This edited volume brings a wide array of writings by Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke, one of 20th-century Japan's most important intellectuals, into the English language for the first time. Part One contains translations of Hirabayashi's fiction that embody the diversity of his work, including science fiction ('The Artificial Human'), detective fiction ('The Apartment Murder'), and more idiosyncratic works such as 'Demon at the Pulpit', an antitheist and anticlerical story.
In Part Two, The Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke Reader also provides a range of invaluable auxiliary critical essays which are written by expert scholars based in the USA, the UK, Australia, Italy and Japan. These essays examine Hirabayashi's views on numerous topics, including the emerging women's movement, popular politics, Marxist theory, filmic and literary trends, and the relationship between mass production and modern aesthetics.
Sometimes referred to as 'Japan's Walter Benjamin', Hirabayashi is widely known in Japanology, but has remained inaccessible to the English-speaking world until now. This book reveals how his varied literary texts and essays capture the rapid transformation of Japanese society and culture before World War Two in a way that makes them an integral part of the history of global modernity.

Seth Jacobowitz is Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of World Languages & Literatures at Texas State University, USA. He is the author of Writing Technology in Meiji Japan: A Media History of Modern Japanese Literature and Visual Culture (2016), which won the International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize in the Humanities in 2017. He is the translator from Japanese of The Edogawa Rampo Reader (2008) and from Portuguese of Fernando Morais' Dirty Hearts: The History of Shindo Renmei (2021).
Aaron William Moore is Handa Chair of Japanese-Chinese Relations at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is the author of many articles on Chinese and Japanese wartime childhood and youth, as well as two books: Writing War (2013), which analysed over 200 combat soldiers' diaries from China, Japan, and the United States, and Bombing the City (2018), which compared the air raid experiences of civilians in British and Japanese regional cities.

Editors' Introduction: Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke and Modern Japan's Mass Culture
Part One - Short Fiction
1. 'The Artificial Human' Seth Jacobowitz (Texas State University, USA)
2. 'The Discipline of Steel' James Dorsey (Dartmouth College, USA)
3. 'Demon at the Pulpit' Rebecca Suter (University of Sydney, Australia)
4. 'Woman of Mystery' Gabriel Fernandes (Independent Scholar, USA)
5. 'An Adventure on a Summer Night' James Dorsey (Dartmouth College, USA)
6. 'The Apartment Murderer' Gabriel Fernandes (Independent Scholar, USA)
7. 'A Night at the Zoo' Seth Jacobowitz (Texas State University, USA)
8. 'Two Blind Men' James Dorsey (Dartmouth College, USA)
9. 'This Is How I Died!' Seth Jacobowitz (Texas State University, USA)
Part Two - Critical Essays
10. The Technological Revolution in Literature and the Arts Seth Jacobowitz (Texas State University, USA)
11. Film as a Mechanism of Americanization William Huber (Abertay University, UK)
12. On Popular Literature Gala Maria Follaco (Università degli Studi di Napoli 'L'Orientale', Italy)
13. On the Current State of Japan's Literary Elite Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
14. The Genius of Popular Literature Gala Maria Follaco (Università degli Studi di Napoli 'L'Orientale', Italy)
15. The True Nature of Literature, Parts 1 and 2 James Dorsey (Dartmouth College, USA)
16. Political Value and Artistic Value James Dorsey (Dartmouth College, USA)
17. On Professionalization in the Arts Gala Maria Follaco (Università degli Studi di Napoli 'L'Orientale', Italy)
18. The Professionalization of Fiction Writing and the Problem of Poor Manuscripts Gala Maria Follaco (Università degli Studi di Napoli 'L'Orientale', Italy)
19. On Reality in the Arts Giuseppe Strippoli [PhD student] (University of Edinburgh, UK)
20. On the Power of Expression in the Novel Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
21. The Modern Novel as Commodity Nathan Shockey (Bard College, USA)
22. The Embodiment of the Modern Era Yingzi Feng [PhD student] (University of Edinburgh, UK)
23. What Is Developmental Thought? Federico Marcon (Princeton University, USA)
24. Psychological Descriptions in the Novel Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
25. Introduction to the Theory of Social Science Methodology Federico Marcon (Princeton University, USA)
26. Problems in Cultural Science Christopher Perkins (University of Edinburgh, UK)
27. Self-Reflection Christopher Perkins (University of Edinburgh, UK)
28. Social Criticism Yingzi Feng [PhD student] (University of Edinburgh, UK)
29. The Objective of the Women's Movement Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
30. The Social Task of the Youth Corps Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
31. Agrarian Literature: A Personal View Seth Jacobowitz (Texas State University, USA)
32. The Social Basis of Modernism Yingzi Feng [PhD student] (University of Edinburgh, UK)
33. Literature Fifty Years in the Future Aaron William Moore (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Afterword Sugamoto Yasuyuki (Fuji Women's University, Japan)
Index