I didn’t like Genji because I was reading a lot of Japanese fiction and Lafcadio Hearn at the time and it just didn’t suit me.
Woman of the Dunes is a very good movie as well and the sex scene with all the sand is very hard to watch, lol. The movie version of “Battle Royale” was ruined by Beat Takeshi, and I’m not sure if they have a translated English version.
I’ve never read Shusaku Endo, but I have read a lot of Mishima (including Death). I’m reading a lot of the Murakami’s (Ryu and Haruki), and I love Osaka area humor, so I read a lot of this guy Ramo Nakajima (I wrote his wiki article lol). He is really funny if you are proficient enough in Japanese. Gadara no Buta is a hell of a novel.
Hearn was interesting though my wife hadn’t even heard of him, I was able to see his home in New Orleans when we were there for a few years.
Your comment on WOTD reminds me of the egg scene in Tampopo - a movie I still find hilarious, but can’t share with my daughters yet - my wife thinks it’s stupid, but then she doesn’t understand the finer points of Monty Python either (something my daughters are now aptly able to quote; mind at the appropriate times).
Nakajima is another I’ll have to try out, I enjoy Japanese humor; but as with most translations so much is lost so I usually have to reserve myself to hiragana versions as my kanji was tainted through earlier chinese exposure and neither are sufficient to my reading habits - I have yet to master the realm of patience which is odd given my proclivity to asian studies....though what patience I’ve earned has definitely helped in my military studies... only fools rush in...