Neither dude, it was Kobo Abe. He was the one who really solidified the idea of Japanese Surrealism, gained international fame for his works, was an early creator in the Japanese New-Wave cinema scenes with his adaptations and paved the way for Japanese literature to be accepted worldwide. Kenzaburo Oe credited him when he accepted the Nobel and said the same. And he was doing all of this in the 50s while also being vocally against the Communists WHILE IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY. Eiji is great but what he really did was confirm the West's views of Japan as this ancient place of great culture and respect. His art is probably great, or not IDK I haven't read anything from him but if you want to measure impact then it's Kobo who changed that "Japan is full of samurai and everybody drinks tea" or the post-war "Just a bunch of Communist footsoldiers" ideas and generalizations into the way we see it as a nuanced and no so distantly sacred land that can also have its deep-rooted traditions and be modern and urban at the same time. Culturally different, but not unrelatable. This was of course later really set in when Japan started shipping basically every tech product at the time, but remember that this is the early 60s and late 50s. Murakami is popular and I like him, but people like to give him more credit for popularizing this genre worldwide than he deserves, when for one many parts of the world were already doing magical realism in a similar fashion and he wasn't the first from Japan either. Some like to say that he might be the reason the cosy genre of Japanese books became so prevalent, but I find that hard to see. So Murakami is certainly cool and there is definitely an argument that his modernization for the 21st century could make him the most impactful in the 21st century, but the 20th is Abe all the way.

doublewide

3 months ago

I'll check him out. I am interested and never heard of him before!

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brandon

3 months ago

I'll check him out as well. Musashi is one of the greatest novels I've read, so take a look in my opinion.

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Murakami, despite not being my favorite, undeniably has a much wider global appeal with his surrealistic stories and magical realism. On the other hand, Yoshikawa, who primarily wrote historical fiction, created a masterpiece with Musashi in my opinion. While the genres don’t overlap, I’m curious to know what others think about these two authors within Japan. How are they perceived there? I’d also love to hear your thoughts on them or any other Japanese authors you believe have had a significant influence.