The Wind Has Risen

December has proved to be not a great month for me to blog in, I had originally planned to look back over my readings and posts of the last year, but instead have found myself  caught up by a reading of The Wind Has Risen/Kaze Tachinu by Hori Tatsuo, Hori was a disciple of Akutagawa and Muro Saisei, although a prominent literary figure of early Showa not very many of his writings have made it to being translated into English, which is a great pity although his novel Naoko from 1941 was translated by Yuko Watanabe by Bucknell University back in 1975 and a translation of his short story Les Joues en Feu appeared in Kodansha's The Showa Anthology. The translation of Kaze Tachinu by Francis B. Tenny can be read in Columbia University's recently published abridged edition of their Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature.  The above edition is from Iwanami Shoten which also includes Hori's novella Utsukushii Mura/Beautiful Village from 1933. Kaze Tachinu follows the tentative relationship with a male narrator and Setsuko who suffers from encroaching tuberculosis, the narrator's attentive observations of Setsuko's condition are also  interupted with careful observations of his relationship with his potential father in law. They come to the agreement that the two will head to a sanatorium at the base of Mount Yatsugatake, in the hope of an improvement to Setsuko's condition,  throughout the story they are taking small steps towards the answer of whether their relationship will form into something substantial, in little snippets of dialogue Setsuko gives away clues to the narrator to the depth of her commitment, as well as if to herself.

Hori Tatsuo suffered from lung complaints and ailing health for much of his life and this features prominently in much of his writings, the male narrator is an amazingly drawn character, pensive, intelligent, catching up with walks that he feels he should have taken, studious, and at the same time reading these cryptic signs from Setsuko, Hori's delicate prose captures the effects on the two as Setsuko succumbs to her condition, the male narrator sits with her holding her limp hand, he describes the scenes as he walks around the sanatorium observing the other patients, his walks extend around the local landscapes and woods, noting that 'in my minds eye the winter scenery like a wood-block print of some improbable place'. Hori's prose is touched with a slight modernism, the poetical descriptions of the woods and mountains contrasted with a description of a 'mackrel sky' fuse together the old and new styles. Coming to the sanatorium for the narrator begins to take on being a culmination of differing emotions and aspirations for him, he describes that he had dreamed of a secluded life with a woman, and they both observe that they find themselves in a sublime beauty and peace at the sanatorium, their relationship begins to ascend to a different level, he begins making notes of his thoughts - "Setsuko, I can't believe that two people have ever shared such mutual love. There hasn't been a you before. Or a me..." Her father pays a visit concerned that her condtion isn't improving and after he has left, her coughing brings up blood, although Setsuko and her father voice their concern of the narrator's work as a novelist is being jeopardised, he hints that he will write a novel of their situation, but stops when contemplating it's projected conclusion. As the story contiues the notes take on the form of being actual dated diary entries, in which some are mingled with retrospective comments so it remains uncertain for a while as to when they are being written, observations and recollections in past and present tense converge in almost elgiac prose where the observations of the narrator take on an etheral conciousness, he moves to the small village of Karuizawa, (which Hori also visited regulary), staring at the light reflected from his small cabin window the observation is imbued with an expansive quality, in a sense  with a universalism in minature. Walking around the village which is populated with many foreigners he comes across the German caretaker of the church who tells him that the priest is about to leave for Matsumoto. A copy of Rilke's Requiem For A Friend is posted to him and the narrator quotes from the poem. The story, although centering on the male narrator and his observations, rather than being preoccupied with Setsuko's illness is in Hori's nuanced prose an evocative piece of prose on the interpretation of memory and the impact of death, love and loss, and in the end it reads as a narrative from one who finds himself being the one left behind. The diary entries in the story begin at the start of December and I found rather unnervingly end on December 30th.          

Here's a list of the titles of non-Japanese authors and novels that I've read in 2011, in no real particular order;


Herman Hesse - Strange News From Another Star
Alain Robbe-Grillet - Project for a Revolution in New York
Alain Robbe-Grillet - Topology of A Phantom City
Michel Houellebecq - The Art of Struggle
Robert Musil - Tonka and Other Stories
Roland Topor - The Tenant
Marguerite Yourcenar - Mishima - A Vision of the Void
Roland Topor - Joko's Anniversary
Julian Barnes - A Sense of an Ending
Francois Mauriac - The Desert of Love
Jean-Philippe Toussaint - Making Love
Richard Brautigan - Sombrero Fallout
Michel Houellebecq - Lanzarote
Richard Brautigan - The Tokyo Montana Express
Steven Millhauser - Enchanted Night
Michelle Paver - Dark Matter
Susan Hill - The Albatross and Other Stories
Magnus Mills - The Maintenance of Headway
Bohumil Hrabal - Too Loud A Solitude
Ernst Junger - On the Marble Cliffs
Julien Gracq - Cheateau d'Argol
Otto de Kat - The Figure in the Disatance
Jonathan Lethem - Amnesia Moon

Amongst these is quite a few books I've been meaning to read for some time, including the Julien Gracq, (I've managed to locate a copy of his novel The Opposing Shore, so I'll be reading that soon), and also On the Marble Cliffs by Ernst Junger quite a controversial figure, but this novel has an almost unique narrative to it, there's no straightforward dialogue but the descriptive power of the novel is something I've not come across before, until a reading of Chateau d'Argol after it perhaps. Reading Julien Gracq's obituary in the Independent I was quite surprised to learn that On the Marble Cliffs was an influential novel on him. It was quite strange to read Houellebecq's Lanzarote at around the same time as 1Q84, as both novels skirt around the same themes in differing degrees, although Murakami's is certainly the more lengthy. Another novelist I came to this year was Alain-Robbe Grillet and if I'm being honest I picked these up after reading Kurahashi Yumiko's The Adventures of Sumiyakist Q, I found myself completely absorbed into the fragmentary narratives of both Project for a Revolution in New York and Topology of A Phantom City, so Alain-Robbe Grillet will be another author I'll probably revisit in the new year. Other non Japanese novels I've got earmarked to read for 2012, a mixture of old and new include, Roberto Bolano's The Third Reich, Gustaw Herlings collection of three novellas, The Island and also The Story of a Strange Time by Leonid Borodin who sadly passed away recently. Another novel that I'd like to read at some point is Michel Butor's La Modification/Second Thoughts, tracking down a copy of this will be a bit of a quest. There's been many books by Japanese authors that I've not made it to this year, in particular The Town That Vanished in Four Minutes by Shinya Komase and Koichi Toyoda, a photo book that recounts the effects of the March Tsunami on Rikuzentakada City, but hopefully I'll be able to read many more of these in the new year. Also in the new year I might be heading back to Japan, so maybe I'll put my blog on an indefinite hiatus, I have also for some time been contemplating the idea of starting an imprint, but I'm not sure, see how my time pans out, but it remains to say many thanks to you for reading and commenting over the past year.

Nippon Wars and Other Plays

Translations of Japanese drama are few and far between so the publication of this collection of six key plays by Takeshi Kawamura is a welcome event, anyone who might have an interest to explore Japanese drama further I'd redirect to the Performing Arts Network Japan pages via the Japan Foundation, the archive of their Play of the Month is especially worth a look through. My knowledge of modern Japanese drama though is slight, other from the appearance of translations of Mishima's reworkings of Noh plays and Abe Kobo's Tanizaki Prize winning play Friends/Tomodachi, there is a collection of translations by Kunio Kishida, (a drama prize named after him is one of the most prestigious in Japan), Five Plays, by Kunio Kishida, edited by David G. Goodman, who also made a study of Japanese drama of the sixties in his book Return of the Gods, and a translation of the The Face of Jizo/Chichi to Kuraseba by Inoue Hisashi, are all books of interest. Another dramatist well over due for some representation into English translation is that of Terayama Shuji, the plays here from Takeshi Kawamura were first performed a little closer to our own time, but at the same time they involve subject matter from the course of modern Japanese history. The book is edited by Peter Eckersall who also writes an introductory essay examining Kawamura's plays and his involvement from production group Daisan Erotica to the forming of his own  TFactory, the essay is entitled - Takeshi Kawamura: Memory, Society, Theater-Media and provides a great insight to the nature of Kawamura's plays which take in both traditional and experimental aspects of theater, including to a degree elements of cyberpunk. The plays are translated by various translators including; Shoichiro Kawai, Leon Ingulsrud, Sara Jensen, Aya Ogawa and Peter Eckersall, the selected plays include - Nippon Wars, The Lost Babylon, Hamletclone, Aoi, (based on the Noh play Aoi no ue), Komachi, and The White House in the Hills of Argos.

Nippon Wars was first performed in 1984, set in a dystopian future it opens with a soldier leaving for the front saying farewell to his girlfriend proclaiming although he is young he will fight for the United Capitalist Republic of Nippon, (UCRN), another man appears at the back of the stage on an elevated platform firing a gun into the air, banners unravel proclaiming developments in the war with Calgaria, he explains he joined the Rebel Canary, another banner explains the intensification of the war, UCRN forms an alliance with Amerigo, the war turns to total war, the man's nausea grows, close to vomiting he observes - History is making me sick!, firing in the air slips of silver paper begin to fall, (an editor's note explain that these represent aka-gami, Japanese conscription notices). The scene shifts, the man is regaining consciousness, someone explains that he is coming around after being shot with the anaesthetic Algin Z, he finds himself amongst a strange group, he can hear the distant sound of waves, Welcome to the blue whale room!, they all greet him, he learns from them that from now on his name will change to 'O', as a deserter of the Rebel Canary he'll  train for two and half years before being sent to the real front, one of the group reveals that he is inside a giant whale and that there are other similar animals in existence being used for similar purposes, the group is made up of both men and women and are named in the play with single letters, J, B, M, P, K. The others in the group display a variety of extraordinary powers, fragments of O's previous life begin to return to him, one of the others observe that, 'you must have some kind of special power if you were sent to this room', O begins to question where he is again, mockingly another says, 'Hey, bro. We already had that where am I stuff in the last scene. Lay off that hero shit. What are we actors?', abruptly they receive a surprise visit from General Q accompanied by Miss Right and Miss Left and a bacchanalian party begins in the middle of which Miss I returns, her previous whereabouts appear to have been a mystery. Lessons begin, as they count through they come to Lesson 100: conversation, Q explains - This is communication. You exchange your own ideas. But you cannot use any existing language. It becomes apparent that the exercise is being overlooked by a higher intelligence than themselves, which is represented in the form of a floating brain called Sue Ellen, using Neuro Kinetic Energy the group inadvertently blow up an enemy sub that had strayed to close, this realization that they possess this power arouses their curiosity in their situation, and through the conversation and questioning Miss I poses the question, 'Do you have the memory of being loved?', which produces a blank within the group. Sue Ellen informs them that the whale is on course for the coast of Calgaria, this news is interrupted by the announcement of news of the war's further intensification, martial law has broken out in Tokyo. As they near the coast the ensuing panic is represented in a dance and the characters begin to recall moments from their previous existences, they come under enemy attack and at the same time O attempts suicide. After the wave of the attack has passed O is operated upon, during the procedure Q explains that the UCRN had manufactured microbe bombs and androids to help the war effort, the only problem they had were emotions, the realization that they are androids sweeps through the group and that the memories of their previous existences were implanted in an attempt to help give them more of a human like identity. The ending of the play sees an attempted power shift and rebellion but this too could be an event that was pre-ordained by the total brain. The title play from this collection  transcends beyond being a story of malfunctioning androids and obviously carries a comment about society at large and offers an apocalyptic vision of a dystopian society, although reading a play you are only exposed to a limited appreciation of it's overall power and scope, reading Nippon Wars you realize it has lost none of it's ability to provoke thought. The plays presented here also come accompanied with photographs of productions of each of the plays.

Read synopsis of Aoi and Komachi at Performing Arts Network Japan

Nippon Wars and Other Plays is published by Seagull Books

T Factory (in Japanese)