Inoue, The Counterfeiter and Other Stories (2000)

Yasushi Inoue.
The Counterfeiter and Other Stories.
Translated by Leon Picon.
Boston, Rutland Vermont, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing (Periplus Editions), 1965, 2000.

Book Information : Google Books; Amazon.com; Internet Archive.

Note: "The Counterfeiter" was recently published in a new English translation:

• Yasushi Inoue. Life of a Counterfeiter. Translated by Michael Emmerich. London: Pushkin Press, 2014.
  (Also includes two other stories: "Reeds" and "Mr. Goodall's Gloves.")
  [Publisher; Google Books; Internet Archive; Amazon.com; GoodReads.com.]

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Author Information :

• Yasushi Inoue (1907–1991), Wikipedia English.
• 井上靖 (1907–1991), Wikipedia Japan.
  (Japanese Wikipedia pages for Japanese authors are far more detailed than the corresponding English Wikipedia one.)
• 井上靖記念館, Yasushi Inoue Memorial Museum, Asahikawa City, Hokkaido.
• Yasushi Inoue Books in English, Internet Archive.
• Yasushi Inoue, GoodReads.com.
• Japanese literature: Postwar literature (1945–onwards), Wikipedia English.
• 日本文学 [Japanese Literature], Wikipedia Japan.
• 日本の近現代文学史 [History of modern Japanese literature], Wikipedia Japan.

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Translator Information :

• Leon Picon Obituary (1917-1994), The Washington Post, 23 August 1994.
• Lew Schmidt, "Interview with Leon Picon" (transcript), The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training: Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Information Series; Library of Congress, 30 October 1989.
  Another, better formatted, version of the transcript, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.
  • Unfortunately, Picon did not discuss his Japanese literary translation work in this interview; the interviewer mainly asked about his work as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. It's not only about the details of State Department bureaucracy: the interview contains interesting biographical information about Picon, amusing anecdotes about William Faulkner's visit to Japan, and a few, too few, other accounts about his time in Japan. Picon was in Japan from 1955 to 1965.
  • United States Information Agency (USIA), Wikipedia.
  • "Impressions of Japan," U.S.I.S., 1955.
    (A film about William Faulkner's visit to Japan, discussed on pages 16-24 of the LoC interview transcript, pages 12-18 in the ADST version.)
  • Charles Frankel. The Neglected Aspect of Foreign Affairs: American Educational and Cultural Policy Abroad. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1966.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Charles Frankel. High on Foggy Bottom: An Outsider's Inside View of the Government. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  • Charles Frankel. "paper title unknown." In: Prologue to the Future: the United States and Japan in the Post-industrial Age. Edited by James William Morley. Published for The Japan Society by Lexington Books, 1974.
    [Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Contents of The Counterfeiter and Other Stories :

1. "The Counterfeiter" [1951].
   • Life of a Counterfeiter, Wikipedia English.
   • "The Counterfeiter" was recently published in a new English translation:
     Yasushi Inoue. Life of a Counterfeiter. Translated by Michael Emmerich. London: Pushkin Press, 2014.
     (Also includes two other stories: "Reeds" and "Mr. Goodall's Gloves.")
     [Publisher; Google Books; Internet Archive; Amazon.com; GoodReads.com.]
2. "Obasute" [1956].
   • Ubasute, Wikipedia English.
     This article has an image of the ukiyo-e woodblock print "Ubasute no tsuki" (The Moon of Ubasute) from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (number 97), 1885-1892, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
     Seeing this image after reading the story, I wonder if it was one of Inoue's inspirations for his story (or perhaps an inspiration for the cover art on the book of stories mentioned by the narrator in the story).
   • うばすてやま [Ubasuteyama], Wikipedia Japan.
3. "The Full Moon" [1958].
   • The president of a corporation initiates a series of annual company retreats scheduled to coincide with the harvest moon.

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