Nejishiki -- Yoshiharu Tsuge, Hardcover

The most critically acclaimed comic of the Japanese counterculture

Nejishiki unveils the most iconic scenes from Yoshiharu Tsuge's highly respected body of work alongside his most beloved stories. A cornerstone of Japan's legendary 1960s counterculture that galvanized avant-garde manga and comics criticism, the title story follows an injured young man as he wanders through a village of strangers in search of emotional and physical release. Other stories in this collection follow a series of weary travelers who while away sultry nights and face menacing doppelgängers. Even banal activities like afternoon strolls uncover unsavory impulses. The emotionally and erotically charged imagery collected in this third volume remains as shocking and vivid today as it did upon its debut fifty years ago.

Tsuge's stories push boundaries, abruptly crossing the threshold of conventional storytelling. Unassuming protagonists venture further into eerie symbolism against a shadowy, perceptibly dreamlike landscape easily mistaken for the real world. The angst that pervades postwar Japanese society threatens to devour his characters and their pastoral sensibilities as each protagonist's wanderlust turns surreal.

Author: Yoshiharu Tsuge
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Published: 10/03/2023
Pages: 284
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.50h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781770465060

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 02/01/2023 pg. 74
Publishers Weekly 09/18/2023
Booklist 09/15/2023 pg. 38

About the Author
Yoshiharu Tsuge was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1937. Influenced by the realistic and gritty manga of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, he began making his own comics and was briefly recruited to assist Shigeru Mizuki in the 1960s. In 1968, while working for Garo magazine, Tsuge published the groundbreaking story "Neji-shiki" (commonly called "Screw Style" by Western readers), which established him as an influential manga-ka and a cultural touchstone in the changing Japanese art world. He is considered the originator and greatest practitioner of the I-novel method of comics-making. In 2005, Tsuge was nominated for the Best Album Award at Angoulême International and in 2017 won the Japan Cartoonists Association Grand Award for Yume to tabi no sekai.