Japanese Literature Quotes

“Unhappiness. There are all kinds of unhappy people in the world. I suppose it would be no exaggeration to say that the world is composed entirely of unhappy people. But those people can fight their unhappiness with society fairly and squarly, and society for its part easily understands and sympathizes with such struggles. My unhappiness stemmed entirely from my own vices, and I had no way of fighting anybody.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

“Young people get the foolish idea that what is new for them must be new for everybody else too. No matter how unconventional they get, they're just repeating what others before them have done.”
― Yukio Mishima, After the Banquet

“For clearly it is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other.”
― Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

“People have separated from each other with walls of concrete that blocked the roads to connection and love. and Nature has been defeated in the name of development.”
― Yasunari Kawabata

“We Orientals tend to seek our satisfactions in whatever surroundings we happen to find ourselves, to content ourselves with things as they are; and so darkness causes us no discontent, we resign ourselves to it as inevitable. If light is scarce, then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty. But the progressive Westerner is determined always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gaslight, gaslight to electric light—his quest for a brighter light never ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate even the minutest shadow.”
― Junichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

“When you're in an extreme situation you tend to avoid facing it by getting caught up in little details. Like a guy who's decided to commit suicide and boards a train only to become obsessed with whether he remembered to lock the door when he left home.”
― Ryū Murakami, In the Miso Soup

“Just before I fell asleep, I had a moment of panic ...”
― Ryu Murakami, In the Miso Soup

“From then on, my thesis hung over me like a curse, and with bloodshot eyes, I worked like a madman.”
― Natsume Sōseki, Kokoro

“Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.”
― Natsume Soseki

“See, see how the sun has moved onward while we talked. Nothing can stop it in its course. Prayers cannot halt the revolving of nature. It is the same with human life. Victory and defeat are one in the vast stream of life. Victory is the beginning of defeat, and who can rest safely in victory? Impermanence is the nature of all things of this world. Even you will find your ill fortunes too will change. It is easy to understand the impatience of the old, whose days are numbered, but why should you young ones fret when the future is yours?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“I felt as though I owned the whole world. And little wonder, because at no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny , as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. This is what makes travel so utterly fruitless.”
― Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

“Books have souls,’ repeated the cat softly. ‘A cherished book will always have a soul. It will come to its reader’s aid in times of crisis.”
― Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books

“Not only must a warrior be strong with his bow, but he must have a heart full of pity for all living creatures.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“He invited me to his apartment in the wee hours one morning and pulled out a set of children's building blocks. It seems he used to ride around and around on the Yamanote Line with them, building castles on the floor of the train.”
― Ryū Murakami, In the Miso Soup

“Human beings are basically huge monkeys that walked upright, but they can be pretty full of themselves.”
― Hiro Arikawa, The Travelling Cat Chronicles

“Die? Then so be it.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“…In the very simplicity of her desire to punish herself appeared egoism in its purest form. Never before had this woman who seemed to think only of herself experienced an egoism so immaculate.”
― Yukio Mishima, Thirst for Love

“Don't yield! Keep up your courage! The same sun looks down on all of us!”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“All I want is to know what happened - I want to somehow grasp every detail of the events of that day, that one day like a tiny dewdrop... but now it's all engulfed in the profound darkness of time.”
― Takashi Hiraide, The Guest Cat

“Insane" es un problema mental congénito, y se considera conveniente tratarlo con una terapia especializada. En cambio, "Lunatic" se refiere a una pérdida temporal del juivio debido al efecto de la luna.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

“Call them robbers and cutthroats--were they not amiable enough when they had sufficient to fill their bellies? Something was out of joint in a world that drove these men to steal.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

“Is that so? He who lives in the mountains years for the city, and the city-dweller would rather live in the mountains," the Abbot chuckled, "and nothing is ever to one's liking...”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

“I can only bow to the will of the heaven, but not to the will of these men.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“Should misfortune visit the Court, that can only be the result of its continued abuses. If the palace is attacked, that can only be the result of misgovernment. I can hardly be held responsible for the outcome.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“In the ashes on the hearth Saigyo traced and retraced the word, "pity." He had yet to learn to accept life with all its good and evils, to love life in all its manifestations by becoming one with nature. And for this he had abandoned home, wife, and child in that city of conflict. He had fled to save his own life, not for any grandiose dream of redeeming mankind; neither had he taken vows with the thoughts of chanting sutras to Buddha; nor did he aspire to brocaded ranks of the high prelates. Only by surrendering to nature could he best cherish his own life, learn how man should live, and therein find peace. And if any priest accused him of taking the vows out of self-love, not to purify the world and bring salvation to men, Saigyo was ready to admit that these charges were true and that he deserved to be reviled and spat upon as a false priest. Yet, if driven to answer for himself, he was prepared to declare that he who had not learned to love his own life could not love mankind, and that what he sought now was to love that life which was his. Gifts he had none to preach salvation or the precepts of Buddha; all that he asked was to be left to exist as humbly as the butterflies and the birds.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

“Ah, you pitiful, pitiful creatures! Beautiful family! Nobler far than stupid men..." he cried softly to himself. What was he doing here with his arrow? Cornering these creatures? Armor--an armor to brag about! Save his dignity before that armor-maker because of a promise? Foolish...foolish! If the old man jeered at him, why should it matter anymore; a common suit of armor would do as well! Armor did not make a man, nor did it signify valor.

"Dumb creatures that you are, how magnificent! Sorrow, love--parental love incarnate! Were I that fox--what if Tokiko and Shigemori were trapped like this? Even the beast can rise above itself--could I as much?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“Here--you warriors--why this moaning and complaining? Have you no more sense than toads and vipers? Our time hasn't come. Have you no patience? Are we not the 'trodden weed' still? The time is not yet here for us to raise our heads. Must you still complain?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa, The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War

“Through his mad fancying he remembered Mokunosuke's words: "Whoever you are, you are a man after all. You are no cripple with those fine limbs." Whether he was the son of an emperor or the child of an intrigue, was he not a child of the heavens and the earth?”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“I seem to hear thousands of voices--the voices of the common folk in the marketplace--urging me to go forward and do what must be done. More is at stake now than my life. On me turns the future of the warriors. Let's not quibble longer, lest this rare opportunity slip through my fingers.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa

“How was Gengo to know, Saigyo reflected, that this unheroic existence imposed even greater torment than the icy lashings of the Nachi Falls in its thousand-foot leap? How was Gengo to realize that Saigyo had not slept a single night undisturbed since he had fled his home for the Eastern Hills, that his sleep was haunted by the cries of his beloved daughter from whom he had torn himself.

Who knew that during the day, when he went about his tasks of drawing water and chopping wood as he composed verses, the sighting of the wind in the treetops of the valleys below and the pines surrounding the temple sounded to him like the mourning of his young wife, and so troubled his nights that sleep no longer visited him? Never again would Saigyo find peace. He had wrenched asunder the living boughs of the tree that was his life. Remorse and compassion for his loved ones would dog him to the end of his days.”
― Eiji Yoshikawa