Bullfight (Akutagawa Prize Winner)

The prize-winning debut of one of Japan's greatest authors, this novella follows a journalist’s crazy scheme to stage a bullfight in postwar Osaka.

“A disarmingly simple tale of ambition and entrepreneurial daring... written in tight, confident prose.” – Financial Times

Tsugami, the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in war-scarred Osaka, agrees to sponsor a bullfight. For months this great gamble consumes him, makes him as wary and combative as if he was in a ring himself. And, as he becomes ever more distant, his lover Sakiko is unsure if she would like to see him succeed or be destroyed.

As much a story of post-war Japan as it is about the country’s special brand of bullfighting, this novella is a masterly exploration of hope, ambition and despair. Tsugami has built his newspaper into something solid and sustainable in the uncertain aftermath of the war. But the idea of more – more money, more excitement, more life – holds an irresistible appeal. Just as he has been sleeping with Sakiko for years despite having a wife and children elsewhere, his yearning for a bigger life pulls him into the chaotic endeavour of the bullfight, putting everything he’s worked for at risk.

Yasushi Inoue's novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors. From the planning of a bullfight, through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his solitude – he crafts something intensely memorable, a profound and compelling existential tale.