This book examines the literature of Shiga Naoya, who is highly regarded in modern Japan for his unique style and methods of describing his personal experiences and emotions. Contributing new findings to the field of scholarship on Shiga, this study focuses in particular on Shiga’s nature-inspired writings and discusses how he created some vivid images of nature that became famous and still linger in Japanese people’s minds. Shiga’s remarkable sensitivity toward nature and the influences he received from earlier writers in Japan and abroad is examined. The complexity and depth of his understanding of nature is further revealed in his fascination with the supernatural, which also contributed to the creation of his literary style.

Guo's study will remain a crucial contribution to such reception as exists by its focus on Shiga's deep love of nature. * Monumenta Nipponica *
Nanyang Guo, thoroughly familiar with Shiga Naoya’s writings, offers a new view of this very ‘Japanese’ writer. She goes beyond the ‘I-novel’ paradigm by taking us on a journey through his understanding of natural phenomena as a key to the psychology of living beings and situations. Guo aptly delineates Shiga’s “subjective realism” as a key to his art. -- Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Freie Universität Berlin

Nanyan Guois associate professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. She has published eight books including, Japan’s Wartime Medical Atrocities (2010), and Tsugaru: Regional Identity on Japan’s Northern Periphery.