'Serious' Modern or Postmodern Japanese fiction?

So I really enjoy the novels of Haruki Murakami, but from what I've read some consider his work to be "light" and "easy." While his work isn't especially dense, I've always considered Murakami a novelist of considerable literary merit. But if it's the case that his work is so "light," then where does a reader begin an investigation of "serious" Modern or Postmodern Japanese fiction? Kenzaburo Oe? Yukio Mishima?

I'd like to explore Japanese literature on a more than superficial level.

Personally, I think the difference between Murakami and Oe/Mishima has more to do with what generations they're from than the former being more "lightweight" than the latter ... that being said, if you're going to start exploring modern Japanese fiction I suggest Oe ... there's just so much more "baggage" around Mishima that it can get in the way of appreciating his fiction, etc. ... 'course, I'm just wading into modern Japanese fiction myself, so I'd also love hear from someone w/more experience, too!

I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've ever read by or about Yukio Mishima (at this point around 8 books and some short stories as well as two biographies.) My favorites being Spring Snow, though a word of warning with that one, it's the first part of a tetralogy that is about 1,800 pages in total. I also really liked The Sound of Waves because in some ways it was very different for Mishima, but also not a stretch that he wrote it. Patriotism for instance is really intense...the whole seppeku thing. I walked around in a daze for a week after reading that.

I've only read one book by Kenzaburo Oe, A Personal Matter and I found it to be so-so, not bad, but it didn't live up to the hype (at least to me.) Maybe I will revisit it some day.

I've also enjoyed the works I've read by Shusaku Endo, particularly The Samurai and Scandal.

Of course, having only read one book by Haruki Murkami (Underground), which isn't a novel, I may not be the best person to make a comparison.

If you like Haruki Murakami but also, say, Thomas Pynchon, try Genichiro Takahashi's Sayonara, Gangsters. If you like Murakami but would welcome a little subversive feminism in the mix (as well as formal adventurousness) try Yoko Tawada (start with the two collections in paperback, newly published by New Directions).

And, though it's less cutting-edgedly post-modern, you might want to give Saiichi Maruya's historical novel Grass for my Pillow a go. Maruya has translated Ulysses into Japanese, so, though I may seem to be suggesting that Maruya is not on the bleeding edge of the avant-garde, neither is his work formally simple. In fact, Grass is one of the best Japanese novels I've read.

I'm not a huge fan of Yukio Mishima. I found The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea sensationalist rather than a work of literary merit, though I know some would disagree with me. I'm working on Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe right now. It's about a group of juvenile delinquents abandoned during WWII, but I haven't gotten any further than the interesting premise.

My favorite Japanese classic is The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki. It's not breathtakingly complex or anything, but I think it's a beautiful portrait of a family and a period of Japanese history. I also really loved The Stones Cry Out by Hikaru Okuizumi. It's fairly recent and not well-known, but I found it both moving and complex.

If you want to get a glimpse of several modern authors I suggest checking out The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories edited by Theodore W. Goossen. It's a collection that covers "the entire modern era from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day".

Authors include (as written in the table of contents):
Mori Ogai, Natsume Soseki, Kunikida Doppo, Higuchi Ichiyo, Nagai Kafu, Shiga Naoya, Tanizaki Junichiro, Yasushi Inoue (a personal favorite), Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Ibuse Masuji, etc... etc...

So this anthology should definitely give you a taste of different authors, different styles, different themes, etc...

I read the Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories a few years back, while I was vacationing in Japan. One story particularly caught my interest: The Accordion and the Fish Town by Hayashi Fumiko. I looked for more material by her and found only a few brief outlines of her amazing life. Since then a few more items have become available of which I'll write elsewhere in this group.

-- Gerry

The most obvious answer to your question, to me, is Kobo Abe, but avoid The Box Man. He has the most similar sensibility. In addition to his novels, Abe has a really strong collection of short stories entitled Beyond the Curve. If you like Murakami I can almost guaruntee you will also like Abe.

I strongly disagree with the Mishima haters, Spring Snow and Runaway Horses are among my favorite books of all. However, Mishima is not at all the same idea as Haruki Murakami.

Oe is closer to Murakami than Mishima. I really liked A Personal Matter and sorta liked The Pinch-Runner Memorandum.

Finally, if you are ready for something wilder but similar, try Ryu Murakami. Even if some of the novels are a bit much for you (they are for me), I can vouch for Coin Locker Babies.

I'll admit, my taste has never run along 'serious' works (I think I was the only one in my Japanese Lit class that actually liked Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto). However, from what I remember in class, those who were more seriously inclined quite liked Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes (although, in the interest of fair disclosure, I myself did not actually finish it). So basically, I can't vouch for it myself, but I know a number of people who can.

As for what I have liked, A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima were books that I liked. Both of these are a little bit gruesome at parts, which is something I've noticed about a lot of modern/post-modern Japanese lit, but if you don't mind, then I recommend them.

(I'm sorry, but the touchstones seem to be acting up on me, and I can't get them to behave).