Single Sickness and Other Stories

Recently published in paperback as a part of Cornell University's New Japanese Horizons Series is a selection of short stories by Masuda Mizuko, translated by Lynne Kutsukake, although it is a slight cliche to say it but the only drawback with this absorbing collection was it's length, it would have made even further rewarding reading to experience the same number of stories over. The stories are accompanied with an introduction by Lynne Kutsukake giving some biographical insights into Masuda and the stories selected, five of them here originally appeared in Japan in Masuda's collection Water Mirror/Mizu kagami from 1997, these stories feature linking events which give the perspectives of these narratives an additional dimension, an episode where a woman is stabbed by her violent partner is seen from different viewpoints of the characters in the different stories, although the event occurs at the periphery of each of the central story lines. All of the stories except for one, (Dream Bug) are narrated by women who to some extent find themselves in events that leave them unravelled from the fabric of society, Masuda's prose has an incredibly understated subtle way of describing extraordinary events in everyday language, in Horn a woman discovers that a horn about the size of a wart is beginning to grow on her head, she gets away with covering it with a plaster, but with it the horn also enables the woman with a psychic ability to read the minds of those around her, on the whole the woman is non-plussed by the mundane nature of their thoughts, the story ends with her feeling ambivalent  about her feelings over the responsibility that may come with this power. The stories predominately feature narratives centering on independent women who have been the victims of abusive relationships, as in the first story Smoke where the protagonist's memories of her abusive partner are provoked when she is pushed to the ground by a man running past her. The stories give a menacing portrait where violence and psychological uncertainty encroach into the domestic setting, Ginko in Smoke immediately after being pushed returns to her apartment and takes an automatic solace in performing domestic chores, opening one of the huge official refuse bags she steps in and finds that she feels a security pulling it up over her head, these feelings begin to shift when a report on t.v turns to a murder case where the female victim's body was discarded in rubbish bags similar to the one she is in. The story Water displays a subtle use of the association of ideas which form into an understated metaphor left to the reader to piece together, the central character Ikuri has written a love letter to a fellow worker, (Akira), who works in the engineering section, the narrative carries her expectation of his reply, only to be interrupted by a complaint from the tenant, (Takayama), in the apartment below her's complaining that water is dripping from her apartment into his, the story gives the notion of the soiling of a pure love.

The title story Single Sickness is seen through Fukue who works at a Pathology research laboratory experimenting cancer cures on mice, taking a leap into the unkown she decides to escape and hands in her resignation, the story expands on the enclosed, mainly male dominated world of the department, the power struggles and the shuffling for promotion, especially seen through the research student, Matsuki, who is vying for Fukue's Senior Lecturer job when she leaves. Fukue's narrative sees her observing the duality and slight futile nature in her work, infecting the mice but at the same time searching for a cure, - The goal was to take an incurable disease and turn it into a minor ailment, the narrative lingers around the ethics of animal experimentation with the man who breeds and handles the mice. The centre of the story lies around the bitter irony when Fukue feels a pain in her breast, and after a consultation she is told that she has a lump the size of an azuki bean, but further tests would be required. Later she is seen by another doctor who diagnoses mastitis, he patronizingly berates her, citing the cause as not having a baby - When women don't perform the duties nature assigned them, this is what happens - they get punished with things like mastitis or uterine inflammation. The final story Dream Bug follows Hideo as he checks up on a coffee shop left behind after his uncle Katsuzo dies, as the story develops Hideo discovers that his uncle was ostracised from the family, the reason remains enigmatic, Hideo discovers a box of old photographs, and a woman who at first worked for his uncle figures but their relationship remains unclear, maybe she was a prostitute. Hideo retains a certain admiration for his wayward uncle, who lived at odds with the rigidly traditional path of his father, but still managed to make a small business for himself. The story incorporates a dream like connection between the dead uncle and Hideo, his father calls Katsuzo 'Yumenmushi', and Hideo dreams of the dream bug who must be kept happy being fed on sweet dreams - And if you had too many bad dreams, your mind would soon be filled with holes chewed by the yumenmushi. Once it had eaten everything, you could never dream again. This collection not only opens up a series of engrossing narratives of marginalized women caught in transistion but also paints a striking picture of the Japan glimpsed at their peripheries.

Masuda, (b.1948),  has been nominated for the Shincho Prize and also the Akutagawa Prize six times and has won many other awards including the Noma New Writers Award, the Izumi Kyoka Prize, the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Award and the Ito Sei Literary Prize.

more details on Single Sickness and Other Stories at Cornell University's East Asia Program              

Parasyte

Another foray into the world of manga led me to the first installment of Iwaaki Hitoshi's eight part series Parasyte/ Kiseiju which won the Kodansha Manga Award way back in 1993, recently I have also read Lychee Light Club by Usamura Furuya whose art work was stunning but over all left me feeling a little non plussed, the same could be said of Parasyte to a certain degree, perhaps it's the case that nowadays maybe I'm just a little too old to enjoy these kinds of story lines the way I might have done in the past, although I'm still interested in discovering and reading more manga series/titles. Although I've used the Japanese Kodansha cover above I read the Del Rey edition translated and adapted by Andrew Cunningham, who includes some translation notes, (check out Eastern Standard blog). I've seen Kiseiju referred to as a science fiction/horror manga and it does include violent and gory scenes, the story is seen mainly through the  character Shinichi, a high school student, starting with a meteor like invasion of earth by aliens who are worm like in shape, they use humans as hosts, (wriggling in through the ear), and also we discover for food. In Shinichi's case though something goes wrong and the alien doesn't take possession of his brain but of his right hand, the alien has the ability to shapeshift and open it's eyes, as his relationship with the alien develops Shinichi gives it the pet name of 'Migi', (Right in Japanese), at first Shinichi is about to severe his arm but after Migi begs him that he doesn't  they come to the agreement to stay together. As the story develops the news reports on a spate of killings which  become known as The Mincemeat Murders, (due to the state of the bodies after the aliens have fed), which makes Shinichi come to the realization that perhaps he alone is the only person who knows what is occurring. Migi is hungry for information about human behaviour and stays awake whilst Shinichi sleeps to study human history, and in turn asks Shinichi questions about his feelings, it becomes apparent that Migi has extra sensory powers and con-nections with Shinichi, he begins to feel Shinichi's feelings, as when he meets up with Murano, (the girl Shinichi has a crush on), Migi takes on the form of an erect member much to the embarrassment of Shinichi. Another amusing aspect to the relationship is that Shinichi is constantly talking to Migi, he becomes so involved in their conversations that he forgets where he is, another embarrassing episode is when they are overheard talking at an urinal stand.

The plot begins to develop when a supply teacher, (Tamiya Ryoko), arrives at the school, Migi, through it's extra sensory powers comes to the realization that she is host to an alien, they arrange to meet outside of school. At the meeting Tamiya reveals that she is pregnant by a man who is also host to an alien, and it's left in the balance as to whether it will be born a human baby or an alien baby...Although Tamiya Ryoko manages to keep her killing instincts in check her partner turns hostile towards Shinichi and Migi and hunts them down at the school. There are a few twists and turns to the story that I'll leave out from mentioning, I'm not too sure if I'll be hunting out Parasyte 2 in the near future, it's impossible to judge the series from this first installment, this edition comes with Q & A pages from readers to Iwaaki which is a really great touch, I think I like my manga with a tendency towards tackling social issues or perhaps more character driven story lines, although Parasyte had some entertaining and original ideas, I'm glad to have sampled it. Maybe next I'll give Usamura Furuya's take on No Longer Human a try.

            

a wind named amnesia {} invader summer

This volume collects two novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, also author of Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, that were both originally published in Japan in 2005, translated by Joe and Yuko Swift and published by Black Horse Books in 2009, accompanied by fifteen pages of illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It could be said that they are quite noir-ish in style and show inspiration from Lovecraft, also at times reminding me of Otsuichi. The first story, A Wind Named Amnesia is set in a post apocalyptic America, after a recent reading of Jonathan Lethem's Amnesia Moon it wasn't too difficult to make parallels with the two stories, an event occurred in the not so distant past that has caused a collective amnesia, reading the story also provoked memories of reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, although with a few differences, ok, perhaps maybe more than a few. The two main characters, Wataru and Sophia, find themselves on a road movie-like quest of a journey as they head, at Sophia's request to New Orleans, along the way they encounter various gangs usually made up of a violent leader and those just trying to survive, after each of these episodes they pick up a straggler who wants to continue with them, but usually leaves after finding a renewed sense of themselves. These survivors carry vague recollections of their past lives which are variously recalled in slight abstraction. Set in the futuristic year 20X5 another factor that threatens them are the existence of the Guardians, huge mechanical robots that were used to police the cities before the apocalyptic event and now roam randomly, their drivers now skeletal. Wataru recalls his meeting with Johnny, who seems to have escaped the amnesia, teaches Wataru world history and instructs him that he must spread the word of this civilisation that man had created before the amnesia struck, Johnny recalls the apocalyptic moment the amnesia started, when Johnny meets Wataru he tells him that his mental age had reverted to that of a three year old. Sophia's history is clouded in ambiguity, and as their journey progresses she begins to exhibit some strange powers, none the least her ability to communicate with the survivors who have lost the ability to speak in a recognisable language. As they travel from city to city and gang to gang, it becomes apparent that something malevolent seems to be travelling not too far behind them, Wataru begins to suspect that Sophia has some extra-terrestial connections that could also be linked to the collective amnesia. 

The second story, Invader Summer seemed to clinch it in being my favourite out of the two, set around the High School of Yubue City the main protagonist is Katagiri, a well trained student of Kendo whose abilities are outstanding, through his conversations with Sayo we learn that he had a relationship of sorts with her late sister Yayoi. The narrative follows Katagiri as he walks past a dilapidated house and sees a slightly spectral girl, later the girl is seen again in the playground of the school. Through the various perspectives of Katagiri's friends, Mikimoto, the poetry writing literature student and Kuramochi, a judo champion, things begin to go a little strange for the community of students, the boys begin to fall obsessively in love with the pale girl, collectively lingering around her house, a human eating dragon monster appears which has been pulled out of the realm of fantasy by one of the boys whilst fantasizing over the girl. The pale girl appears before Katagiri asking for his friendship and reveals that her name is also Yayoi, (although with a different family name to that of Sayo and Yayoi). A local journalist friend of Katagiri, Otomo, begins to investigate the girl's history which doesn't add up to what she has been telling people. Another story line that weaves it's way through this is of a group of Yakuza who keep approaching Katagiri, which usually ends with their defeat by Katagiri who defends himself without a sword. Invader Summer contains many story lines as it explores it's characters involvement with the plot, some of which end up being more relevant to the main story than others which makes the story an enjoyable reading experience, and the slightly abstracted way the characters are introduced, at first they are described figurativley and then later named specifically in the narrative kept you uncertain as to who was being introduced and to what degree they would be involved in the central plot, keeps the reader guessing. This story too has an extra-terrestial theme, (albeit that of a dysfunctional alien), which reaches it's conclusion at the local Natsu Kudari festival.

A Wind Named Amnesia {} Invader Summer at Dark Horse Books

"Panic" and "The Runaway"

A collection of two novellas by Takeshi Kaiko published in 1977 by Tokyo University Press, translated by Charles Dunn, the first, Panic/Panikku, originally appeared in Japan in 1957 and opens in the animal ward of a Forestry Department building where the narrative's protagonist, Shunsuke, is demonstrating how effective weasels could be in combating the possible outbreak of an epidemic of rats, dropping four into the weasels compound he switches off the lights, we hear the rustling movements of the animal and when the lights are put back on, the rats are lying motionless, spotted with blood.  Shunsuke, an employee at the department is pitted against the petty bureaucracy and in-competence of his superiors, who publicly renounce his ideas but secretly pin their hopes on the success of his plan. Through the course of the narrative we learn that the potential surge in the rat population of a mountainous area which covers the borders of three prefectures is caused by the blossoming of a rare bamboo-grass, an event that only occurs once in every 120 years, the rats feed on the seeds of the plant. At first the Head of Department is in denial that any problem will arise confident that they will rely on stronger poisons to control the increase of rats.

The beginning of the narrative sees Shunsuke struggling against his superiors and colleagues as he works on preparations against the potential outbreak, Shunsuke keeps a secret point system marking whenever the Head concedes whilst in debate with him. Shunsuke's frustrations deepen  when a superior who has been at the centre of a scandal from another department is moved to theirs, Shunsuke observes he has absolutely no knowledge of Forestry and has been moved solely to keep him from the public eye. At first the story is confined mainly between Shunsuke and his superiors but as the epidemic of rats begins to gain the story expands to describe the escalating hysteria and it's effects on the mountain community as rumour of the events begins to circulate. Eventually what has been anticipated comes to pass, and the area becomes engulfed in rats who eat and gnaw at almost everything in their path, attacking unguarded children in their cots, Shunsuke discovers additional  unscrupulous dealings when he realizes that the weasel supplier is selling back to the Department the weasels that they had only just released into the wild to cull the rats, perhaps the Head is involved?. Shunsuke sets up a reward system to those who capture the rats and resorts to mobilizing primary and middle school children to lay out poisoned rice balls as traps, and an incinerator is used at the Department to dispense with the corpses of the rats. The narrative temporarily pulls the reader into siding morally with Shunsuke, but during the course of the story it slowly becomes apparent that Shunsuke too is entangled in the acute power games being played out by the Head of Department and the Bureau Chief, the story intricately constructed,  leaves the reader with the impression that the narrative is one that transcends the narrator. The pandemonium caused by the rats acts as a metaphor representing the human interactions going on within the story and makes a comment about society at large, the scramble for self advancement. Set around this story of human fallibility a well crafted allegorical tale emerges in which suggests that it's human aspirations or perhaps the human predicament combined with societal forces that tilts the balance, an uncontrollable force, which will potentially end as depicted here in metaphor, in suicide.

The Runaway/Ruboki originally published in 1958 is an all together different story, in his brief introduction Charles Dunn mentions that Kaiko was also a translator of science fiction, although set in a rural town in ancient China, The Runaway/Ruboki reads at first a little like a science fiction story, vividly describing a time and place unfamiliar and often brutally violent. The narrator, a young unnamed man initially describes his home town in terms of the walls that surround it, made from the tampered Yellow Earth by those who live there, the walls take on the aspect of being a living organism, weathered by the winds and rain the perimeters seem to be constantly shifting. Set in a time of civil war the town is subject to invasion by roaming warlords, the residents keep a lookout and hoist hastily made flags similar to those flown by their potential invaders in the hope that they will be spared from attack, the narrator recounts an episode when one of these flags is misinterpreted, and the clothier and his family are brutally tortured and killed in front of the rest of the town. Opposite the town set in cliffs the narrator describes a set of caverns where some of the more brave flee to across the desert and away from the destitution of the town, his father is murdered in a passage that begins with the line, 'I'll tell you about the murder of a normal man'. The town is ruled by a succession of different armies and warlords, until the ascension of a new Emperor, an aristocrat from the north as the narrator describes and rumour abounds of a massive new capital. The narrator describes an era of stability in the town, a gradual release from 'feelings of psychological apprehension', this is not set to last as the town is visited and divided up by the Emperor's soldiers, drafting the men of the village. The men are marched to another city where more men will be rounded up, rumour goes around that they will work on the construction of a great wall, many men die en route and are replaced by farmers  coerced into joining the labour convoy, and any caught trying to escape are decapitated as this is believed to prevent them from being reborn,  severing the line in reincarnation.

When they arrive at the construction site they realize that the planned construction will use millions of men and hundreds of thousands of guards, they come to realize that they will also be constructing a new palace for the Emperor, they give their names and dates and place of birth and are given a crude and bloody tattoo on the forehead. The Emperor's tyranny extends to all those involved in the construction, architects, wardens, administrators, anyone found slacking is subject to barbaric execution, buried alive so that only their heads are exposed, the workers are then made to march pass compacting the earth and crushing the buried. The worker's conditions are described, the human stench of their digs, the men drink a cheaply made wine, gamble and turn to homosexuality.

A six day inspection ceremony takes place where the purpose and dimensions of the wall are explained by the rulers, -"The Great Wall was a challenge to space and time; it forms a single line linking the myriad ages; it will be a shattering blow to the barbarians", hatred the coerced workers may feel towards the Emperor is diverted to the barbarians, the narrator observes. The construction of the wall is described, taking in valleys and building into cliffs, they also become subject to attacks by the nomadic Hsiung-nu and the guards counter attack by indiscriminately killing anyone seen near the construction site, regardless of age or sex. Throughout the last part of the story the narrator observes the gradual disintegration of his individuality during his labours, and it's tempting to contemplate an allegorical meaning to this story, although this could also be seen as another aspect in the nature of Kaiko's writing as a whole. The narrator comes to the realization that the wall serves no great purpose as the area still comes under attack at night by the Hsiung-nu, and suspects a rebellion will arise, and contemplates running off into the desert and taking his chances with the Barbarians.

Kaiko Takeshi, 1930-1989, was seen as a writer who held leftist leanings although it's been observed that he didn't adhere to any set theory or political agenda, another of his stories Giants and Toys/Kyojin to gangu is a satire of two chocolate manufacturers caught in a sales battle, it was adapted to film by Masumura Yasuzo, translated by Tamae K. Prindle in Made in Japan and Other Japanese Business Novels, published by M.E Sharpe. Kaiko was also an opponent to the Vietnam war and nearly lost his life  there as a news correspondent, out of his experiences came the 1968 novel, Into a Black Sun/Kagayakeru yami. The current Shinchosha edition of Panic is accompanied with Kaiko's 1957 Akutagawa Prize winning story The Naked King/Hadaka no O'sama. Other translations into English include the novel Darkness in Summer and the short story collection Five Thousand Runaways, which I now hope to read soon. Panic and The Runaway is listed on the UNESCO list of representative works.