Nakagami Kenji was one of the most prolific writers of contemporary Japan. Coming from a blue-collar background and with neither college degree nor specialized training, he belonged to the tradition of writers such as Minakami Tsutomu and Fukazawa Shichir, men who came from the rural working class and wrote about subjects and sentiments with deep ties to a specific locality. Nakagami's creative power was closely linked to the same sense of locus. His writing reflects the complex entanglement of man and nature and of man and his fellowmen, usually in the distinct environment of the southern Kii Peninsula. His literature is distinguished within contemporary Japanese fiction by its vibrant energy, its eruptions of destructive violence and sexuality, and its pursuit of a language of masculinity and of the lower working class. An individual of diverse interests and with a voracious appetite for knowledge, Nakagami is also known for...