{"product_id":"the-scarlet-gang-of-asakusa-9780520241824","title":"The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa","description":"In the 1920s, Asakusa was to Tokyo what Montmartre had been to 1890s Paris and Times Square was to be to 1940s New York. Available in English for the first time, \u003ci\u003eThe Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, \u003c\/i\u003eby Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, captures the decadent allure of this entertainment district, where beggars and teenage prostitutes mixed with revue dancers and famous authors. Originally serialized in a Tokyo daily newspaper in 1929 and 1930, this vibrant novel uses unorthodox, kinetic literary techniques to reflect the raw energy of Asakusa, seen through the eyes of a wandering narrator and the cast of mostly female juvenile delinquents who show him their way of life. Markedly different from Kawabata's later work, \u003ci\u003eThe Scarlet Gang of Asakusa \u003c\/i\u003eshows this important writer in a new light. The annotated edition of this little-known literary gem includes the original illustrations by Ota Saburo. The annotations illuminate Tokyo society and Japanese literature, bringing this fascinating piece of Japanese modernism at last to a wide audience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eYasunari Kawabata \u003c\/b\u003e(1899-1972) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968. His 1937 novel \u003ci\u003eSnow Country \u003c\/i\u003esecured his position as one of Japan's leading authors. \u003cb\u003eAlisa Freedman\u003c\/b\u003e is a visiting assistant professor of Japanese literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. \u003cb\u003eDonald Richie\u003c\/b\u003e--novelist, critic, essayist, travel writer, and former director of the Japanese cinema collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York--is author of \u003ci\u003eThe Films of Akira Kurosawa. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50503435714834,"sku":"9780520241824","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a086d8b9-69e5-453a-978d-e58b3062ebd7.jpg?v=1730791376","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-scarlet-gang-of-asakusa-9780520241824","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}