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The Question of the Other: Kara Juro and Letters from Sagawa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Mark Morris
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This essay proposes looking back at a story which is one of the most unusual winners of Japan's best-known literary award, the Akutagawa Prize. Kara Juro's Letters from Sagawa (Sagawa-kun kara no tegami) first appeared in November 1982 in the journal Bungei; it was announced co-winner of the 88th Akutagawa Prize in January 1983, and subsequently reprinted that March in the official prize-confirmation section of the quality monthly which hosts the award, Bungei Shunju. Kara's publisher Kawade Shobo Shinsha had already published a slim single-volume version the preceding January.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 12 , December 2007 , e1
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2007

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