Books
Search Books
Kusamakura
Natsume Sōseki
Natsume Soseki’s strangest and most beautiful novel, an early modern work of experimental fiction whose elegant prose reaches for a new synthesis of traditional and modern sensibilities.
Penguin Modern Classics, 2008.
Paperback / 176 Pages / ISBN: 9780143105190
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney (2 Editions)
Ravine and Other Stories
Furui Yoshikichi
Four stories by one of Japan’s leading contemporary literary figures, dreamlike evocations of the strange hinterland of ordinary consciousness. This translation won the Japan-US Friendship Commission Translation Award in 2000.
Stone Bridge Press, California, 1997.
Paperback / 144 pages / ISBN: 1880656299
Translated by Meredith McKinney
The Tale of Saigyo: A Medieval Tale of the Poet-priest Saigyō
A medieval Japanese poem-tale that recreates the life of the famed poet-priest Saigyō (1118-1190) through his poetry. Includes new translations of some of Saigyō’s finest waka.
Michigan University Press, Michigan, 1998.
Paperback / 89 pages / ISBN 9780939512836
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
(3 Editions)
The Pillow Book
Sei Shōnagon
A new translation of the great Heian period classic written by a lady-in-waiting at the empress’s court at the turn of the 10th century. Includes Sei Shonagon’s famous lists (Things that give pleasure, Startling and disconcerting things etc.) plus a rich variety of anecdotes, reveries, opinions, poetry, and much else besides.
Penguin Classics, London, 2006.
Paperback / 364 pages / ISBN: 9780140448061
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
(2 Editions)
White-Haired Melody
Furui Yoshikichi
A novel by one of Japan’s leading contemporary literary figures (see also Ravine and Other Stories above), which charts the intense inner experience of illness and ageing.
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2008.
Cloth / 275 pages / ISBN: 9781929280469
Translated by Meredith McKinney
Kokoro
Natsume Sōseki
The great early modern novelist Natsume Soseki’s most famous novel, an exploration of relationships woven through with the difficulties of living in a rapidly changing Japan.
Penguin Modern Classics, 2010.
Paperback / 258 pages / ISBN: 9780143106036
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
(2 Editions)
A Thousand Strands of Black Hair Tanabe Seiko
The story of the great early modern poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942), told by one of contemporary Japan’s finest woman writers. Includes new translations of over 200 of Yosano Akiko’s best-known tanka.
Tanabe Seiko, Thames River Press, November 2012.
Hardback / 283 pages / ISBN: 9780857282460
Translated by Meredith McKinney
Death by Choice
Shimada Masahiko
A darkly comic novel in the “hard-boiled decadence” tradition by one of its leading contemporary exponents, which takes a cynical and happy-go-lucky look at some of modern Japan’s obsessions and foibles.
Thames River Press, 2012.
Hardback / 251 pages / ISBN: 9780857282477
Translated by Meredith McKinney
Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki
Yoshida Kenkō and Kamo no Chōmei
New translations of two medieval classics, one a famous 14th century collection of anecdotes and opinions by a lay Buddhist priest, the other an elegant early 13th century Buddhist hermit’s poetic memoir.
Penguin Classics, 2014
Paperback / 224 pages / ISBN 978014119210
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
The Kingdom of the Wind
Itsuki Hiroyuki
A powerful magic realist tale of a mysterious ancient cult embodying a precious lost vision of the world, that reappears to do battle with modern forces of destruction.
Thames River Press, 2014.
Hardback / 340 pages / ISBN: 9781783081295
Translated by Meredith McKinney
The Wild Goose
Mori Ōgai
A delicate novella by one of Japan’s greatest early modern writers, built around the intimate portrait of an innocent young girl and the three very different men in her life.
Finlay Lloyd Publishers, 2014.
Paperback / 158 pages / ISBN: 9780987592927
Translated by Meredith McKinney
A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees
Yoshida Kenkō
A selection of the highlights from Essays in Idleness and Hōjōki.
Penguin Classics, London, 2015.
Paperback / 44 pages / ISBN: 9780141398259
Translated by Meredith McKinney
Travels with a Writing Brush:
Classical Japanese Travel Writing
from the Manyōshū to Bashō
A comprehensive anthology of the first thousand years of traditional Japanese travel literature, from the earliest poetry to the great travel journals of the 17th century haiku poet Bashō, while tracing the story of the early evolution of Japanese literature.
Penguin Classics, 2019.
Paperback / 400 pages / ISBN: 9780241310878
Selected and translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
Gazing at the Moon:
Buddhist Poems of Solitude
Saigyō
Translations of over 100 poems by the great medieval poet-monk Saigyō, tracing his spiritual life from first awakening to death.
Shambhala Publications, 2021.
Paperback / 160 pages / ISBN: 9781611809428
Translated with an introduction by Meredith McKinney
The Equal Heart and Mind: Letters between Judith Wright and Jack McKinney
An intimate portrait in letters of the early years of the relationship between poet Judith Wright and philosopher Jack McKinney.
University of Queensland Press, 2004.
Paperback / 202 pages / ISBN 0702234419
Edited by Patricia Clarke and Meredith McKinney