In 1976 Edward Seidensticker, an academic already celebrated for his translations of Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel prize-winning novelist, brought out a new version.

Ooekenzaburo is an outstanding representative of the post-war literature in Japan, who is also the second winner of Nobel Price for literature after Kawabata Yasunari.

Kawabata Yasunari and Kenzaburo Oe, the winners of Nobel Prize for literature, show the beautiful Japan and the ambiguous Japan to the world with their remarkable literary works.