Eight Dogs, or "Hakkenden"

Kyokutei Bakin's Nansō Satomi hakkenden is one of the monuments of Japanese literature. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of the most popular and influential books of the nineteenth century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics.

An Ill-Considered Jest, the first part of Hakkenden, tells the story of the Satomi clan patriarch Yoshizane and his daughter Princess Fuse. An ill-advised comment forces Yoshizane to betroth his daughter to the family dog, creating a supernatural union that ultimately produces the Eight Dog Warriors. Princess Fuse's heroic and tragic sacrifice, and her strength, intelligence, and self-determination throughout, render her an immortal character within Japanese fiction.

Eight Dogs is the culmination of centuries of premodern Japanese tale-telling, combining aspects of historical romance, fantasy, Tokugawa-era popular fiction, and Chinese vernacular stories. Glynne Walley's lively translation conveys the witty and colorful prose of the original, producing a faithful and entertaining edition of this important literary classic.

Glynne Walley is an Associate Professor of Japanese Literature at the University of Oregon and author of Good Dogs.

An Ill-Considered Jest is, in addition to being an excellent translation and a first-rate work of scholarship, a beautifully illustrated and compulsively readable tome. Walley's translation of Hakkenden will be a game changer for scholars and teachers of premodern Japanese literature, and even this first installment opens exciting possibilities for researchers and students.

The fantastical elements of "Hakkenden" give it a kinship to those endlessly unspooling fantasy sagas by Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin.

Glynne Walley's lively translation [of] Eight Dogs, or 'Hakkenden': Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest conveys the witty and colorful prose of the original, producing a faithful and entertaining edition of this important literary classic.

It's an excellent introduction to Bakin's semi-fictional world. Hakkenden has all the hallmarks of a wonderful addition to the stock of Japanese literature available in English.

The presentation here is excellent, beginning with the faithful reproduction and translation of seemingly every last detail.

Michael Emmerich, UCLA:

Mind-boggling in scale and breathtakingly intricate, Eight Dogs, or "Hakkenden" is gripping, wild, and touching—a masterpiece of world literature, masterfully translated.

Tyran Grillo, translator of The Running Boy and Other Stories:

This is a superb and vivid rendering of a vital work that has too long been unavailable in English.