nnyhav
Reader
Blogspotting: Taedium Vitae: Farewell Notes of Japanese Literary Suicides by Gilbert Alter-Gilbert
Japanese Literature
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
Raphael Lambach
Reader
Friends, Kazuo Ishiguro the only Japonese author I have read in my life, however, I love haikus (haicais).
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Actualy Ishiguro is not quite Japanese, he is considered by many as a writer from the UK
Raphael Lambach
Reader
Yes...you're right, 'cause he writers in English - however the most of his stories happen in Japan. But he lives in UK for long time.
waalkwriter
Reader
Kenzaburo Oe, I've only read his first novel, Nip the Buds, Shoot the Children, an extraordinary novel. Really truly on so many levels, after reading it you will not think very highly of Lord of the Flies anymore.
I just read a book of short stories by a Japanese writer named Kuniko Mukoda - The Name of the Flower (1994) in which the theme of the father or husband taking a mistress is repeated several times. Much is made of their feelings of shame but also the pleasure they enjoyed away from their families. Middle-class marriages are viewed with a lot of skepticism here. I wonder if this is a recurrent theme in Japanese fiction generally? Are Forum readers of Japanese literature familiar with her work?
Mukoda's stories are very short (no more than about 12 pages, most 6 or 8), concise, with short sentences; a style I thought at first, prejudicially, was related to a cultural taste for small, neatly designed things like haiku, ikebana, origami, etc., (the first story involves ikebana - flower arranging). That may play a role, but the translator, Tomone Matsumoto, suggests in an afterword, that she tended to write quickly because she earned a living first as a magazine editor and later as a radio and TV script writer working quickly to tight deadlines.
I admired Mukoda's quick delineation of characters, settings, family histories, and emotional tensions; despite some repetition of subject matter, each character is fully realised and completely individual. Men, women and children are all treated with an even hand and fine understanding. She likes "twist" endings that sometimes seem tacked on, unbelievable or just too easy but, given the sense of dangerously repressed emotions or neurosis in these lives, it's hard to say what might be apt endings. Makudo examines Japanese middle-class urban society with an eye for the grotesque combined with compassion for the human struggle to conform at the cost of individual sensibility.
Mukoda died in a plane crash in 1981 at the age of 52. She had been famous in Japan as a scriptwriter. I suppose she would have been called, in the West, a "media personality." Her death (as usually happens) caused a boom in sales for her work at the time.
pearlyriver
New member
I used to consider Haruki Murakami as my only favorite Japanese author until I was introduced to Akutagawa's short stories. It's no joke, he deserves to be the Father of the Japanese Short Stories. Although Akutagawa and the Big 3 ( 2 Murakamis and Banana Yoshimoto) take very different approaches, I just can't think so highly of Murakami once I've read Akutagawa. For those interested, In the Grove (on which the masterpiece Rashomon is based), Spider's thread, Hell Screen, Kappa, Autumn Mountain are great introductions. Some of his stories don't age well in the eye of savvy 21st century readers, those mentioned above manage to stand the test of time in my opinion. However, Akutagawa's forte lies in his knack for building up atmosphere and creating tightly constructed narrative, which make me sceptical about the quality of the English translation. As far as I know, no English translation has done him justice. I'm from Vietnam, and we're lucky to have a community of ex-students studying in Japan in the 60' (many of them are well above 60 now) who translate short stories from the best Japanese authors.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Those are your big three? Well it could be the ones from the present but I'd rather go with Mishima, Kawabata and Oe which were the truly figures of Japanese literature in XX century.
Right.. and Banana Yoshimoto in top 3? Not in my list..
The big three (if you want to keep it down to just three) who really brought about modernism and changed Japanese literature in the early XXth century were Soseki, Ogai and Akutagawa. Then came Tanizaki and Dazai. They all built the foundations upon which other great Japanese writers like Kawabata, Mishima and Oe developed.
waalkwriter
Reader
I'd say Soseki and and Akutagawa mainly. And Oe is quite unique among all the Japanese writers I've encountered.
Oe is a literary giant in the league of people like Dostoievsky and Faulkner. His books are so good and profound but have such a devastating effect on me that I can only afford to read one or at most two in a year.
Last edited:
Daniel del Real
Moderator
I agree that the ones you mention were the structure in which change was built for Japanese creators in the XX century. It was the plattform in which Kawabata, Mishima and Oe based themselves. However, the truly giants were these three, they built monumental works and brought Japanese literature to its peak.
Liam
Administrator
Two upcoming Japanese titles from Dalkey:
"Beautifully written by Taeko Tomioka, a renowned poet, Building Waves is often droll in tone, but always touching in its portrayal of a culture divided, and ultimately swept away, by ferocious waves of change.
It is the early eighties, and the housing industry is booming. Previously unpopulated mountainous areas of the Japanese countryside are being leveled to accommodate new waves of people. Similarly, a new wave of feminism, particularly a change in attitudes toward marriage and child-rearing, is growing among the women of Japan. Both the physical and social landscapes are in flux.
In her early forties, married, and childless by choice, Kyoko has no compunction about getting what she wants. But when she begins a relationship with a man who is as traditional and conformist as they come, the result is at times uncomfortable, at others comical, but ultimately fatal."
"Flowers of Grass is Takehiko Fukunaga's fully realized portrait of a young man of fastidious intelligence and great sorrow, and shows us how it is possible, seeing reality from the side of death and despair, to still choose life.
Outside Tokyo, a tuberculosis sanatorium in the village of K has a six-bed ward that the narrator, an aspiring poet, shares with a student of linguistics and budding writer named Shiomi. After the stubborn Shiomi insists on undergoing a dangerous surgical procedure and dies in the process, two notebooks turn up in his bed-sheets.
Flowers of Grass unfolds as the narrator reads them, asking himself if Shiomi's death was a sort of suicide, and learning the details of his late friend's two great loves: for a brother and sister, both of whom reject him.
Fukunaga himself spent seven years recuperating from tuberculosis following World War II, and drew on his own experiences to create a fully realized portrait of a young man of fastidious intelligence and great sorrow, and how it is possible, seeing reality from the side of death and despair, to still choose life."
It is the early eighties, and the housing industry is booming. Previously unpopulated mountainous areas of the Japanese countryside are being leveled to accommodate new waves of people. Similarly, a new wave of feminism, particularly a change in attitudes toward marriage and child-rearing, is growing among the women of Japan. Both the physical and social landscapes are in flux.
In her early forties, married, and childless by choice, Kyoko has no compunction about getting what she wants. But when she begins a relationship with a man who is as traditional and conformist as they come, the result is at times uncomfortable, at others comical, but ultimately fatal."
***
"Flowers of Grass is Takehiko Fukunaga's fully realized portrait of a young man of fastidious intelligence and great sorrow, and shows us how it is possible, seeing reality from the side of death and despair, to still choose life.
Outside Tokyo, a tuberculosis sanatorium in the village of K has a six-bed ward that the narrator, an aspiring poet, shares with a student of linguistics and budding writer named Shiomi. After the stubborn Shiomi insists on undergoing a dangerous surgical procedure and dies in the process, two notebooks turn up in his bed-sheets.
Flowers of Grass unfolds as the narrator reads them, asking himself if Shiomi's death was a sort of suicide, and learning the details of his late friend's two great loves: for a brother and sister, both of whom reject him.
Fukunaga himself spent seven years recuperating from tuberculosis following World War II, and drew on his own experiences to create a fully realized portrait of a young man of fastidious intelligence and great sorrow, and how it is possible, seeing reality from the side of death and despair, to still choose life."
Liam
Administrator
Has anybody ever heard of Shuntarō Tanikawa, who's supposed to be "one of the most widely read and highly regarded Japanese poets"?
Quite a lot of his work has appeared in English; however, I have never heard of him before (shame, shame).
A tiny collection of his poems, The Metaphor of the Sea, will be released in English in April.
However, there's also the Selected Poems, published back in 2001, which is well worth a look. All in all, an exciting new discovery for me.
Quite a lot of his work has appeared in English; however, I have never heard of him before (shame, shame).
A tiny collection of his poems, The Metaphor of the Sea, will be released in English in April.
However, there's also the Selected Poems, published back in 2001, which is well worth a look. All in all, an exciting new discovery for me.
redhead
Blahblahblah
I'm really late to this thread, but I'd just like to point out that even though not too many Akutagawa prize winners get translated, the winners do make up the bulk of authors that get translated, which I suppose says more about the state of translation from Japanese than anything else. Other winners include Yoko Ogawa, Yoko Tawada, Shintaro Ishihara (yes, him), and Kenji Nakagami. Nakagami doesn't have too much out in English, but what is there, while flawed, are still some of the best short stories from the country. Even just walking around the Japanese section of my college's library, picking out translated books by authors I don't know, a lot of them seem to be Akutagawa prize winners. I discovered the work of Teru Miyamoto and Tetsuo Miura this way.
Even a lot of the translated authors that didn't win the prize were associated with it in some ways, like Haruki Murakami, a two-time nominee, or Osamu Dazai, who caused a bit of a scandal when he failed to win. Others, like Yukio Mishima, were excluded because the Akutagawa Prize is reserved for fledgling authors, and Mishima rose to literary stardom in the years immediately preceding WW2, when the prize was still suspended.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I guess if you're interested in contemporary J-lit and don't know the language, looking up Akutagawa prize winners is probably your best bet.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Here's a very interesting article on David Mitchell's five favorite Japanese novels. I had no idea he was an avid reader of far east literature nor that he has a novel set in the 19th century Japan. Interesting choices despite I've only read The Woman in the Dunes.
http://www.avclub.com/article/david-mitchell-his-5-favorite-japanese-novels-209562
As I can't resist to lists, here is mine in no particular order:
Yukio Mishima, The Sea of Fertility
Natsume Soseki, Kokoro
Kenzburo Oe, M/T and the Narrative About the Marvels of the Forest
Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country
Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
http://www.avclub.com/article/david-mitchell-his-5-favorite-japanese-novels-209562
As I can't resist to lists, here is mine in no particular order:
Yukio Mishima, The Sea of Fertility
Natsume Soseki, Kokoro
Kenzburo Oe, M/T and the Narrative About the Marvels of the Forest
Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country
Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
pesahson
Reader
Thanks for that, Daniel. I like little articles and lists like that. I'm always fascinated with what writers are reading.
My list looks like that:
Junichiro Tanizaki The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi
Yukio Mishima The Sailor Who ...
Koba Abe The Woman in the Dunes
Akira Yoshimura Shipwrecks
Hiromi Kawakami Sketches from one wondrous night (a short story, my poor translation of the title)
My list looks like that:
Junichiro Tanizaki The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi
Yukio Mishima The Sailor Who ...
Koba Abe The Woman in the Dunes
Akira Yoshimura Shipwrecks
Hiromi Kawakami Sketches from one wondrous night (a short story, my poor translation of the title)
Peeping Tom
Reader
David Mitchell lived in Japan for quite a while, teaching English, before he got published. His wife is Japanese. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (set in 19th century Japan) is a wonderful novel, and very different from his earlier novels, including Cloud Atlas. His first two novels (Ghostwritten and number9dream) are also (or partially) set in Japan.
Of the novels he mentions, the only one I'm not familiar with is The Doctor's Wife.
Remember there was a similar discussion around the 'depressive' nature of the Scandinavian literature a while ago..
[h=1]Japan’s literature of loneliness depicts solitude as a noble state : https://www.ft.com/content/e4d15154-6a31-11e8-b6eb-4acfcfb08c11[/h]
[h=1]Japan’s literature of loneliness depicts solitude as a noble state : https://www.ft.com/content/e4d15154-6a31-11e8-b6eb-4acfcfb08c11[/h]