Alternative cover edition here. These three short stories, The Counterfeiter, Obasute, and The Full Moon, explore the roles of loneliness, compassion, beauty, and forgiveness in day-to-day life in Japan, all within the context of the Buddhist-influenced notion of inescapable predestination.
Author
Yasushi Inoue (井上靖) was a Japanese writer whose range of genres included poetry, essays, short fiction, and novels. Inoue is famous for his serious historical fiction of ancient Japan and the Asian continent, including Wind and Waves, Tun-huang, and Confucius, but his work also included semi-autobiographical novels and short fiction of great humor, pathos, and wisdom like Shirobamba and Asunaro Monogatari, which depicted the setting of the author's own life—Japan of the early to mid twentieth century—in revealing perspective. 1936 Chiba Kameo Prize —- Ruten,流転 1950 Akutagawa Prize —- Tōgyu,闘牛 1957 Ministry of Education Prize for Literature —- The Roof Tile of Tempyo,天平の甍 1959 Mainichi Press Prize —- Tun-huang,敦煌 1963 Yomiuri Prize —- Fūtō,風濤 (from Wikipedia)
