The contributions of Kurahashi Yumiko to contemporary Japanese literature and to the development work by modern Japanese women writing have been particularly significant. She would probably appear among the ten favorite writers listed by many readers, and she has established a literary domain that is distinctly her own. Kurahashi's works, although they are neither as endearing as Higuchi Ichiy's melancholically rendered, lyrical pieces nor as broad in appeal as the tales of Ariyoshi Sawako or Enchi Fumiko, are thought-provoking and feature a hard, irritating edge. Literary historians and critics credit her with creating a bold new kind of writing that introduced a new era for women writers in contemporary Japanese literature. Her writing has been crucial in defining a literature of imagination and fantasy removed from traditional forms and subject matters, a literature that dares to combine abstract philosophical discourse with hedonistic eroticism. Above all, her literary stance...