What's the best Japanese Veeky Forumserature? Asking for a friend

the only significant literature composed in the japanese language is poetry
only posers read japanese novels

> the only significant literature composed in the japanese language is poetry

then what's the best poetry desu

Give his earlier stuff a read first.

The sound of the mountain by Kawabata
mono no aware AF

mostly true, but not totally true senpai

Abe Kobo

Aria
Mushishi
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Tale of Genji. Mishima. Tale of the Heike. Basho. Kenzaburo Oe.

Do we mean best regardless of accessibility? If you are going for the heavy hitters just pick up Murasaki, Sei Shōnagon, and Chikamatsu. Murasaki is something of the Japanese Homer, Shōnagon to Hesiod and Chikamatsu to Shakespeare... sorta.

If you want more recent things that are more accessible then the biggest names for Japanese lit outside of Japan are Mishima, Kawabata, and Oe. All quite different from each other. That's probably a good starting point for good post war stuff.
If you want Meiji fiction then Soeski and Akutagawa are great. To be honest the Japanese have a very different idea about what makes a work of art great than in the west. Sure something like Paradise Lost is great but clearly Basho isn't trying to do anything like that with his poems. You need to let go on what you think great literature is in order to come to grips with a very different sort of greatness.

Lit for the most part despises Murakami. It's not just lit though. Oe and Abe have rubbished him. He's a middle brow sort of author. He isn't very good but is okay if you are at a certain stage in your growing appreciation of literature.

Oe if you like the modern novel, he is one of the best modern novelists.
Soseki is the most fun, worth reading, especially if you enjoy stuff like Sterne.
Mishima is probably the most interesting. I don't necessarily enjoy reading him as much as the previous two (or Dazai or Abe), but I find my self thinking and talking about him the most.
I should read Kawabata and Endo...

Abe is a thinking man's Murakami

Yukio Mishima
Akira Toriyama
Kenzaburo Oe
Osamu Dazai

Read the Tale of Genji in the original classical Japanese or go back

Tukulito sakayama and Kachi Chien are top tier

> explores post-imperial Japan in the form of a "tough-guy-gone-soft" character
> Develops his political beliefs in the form of a underdeveloped pre-teen gang leader

Why haven't you read Yukio Mishima yet?

Basho sucks in any language.

Reki Kawahara

So you know Japanese?

this is such shit, his latest novels are middle-brow tripe but his 80's and 90's output wiped the floor with anything Oe (who i happen to like) put out

where to start with Abe lads

''The sailor who fell from sea with grace'' is so beautiful. I have got to read it again.
Why is japanese lit so comfy guys? Pic related of course.

can confirm

ITT: nobody who speaks Japanese

Veeky Forums btfo

...

I agree with most of these listed thus far, but I'll throw up Kōbō Abe in the conversation. The Woman in the Dunes is an absolute classic, and Kangaroo Notebook is legitimately one of the funniest things I've ever read.

Woman in the Dunes> Ark Sakura> Ruined Map> Box Man> everything else... ease yourself into the crazy

>I agree with most of these listed thus far, but I'll throw up Kōbō Abe in the conversation.
But he had already been mentioned five times before you made this post.

japanese author power rank:
\
the top 5 are:

soseki
tanizaki
kawabata
oe
akutagawa

and then the second tier-
abe
dazai
endo
mishima
inoue

then you got a bunch of people whose legacies aren't totally clear yet or are just aren't as important as the above few-
ibuse
ogai
r. murakami
kirino
yoshimoto
enchi
miyamoto

etc. etc.

Ikkyu - Crow with no mouth

the goat

Is there any particular reason why the only writer you have born earlier than the mid 19th century isn't even really a writer? How can you have a top five ranking while ignoring the Heian through to the Tokugawa period?

Dazai was the original NEET after the underground man

But the Underground man had a job.

modern japanese lit is a very distinct tradition than pre-perry japanese lit/culture and are not particularly comparable.

>the original NEET
That would be Oblomov, if we're talking about literary characters. As for writers, you could be right about Dazai.

Kobo Abe

どんな男だって可愛い女の子を見たら、むくむくと欲望が鎌首をもたげてレッドスネークカモンなんですよ

Subarashiki Hibi

Any top tier short story collections?

akutagawa

Fuyumi Ono

Any particular title?

MOT-232

Get his Rashomon and other stories collection, it's universally acknowledged in Japan to literally be the best short stories that have ever come out of their language

Maria Ozawa as a newscaster taking 30 loads as she babbles in engrish

Ono is a woman, and didn't compile any collections that include Rashomon. Did you mean Akutagawa?

mfw best jap lit is manga

I hate his style for some reason.
I got one of his books as a gift and it's the only japanese book I have that I haven't read.