From the Fatherland, with Love - Murakami Ryu

From the Fatherland, with Love is a gargantuan book in many ways, its appearance into English has taken the work of three translators - Ralph McCarthy, Ginny Tapley Takemori and Charles De Wolf, the translation flows so well that you wonder at how they might have approached the translation, whether perhaps in parts individually or maybe as a group. The novel has been selected from the ever decreasing number of titles available through the JLPP, perhaps in English translation Murakami's novels appear to fall into various camps, in one there are what could be loosely called his tales of contemporary horror such as Audition, In the Miso Soup, Piercing, and in the other there are his stories chronicling the lives of the dissolute members of society, the Akutagawa Prize winning novel, Almost Transparent Blue, 69, and to an extent Coin Locker Babies, a common aspect to Murakami's writing is his ability to present in a dispassionate voice the raw and often brutal aspects of life as it is lived for his protagonists, in From the Fatherland, with Love this can be seen in the group of societal misfits and violent criminals that slowly come together under the enigmatic leader Ishihara. The novel was originally published in 2005 in two volumes and is set in 2011 where through economic down turning sees Japan's position in the world marginalised.

Although some of the characters are more prominent and longer lasting than others, (Ishihara, Tateno, Jo Su Ryeon, - the KEF's press officer), throughout the novel, there is not really a main protagonist to the book as the narrative comes to us through a number of various characters points of view, it begins to separate out into three main perspectives, that of the Ishihara gang, the KEF - (Koryo Expedition Force), that have landed in Fukuoka from North Korea to initially hijack the city's sports Dome and also to that of the Japanese authorities in a hastily convened emergency meeting that are responding to the invasion, the plot involves an elaborately planned deception. Reading From the Fatherland, with Love, you can be reminded of those series of history books entitled What if..?, Murakami has applied this question to create a hypothetical narrative that at times feels unnervingly convincing, probably one of the most terrifying aspects is the KEF's cruelty and torture which is cloaked under an amiable hospitality on the surface. The novel is a large one, but with it Murakami has created a space in which that through his characters has enabled him to explore and address the concerns which both reflect the real and also of the well pondered hypothetical. 

Similar to the epic novels of yesteryear at the beginning of the book there is a detailed list of principal characters, and as each character is introduced they are usually also given an additional biographical portrait, new characters are introduced even in the final pages although Murakami's view is panoramic in displaying how the unfolding events encroach into the lives of the novel's characters. As these events unfold we usually view them from one groups perspective, in places the full details of events are not fully disclosed to one party, so by turns we see how events are presented and then we see how they actually occur, each time this happens previously withheld details are revealed to the story and the narrative grows and develops, in this way it conveys very well the process of how information can be manipulated, it at times feels something akin to working your way through a series of inter locking rooms. Added to this there are events that we become aware of first but remain unknown to the characters, we read as they unknowingly approach the events we are already privy to. Trying to convey this fantastical plot line, it feels to begin with that there is a constant feed of facts provided to keep the feasibility of it afloat, and Murakami does a pretty convincing job at this, although with a novel of these proportions and alternating perspectives there's a few moments where it feels like it dips into occasional  repetition, but these are slight and essentially part of the novels structure.

Through this hypothetical narrative Murakami also gives over many episodes to examine many different issues, how the two different cultures perceive one another, the North Koreans surprise of the initial passivity of the Japanese, and as the soldiers become more adapted to life in Japan there are various scenes in which they become apparent of civil liberties previously unbeknown to them, and the added luxuries of smoking real brand cigarettes, the softness of the fabric of clothes, also the coming into contact with morally corrupting pornography which potentially threatens morale. Also in various instances the characters talk of the two nations past history and turbulent relationship, this probably is most markedly looked at near the end of the book in the relationship between Dr Seragi, an aging doctor who works in the hospital situated next to the KEF's encampment and Hyang Mok, a female member of the KEF, Dr Seragi had attempted in vain to halt an execution being carried out by the KEF, Hyang Mok witnessed him being restrained and taken away but later meets with him. In turn the conversation turns to events from each of their pasts, for Dr Seragi his regret and being unable to prevent executions carried out by the Japanese during the days of the occupation, and for Hyang Mok her sense of guilt over the death of her child through starvation.

Perhaps some might not appreciate how the novel develops a scenario or character only to drop it to move on to the next, it could be said that this is an integral to the novel's pacing, but if someone were also to mention that this is one of the most impressive of Murakami's novels to be translated to date, you'd probably be hard pressed  to disagree.


From the Fatherland, With Love at Pushkin Press

an interview with Murakami Ryu via Pushkin Press at vice.com

Many thanks to Pushkin Press for providing a reading copy.   





 

The Poetry of Living Japan

A recent purchase in a nearby second hand bookshop - The New Poetry, selected and introduced by A. Alvarez, published by Penguin which I've only just begun to explore, simply divided into two halves, one a selection from American poets, the other from British poets. Among the British is included D. J Enright, who I couldn't help notice that in the 1950's was a visiting professor to Konan University in Kobe. A little further probing uncovered that he along with Takamichi Ninomiya edited and introduced a selection of Japanese poetry entitled The Poetry of Living Japan published back in 1958. It features poems from a wide range of poets including - Tōson Shimazaki, Sakutarō Hagiwara, Tatsuji Miyoshi, Shinkichi Takahashi, Michizō Tachihara, to name but a few here, and also that it's available to read via Archive.org.

Also over at the very excellent publicdomainreview.org an interesting selection of Sketches by Yoshitoshi and also a look at the texts featured in The Rings of Saturn by W.G Sebald.

The Poetry of Living Japan at Archive.org.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unexpected read, not having read Matsuo Bashō previously this translation which was first published in 1966 by Nobuyuki Yuasa seems like a good place to start, it's accompanied by an introduction that spans a little over forty pages, although quite lengthy and detailed it feels that this remains only a glimpse into Bashō and the Japan of his age, it offers a brief history of Bashō's beginnings and the steps leading up to his travels, as well as contextualizing him with the poets that influenced him, along with the introduction there are an additional twenty pages of very informative notes at the end of the book which are a good spur to delve further into the times of Bashō, the early Edo or Tokugawa period. Within the introduction Yuasa observes that in Oku no Hosomichi, "Bashō has mastered the art of writing haibun so completely that prose and haiku illuminate each other like two mirrors held up facing each other. This is something no one before him was able to achieve, and for this reason, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is counted as one of the classics of Japanese Literature", if you're coming to   Bashō for the first time, like myself, an observation like this gives a clear indication of it's magnitude, and there is much about Bashō that I've yet to learn, to take things further Haruo Shirane's - Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory and the Poetry of  Bashō could make an informative next read.

 

This collection presents five pieces of haibun, (prose and poetry), the last being Oku no Hosomichi and also maps of the routes   Bashō took that produced them. Reading these sketches you can begin to find yourself amongst a set of  various differing elements, initially the juxtaposition of the pacing of the prose with that of the haiku, in a quote from Bashō he observes the difference between himself and other writers who include in their poems solely objects they encounter in their surroundings, or topographically observations, his poems appear to have a more singularity of vision, derived from experience on the road, things seen that has moved him. In Bashō it can be felt quite prominently that all is in flux, for him everything must have been in a state of near or continual change, not only things in his immediate field of vision, but also the larger picture of the changing of the seasons. Some of the haiku included are from companions that joined him on his travels as well as those of people who he lodged with, friends and family, fellow poets and priests living an ascetic existence, turning the back to the material life, one that Bashō also practised.

Although the Oku no Hosomichi seems to end quite abruptly the reader is faced with contemplating the pacing of the piece and also with the thought that the translation into English, (or maybe any other language outside of Japan), will never capture the lyrical nature of the original, you begin to think back on the sights and events that have been described by  Bashō, and to perhaps contemplate on which of them might have held the heaviest gravitational pull, perhaps the difficulty in such an endeavour points to a more profound quality to the piece. The aspect that marvels the most in Bashō is that in everything there is an awareness of his antithetical nature, the renunciation of conventional thinking, as the piece proceeds it's easy to put to the back of the mind the distances he is covering, until he mentions that the distance to Kaga Province, 加賀国,,,,,, (modern day Ishikawa Prefecture), is a little over a hundred miles, you begin to turn again to the maps to reassess the lengths of his journey. There are a number of moments where the tug of the antithetical can be felt where on one occasion even a spot of moon viewing will fail to pull him out of a state of melancholy, and in another haiku, -


Bathed in such comfort,
In the balmy spring of Yamanaka,
I can do without plucking,
Life-preserving chrysanthemums.


Riddles within riddles in Bashō's haiku, in its abrupt ending another quality becomes apparent that although the journey is a spiritual one Bashō doesn't finish on a culminating summary of his walk, these remain in the haiku, the fleeting moments of his visions.



The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches at Penguin Books         

In Pursuit of Lavender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Recently published from Anthem Press, a title selected by the JLPP which originally appeared in Japan in 2006 and is translated by Charles De Wolf, In Pursuit of Lavender follows two escapees from a psychiatric hospital who without any specific destination in mind embark on a road journey around Kyushu which becomes more revelatory the further they go. Their events are given to us from the perspective of Hana, whose history and condition begins to be relayed near the beginning of this ninety nine page novella, she hears a voice, a persistent male voice repeating- Twenty yards of linen are worth one coat , the meaning of this riddle and it's source remain elusive to her and thus us until its source is revealed to all later. In her past she suffered from visual hallucinations, a past suicide attempt saw her being admitted/taken to a mental hospital. The other character who joins her escape rather spontaneously is Nagoyan, a company man whose condition remains a slight mystery, perhaps work fatigue, later in the narrative he too displays suicidal tendencies, although Nagoyan is a nickname given to him when he was first admitted to the hospital as he pretended to come from Tokyo to hide his provincial background, which is a reoccurring theme running throughout the novella, the provincial against the metropolitan, Hana speaks with a Kyushu accent which Charles De Wolf has chosen to convey in his translation, but this attempt of Nagoyan to disguise his roots is a source of amusement to the other patients and bitterness and a deep resentment for him which runs until the final lines of the novella.

 

Allowed to walk to the local Lawson, they take the opportunity to escape and at first head for Nayoyan's apartment, (a 1LDK perhaps smaller rented by the company he works for), initially they scour his drugs cabinet in search of substitutes for their prescribed medicines, in an attempt to keep their side effects at bay, they visit an ATM where Nagoyan takes out a large sum of money, and then using his car they take to the road. As they travel larger portions of Hana's past is revealed, her ex boyfriend who dumps her after learning of her mental health problems, and the pair contemplate their punishment of 'private rooms', (locked rooms), if they are caught. The description of their route is detailed enough that if you wanted to you could follow the route they take via Internet mapping, through Kunisaki, the memorial museum for Yukichi Fukuzawa, passing the volcanic Mount Aso and later Sakurajima, to name but a few of the locations. There is no particular predetermined destination in mind, it becomes apparent that they are leaving their past lives behind, although near the end of the novella they begin to realize that the people they see are still living out these very lives that they feel they have escaped from, Nagoyan observes that they will no doubt at some point return to their former lives. The dimensions of their escape although large for them remains uncertain, as after they've been on the road for a while Nagoyan observes that the date of his proposed release arrives and then passes.

 

The relationship between Hana and Nagoyan remains platonic through the novel although on one occasion Hana contemplates the relationship becoming physical with Nagoyan, but on the whole Hana takes almost every opportunity to goad him about his attempts at covering his provincial background and desire to make it in Tokyo. Obviously the novel is looking at what we regard as being mental health or perhaps what constitutes mental abnormality, much of this is read in Hana's introspective reflections on her self and condition, at one point a series of voices and faces that she recognises but cannot name threaten to swap her thinking, looking back on her self  she observes - 'The delusory had a greater sense of reality, so that the real and unreal became indistinguishable'. Some of these reflections Hana mingles with the lyrics of songs by a punk band played on Nagoyan's cassette player. In another instance after an act of kleptomania Nagoyan throws an empty bottle of rum watching it smash he reflects on himself - 'I wish I could go to pieces in the same way', the overall feeling of the novella is the display that its a fine, perhaps fragile, line between the two. The purpose of the escape begins to take on a tangible purpose when Nagoyan proposes to find lavender which is known for its soothing aroma. At the beginning of the novel Hana describes her hatred of a certain drug used on patients that has diverse side effects which could be viewed as a comment on the treatment of mental health patients, which the novel is perhaps making in a broader context, although this message is not too explicit. 

 

The narrative is punctuated in a couple of incidences by slightly surreal happenings taking the novella to a temporarily different dimension, this is a thoroughly contemporary tale, which is at times is refreshingly irreverent, and provoking.        

 

   

 

In Pursuit of Lavender at Anthem Press


 

Real World

  



Before posting on a new translation that's due out next month, (Murakami's From the Fatherland with Love - although it appears to be available now), thought I'd read a couple of older titles that I've been intending to read. Real World, translated by Philip Gabriel is the first of Natsuo Kirino' novels that I've read, the most recent title of hers to appear in translation is The Goddess Chronicle which I'd like to read in the future. Reading Nakagami Kenji's story Jain/Snakelust the reader might find themselves contemplating what might have happened to Jun after he went on the run after committing patricide, in Real World we are given the full sequence of events and consequences of a similar crime. The chapters of the book narrate the unfolding of the story as it progresses each told from differing perspectives from different characters, one of the main characters, Toshi, sometimes uses a fake name, so chapters/perspectives also appear from her under her adoptive name, Ninna Hori. Toshi adopts this name to wrong foot the leaders of her cram class, to see them get something wrong when ticking her off their lists, her feeling prevails throughout the novel that young people are there to be used and exploited to substantiate the adults Raison d'être. The event at the centre of the novel is a matricide committed by Toshi's neighbour Ryo, or Worm as she has nicknamed him, stealing Toshi's bike with her mobile phone in the basket brings Worm into contact with the small tightknit group of Toshi's friends, as each member of her friends responds differently to Worm the groups relationship and understanding of each other is explored and depicted in detail.

 

The scope of Real World is much broader than that of being a straight forward crime story, it examines the way parents relate and communicate with their children, the pressures they are under and endure, through each portrait or observation of the students that any of the characters describe there usually comes with it descriptions of copious amounts of cramming study to improve their chances of getting into the desired or most elite university. The book also delves deeply into examining the psychology of the murderer, on the run cycling around in the intense heat, Worm begins to take on the psychology of a wartime soldier, as at the beginning of his narrative he recounts seeing on t.v a Japanese soldier being beaten for suspectedly participating in war crimes, later when he attempts to kidnap one of the gang he associates with Mishima, but even these adopted psychological states malfunction, when Kirarin reveals his true weaknesses to him.

 

Reading the novel at various points I couldn't help from contemplating it in other ways, as the main characters are largely a group of high school girls, the temptation to reconfigure the characters and switch the main, (?, it could be said that the main protagonist shifts from chapter to chapter), protagonist, Worm, into a woman and then switch the girls to boys threw up a lot of different thoughts and alternative perspectives. At each turn in the story and through each of the chapters the groups members found themselves constantly reassessing their knowledge of each other and at the novels end saw them addressing and appropriating the potential guilt and blame that each of them felt, for two of the group meet a tragic end. Locating the real world in the book is a difficult endeavour, the characters in turn find themselves either exiting it or through the novel's sequences arriving at it, reading the novel felt like submerging yourself temporarily into a pressurized chamber. It's a book that grabs you by the lapels, the way in which the murder and murderer is discussed in a matter of fact manner was unsettling and initially Worm is revered, his crime seems to represent a perforation in the desensitised world that the students exist in, the novel sees it's characters revaluate themselves and each other at each turn of events that spin out beyond their control, a disturbing and painful rite of passage.  

 

Real World at Random House 

 

 

2013 Readings

Thought it was about time again to catch up with listing some of my readings outside of Japanese literature, at the beginning of the year I was tempted to compile a list of predicted reads but find that when I compile these lists for myself I find that my reading veers off on a completely different course, so perhaps I'll list what I've read so far and then list some books that are potential reads.

 

 

Read so far -

 

Ernst Junger - The Glass Bees

Adalbert Stifter - The Recluse

Gustave Flaubert - Three Tales

Alfred Jarry - The Supermale

Paul Farley - The Dark Film

Otto dov Kulka - Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death

Jens Peter Jacobsen - Mogens and Other Stories

Guillame Apollinaire - The Poet Assassinated and Other Stories

Rawi Hage - Cockroach

Gerbrand Bakker - The Detour

Keith Ridgway - Hawthorn and Child

Elie Wiesel - Night

Jenny Erpenbeck - Visitation

Joseph Brodsky - Watermark - An Essay on Venice

Kurt Tucholsky - Castle Gripsholm

Joseph Brodsky - So Forth

Philippe Besson - His Brother

Potential reads -

 

Rene Daumal - Mount Analogue

Erich Kastner - Going to the Dogs

Erich Kastner - Let's Face It - Poems

Herbert Rosendorfer - Architect of Ruins

Javias Marias - Dark Back of Time

Charles Brockden Brown - Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleep Walker

Bruno Schulz - Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

Gabriele D'Annunzio - Pleasure - (Forthcoming in Penguin Classics)

Manuel Puig - Pubis Angelical

Jens Peter Jacobsen - Niels Lyhne

James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Gaito Gazdanov - The Spectre of Alexander Wolf

Laszlo Krasznahorkai - Satantango

Jean Echenoz - I'm Off

David Gascoyne - Collected Poems

Marc Auge - No Fixed Abode

Alexander Kluge - Air Raid

 

I hope among all the other books that I'd like to read that I manage to get to these, out of the contemporary books that I've read recently Hawthorn and Child probably stands out as being the one that impressed the most, I've read that it'll be published in September by New Directions, it is everything that it's been hyped to be, although in truth it's a book that really doesn't need to be hyped at all, it impresses entirely on it's own merits. I greatly enjoyed Rawi Hage's Cockroach, his IMPAC prize winning novel De Niro's Game is being reissued in the near future by Penguin, and I'd very much like to read it. Otto dov Kulka's book was a book not easily forgotten, which led to a reading of Night by Elie Wiesel which I've been meaning to read for a long time, another being Fateless by Imre Kertész which I've had a copy put aside to read longer than I care to contemplate. Kurt Tucholsky's only full novel - Castle Gripsholm is a novel that deserves a reprint/reissue, it looks like it could make an ideal candidate for a NYRB classics title, which reminded me of Erich Kastner's novel Going to the Dogs which seems like an ideal novel to head for after reading Castle Gripsholm. I'm not too sure what to expect of Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly which is half of the allure, the title alone attracted my attention, other than Sky-Walk or The Man Unknown to Himself which I think at the moment is a little more harder to come by, his fascination with somnambulism seems very curious. Among my reading at the moment I'm just about starting out on Premendra Mitra's Mosquito and Other Stories, Penguin India - and also perhaps Gabriel Josipovici's Everything Passes, but these lists are always subject to, (constant), change.

 

The Stones Cry Out

Although a brief novel the perspectives in The Stones Cry Out/Ishi no Raireki carry an extraordinary depth and resonance, Hikaru Okuizumi was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for it back in 1994 and translated into English by James Westerhoven. The events in this short novel are given to us from Manase a soldier in hiding  after fighting in the Battle of Leyte, the remaining soldiers find themselves regrouping in caves preparing to reorganise themselves for their final battle, many of the soldiers are suffering from malnutrition and malaria. Manase finds himself next to an emaciated Lance Corporeal who is near death, over and over the man talks of stones and Geology - Even the smallest stone in a riverbed has the entire history of the universe inscribed upon it - these are the book's opening lines they begin to take on the form of a mantra that echoes around the events in Manase's life and the novel. In command of the soldiers is a ruthless Captain, suffering from gangrene himself, he orders that all those near death kill themselves or be killed, after they refuse to carry out his orders he does it himself, Manase hears their pleas and these scenes as well of the Captain ordering them to kill reoccur throughout the novel as the events in the cave are revisited throughout the novel as Manase reflects back on them. The soldiers are malnourished and there is a suggestion as Manase suspects of cannibalism, Manase himself seems to show signs of malnutrition, his memories begin to blank out until he finds himself as a prisoner held in the Philippines.  

Following the events of the war, Manase returns home, his parents initially from Tokyo left the city for Chichibu, after his father's death Manase sells the family's books, this small second hand business eventually grows into being a fully fledged book store, all the while Manase's obsession with stones and Geology begins to blossom, although an amateur Manase travels into the mountains to complete his collection, he's assisted by a local Geology teacher who offers expert advice, whilst collecting and polishing his collection Manase reflects on the war, the events in the cave and the Lance Corporeal whose talk of stones inspired Manase to look into stones to unfathom the secret and history of what they may contain. The narrative works in a number of subtle ways, after he is married it begins to evolve to take on the form of a family drama, throughout this though it takes on a broader panorama after one of his sons, the estranged Takaaki, becomes involved in the student upheavals later in the novel, but Manase's experiences in the war are present in the background, at times within the narrative the impression that as Manase is trying to come to terms with the nihilism and horror of his past Takaaki is beginning to enter a deadly political world.

Manase has two sons, Hiroaki shares his father's fascination with stones and they take trips into the mountains collecting them together, Manase is astonished how quickly Hiroaki picks up on the subject when he quizzes him on verifying stone types, in many instances the prose dips into reading like poetical geological descriptions of the stone's history and formation , Manase becomes slightly concerned about his son's solitariness,  not playing together with other children, they spend an almost dreamlike summer together collecting when Hiroaki is discovered murdered at the entrance of a quarry, he has been stabbed. After the murder the family begins to fall apart, his wife starts to drink heavily and blames him for Hiroaki's death, she makes him promise to leave Takaaki alone, the deteriorating relationship arrives at breaking point when Manase tries to take his wife to hospital in an attempt to cure her of her alcoholism, but the attempt goes badly, Takaaki ends up being moved to Manase's sister in laws. After his wife's hospitalization they divorce, on his own Manase's finds himself talking to the shadow he sees of Hiroaki, in his feverish dreams he goes to the quarry where Hiroaki was murdered, looking in between the fence he can see a light inside, looking more closely he makes out a fire and a man sitting next to it, he begins to hear the Captain's voice making his demands to kill the dying men, he wakes in desperation. As the novel reaches it's end the convergence of the two narratives begin to increasingly merge in the quarry where Hiroaki was murdered with that of the cave in Leyte, to try and describe how Okuizumi links the two together would be to deny it of some of it's redemptive power, but it displays something of the miraculous in galvanising the past with the present, and reversely the present with the past, a novel well recommended to seek out.

 

Finishing the novel, through it's name I was reminded of Jim Crace's novel The Gift of Stones, which in turn made me think of Tan Twan Eng's The Gift of Rain and the recent prize winning The Garden of Evening Mists, which I think I might head to in the near future.              

More on Hikaru Okuizumi at J'Lit 

 

In Mourning for the Summer by Tachihara Michizō

Reading through some of the blogs that I follow and other places on the net, I couldn't help but notice that April is national poetry month, I'd have to admit that I've not looked very thoroughly into this, I was going to but then I remembered reading Simon Armitage, in his book All Points North, that on the occasion of national poetry day the first thing he did was leave the country and take his mother shopping in Reykjavik, I think it was - I read it many years ago, like him I usually find myself being slightly suspicious of national or international events like these. To know that somewhere April has been deemed to be poetry month is enough for me, but here is a poem that I've been thinking about quite a lot recently - In Mourning for the Summer by  Michizō Tachihara , 立原道造, , a collection of his poetry has appeared in English translation in Of Dawn, Of Dusk - The Poetry of   Michizō Tachihara, translated by Robert Epp and Iida Gakuji, published by Yakusha in 2001, I suppose you'd be fortunate if you find an affordable copy.

At the beginning of last month I couldn't help read this poem, although some of it's meanings derive from other times and aspects of it reference different events, I couldn't help from feeling that in parts it felt poignantly relevant. This poem can be found in the anthology From the Country of Eight Islands translated by Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson.   





In Mourning for the Summer

My times that passed away
have turned my heart to gold. So as not to be wounded, so wounds
        may be cured soon,
between yesterday and tomorrow
a deep indigo gulf has been made.

What I tossed away
was a small piece of paper stained with tears.
Amid foamy white waves, one evening,
all, everything, vanished! Following the story line

then I became a traveller and passed many
villages on the moonlit capes, many
hot, dry fields.

If I could remember! I'd like to return once again.
Where? To that place (I have a memory of,
that I waited for and quietly gave up -)





Michizō Tachihara at Ginza via Wikkicommons

Terayama Shuji - Gekkan Taiyō

Gekkan Taiyo is a monthly magazine published by Heibon-sha devoted to profiling figures from the world of Japanese Arts and Literature, issues include illustrative biographies and writings and paintings, in the past it has devoted issues to such writers as; Dazai Osamu, Nakaharu Chuya, and Kyoka Izumi among others. Also past issues have covered subjects as religious art as well as movements within architecture and architectural history. The most recent issue is dedicated to Terayama Shuji, 寺山 修司,  filmmaker, poet, theatre director, this May marks the 30th anniversary of his death in 1983, and also features photography by Moriyama Daido. You can get a preview over at Heibon sha's blog, (in Japanese), this post serves in part as a reminder to myself.

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter



 

 

This year Studio Ghibli are releasing two films, one of them incorporating Hori Tatsuo's short story The Wind Has Risen, the other is an adaption of the 10th century folk story Kaguya hime monogatari, the film will be directed by Isao Takahata who has previously directed other films for Studio Ghibli including one of my favourites - Grave of the Fireflies. Kaguya hime monogatari is also known in English as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter/Taketori monogatari,竹取物語, like many other folktales and early stories, the identity of the original author of this folktale has never been fully or officially ascertained. Kodansha International published this edition, in it's Illustrated Japanese Classics series back in 1998, a modern rendering by Nobel laureate Kawabata Yasunari, translated by Donald Keene with accompanying illustrations by Miyata Masayuki, the book is dual text.

 

The tale begins with the old bamboo cutter walking in the woods, he sees a light coming from one of the stems of bamboo, exploring further he discovers a young woman only three inches high, he also discovers that some surrounding stems are crammed with gold, he takes her home to be raised by his wife and becomes a wealthy man, the couple appear to be childless similar to the couple to be seen in the folktale Momotarō, the woman also seems to be imbued with a strange power, whenever the old man is in pain looking at her dissipates his discomfort, and also he finds that just the vision of her dissolves his angry temperament. After some time with her adoptive parents the woman grows to a normal size and the old bamboo cutter asks a diviner from Mimuroto to name her, he decides on Nayotake no Kaguya-hime, The Shining Princess of the Supple Bamboo. Over time the rumour of Kaguya-hime's radiant beauty begins to circulate and a number of suitors begin to make themselves known, among five of them are Princes and men of high rank. The old bamboo cutter getting more advanced in his age and thinking of her future implores Kaguya-hime to consider some of their proposals, although understanding that she is not his natural daughter she is not obliged to obey his wishes and she appears reluctant to acquiesce. She sets an almost near impossible challenge that; 'If one of the five will show me some special thing I wish to see, I shall know his affections are the noblest and become his wife' , Kaguya-hime's requested five objects include - from India the stone begging bowl of the Buddha, from the sea of Horai the branch from the tree with roots of silver and a trunk of gold, a robe of fur of rats from China, a jewel that shines five colours found in a dragon's neck and lastly; a swallows easy delivery charm.

 

The narrative begins to describe each man's quest in hunting out each of the requested items, each account ending in failure and marking the creation of a particular proverb. As these stories unfold a messenger from the Emperor has been dispatched to the bamboo cutter's house, as he too has heard about Kaguya-hime, but again she refuses to go to the palace, it's arranged that the Emperor will go to the bamboo cutter's house under the pretext that he is hunting in the area just to catch a glimpse of her. Slipping inside the house he grabs Kaguya-hime but she turns to a shadow, she laments that if she were born of this world she would go with him, the two have to be content with a relationship of exchanging letters and poetry.

 

The tale has often been referred to as an early science fiction tale, which maybe taking a slight leap in imagination, although after  Kaguya-hime explains to the old bamboo cutter of her origins from the moon and that soon she will be departing to make her return there, the thought arises that perhaps when it was written the moon may not have carried the same connotations as it might do in today's science riddled world, perhaps more of a celestial one rather than an extraterrestrial one, it'll be interesting to see how the ending appears in the film. Taketori monogatari is an evocative tale, one that ends on a truly monumental fashion that manages to work in an explanation of the naming of one of Japan's most iconic landmarks.

 

some related links ~

 

The World of Masayuki Miyata   (video for akafuji)

 

川端 康成,

 

Kaguya-hime monogatari 

 

online text from the version in Yei Theodora Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales