...not even a mention of the Tale of Genji? I think the Genji is a vastly richer and deeper experience than the Pillow Book and it's certainly much more important in Japanese cultural history.

No mention of Genji? No Mishima, no Kenzaburo Oe, no Murakami??? Duh!!

I was coming here to address a wrong, only do discover the first two letters already took care of it. The Genji is the paramount creation of Japanese literature in its own period, perhaps in any period, perhaps in any period of all civilization.

I guess having said that, it won't come as a surprise that it's my favorite novel. I've read it twice in its entirety, not to mention the numerous times I just dip in. In English translation, of course. By coincidence, I had just started it again this morning.

I guess the other letter writers have alreday pointed out the short comings of this entry. But i would like to point out that not only does it omits the big three of Japanese literature (Mishima, Tanizaki, and Kawabata), the only Nobel Prize recipient, Kenzaburo Oe, and the most popular Japanese writer today, Haruki Murakami. There's only passing mention of the notorious Osamu Dazai, instead the author, Kyoko Mori, focuses on his daughter, Yuko Tsushima, whom I've never even heard of. She also includes Japanese-British writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, who despite being a fine writer does not write in Japanese, but in English of his adopted country England.. A missed opportunity for sure. Other authors who were omitted include Endo, Atagawa, Ryu Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto-just to mention a few. I would also go so far as to say that more Japanese writers, even writers of popular fiction are having their books translated into English than ever before, and that could have been the angle of the article as well. Another choice could have been a discussion of novels set in Japan: Shogun, Barry Eisler detective novels, Jay McInerney's Ransom, etc...

I think the author of this piece chose works that she felt would serve as travel guides to Japanese culture. That is why she didn't even attempt a definitive list of Japanese great authors, much less an overview of modern Japanese literature. Even so, I have to take issue with her choices. First of all, there's the dubious inclusion of Kazuo Ishiguro: the man is a Brit and I don't think he knows any more about Japanese culture than I do. Yes he set one book here, but he also set one book in China and the other half-dozen in England. He's a great BRITISH author. And unfortunately the recommended book, "An Artist of the Floating World" is far from his best: it's decidedly idealized and presents a stereotypical take on issues that are themselves now stereotypical. Moving on, we get Henri Cole... WHO? We've already been given Basho, and no matter how great a haikuist Cole is, he can only suffer by comparison. Besides, I don't really see how haikus are supposed to help Salon readers striving to get an appreciation of Japan in 2006. Let's face it, this is no longer a 5-7-5 type of country. Readers would have been better served by the recommendation of, say, David Mitchell's "Number 9 Dream" for a gritty taste of the modern Japanese cityscape and Haruki Murakami's "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" for a really impressive and original take on those pesky WWII issues that every article like this feels obliged to address in passing. Such a choice would have delivered the crucial message that this article did not: Japan is teeming with quirky purveyors of originality.

No mention of Kobo Abe, whose Woman in the Dunes and The Ruined Map are excellent introductions to post-war Japanese literature – existential, surreal, and comparable to anything by Handke, Beckett, and Grass. Shusako Endo's novels provide a different perspective on Japan. Endo, a Catholic, writes from the position of the outsider in society, giving Western readers a taste of their own position concerning Japanese culture – see particularly The Sea and Poison. Western writers on Japan – start with Richard Brautigan's Tokyo Montana Express – Brautigan's whimsical style has influenced Haruki Murakami (take a look at short story The ‘Year of Spaghetti’ in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman). Cyberpunk narratives such as William Gibson's Neuromancer, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties, highlight Japan’s obsessive technological postmodernity. I’m particularly looking forward to David Peace’s Tokyo Trilogy – Tokyo: Year One (hopefully published June 2007), Tokyo: Occupied City, and Tokyo: Regained.

I'd just like to note a few more Gaijin authors who offer some interesting insight into Japan. Of course there is American Lafcadio Hearn, who is more Japaneses than Ishiguro. I would also note "Speed Tribes" by Karl Taro and "Angry White Pajamas" by Robert Twigger for interesting stories about set in contemporary Japan.

Also, though I am embarrased to admit it for fear of losing any sort of literary credibility, if the purpose of a book is to act as a travel guide to prepare someone for a trip to Japan, no book better sumarizes most westerners first impressions than "Dave Barry Does Japan."

I know he's pretty "western" (but hey, so is Ishiguro), but my money's with Haruki Murakami! He's always impressed me with his portrayal of an east-meets-west Japan...

Or if we're going traditional, how about Yasunari Kawabata? (He still won the Nobel prize, surely that counts for a mention?)

Just like to add to the general hubris - The Tale of Genji is the first novel in world history, so I'd say, yes, it should be included. Though this may or may not matter to most, Pillow Tales are largely unauthenticated and thought likely to be the work of several authors, who may or not have been women, over a period of several centuries. Though they have many beautiful moments in their own right.

Yukio Mishima - he should have won the Nobel, if the committee doesn't take a strong disliking to jingoistic right-wingers, which, of a peculiarly Japanese sort, he was. Didn't prevent him from writing some of the finest novels of the 20th century.

A relative unknown - Nagai Kafu, whose nostalgia for the past is almost choking, and simultaneously very very fine.

Also Ryu Murakami, a real mold-breaker as far as Japaense fiction goes. I think he may have been mentioned above.

Not to be confused with Haruki Murakami, who I find tedious and repititive. Although he certainly does have his fans, and I don't fault them all that much.

I think the writer was trying to highlight some lesser-known Japanese and Japan-related writers, except in the case of the inexplicable inclusion of Ishiguro, who is about as Japanese as me, and I'm an Irish-Russian mutt. His works, interesting, are not very popular in Japan, which is saying something, although what, exactly, I'm not entirely sure. Unfortunately, in the quest for the unknown, she has hit no, in comparison to the others, mediocrity, near as I can tell. I wouldn't come with in a mile of the The Pillow book if The Tale of Genji were in the neighborhood.