日本の近現代文学を代表する作家による短編作品を作家の生年順に、文久生まれの森鴎外（『山椒大夫』）から吉本ばなな（『キムチの夢』）まで、計35編収録する短編集。
 
選者はヨーク大学（カナダ）人文学部教授で、村上春樹の著作の訳者としても著名な日本文学研究者、翻訳者のテッド・グーセン。川端康成（『伊豆の踊子』）、大江健三郎（『飼育』）の2人のノーベル文学賞受賞者はもちろんのこと、海外で評価の高い谷崎潤一郎（『青い花』）や三島由紀夫（『女形』）、そして村上春樹（『象の消滅』）の作品にも触れることができます。
    

• Includes two Nobel-prize winners: Oe and Kawabata and the acclaimed writers Tanizaki, Mishima, and Murakami
• Captures the exoticism and appeal of Japanese culture
• Includes many new, previously unpublished translations
• Ted Goossen is a gifted translator, well-acquainted with the contemporary Japanese literary scene
• Contains biographical notes on all contributors and a filmography exploring the link between fiction and cinema

   
This collection of short stories, including many new translations, is the first to span the whole of Japan's modern era from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day. Beginning with the first writings to assimilate and rework Western literary traditions, through the flourishing of the short story genre in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Taisho era, to the new breed of writers produced under the constraints of literary censorship, and the current writings reflecting the pitfalls and paradoxes of modern life, this anthology offers a stimulating survey of the development of the Japanese short story.

Various indigenous traditions, in addition to those drawn from the West, recur throughout the stories: stories of the self, of the Water Trade (Tokyo's nightlife of geishas and prostitutes), of social comment, love and obsession, legends and fairytales. This collection includes the work of two Nobel prize-winners: Kawabata and Oe, the talented women writers Hirabayashi, Euchi, Okamoto, and Hayashi, together with the acclaimed Tanizaki, Mishima, and Murakami.

The introduction by Theodore Goossen gives insight into these exotic and enigmatic, sometimes disturbing stories, derived from the lyrical roots of Japanese literature with its distinctive stress on atmosphere and beauty.