The Dark Room by Junnosuke Yoshiyuki

Anshitsu/The Dark Room by Yoshiyuki Junnosuke was awarded the Tanizaki Prize in 1970, translated by John Bester and appeared in Kodansha's Modern Writers series. The novel is narrated by Shuichi Nakata a writer in his early forties, whilst meeting up with Toru Tsunoki, the two had worked on the same literary journal, we learn that his wife Keiko had died twenty years previously, Nakata suspects that Tsunoki had an affair with his wife, the pair go out drinking and Tsunoki offers Nakata to write a diary for a magazine column, it can even be fictional Tsunoki informs him. Nakata learns that it's to be about his relationship with two women that he meets that night, Tae and Maki. As the novel progresses the reader could be tempted into thinking that the novel is going to be revealed as being the diary itself, but the magazine article soon slips into the background as Maki and Nakata meet up again. Maki confides with Nakata that he is different to other men she has encountered in as much as Nakata doesn't make her sick with repulsion. Nakata's attempt at forcing himself on Maki comes to nothing when she begins to question him, 'Let's call it a day' she says, simply concluding his attempt. Nakata is a character with few redeeming characteristics, his use of prostitutes, and there is much evidence in the novel of abusive relationships, Nakata also sees two other women Takako and Natsue who either have first hand experience of violent husbands/partners, or know other women in the same the situation, but Yoshiyuki's inclusion of this could be read as him highlighting the issue, although Nakata sees his relationship with these women in nearly purely physical terms. Nakata's narrative has an undertone of despair, and to a degree an emotional isolation, at first he doesn't get emotionally involved with the women, but the distance he keeps slowly gets eroded as the novel progresses.

There are a couple of instances in the first half of the novel where the story wanders, Nakata reflects back to his college days, when he was sent to recuperate from an illness in the country,Yoshiyuki himself had a lung removed due to pulmonary tuberculosis, Nakata stays on farm where one of the sons (Torao) goes on to be a genius within his area of study, but Nakata one day discovers that Torao had a brother and sister who were born with mental deficiencies, their existence is covered up by the family who hide the two in the attic of the farm buildings. Another slight diversion in the text comes earlier on when Nakata reads an article about prostitution after the war,in it prostitutes are interviewed about their experiences, during the interview they all mention a female customer they had, a woman that stuck in their memories, 'She was lucky, having something to live for. You know, somehow were not really living at the moment. What do you mean, 'not really living'?. she's asked, I mean living just because there's nothing better to do'. It could have been added as a thematical link, as Nakata begins to realize that Maki is a lesbian, her relationship with Nakata she sees as not being the real thing. The women in Nakata's life begin to drift away from him, Maki falls pregnant with his child but decides to move to America to raise the child, eventually Natsue is the only woman in his life. They meet up and Nakata learns that Natsue was nearly beaten to death by her previous husband, their relationship gets darker. It's great to learn that Kurodahan Press are planning to publish soon Yoshiyuki's Noma Prize winning story in Toward Dusk and Other Stories.   

Funuke Show Some Love,You Losers!

Funuke Show Some Love,You Losers!, opens with a car accident, whilst Shinji and Kiyomi mourn the loss of their parents, Sumika (Shinji's sister in law) arrives from Tokyo,in these new family circumstances her allowance is cut and she has to return to the family home, Sumika's bitterness that she's back where she started is expressed in the claustrophobic gasps as she cycles about the countryside, where there's no reception for her mobile. Looking at the dolls Shinji's wife Machiko creates, Is this witchcraft?, Sumika wonders suspiciously. Slowly events from the past are told in flashback,Kiyomi had drawn a manga of Sumika fighting with her parents after her father wouldn't pay for acting school in Tokyo, she threatens him with a knife but the skirmish ends with Shinji being cut in the face when he steps in to stop it, the incident is included in Kiyomi's manga,with the caption 'I'd kill to be an actress' underneath the image of a crazed Sumika wielding a knife dripping with blood. Kiyomi enters the manga into a newcomer's competition, it wins first prize and the whole village reads it. After the fight with her parents, Shinji and Sumika find themselves drawn to each other, and Sumika makes Shinji vow to be ever faithful to her alone, although he marries Machiko they never have a physical relationship. Desperate to get to Tokyo Sumika sells herself to raise the money. The film returns to the present timeline, Sumika begins a correspondence with a film director who has recently won an award, after a few letters he replies encouraging her to write more, a debt collector from Tokyo arrives to reclaim what Sumika owes, mirroring the past she has to sell herself again to pay off her debt, all the while Sumika tries to payback Kiyomi for the damage her manga had done. One night Kiyomi discovers Shinji and Sumika's relationship,hearing a noise at the door Shinji gets up to check and when he opens the door finds Kiyomi on the otherside but returns to Sumika saying nothing was there, inwardly Shinji is devastated that he's been discovered, which has tragic consequences. Things come to a head when Kiyomi begins drawing another manga about Sumika,and reveals that she's been working at the post office and has kept Sumika's recent letters to the film director.

Based on the novel of the same name by Yukiko Motoya, Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers/Funuke domo, kanashimi no ai wo misero is an acerbic dark comedy, ostentatiously depicting the fight between two competitive sisters, the drama overspills into human drama. Hiromi Nagasaku's performance as Shinji's excessively obliging wife was a great highlight.

Funuke Show Some Love,You Losers!

Third Window

The Old Woman, the Wife, and the Archer

Published by The Viking Press, New York in 1961 The Old Woman, the Wife and the Archer collects three short stories translated and introduced by Donald Keene. The old woman is represented in the short story The Songs of Oak Mountain by Shichiro Fukasawa, first published in Japan in 1956, which is a rendering of the folklore tale of Ubasute, this story was also adapted to film by director Keisuke Kinoshita in the Ballard of Narayama (1958), and then again by Shohei Imamura in 1983. The story is set in a small village community, Orin lives a peasant life with her widowed son, Tatsuhei, and his two sons, as she is getting older her main concern before she has to make her pilgrimage up the mountain is to see her son remarried. News comes from the next village that a match could be made with a woman of Tatsuhei's age, with this solution Orin prepares for her departure. Tatsuhei's sons make up songs from older folk rhymes to tease Orin, and other villagers use them as aphorisms 'Cleanse the heart and cleanse the senses, A companion's lot is harder than it seems. On my shoulders the weight is galling. Oh, the burden, it's appalling, Cleanse the heart and cleanse the senses' . Preparations for the summer Bon festival begin, Orin had planned to make her pilgrimage at the beginning of the new year but decides to slip out to visit the priest before so as not to cause trouble to her family. Tatsuhei wakes up too and accompanies Orin as she makes her way to visit the God of the mountain, as they climb higher up the mountain they begin to encounter the bones and corpses of those who had made the pilgrimage before, some still in the posture of prayer, the mountainside is covered with crows. Tatsuhei breaks the oath of not speaking on the mountain when he cries out to his mother, but Orin instructs him to leave her and go back down the mountain.

The Wife of the collection's title is represented with the story Ohan by Chiyo Uno, a story told in retrospect, the narrator is a man who's feelings are caught between a geisha whom he lives off, and that of his estranged wife, his affection for his wife is rekindled after seeing her again. He runs a flailing business from a shop, he sees the school children running back and forth outside of his shop, his wife was taken from him by her parents as they began to see that the marriage was a mismatch, but his wife has remained faithful to him despite their estrangement, in their brief time together they produced a son, who unwittingly visits his father's shop, dreaming that one day they will be able to sleep together again in a row on the same tatami spurns the man to make plans to rent a house for them to live in. The man's actions are observed by the twelve year old niece of the geisha he lives with, she knows that he is about to abandon them for his wife, but like him is unable to inform her aunt. Tragedy thwarts the man's dreams when his son falls victim during a storm.

Asters by Jun Ishikawa takes us back further in history, Muneyori, the governor of a province although born into a family of court poets and is a skilled poet himself argues with his father, who arranges a marriage and sends him to the edges of the province. Trained by his uncle in the art of archery and advised by Tonai (who wants to topple him from power to become governor), he suffers fools badly and with his arrows 'thirsty for blood' begins to extend their use from hunting foxes.Whilst hunting Muneyori notices a realm beyond the mountains,Tonai deters him from exploring this region, but one night he travels back across the mountain, where he meets Hetai a man who spends his life sculpting an image of the Buddha, who explains to Muneyori that the two regions shouldn't mix due to a difference in blood between the people, Muneyori vows to return this place thinking there should be nowhere in the province that he shouldn't go. On his return he encounters a beautiful young woman wandering in the forest, she returns to the castle with Muneyori. All the stories here offer an intriguing insight into Japanese folklore.