‘Tales of Moonlight and Rain’ by Ueda Akinari (Review)

I’m extremely fortunate that the university library has a rather relaxed view of lending limits for staff (or that I borrow the kind of books nobody else wants to read…) as I’ve had my current crop of loans for several months now. I’m slowly making my way through them, though, and today sees me covering another one, a book I’ve been wanting to try for many years now. It’s a lovely collection of eighteenth-century stories from Japan, and if you fancy something a little different, if not uncanny, then this may well be one to look out for. Are you sitting comfortably? On a dark and stormy night… ***** Ueda Akinari’s Tales of Moonlight and Rain (translated by Anthony H. Chambers) dates back to 1776, and as the the translator comments in his introduction, it’s a book with a lofty reputation, regarded “as among the finest works of fiction in the canon of traditional Japanese literature” (p.1). However, that works two ways, and as well as being a classic in its own right, influencing a…