Realm of the Dead/Embracing Family

Realm of the Dead by Uchida Hyakken, translated by Rachel DiNitto, Dalkey Archive Press, 2006, $22.95, cloth, ISBN 1564784479.

Embracing Family by Nobuo Kojima, translated by Yukiko Tanaka, Dalkey Archive Press, 2005, $21.95, cloth, ISBN 1564784053.

Realm of the Deadby Uchida Hyakken and Embracing Family by Nobuo Kojima are two of the latest publications from Dalkey Archive, a press committed to printing and releasing translations in the U.S. Originally published in 1922 and 1964, both works were written during waves of Western influence, and can be read as two portraits of Japan. Realm of the Dead captures the Taisho (1912-1926) period, a brief, liberal, uneasy time between the brilliant chaotic opening to the West in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and the stormy militarism to come. It was marked by the birth of the "I" novel and strange tales of horror and detection by authors like Edogawa Rampo (whose name is a Japanese rendering of Edgar Allan Foe).

Realm of the Dead is Uchida's only book translated into English. The eighteen tales in this volume are like tiny nightmares, full of vibrant colors and sensual details, with a powerful visual texture. The translation by Rachel DiNitto feels fresh and contemporary, and is never overloaded with Japanese words or terms, making the tales feel closer and more accessible. Some pieces take off on Japanese myths like a fox bewitching or a cow with a human face. Others are rooted in the commonplace-a circus, an apprenticeship, an encounter with a Chinese man on the street.

At five pages or less, the longer stories are suspensef ul, the shorter ones enigmatic. All baffle but compel. There is a man who can't stop following a woman through a rice paddy; every time he thinks of turning back, her voice becomes more familiar. Another finds a wallet on the street and on the way to the police station to turn it in becomes the...