Tag Archives: RKS Japanese Literature

RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)

“I keep using the word expression” Haraguchi went on, “but an artist doesn’t paint what’s inside, he doesn’t paint the heart. He paints what the heart puts on display. As long as he observes everything in the display case, he can tell what’s locked up in the safe. Or we can assume that much, IContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Painting the Flesh Without Spirit (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Young Japanese Men with Literary Power in their Hands (Sōseki Natsume)

“No one with a brain in his head can stand here in the centre of the intellectual world and be indifferent to the violent upheavals going on before his eyes. We young men are the ones who hold today’s literary power in our hands, so we have to take the initiative to make every word,Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Young Japanese Men with Literary Power in their Hands (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Empty Headed Japanese University Students (Sōseki Natsume)

“The students who flocked to Berlin to hear Hegel’s lectures”-this fellow was obviously a great admirer of Hegel-“were not driven by ambition. They did not intend to exploit the lectures to qualify themselves for making a living. No, they came because their hearts were pure. They knew only that a philosopher called Hegel transmitted fromContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Empty Headed Japanese University Students (Sōseki Natsume)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Pecker Nationalism Falls Flat! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“What the hell are you doing? You’re numbah one, aren’t you? Come on. Show the American. That huge thing is the pride of Japan. Knock him out with it! Scare the shit out of him! It was a matter of pecker nationalism: his thing had to stand, or it would mean dishonour to the race.Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Pecker Nationalism Falls Flat! (Akiyuki Nosaka)”

RKS Japanese Literature: American Soldiers Nothing Like the Spindly British General Percival Who Surrendered Singapore (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“Maybe General Percival was an exception, because the soldiers I was looking at had arms like roof beams and hips like millstones, and underneath trousers that glowed with a sheen our civilian uniforms never had, you could see their powerful buttocks. I had been granted beginner’ s status in the Martial Arts Society and IContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: American Soldiers Nothing Like the Spindly British General Percival Who Surrendered Singapore (Akiyuki Nosaka)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“All at once, without an order or a shout of any kind the column came to a halt and the soldiers, who until then had looked like a part of the machinery with their uniforms the same colour as the trucks, spang out-almost as if they had been shot out-holding rifles. Once on the ground,Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)

“The number of people on the riverbed increased minute by minute, many of them now with severe burns. At first, we didn’t realize that their injuries were burns. There were no fires, so how could they have been burnt so badly? Strange, grotesque, they were more pathetic than frightening. They had all been burnt inContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: People Looking Like Baked Rice Crackers (Yoko Ōta)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)

“This was the first good look we had had of each other’s angry faces, but smiling was an impossibility. We couldn’t see our own faces, but looking at each other gave us an idea. My sister’s face was puffed up like a loaf of bread, and her eyes, normally large, black and uncannily clear, hadContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Face Puffed up Like a Loaf of Bread (Yoko Ōta)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)

“We could not conceive of the day’s events as being related in any way to the war. We were being crushed by a sheer force-an intense and one-sided force-that had nothing to do with the war. Neither did we as fellow Japanese encourage one another or console one another. We behaved submissively and said nothing.Continue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Hiroshima Aftermath: Crushed by Sheer Force (Yoko Ōta)”

RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)

“So the day after next, I bought a pile of colourful macaroons at the macaroon shop in the arcade….I placed the box of macaroons and cherries on the coffee table with a polite bow. Thanking me with a smile, she took the two boxes to the kitchen and soon returned with some coffee and theContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Idiocy of Macaroons (Mieko Kawakami)”