THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Offers a variety of Buddhist techniques to help us feel calmer every day . . . Nothing has changed . . . and everything has changed . . . I feel calmer and more centred' Sunday TimesWhat if we could learn to look instead of see, listen instead of hear, feel instead of touch? Former monk Ryunosuke Koike shows how, by incorporating simple Zen practices into our daily lives, we can reconnect with our five ...

'What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad.'Autobiographical stories from one of Japan's masters of modernist story-telling.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blosso...

Every mystery hides a secret. Every clue brings you closer to the truth. 30 Mystery & Investigation Masterpieces brings together a collection of classic mystery and detective stories filled with intriguing crimes, clever investigations, suspicious characters, hidden clues, dangerous secrets, and unexpected revelations. From puzzling disappearances and mysterious deaths to elaborate schemes and seemingly impossible crimes, these stories challenge readers to follow the evidence, examine ever...

Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. ‘Rashömon’ and ‘In a Bamboo Grove’ inspired Kurosawa’s magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as ‘The Nose’, ‘O-Gin’ and ‘Loyalty’ paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later wo...

"In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of events that brings into question humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth. It is the basis for Kurosawa's "Rashoumon...

"In a Grove" (藪の中 Yabu no Naka) is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa; it first appeared in the January 1922 edition of the Japanese literature monthly Shinchō. Akira Kurosawa used this story as the basis for the plot of his award-winning movie Rashōmon."In a Grove" is an early modernist short story, as well as a blending of the modernist search for identity with themes from historic Japanese literature, and as such is perhaps the iconic work of Akutagawa's career. It presents th...

"Akutagawa displays an insightful and keenly creative intelligence in prose so lucid its sophistication is hardly visible." —Chris Power, The GuardianRyunosuke Akutagawa (1892—1927), often called "the Father of the Japanese short story," wrote more than 150 works during his brief but prolific career. Widely regarded as Japan's master storyteller, he blended modern sensibilities with timeless themes to profound effect.This new anthology offers the m...

"In a Grove" is an early modernist short story consisting of seven varying accounts of the murder of a samurai, Kanazawa no Takehiro, whose corpse has been found in a bamboo forest near Kyoto. Each section simultaneously clarifies and obfuscates what the reader knows about the murder, eventually creating a complex and contradictory vision of events that brings into question humanity's ability or willingness to perceive and transmit objective truth. It is the basis for Kurosawa's "Rashoumon...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, ...

Three classic Japanese works with an active table of contents. Works and authors include:"Botchan" By Kin-nosuke Natsume"Rashomon and Other Stories" By Ryunosuke Akutagawa"Selections from Genji Monogatari" By Murasaki Shikibu

Akutagawa’s magical final work is a short novel with a magic spell all its own—poignant, fantastical, wry, melancholic, and wittyThe Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore known for dragging unwary toddlers to their deaths in rivers: a scaly, child-sized creature, looking something like a frog, but with a sharp, pointed beak and an oval-shaped saucer on top of its head, which hardens with age.Akutagawa’s Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a ma...