This is the first study of Shiga Naoya (1883-1971) to explore in depth his affinities, both aesthetic and philosophic, with the long East Asian tradition of Zen art. At the same time that it places his 'artless art' solidly within this native tradition, the book also views his work in a wider comparative perspective - showing the relevance of his particular shi-shosetsu ('I-novel' ) form to developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western fiction. Considered a giant within his own society, Shiga is hardly known outside Japan. Besides its critical study, this book also contains a number of translations of Shiga's writing that appear in English for the first time. These include his celebrated novella Reconciliation, considered by Japanese critics to be essential reading for anyone who would understand this most 'Japanese' of Japanese writers. The author argues in the book that this commonly-used translation is meaningless, and that the shi-shosetsu should be viewed as a literary genre in its own right, as with haiku, renga and no.