Wednesday 18 September 2013

Bullfight by Inoue Yasushi

 
 

 
Recently published from Pushkin Press is Bullfight by Inoue Yasushi, translated by Michael Emmerich, the story won Inoue the Akutagawa Prize in 1949,  it can't be overstated enough to say how much Pushkin Press excel in the presentation of their books, Bullfight is no exception to the rule, this novella is indeed satisfying to own and to read, which obviously goes some way in tipping the balance in the paper versus digital argument, (if you're having one!). One of the first things that strikes the reader in this extraordinary allegorical novella is that it centres around the staging of a bullfight in Osaka in the immediate aftermath of the war, the book comes with an afterword from Inoue from an older French edition in which he discusses and reflects on the writing of his two early novellas; Bullfight, (his debut), and also The Hunting Gun, although the piece doesn't give any clues away as to his inspiration in choosing to use the staging of a bullfight in this novella, its unusualness lends the allegorical dimension of the novella a greater potency. Although brief the novella deals with some big themes; ambition, post-war opportunism, juxtaposed with the story of a love affair that is threatened to be destroyed in the process. Much of the events of the story are seen through Tsugami, the editor in chief for an Osaka newspaper that is persuaded to take the gamble in sponsoring the fight, initial dilemmas that arise include sourcing the funding to hold the event in the Hanshin Stadium, before it is staged the smell of opportunity spreads to a heavy drinking entrepreneur Okabe, who manages to wrangle shady black market deals with Tsugami's partner, Tashiro.
 
Pulling at Tsugami's commitments is his fragile relationship with Sakiko, who lost her husband during the war, the relationship becomes strained further as the date of the fight edges closer, which also at times begins to be referred to, in more of a Japanese manner, as 'bull sumo'. From the start it becomes known that Tsugami has a wife and children living away from the city where they were stationed to escape the bombing raids, the question arises of Tsugami's reliability which adds to the pressure of the games outcome having to be a success. Through the tautness of the plot there is some great characterization, in the telling of Okabe's rise into owning multiple companies that have achieved the degree of success that all he needs to do is to turn up and drink to find his inspiration, which conveys a message about the notion of material success, the novella may have been read as an insightful foretelling as to where unfettered opportunism may lead to, and carries a recognisable realism that dispenses with prediction. A potently allegorical novella which makes an essential addition not only to Inoue's presence in English but also to the landscape of post war Japanese literature. 
 
 
 
Bullfight at Pushkin Press
 
 
 
 
 
        

Wednesday 11 September 2013

The Quilt and Other Stories by Tayama Katai

 
 
 
The central character of Futon or The Quilt is a man caught in the midst of many contradictory desires, originally appearing in 1907 its mention and discussion of repressed passions may have provoked sharp intakes of breath although from a retrospective viewpoint the story is a fully realized portrait of a man caught with ennui in the emerging realization that his married life is running on empty. Through translator Kenneth G. Henshall's thorough introduction we learn that Futon along with Toson's Hakai/The Broken Commandment, of 1906 is one of the earliest examples of the Shishosetsu. Takenaka Tokio is a man of literature who receives repeated requests to act as a patron for a young woman named Yoshiko whose character is the polar opposite to that of his wife, she in ways represents the new age, unlike Tokio's rather old fashioned wife she has a passion for new literature, under Tokio's tutelage the plan is that she will become a successful writer, which of the time the idea of a female author was more than likely seen as being quite a modern phenomenon. There are many scenes of desperation throughout the beginning of the story, Tokio's sense of entrapment within his marriage reduces him to bouts of drinking out of frustration, and when Yoshiko has moved into the family home he begins to become deeply enraptured by her, but is caught in wondering if she feels the same way, rumours go around and she has to move to a relatives house to avoid the gossip of scandal spreading. The story becomes more fraught for Tokio when it's discovered that Yoshiko had been whisked away one night by a fellow student, Tanaka, and Tokio is left in a state of agonized suspicion as to whether anything happened between the two, has Yoshiko's chastity been preserved?, the rest of the story witnesses the untangling of the predicament. Futon is obviously an important landmark work in Japanese Literature, there is much here that is representative of the changing attitudes of the age, and also of it heralding the changes within literary styles told with a psychological honesty that must has made revelatory reading on its publication. When considering what had been before, the honest and unrestrained voice of Futon and some of the other stories here must have seemed to represent a colossal shift in direction and tone, Kenneth G. Henshall also discusses Tayama's reactions to readings of Guy de Maupassant, Turgenev, Zola, Nietzsche, Sudermann and Hauptmann, and his philosophical outlook and his own vision of the leading writers of Naturalism of the day.
 
As mentioned The Girl Watcher/Shojobyo, 1907, is very much in the same vein as Futon, it was written slightly before, although everything is much more out of reach and at a distance for the protagonist, Sugita Kojo - also a literary man, although past his prime, he was once a popular writer of 'girl novels', and is ridiculed for his interests in romantic notions. Instead of being in contact with the woman at the centre of his fixation, and aside from returning a hair comb that she drops, he has to make do with watching her amongst the crowds aboard the tightly packed trains. Sugita is a pitiable character, although despite his appearance - 'he had the looks and build of someone about to do battle with the beasts', he believes in pure love, and the power of instinct, seeing the woman he questions himself: 'How could such a pretty girl exist in this vulgar world', his narrative dips into being that of a lament for his chaste youth. Another element of the autobiographical can be seen in the story One Soldier/Ippeisotsu, 1908, which also appears in the anthology - this story comes from the perspective of a wounded soldier on the eve of the Battle of Liaoyang, war and the military was something that Tayama had first hand experiences of in a number of ways, his father was killed in action during the Satsuma Rebellion, 1877, and in 1904 he was sent to Manchuria to report on the Russo-Japan War but was sent back after contracting typhoid and on his return, Kenneth G. Henshall adds, he was treated by the writer/doctor Mori Ogai.

The stories cover the period from 1902 to 1914, I'm not sure of the intention in the way they are presented but there is a linking familiarity in some of the settings of the stories and in the way that some of them thematically merge, The Girl Watcher with its tragic accident on the railway at its ending links to the story The Railway Track, 1912, which begins with an accident on the rail lines, and One Soldier shares perspectives with The Sound of Wheels/Karuma no oto from 1908. One Cold Morning/Samui asa, 1914, and The Photograph/Shashin, 1909, appear as being two brief stories that stand alone in their setting, The Photograph is in ways as literal as it sounds, offering a snapshot portrait into the lives of a group of people assembled for the taking of a photograph, and One Cold Morning witnesses the intrusion of death in an innocently presented domestic scene.

It could be said that in every short story collection there is a stand out story, and Futon is obviously the most widely known perhaps for its notoriety, but for me The End of Juemon/Juemon no saigo, from 1902, is a story that wanders away from the rest in the uniqueness of its narrative and in depicting how the forces of nature surreptitiously intercede on man's fate, it's the earliest story here from 1902, written when Tayama was 30 and influenced by his reading of Hermann Sudermann's Der Katzensteg/The Cat's Bridge, aka Regina or The Sins of the Fathers, from 1890. The narrator recounts meeting in his school days two fellow students, Yamagata and Nemoto, who had come to the city from a remote village in Nagano, they rent lodgings above a bath house, and as they grow closer they exchange stories of characters and families from their hometown. Some years later the narrator tracks out the village of his friends and asks a villager for directions to their family homes, he learns that the village is in a state of turmoil and unrest after recent attacks of arson. After meeting up with one of his old friends the story of the outcast Fujita Juemon begins to emerge, born with a rare deformity which left him with an enlarged scrotum, symbolizing by implication the state of the family legacy he inherits, his childhood was filled with episodes of rejection and ridicule, although eventually he marries and for a time his life appears to stabilize, only again he falls back into previous debaucheries that are a result of the anguish he feels at his deformity, after learning of his extra marital activities his wife too has an affair, Juemon's life disintegrates and he takes up with a feral woman and goes on a rampage of revenge to vent  his bottled up sense of rejection. The story is imbued with an almost mythic quality, and its setting in a remote village near the Chikuma River, overlooking Mt. Kosha adds to this, it's a story that holds a deeply entwined morality to it, Juemon's end is one that ends in murder after the natives can no longer tolerate his arson attacks. His death is made to look like an accident in a rather bungled attempt at a cover up, although set in a remote village and thus seen as a microcosm, The End of Juemon reads very much as a case study in the psychology of communal thinking, of the transferability of moral codes and examines the margins between acceptance and non-acceptance, Juemon appears as the scapegoat that is sacrificed in order to preserve the sense of the 'normal'. The tone of the narrator is one that becomes more affected and more empathetic to Juemon's plight as the story progresses, at the beginning of one of his contemplations of what he is witnessing he considers - "If man is completely natural, then it's bound to end in tragedy. For then nature necessarily comes into conflict with the conventions of the present day. In which case, does not nature itself end up, in this world, as unnatural?", (pg142) . Out of the eight stories The End of Juemon/Juemon no saigo seems to offer the most penetrating insight into Tayama's at times harsh and unrelenting vision of naturalism, written a little over 110 years ago, during reading I had to pause to contemplate at the period of its setting. The collection was originally published by Tokyo University Press and is currently out of print.


For a more in depth look on the shishosetsu - The Rhetoric of Confession by Edward Fowler.

and also Kenneth G. Henshall's book on Tayama Katai  - In Search of Nature, Brill Books, 2012




                                 

Saturday 7 September 2013

Carl Randall - Japan Portraits




 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Carl Randall was awarded the NPG Travel Award in 2012 for following the Tokaido Highway in the footsteps of Ando Hiroshige, (1797-1858), and recording what he saw. The works form a part of the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London until September 15th, next year the exhibition travels to Japan to the Ando Hiroshige Tokaido Museum in Shizouka, although if you can't make it to either of the exhibitions the above book, recently published, is available. The book comes with a forward by Desmond Morris and an introduction from Donald Richie.

Japan Portraits at NPG shop

Japan Portraits at Amazon

gallery at Carl Randall's web pages

Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum of Art

documentary 


Thursday 5 September 2013

Sunny


 
 

Sunny is a book that I've been anticipating to read since it was published back in May, the translation of vol 2 is due to be published in November so I thought I'd better track out a copy of vol 1 before 2 appears. Simply put the book is close to perfection, the story is beginning to slowly unfold across art work that could quite easily hang comfortably next to masterpieces that are exhibited in contemporary art galleries, the tantalizing full colour pages do make you slightly wish that the whole could also be presented in the same way, but I'm really not complaining. There are probably numerous blog posts on Sunny which could easily outdo my post on it, my favourite is over at Brain Vs. Book, so I'll only offer a brief post of appreciation, the setting is an orphanage, (The Star Kids Home), the sunny of the title is a dilapidated Nissan Sunny that the children play in, amongst them it seems that Haruo is the car's most frequent visitor, as one of the other children points out the car is a place where the realm of imagination rules, 'just imagine where you want to go the car can take you'. The translation is from Michael Arias who directed the film adaption of Matsumoto's Tekkon Kinkreet , there's something about Matsumoto's art and story lines that are laid back but at the same time carry the subtle urgency of the dilemmas that face his characters, the potential of the serious or the humorous hovers as you turn from page to page, segment to segment.   
 
Sunny volume one at viz.media 
 
      

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Interview with Mutsuo Takahashi via REVS magazine.

A recent brief interview uploaded last month with poet Mutsuo Takahashi/高橋 睦郎 is available to read via REVS magazine, which also includes translations of two of his poems - Traveling Blood and Monkey-Eaters.

REVS magazine.

Stories of Osaka Life

 

 
There are a number of collections of short stories that I've wanted to read but due to costing and price thought that the opportunity would never arise, one of those was "Love" and Other Stories by Yokomitsu Riichi, another at the moment is The Woman With the Flying Head by Kurahashi Yumiko and another that I've been wanting to read is Stories of Osaka Life translated by Burton Watson. Whilst in Japan I learned of Hidemitsu Tanaka/田中 英光, like Sakunosuke he was also associated with the Buraiha group of writers, Burton Weston points out in his introduction that Japanese literary scholars were keen to group authors into schools and groups, as also I think Dennis Keene mentions in his introduction to Yokomitsu's  "Love and Other Stories", perhaps this kind of information is best kept in the back of your mind on inital reading, or perhaps it's better to read and respond to the story first and then consider its context within literary history and or the relevant movement afterwards. Similar to Tanaka 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Oda Sakunosuke, 1913-1947, maybe this post should have been kept for October for more precision, although the desire to read these four stories was too much to delay reading.

The first from 1940 is Hurray for Marriage, or Sweet Beans for Two!, the English title conveys the double meaning of the original - Meoto Zenzai. Long regarded as a classic the story has been adapted to film a number of times, although plainly conveyed there is plenty going on under the surface to contemplate. The story's two main characters are Chöko and Ryukichi, initially Chöko is an apprentice geisha or more exactly a yatona, who becomes Ryukichi's mistress, he is a married man with a young daughter, the pair run away but before they return an earthquake strikes which they read as being a sign of divine condemnation at what they are doing. Extramarital affairs and relationships appear dotted throughout the four stories, it could be said that Meoto Zenzai, not only chronicles the consequences and outcomes of extra-marital relationships as Chöko and Ryukichi's relationship is also one that appears to transcend the classes as well, Choko's parents are hardworking and struggle to get by, but in contrast Ryukichi comes from a well off family, one of the subplots is the threat of Ryukichi's ostracization from the family and of him being written out of his inheritance, especially when his sister marries a more respectable suitor whom it looks like will ascend to the position of head of the family in the event of his fathers passing who has been in ailing health after suffering a stroke. Chöko  and Ryukichi are two very contrasting characters, Chöko works endlessly trying to save money to get ahead, they pursue various business ventures, but every time money is saved Ryukichi squanders it on drunken nights out, in this he is the epitome of the reckless decadent male of the age, the narrative dips under and explores commonly assumed gender roles within the patriarchal structure, within the story there appears a reversal of roles, Ryukichi whose manliness is taken as given exhibits an inescapable streak of male weakness, while Chöko is the real stronger of the two, despite this the story is told with a broader sense of humanity, these foibles appear as details of a larger drama.
 
A notable distinction between the stories is that the first two, Hurray for Marriage, or Sweet Beans for Two! and Six White Venus are told in a third person narrative and the last two, the fantastically titled City of Trees and the final story The State of the Times are relayed by a narrator within the story although some third person narratives also appear in them, and perhaps in taking things a step closer to Sakunosuke the narrator in both of the last two is a writer. The State of the Times is a fascinating story, Burton Watson notes that it's probably 'the most skilfully constructed and memorable of all of Oda's works', the story was published in 1946 and garnered increased attention when Shiga Naoya pronounced it "filthy". The narrator of the story is a writer who sees the possibility of material in almost everybody he encounters, the story is built up of linking episodes that cover a period that spans before, during and after the war. One of the main characters that features in the story is the proprietress of a bar who after an unsuccessful attempt at seducing the narrator begins to tell him the story of the ten-sen geisha, which by turns leads to the story of Sada Abe 阿部 定 and her lover Kichizo Ishida, Sada Abe also features in a later story of Oda's called The Seductress, which is yet to be translated . In pursuit of copied records of the court proceedings of the Abe case for the potential use in a story the narrator recalls the owner of a restaurant in Ganjiro Alley, an area that was destroyed in the air raids, the narrators description of the dinginess of the alley is vividly recalled and he speaks of his desire at the time to have moved into the area displaying a romantic/anti-romantic attachment to run down places contrasting it to the more appealing and popular area around Hozen-ji. The story turns with the introduction of Yokobori, a friend of the narrator who has recently returned from the war and faces a bleak and prospect less future, he turns up at the narrators house bloodied and beaten after failing to pay for food after he was robbed, Yokobori's predicament is caught succinctly when the narrator catches himself in mid sentence when describing Yokobori's way back from a certain destination, - 'though of course he didn't have anywhere to go back to.' As the story comes to an end the narrator takes a step back from the narrative and examines the transparency of his motives in writing the story and by degrees the transparency of fiction writing - 'Yokobori is no more than a puppet who has borrowed my sensibility and is wandering with it across the stage of present day life', but Oda turns the tables  - 'But no! I protest indignantly. It's present day life that's imitating my old stories', the end of the story sees the characters of the story meet again in a slightly abrupt and evocative re-grouping.

Six White Venus tells the story of two brothers, one, Narao, born under the horoscope of the six white Venus who is steadfast in pursuing his own way in the world, he finds work at a hospital and to escape the interference of his mother and brother threatens to become a doctor of a leper colony to avoid them. During the course of the events of the story the brothers discover that they are illegitimate which gives the story an added dimension. City of Trees is the shortest of the four which sees the writer/narrator of the story revisit the area where he went to school, stopping in a shop to escape a shower he meets again a restaurant owner who he knew from the past and the narrative spills into the narrators observations of the man's family, his suspiciously silent and under achieving son whom his father is happy to allow him to go into manual work as he reasons he was never any good at studying, the family disappear nearly as abruptly as they appear, the story, as with the other three are highly evocative of Osaka, from its alley ways and through the streets of Shinsaibashi,  Dōtonbori and the parks of Tenno-ji.