The Smile of the Mountain Witch

10/25/22 • 41 min

In this episode...

Is she a man-eating crone?

Is she a lonely wanderer?

Or is she a sensual matriarch?

However you define her, she’s the yama-uba—Japan’s legendary mountain witch.
Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.
Donate to RJL's Patreon.

Please note that text messages are for feedback only. RJL can't respond directly.
Get in touch at www.readjapaneseliterature.com.
Support RJL on Patreon.com.
Buy your books from Bookshop.org.
All content © 2024 Read Japanese Literature.

In this episode...

Is she a man-eating crone?

Is she a lonely wanderer?

Or is she a sensual matriarch?

However you define her, she’s the yama-uba—Japan’s legendary mountain witch.
Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.
Donate to RJL's Patreon.

In this episode...

Post-bubble Japan.

The history of socially-conscious Japanese literature.

And Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, a powerful examination of Tokyo by one of the most invisible people imaginable—the ghost of a homeless day laborer.
Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.
Donate to RJL's Patreon.

Today, we’re going to look at cats in Japanese literature.

We’ll start with the history of cats in Japan.

We’ll move on to cats in Japanese folklore and fiction, including the work of Haruki Murakami.

And finally we’ll end with a discussion of our readers' choice, “The Town of Cats” by Sakutaro Hagiwara.
Notes and sources at the podcast episode website.