The First Japanese Sci-fi Story in History
The first thing I read upon returning home to Japan last September, after nearly a month travelling and seeing family in the UK, was a mid 19th century tale that kept cropping up in my research into the history of Japanese science fiction. Some literary historians hold this tale up as an early, if not the earliest, example of the genre in the archipelago. What a ticklish surprise, then, to learn that the climax of the story is…