A map to explore the charm of Japanese literature

The surge of Japanese literature resounds with renewed force in recent translations of authors, whether more or less established, that provoke the pleasure of entering another vision of reality. In other words, it's not just the literature of a distant territory; rather, its writings embody a way of constructing and inhabiting the body, relationships, and the world.

Some of them, like Yasunari Kawabata, or the more recent Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami, have long been admired by their readers. So much so that their works serve as a bridge to other, lesser-known authors , who have a kind of secret cult following for Japanese writing.

With the impact only a classic can achieve, Fumiko Enchi 's The Years of Waiting is one of the great works of the 20th century. And today it can be read in a crystal-clear translation, direct from Japanese, by Matias Chiappe Ippolito.

The story follows the life of Tomo, a character inspired by the author's grandmother . It narrates the experiences of a traditional wife in the late 19th century who, through her strict sense of justice and meticulous intelligence, exposes the weight of tradition on Japanese women. Her husband is a high-ranking government official, and she is willing to satisfy him, even when it means bending to him.

The novel begins when Tomo, after years of marriage, is forced to find a concubine for her husband, welcome her into her home, and accept living together as something natural. Of course, this isn't the only sacrifice she endures; the scenes delve into family routines, particularly exposing the power ties woven within the most intimate circle , which are reflected in the society of the time.

Enchi's elegant writing captures the psychological complexity of the characters ; she weaves the narrative together with a sensitivity capable of uncovering all the dimensions of an experience pierced by the rigidity of mandates.

The layered style of meaning brings to mind another contemporary Japanese author, the extraordinary Minae Mizumura, who rereads her country's tradition and combines it with Western classics to create stories as moving as the enthralling A True Novel .

In it , he delves into the story of a love that transcends eras , classes, and prejudices, playing with points of view in a kaleidoscope of meanings that touches the deepest part of the spirit.

These days, by the way, Mizumura's first work, Light and Darkness: A Sequel (2025, A.Hache), is coming out. The writer took on the challenge of imagining a possible ending to Light and Darkness , the novel that Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916), one of the most important novelists of modern Japan, left unfinished upon his death.

In Japan, there was much speculation about what the outcome of the slow destruction of Tsuda and O-Nobu's marriage, as told in the original story, might be . The sequel, which can be read independently, is set in a 1920s mountain village, where the protagonist retreated to recover. There he meets his first love.

Another masterpiece that has a new Spanish edition is the famous The Sand Castle , a key story by one of the great authors of Japanese crime novels, Seicho Matsumoto .

Originally published in 1961, it tells the story of police inspector Imanishi, who is faced with a disconcerting case : the body of a man with a disfigured face is found at a Tokyo station. So the inspector is forced to abandon his bonsai trees and haikus to delve deeper into the case. After weeks of following false leads, they close the case, but he refuses to give up and persists. Through the protagonist and his wife, Matsumoto shows 20th-century Japan, its gastronomy, art, society, and culture in a landscape of towns and cities.

Added to these is Dorayaki , Durian Sukegawa 's novel that seems to speak to us in a whisper, and for the first time is available in Spanish. At first glance, it seems to tell a minor story ; one only has to read further to discover that it proposes a delicate path toward the deepest questions of human existence.

Sentaro is a lonely man who runs a dorayaki cake business to pay off a debt with his hard work. Everything seems routine until he meets Tokue, a very special old woman who offers him a job as her employee. The encounter, of course, gradually and profoundly transforms Sentaro's life . It's a story that delicately embodies a philosophical perspective capable of moving people.

In the short genre, you can read the disturbing stories of Child Hunting , by the unsettling Taeko Kōno . They are a series of stories that portray disturbing details of everyday life, with an irreverence capable of speaking about the discomforts that come with the rejection of motherhood, the relationship with death, abnormal sexuality, or childhood trauma. All of these are themes that run through her work with a cruelty that brooks no contemplation.

With more secret but equally significant authors , the publishing house También el Caracol is dedicating its "Bamboo Forest" collection exclusively to Japanese authors. Among them, two essential short story collections stand out, which renewed the Japanese style of writing: Spring Comes in a Horse-Drawn Cart and Heads and Belly , both by Riichi Yokomitsu (1898-1947).

The writer was Kawabata's teacher , yet he remains virtually unknown. His stories speak of his own suffering, sometimes self-inflicted, and also of that of others, while simultaneously exposing the fragility of a territory and a culture in transition to supposed progress.

While these authors are not all of those currently circulating in the country, together they demonstrate the richness of a tradition that contains a diversity of voices, genres, and aesthetics that transcend any preconceived notions of the Eastern world. At the same time, their reading embodies the possibility of extending the limits of our reality toward other ways of living, filled with the richness of the unknown.