Seven Japanese Tales

In these seven stories, one of Japan's greatest modern writers explored the territory where love becomes self-annihilation, where the contemplation of beauty gives way to fetishism, and where tradition becomes an instrument of voluptuous cruelty. A beautiful blind musician exacts the ultimate sacrifice from the man who is both her disciple and her lover. A tattoist turns the body of an exquisite girl into a canvas of her predatory inner nature. A young man is erotically imprisoned by memories of his absent mother. These scenarios of possession are told with such unearthly poise that Seven Japanese Tales will not begin to shock readers until they have turned its final page: it is guaranteed to haunt them long afterwards.