Recommended Japanese literature?

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Read the wiki. It has a few charts of Japanese literature.

>>9971770
The good murakami

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This chart has a bunch, but it's not really useful in telling where to start. I'm mostly familiar with post-Meiji literature because they're usually depressing as hell and that's always good. If you're Christian and/or read the Bible, read Silence by Shusaku Endo. If you often feel sociopathic alienated, start with No Longer Human. If you feel r9k alienated read Kafka on the Shore. If you just like samurai read Musashi

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>>9971770
>Monogatari, poetry, modern novels, poetry, whatever
>poetry, modern novels, poetry, whatever
>poetry, modern novels, poetry
>poetry... poetry

>>9972522
ah fuck I forgot kek

>>9971858
Do I need a Japanese person or the internet to consult in order to enjoy the full experience and to understand the poetry and whatnot?

>>9971858
Add Silence by Shusaku Endo for a complete list

>>9973118
>Seven books from the first thousand years
>Thirty books from the final 150 years
>Murakami gets almost half as much mention as the first thousand years
>Complete

>>9973308
This man
In my country

He is nothing.

Read Natsume Soseki's 'Kokoro'. It's a modern era classic that is western enough to be easily understandable for those without Japanese cultural experience.

From there you can try Natsume Soseki's other works ('Botchan' and 'I Am A Cat' are famous ones). You can also look at Osamu Dazai's works ('No Longer Human', as mentioned in this thread already) or Ryuunosuke Akutagawa's short stories, which are like eerie fairy tales and great to read.

Haruki Murakami is a contemporary favourite in the West but he's not seen with quite as much admiration in Japan. He's still famous, but I get the feeling that people would hold Natsume Soseki, Dazai, and Akutagawa etc over him.

A few works of classical Japanese literature you can try out (but you don't have to finish them) are The Tale of Genji, which details the amorous exploits of a court playboy in 11th century Japan, and The Tale of the Heike, which details the war between two warrior clans than brought the 11th century monarchy to an end. Another name to take note of is a poetry collection called the Hyakunin Isshu, which is a series of a hundred waka poems each from a different author. They poems will probably feel quite dry without a translator's commentary, or even with one, but they are a good introduction to the waka style of poetry, which prevailed in Japan for over a millennium since the 6th century.

>>9971770
TALE OF GENJI

Seriously.

>>9974467
The problem with Natsume Soseki is that he is heavily influenced by the west and the western canon, he was a westaboo that wanted to make literature like that created in the west with a tinge of the oriental. He is much like Murakami in that sense which is why westerners love both of them. If you want true Japanese literature you read everything from the Heian/Edo Period, or someone like Kenji Miyazawa who is influenced by Japan's nature, Japanese classics and Buddhism.

>>9975134
I don't dispute that Natsume Soseki was heavily influenced by the west, but he is loved in Japan as an author of national importance too.

You're right though, anyone looking for a proper 'Japanese' author would have to go deeper than a list of entry-level recommendations. The biggest issue I feel is that the deeper you go the more that a knowledge of Japanese is required. You can read waka poetry in translation but compared to longer and more structurally and euphonically rich English/Western poetry the waka just feels like a handful of images strung, or, if the translation is bad, cobbled together. In instances like these you really need to know the Japanese language and the poetic form to get what makes these poems special. I confess that I don't think I know enough to get them myself.

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>>9975111
>Implying someone on 4Chan even reads books over 100 pages long.

>>9973118
This