Talk:Haruki Murakami

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Translators[edit]

I wonder if this section is at all necessary, is it notable? I think that its probably unnecessary, and could be deleted. I dont think a list of his translators is helpful to understanding Murakami, its just extra clutter. A list of the languages his books has been translated to, but maybe not the translators. We dont put up other associated support staff typically on wikipedia articles Ottawakismet (talk) 17:40, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I agree and have removed the section. Not only did it seem unnecessary, but it's also been unsourced for years. Sro23 (talk) 20:09, 23 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Personal life: lack of sources[edit]

There are no sources in the section about HM's personal life. If it is true that he likes jazz and crime novels, there are probably some interviews where he says so. If not, I will remove the text altogether. Anyone who knows any good interviews where HM talks about his personal life? --Soren84 (talk) 13:53, 21 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Foto[edit]

When I checked here a couple of months back there was a much better foto of Murakami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HarukiMurakami.png). Why was this picture removed? The new one looks terrible. The colours are all oversaturated, the image quality is very low and it certainly doesn't show Murakami from his best side. Since there don't seem to be any license problems either, I decided to restore the old picture.--77.20.240.17 (talk) 18:36, 17 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Name Order[edit]

Shouldn't this be at Haruki Murakami? That naming order gets more hits. WhisperToMe 06:23, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

  • He's published in English under the name "Haruki Murakami", so yes. Pyrop 18:19, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

Signature[edit]

The image of his signature is upside down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.70.147.73 (talk) 23:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Teaching in America[edit]

Shouldn't it be mentioned that he spent some of his time in America teaching at Princeton and Tufts university? Owen Jones 13:18, Sep 24, 2004 (UTC)

After Dark[edit]

After Dark won't be translated until 2010? That's a long time from now ... what's the source for that? CES 19:19, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

  • The novel is only just released in Japan and it took three years for Kafka on the Shore. Also, it is considered to be of minor importance compared to his other work and there are rumours of a new collection of short stories to be released inbetween. It would be nice if someone could confirm this with a decent source and edit the article accordingly. Sciere 13:39, Dec 19, 2004 (CET)
    • 2004 + 3 = 2010?
  • even if the maths did work, that is still idle speculation. -- Jon Dowland 14:39, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The publication date (of the English translation) is briefly discussed on the network54.com Murakami forum. 2010 and 2007 are the two quoted dates.

It was released in Dutch in February 2006, and book sites now have the English translation scheduled for January 2007 (Sciere 18:31, 29 April 2006 (UTC)). I added this information to the article (Machina82 13.48, 01 Augustus 2006 (UTC)).[reply]
Is information about the Dutch translation of interest to English language readers? I'm tempted to delete that addition to the article, unless this translation is otherwise notable. CES 13:12, 3 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
i added it because it appeared before the english translation which is kind of unusual (Machina82 12:22 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Trilogy of the Rat[edit]

Which novels form the "Trilogy of the Rat"? The Rat appears in "A Wild Sheep's Chase" and "Dance, Dance, Dance", but the latter isn't mentioned here.

  • Those are the second and third books in the trilogy. The first novel in the trilogy (and his first published novel) is Hear the Wind Sing. It hasn't been translated into English. Owen Jones 13:25, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)
    • Hmm ... what about Pinball 1973? It seems like the Rat appears in it but I don't remember. CES 01:16, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
    • Actually, "Hear the Wind Sing" is published in English by Kodansha (a Japanese publisher). It was translated by Alfred Birnbaum -- Amazon.com link. Most bookstores in Japan carry this book; it seems to be something for those wishing to practice their English because there are English to Japanese vocab word lists in the back of the book. -- wulong 02:53, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
      • I have heard, unconfirmed, that Murakami does not want Hear the Wind Sing or Pinball, 1973 published in the United States, for whatever reason. Copies also show up on eBay frequently for around $20 plus shipping if you are looking for a copy.
    • The 'Trilogy of the Rat' includes "Hear the Wind Sing", "Pinball, 1973" and "A Wild Sheep Chase". "Dance, Dance, Dance" is a sequel to these books but is not considered part of the trilogy, mainly because the Rat doesn't play a profound role in this book and is only mentioned a few times. Inuki 08:04, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Dance,Dance,Dance[edit]

Murakami wrote "First of all, the title for "Dance,Dance,Dance" had been decided before it began to write. A true origin is an old tune of the black band named The Dells though seem to be thought that this title was taken from Beach Boys's tune. " in his essay"A Faraway Drumbeat"

The Dells' "dance dance dance" is composed by Vern Allison(member of The Dells) The beach boys' "dance dance dance" is composedby Brian Wilson/Carl Wilson

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=17:331559

to be added to article:[edit]

Tony Takitani - new movie based on Murakami story. --Yonkie 00:33, 7 May 2005 (UTC) Tuesday's Women - new short film based on Murakami story.[reply]

Isn't Dance Dance Dance a *sequel* rather than a *prequel* to the Trilogy of The Rat? The Sheep Man is a character that develops in A Wild Sheep Chase and then is reacquainted with the narrator.

東京奇譚集[edit]

I added Murakami's most recent collection of short stories to the body of the article but was a little unsure of how to best translate 奇譚集 into English. If anyone has any better ideas than "Urban Legends", please edit and improve. For now I wanted to at least get the information out there. CES 01:37, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

After thinking about it more, "Mysteries of Tokyo" sounded a little more natural. Please note that this is still not an official translation of the title. CES 20:18, 8 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]


  • my japanese-japanese dictionary (kojien) has roughly this description for kitan: unusual and/or amusing story or legend

so, seeing as how these are modern-day stories, the phrase "urban legends" might not be so far off the mark. these stories lack the element of wide public recognition, however, so it's probably still not the best possible solution.

Talk about a coincidence, we posted at the same time. I thought "Mysteries of Tokyo" was a little more neutral than "Tokyo Urban Legends" so I made the change. It will be interesting to see how they officially translate the phrase. CES 20:21, 8 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • i went and checked the oficial japanese publisher's site (http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/murakami/main.html), in the slim hope that a prefered english title might be published on the japanese original book (as was the case with kafka on the shore, for instance), but no such luck. guess we'll have to wait and see.
  • Why not use the phonetic translation, in lieu of an official title from the publishers? It seems an idiomatic enough phrase to end up with alot of weirdo translations.65.96.92.140 23:38, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Strange Tales from Tokyo fits better, as it references the story by Nagai Kafu that Murakami is referencing in Japanese - and that story os available in English as Strange Tale from East of the River. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.47.242.160 (talk) 20:24, 15 May 2008 (UTC) (Note that this trnaslation is used, for example, in Wikpedia's own article on the short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman . Consistency is nice, right?)[reply]

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman[edit]

A short story collection called "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" is due to be published next year. As of 1 January 2006, Amazon gives publication dates of 6 July 2006 ([http://www.amazon.co.uk Amazon UK], Publisher: The Harvill Press, ISBN: 1843432692), and 29 August 2006 ([http://www.amazon.com Amazon US], Publisher: Knopf, ISBN: 1400044618). Davebook 12:08, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This report from Mr Yoshio Osakabe, gives a list of 25 short stories that apparently form the "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" collection": the last 5 of these stories were included in 東京奇譚集. If this is the case, surely this brings into question whether there will be an English translation of 東京奇譚集?

Yes, see also Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman for the same list and some information on this rather eclectic collection of short stories. As all 5 short stories in 東京奇譚集 are included in BWSW, it does indeed seem doubtful that it would be translated separately. It also brings into question how the bibliography is arranged, as The Elephant Vanishes also does not correspond with any original Japanese publication, while there are some Japanese publications included that either have not or will not be published in English, at least not in the original form (as mentioned, 東京奇譚集 has been lumped into BWSW, After Dark has not been translated, neither has やがて哀しき外国語 to the best of my knowledge). Perhaps a complete bibliography of original works should be followed by a bibliography of works translated into English? CES 05:51, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

elephant vanishes[edit]

a book with said title is mentioned in the bibliography. is this the collection of short stories in english? if so, shouldn't this be clearly stated? my quible is with the japanese transliteration following it, in my opinion it may be deceiving. to my knowledge, a book with that title only just recently appeared an the japanese market, and may (or may not, i haven't checked) be the japanese equivalent of the (original) english collection. the actual short story (the elephant vanishes) was first published in 1985 (august edition of bungakukai magazine)/1986 (pan'ya saishugeki, short story collection) (source for dates of publishing: yuriika magazine special edition, murakami haruki no sekai /in japanese/)

edit. at the official publisher's site mentioned above (http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/murakami/elephant/index.html), i also doublechecked for the japanese edition of the elephant vanishes. the book was published in 2005 and is in fact a japanese counterpart of the english book. it's promoted as "the stories new york chose". go figure.

Recurring themes[edit]

I'm just now reading my third Murakami book in a row, having read 3 or 4 previously, and I'm noticing some trends that I'd like to collect:

  • Buildings with randomly numbered rooms: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
  • Cat with bent tail and no name is named after a type of fish: A Wild Sheep Chase, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
  • Character who speaks without making sound: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore
  • Teenage female friend of protagonist: Dance, Dance, Dance, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore
  • Wells: Norwegian Wood, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
  • Whiskey, often Cutty Sark
Cats are definetly a recurring theme in Murakami's work. See also Kafka on the Shore. And the man-eating cats in Sputnik Sweetheart. Though it may be a bit general, I think the fairly constant references to music (popular and classical) and other literature in dialogue, which often work as analogies, are worthy of mention, too. BigglesTh9 00:39, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Johnny says: also, don't forget music! often classical music, but in norwegian wood also beatles and other 60' music.

What about hotels? There are several instances in his work involving hotels that defy reality or have supernatural traits. Having just read Sartre's "No Exit", I wonder if that was an influence for him. Agentchuck (talk) 19:31, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Film and Theatre[edit]

Perhaps we could separate out the film bit and add something about Murakami related theatre productions: last year, I went to see a production of "The Elephant Vanishes" at the Barbican, London, which was three short stories from the collection of the same name (Sleep, The Second Bakery Attack and The Elephant Vanishes). It was a collaboration between Setagaya Public Theatre and Complicité after a successful run in Japan the year before (if I recall correctly). At any rate, it was really rather good. I also heard there's another production (of another story) going on in the US at the moment, but I don't know that much about it. zenpea 07:15, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it would be nice to have a separate heading for "Film and Theatre," or for "Adaptations in Other Media," perhaps, or just "Adaptations." I was also lucky enough to see The Elephant Vanishes, on this side of the pond at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York in 2004. It played for just five performances, a typically limited festival run, but I thought it was just awesome. They brought it back to the States briefly (a year ago?) to play at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and a friend of mine, who had already seen it in New York, drove all the way from Chicago in order to watch it again. I haven't heard about this other Murakami production, but I will keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, I've added a couple of paragraphs about the Complicite adaptation to The Elephant Vanishes article. I'll go ahead and add a couple of lines to this article as well.76.168.253.250 23:42, 16 January 2007 (UTC)Frank[reply]

I split the films and plays off into a new heading "Films and Other Adaptations". CynicalSaint 12:05, 8, July 2007

broke bio into section[edit]

I found the biography section to be overly long and hard to follow, so I broke it into sections. I'm not completely happy with it yet, but it's a start. --Mr Wind-Up Bird ✈ 17:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography[edit]

The bibliography was a hodge-podge of works that had and had not been translated into English, of varying genres ... I changed the format to a table that will hopefully make it a little clearer what Murakami originally wrote and when, as Japanese and English release dates/formats differ rather dramatically. I did not include the dates of when the works were translated into English nor the translator, but that would certainly be a worthwhile addition. There are also more works that could be mentioned, but for now, I think I got just about everything that's been translated into English. I'm sure there are mistakes here and there (hopefully nothing major) but hopefully this is a good start. CES 02:21, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

--Not sure if this is the proper place to put this, but what the heck. The Japanese title for "Town of Cats" seems to be missing. As you know this is an excerpt, it comes from chapter 8 of book 2 and is titled そろそろ猫たちがやってくる時刻だ (Sorosoro Nekotachi ga Yattekuru Jikoku Da). In my version, the excerpt portion begins on the second page of the chapter (p.158) and continues until the end of the chapter (p.169).

--I'm not sure why, but the original Japanese and this excerpt do not match in many places. I don't know if this is localization, editing, or if there is more than one version of the Japanese. Anyway, the excerpt has been given the title "Town of Cats", which is the title of a story in the chapter mentioned above, the name of that story in the Japanese version is "猫の町(Neko no Machi)" (literally "town of cats"). Please use this information to update the Japanese title in the bibliography as you see fit. In my personal opinion, it should be "猫の町(Neko no Machi)", although this is not 100% accurate, since no such excerpt exists in Japanese. Alternatively, you could list it as: taken from Chapter 8 of book 2:そろそろ猫たちがやってくる時刻だ (Sorosoro Nekotachi ga Yattekuru Jikoku Da)(loosely translated: The cats will be here any moment now).

--Finally, I would do this myself, but previous experiences here on Wiki have left a very bad taste in my mouth. Do with this information as you see fit, I hope it helps. 206.225.132.27 (talk) 12:08, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Split off short stories?[edit]

The short stories section is quite long. I would recommend splitting it off into a new article which would also list the collections that have been published along with all the short stories. Please discuss (here) your feelings about this. Skumarla 05:06, 14 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that it's long, but if the new article would only be this same list of stories and nothing else, I say keep them here. The list is at the very end of the article and makes for a handy one-stop reference. CES 23:24, 16 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why not make a seperate article for both short stories and novels written by Haruki Murakami, and seperate the two there? --70.240.204.170 04:48, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd rather have it at the same place. The article is not too long and there is more about is writing than Murakami's biography.

Should the titles of the short stories appear in quotation marks, rather than italics, to distinguish them from his novels? This seems more in keeping with most Manuals of Style [1] as well as the precedent set by other Wikipedia articles like Nine Stories (Salinger).76.168.253.250 23:45, 16 January 2007 (UTC)Frank[reply]
I agree that they should be in quotes - that is the recommendation here – Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(titles) Skumarla 07:09, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'll go ahead and make that change to the "Selected Short Stories" section. ("Selected Non-Fiction" I will leave as it is, since both Underground and The Place That Was Promised were published as individual complete works in Japan prior to being collected in a single volume in the UK.)76.168.253.250 20:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)Frank[reply]


Murakami's study at Waseda University[edit]

He didn't study Greek drama but film at Waseda University (some author affiliations are misinformating). Murakami wrote so in his Japanese essays which are not translated into other foreign languages. It seems that this misinfomation comes from the story, Norwegian Wood. Murakami sometimes read filmscripts at the Theater Museum of Waseda when he was a student. At first, he had decided to go to Waseda because there were few faculties to study film at the time. cf. A series of Murakami's house of the rising sun (村上朝日堂/Murakami-asahi-do).--82.226.174.53 02:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

According to this [2] link, he majored in Theatre Arts. --Nick San 22:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Murakami's Influences[edit]

Why is Stephen King listed as an influence? I don't agree with that...

It is. Not only he said it in some interview but also according to many authors opinion is work is influenced by Stephen King like most of the new most famuos Japanese writer like Ryu M. and Banana Yosh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.202.164.116 (talk) 00:09, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of the doubt about S.King, somebody who know how to do it should note that is work is clearly influenced by F.Scott Fitzgerald, surely much more than Salinger for example. I.S. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.202.164.116 (talk) 00:14, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Battle Royale II[edit]

I removed the mention of the Battle Royale II screenplay. Is their any source that suggest Murakami was involved with the film? 71.237.183.136 03:25, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Several sources mention Murakami's involvement in a script-supervising capacity, as well as revising and rewriting later drafts. See Translation, Biopolitics, Colinial Differences (eds. Naoki Sakai and Jon Solomon, ISBN 978-9622097742). It should probably stay, though perhaps not in the same place. 65.96.92.140 05:22, 8 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The only source would be 65.96.92.140 who put the sentence back in. I removed it again. 85.179.31.13 00:52, 6 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Uh..that's me, again, with the above source. I put it back. Again. 65.96.92.140 02:38, 6 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Any other sources? You mention "several", let's hear them. 201.53.183.4 01:54, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Besides Sakai and Solomon's collection, which deals mostly with postcolonial and other postmodern themes within "Battle Royale II" and makes mention of Murakami's work on the screenplay, I would see also:

Allsop, Samara L. "Challenging Global Stereotypes within the Construct of Japanese Slasher Films." Film Journal. 1.7 (2003): [no pagination]. Hoaglund, Linda. "Kinji Fukasaku's Cautionary Allegories." Persimmon: Asian Literature, Art and Culture. 2.3 (2002): 48-55. And some other stuff with footnote-mention. 65.96.92.140 03:46, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Allsop article makes no mention whatsoever of Murakami, and it's not even about Battle Royale II. I can't check your other sources right now, since they're not available online, but I'm skeptical. 201.53.183.4 05:59, 11 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
In response, I believe that that link is to an abbrievated version of the article, the full text available in print. I'll dig around for some other stuff, but this is getting excessive. This is a small point in an article that is otherwise in shambles (He writes in the genres 'Surrealist' and 'Nonfiction'? Surrealist isn't even a genre, that would be surrealism, and that's arguable either way [seems to discount "Norwegian Wood" and other stuff] and Nonfiction is only a genre in the barest sense of the word, and that too is arguable as far as how accurate -- and certainly how helpful -- it is). 65.96.92.140 00:50, 12 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I've read that Hoaglund article before, and am reasonably sure that it makes mention of Murakami's work with Battle Royale II. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy available to reference. I've done a lot of work with Murakami, though, and have heard that he at least consulted on the screenplay. Let me see if I can dig up some stuff to settle this debate.
I've now read the Hoaglund article, which I found on her official site (here's the pdf), and again, there is no mention whatsoever of Murakami's involvement with the Battle Royale II script. Hoaglund's article is mostly about her experience in translating dialogue from the first Battle Royale film, and has nothing to say about either Murakami or Battle Royale II. I'm even more skeptical now than before. And as for the Film Journal article being abbreviated, I pretty much doubt that's the case. There's no info about Murakami's work on the Battle Royale II script in two of the sources you mentioned. 201.53.183.4 03:06, 12 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In light of the above discussion, I'm removing mention of Murakami's involvement with the Battle Royale II from the article until we can verify that claim. 201.53.183.4 05:14, 15 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Criticism and Influence[edit]

This section does not deal at all with any of Murakami's influences, or speculate what those influences might be, or offer further evidence for the applicability of the authors listed in that box to the side. It comes off as quite pigeon-holing, when you think about it. Also misleading, if the section is referring to his influence on, what?, the world? I dunno, which is the only accounting I can make for the weird, and probably quite incomplete, list of awards.

Also, a distinction should probably be made between criticism as in 'the opposite of praise' and literary and/or scholarly criticism. That's a pretty important seperation when talking about literature, and it's quite misleading to find some scant book review stuff if you happen to be looking for an idea of the general critical ideas surrounding his work (the odds of which are quite high, I would imagine). 65.96.92.140

His start in writing[edit]

"an oft-repeated story" - Time mag. (Aug. 20, 2007, p. 45 actually quotes the author in re-telling this story. Kdammers 01:51, 9 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Wild Sheep Chase.jpg[edit]

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BetacommandBot 18:47, 24 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Wind-up Bird Chronicle.jpg[edit]

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If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

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South of the Border[edit]

To the best of my knowledge, "South of the Border" is actually a Frank Sinatra song, even though it's attributed to Nat King Cole in the book. Can anyone confirm that it was ever sung by Nat King Cole? I don't know exactly how to go about changing this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.228.220.248 (talk) 00:41, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nat King Cole certainly did do a version of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.238.169 (talk) 10:21, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Are you sure? What record was it on? I haven't been able to find it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.184.211.170 (talk) 07:52, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I've never heard his version of it, but I'm sure Cole recorded the song; it was a standard, after all. That being said, it doesn't matter as far as the article is concerned; we're only worried about what the novel says. :) faithless (speak) 08:37, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mainichi interviews[edit]

Mainichi Shimbun has been running interviews with Murakami for the past five days. I've been tempted to add them, but it would be a lot, and the article already has quite a few external links. If any of the regular editors can use them: HERE is today's, and the rest are linked at the bottom of the article under "Related articles." Hope it helps! Dekkappai (talk) 16:28, 30 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tokyo Blues[edit]

I was just perusing around Amazon and I saw three different versions of Murakami in Spanish called Tokio Blues and came in three different versions: Just Tokio Blues, Tokio Blues and Norwegian Wood, and Tokio Blues: Norwegian Wood. Is this a version of Murakami's Strange Tales of Tokyo of is this the title of Norwegian Wood in Spanish? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Darthjarek (talk •

Those are all translations of Norweigan Wood. Frequently it is translated with this title in Mexico and Spain.

contribs) 00:47, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Autograph[edit]

I really hate to say this but the scan of his autograph is upside down. Unless this is some kind of stylistic statement maybe someone who is more skilled at this wikipedia editing jazz can fix this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.164.39.42 (talk) 07:29, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason it's the same on ja.wiki. While you could assume that someone just mistook up and down when we're talking about the English wikipedia, it's a bit harder to do so for the Japanese one, so I'm assuming there is some reason for the flipped signature. Or maybe the people over at ja.wiki are assuming there is some meaning to the flip, since that's how it's placed over here ;) TomorrowTime (talk) 13:58, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Easily accessible, yet profoundly complex"[edit]

This entry has long claimed:

His work has been described by the Virginia Quarterly Review as "easily accessible, yet profoundly complex".

As the web guy for the publication in question, I've seen this on his entry for months (years?), and I just today noticed that the claim is unreferenced. So I figured I'd track down where we'd said that. And, it turns out, we've never published an article making such a statement. Our archives from 1975-2009 are all available online, including every last article, and we've only mentioned him three times, twice in passing, and once a paragraph-long review of one of his books that does not use the phrase in question.

So I've excised that claim from the intro to Murakami's entry. I suppose it's possible that we once said that about Murakami, and that it's just missing from our online archives, but short of any such evidence along those lines, let's leave this quote out of the entry, shall we? --WaldoJ (talk) 15:30, 14 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting of works[edit]

Hi, the standard formatting of works lists only story, essay and poetry collections rather than individual works, because often, as here, there are so many pieces. I would suggest reformatting the article, saving space and adding clarity. Span (talk) 02:10, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"One of the most notable Japanese artists since Akira Kurosawa"[edit]

This sounds odd and I think it should be removed. That's like saying on the Fellini page, "one of the best known Italian artists since Leonardo Da Vinci." It just sounds odd and very unencyclopediac. Perhaps one of the best known Japanese writers worldwide since Mishima, that might be more appropriate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.119.233.105 (talk) 05:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Uncollected fiction[edit]

As I understand, there are many short stories published in Japan that are yet to be translated and/or collected in English. Is there a comprehensive list of these? It should be added. Jmj713 (talk) 20:00, 31 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wider recognition section: "The book was printed in two separate volumes..."[edit]

Re: The book was printed in two separate volumes, sold together, so that the number of books sold actually doubled, creating the million-copy bestseller hype. (in Wider recognition section)

  • This is not a one-off trick to double sales figures. Selling books in two separate volumes is commonplace in Japan. The main reason is the convenience of carrying smaller books on public transport. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.69.13.180 (talk) 06:21, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • The way this paragraph is cited seems a bit misleading. The only thing the cited article says about the sales process of the book is "The novel comes in two volumes, and just as the second jacket replaces blood red with spring green, so the ending is one of heavily battered, qualified optimism." The cited article doesn't mention sales figures or whether the two volumes sold together were calculated separately, creating "bestseller hype". Though the citation is technically only attached to the sentence that describes the cover colours, because the cover colour isn't something that has any place in the article without the preceding sentence there's an implication that the citation is for the entire section.Onesweettart (talk) 03:33, 9 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

resource regarding 1Q84[edit]

Behind Murakami’s Mirror DECEMBER 8, 2011 New York Review of Books by Charles Baxter 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel. 99.181.147.68 (talk) 03:02, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

contemporary with what?[edit]

Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese writer.

If “contemporary” here means ‘living’, isn't that implied by “is”? Or, on the other hand, if he dies today will he still be “contemporary” tomorrow? —Tamfang (talk) 08:48, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing no comments in 2+ months, I'll remove the adjective. —Tamfang (talk) 22:06, 23 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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External links modified (January 2018)[edit]

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"Trilogy of the Rat"[edit]

I believe that the Rat series is a four-part series that ends with Dance, Dance, Dance. It has the same narrator (Boku), a continuation of the narrator's story, and in the end he meets the ghost of the Rat, who helps him to wrap up the narrative arc. There is no reference for the assertion that it is only a "trilogy". I think it is just a preference for the use of the trilogy word and concept, but four-part series or Rat Series or similar would be more accurate. 2407:7000:9FD8:B600:B476:6A64:EAF6:B939 (talk) 22:56, 20 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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