Big news guys! We have poetry this week!

For a while I thought that e-hon, where I get my list, just doesn’t include poetry in their new releases, or that it was listed in a place I wasn’t checking. I’m not convinced that there isn’t more poetry being released, possibly by smaller presses (and goodness knows there are a lot of poetry magazines being released throughout Japan), but that sort of thing is hard to confirm. But at the very least, there are two big name poetry releases this week, so let’s start there.

雨ニモマケズ風ニモマケズ　宮澤賢治詩集百選
Yielding to Neither Rain Nor Wind: 100 Poems by Miyazawa Kenji

Miyazawa Kenji is one of Japan’s most revered children’s authors. A devout Buddhist, he wrote over 800 poems inspired by the Lotus Flower Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. This is a collection of one hundred of those poems, including one of his most famous (famous enough to have it’s own Wikipedia article anyway!)

眼の海      “Sea of Eyeballs”
辺見庸      Hemmi Yo

Hemmi Yo is a prolific writer of many hats. He’s an award-winning novelist, non-fiction writer, and poet. He’s won the Akutagawa for his fiction, the Kodansha Non-Fiction Award, and the Nakahara Chuuyo Prize for his last poetry collection, 生首 (“Severed Heads”). “Severed Heads” was also one of the works featured in the September 2011 issue of Japan Book News (link is to PDF version). “Sea of Eyeballs” is his latest collection of poetry.

ジェントルマン       “Gentleman”
山田詠美                   Yamada Amy

Yamada Amy is a controversial writer who often writes about race (particularly African Americans) and sex. Her novels Bedtime Eyes and Trash have been translated into English. “Gentleman” is about Soutarou, your typical gentleman: handsome, accomplished, intelligent, strong. But behind this exterior lies a icy, twisted heart.

小澤征爾さんと、音楽について話をする     “I Talk About Music With Ozawa Seiji”
小澤征爾／著　村上春樹／著                          Murakami Haruki and Ozawa Seiji

The latest from Murakami Haruki. Yes, it’s non-fiction, which means it’ll probably never ever come in English translation. Just thought you’d like to know it came out (we first announced it here.)

名のないシシャ      “A Messenger Without a Name”
山田悠介                    Yamada Yuusuke

“A Messenger Without a Name” is about those who can see how long others will live and have the ability to change that length of that time at will. Yamada Yusuke is a very popular writer who has had much of his work made into movies and TV shows, including this incredibly ridiculous-looking movie リアル鬼ごっこ (“Real Tag.” Yes, as in the game you played as a kid.) It even spawned a sequel!

More after the break.

トワイライト・テールズ      “Twilight Tales”
山本弘                                       Yamamoto Hiroshi

Yamamoto Hiroshi is the author of The Stories of Ibis and the forthcoming MM9, which is being published in English translation by Haikasoru. I mention this particularly because “Twilight Tales”  is compromised of two stories that take place in the same universe as MM9. One is about a boy who is surprised to see that the giant monster invading his city looks exactly like the one he sketched out when he was being bullied as an elementary school. The second story is about a girl who befriends a giant monster.

こころのつづき   “The Heart Continues”
森浩美                     Mori Hiromi

8 short stories about ordinary people living their lives, filled with love and affection. Mori Hiromi is mainly known for his work as a songwriter, writing hits for SMAP, KinKi Kids, and many more.

野いばら        “Wild Roses”
梶村啓二         Kashimura Keiji

This novel won the latest Nikkei Novel Prize. It’s a love story about a British soldier and a Japanese woman after the Namamugi Incident in the mid 1800s (so I would guess it’s no exaggeration to say that they were in a real Romeo and Juliet type situation).

ログ・ホライズン　５  アキバの街の日曜日
Log Horizon Volume 5: Sunday in Akiba
橙乃ままれ／著　桝田省治／監修      Touno Mamare, Masada Shoji (ed.)

Touno Mamare is the successful self-publisher of MAO YUU (which we talked about a few weeks ago) who has branched out with this series, which is about players in an MMORPG. Since he still self-publishes all his work, you can read the whole series, in Japanese, online.

防波堤　     “Breakwater”
今野敏           Konno Bin

“Breakwater” takes place in Yokohama, and is about the war between the local yakuza and a law enforcement agent named “The ‘Hama Bodyguard.” Author of an insane amount of fiction, Konno is the winner of the Yoshikawa Eiji Newcomer’s Prize and the Japan Mystery Writer’s Association Prize back in the ’60s and ’70s. “The Chivalrous Hospital” was released just a few weeks ago; we covered it here.

暗闇で踊れ      “Dance in the Dark”
馳星周               Hase Seichuu

Hase Seichuu is the winner of the Yoshikawa Eiji New Writer’s Prize and the Mystery Writer’s of Japan Award. He also wrote the script for the video games Yakuza and Yakuza 2.

Illegal works of art are appearing in massive quantities in the Tokyo black market. The investigation leads to a millionaire with no apparent relatives.

冬姫         “Fuyuhime”
葉室麟　Hamuro Rin

Hamuro Rin is the winner of the Historical Fiction Prize and Matsumoto Seicho Prize. It takes place in the Warring States period, and is about Nobunaga’s daughter Fuyuhime.

平清盛　１                     “Kiyomori Volume 1″
藤本有紀 / 青木邦子      Fujimoto Yuki (Story ) / Aoki Kazuko (Novelization)

The novelization of the 2012 NHK Taiga Drama.