorite with expurgators, but he discusses different types of love with tenderness and compassion. The Songs of the Geisha included in this volume is a collection of geisha folk songs composed to be sung to the accompaniment of the shamisen. All of the songs have a charmingly nostalgic quality which fitted well with the time and the circumstances for which they were composed. They are intimately personal, expressing the feelings of the geisha towards their sympathetic listeners. Love, frustration, and the futility of hope are their main themes. These lyrics, for all their erotic symbolism, are restrained and tactful, and their erotic beauty must be felt rather than heard. Both books were originally privately published in London in 1928 as a two volume set entitled Eastern Love.

Samurai

Samurai PDF

Author: John Man

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-02-10

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1409011054

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The name 'Samurai' is synonymous with the ultimate warrior. With their elaborate armour, fierce swordsmanship and code of honour, the samurai have become iconic figures whose influence can still be felt today . From Kurosawa's epic Seven Samurai to the figure of Darth Vader in Star Wars, to Manga comics and video games, the figure of the fighting samurai still inspires us today. In John Man's new book we discover the truth behind the legend. From his birth in the shadow of the great volcano Sakurajima, to his glorious death by ritual suicide and disembowelment, Saigo Takamori was the ultimate Samurai leader. His fall brought about the end of hundreds of years of Samurai tradition and in many ways marks the birth of modern Japan. Saigo was a man trapped by paradox: a faithful servant to the emperor, and yet a leader of rebel troops; a mighty Samurai warrior, and also a master of Chinese poetry. His life, and ultimately his death, offer a window into the hundreds of years of culture and tradition that defined the samurai.

Autumn Wind & Other Stories

Autumn Wind & Other Stories PDF

Author: Lane Dunlop

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-12-27

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1462903096

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"Lane Dunlop's translations read elegantly, and his selection of modern Japanese Stories is both fresh and persuasive." —Donald Keene, Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. The fourteen distinct voices of this collection tell fourteen very different stories spanning sixty years of twentieth-century Japanese literature. They include a nostalgic portrait of an aristocratic Meiji family in Kafu Nagai's "The Fox," a surprisingly cheerful celebration of postwar chaos in Sakaguchi Ango's "One Woman and the War," a chilly assessment of the modern society in Watanabe Junichi's "Invitation to Suicide," and much more. The writers also represent a wide spectrum, from renowned figure of Yasunari Kawabata, winner of the Noble Prize for Literature in 1968, to authors whose works have never before been translated into English. Westerners familiar only with stereotypical images of bowing geisha and dark-suited businessmen will be surprised by the cast of characters translator Lane Dunlop introduces in this anthology. Lovers of fiction and student of Japan are certain to find these stories absorbing, engaging and instructive.

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