Which classic authors should I read?
With the influx of Western thoughts and ideas into newly opened Tokyo in the late 19th century, intellectuals struggled with the conflicts that arose between traditional Confucian ideologies and contemporary European spirituality. Natsume Soseki taught literature at the University of Tokyo after studying abroad in London, and when he later became an author, he brilliantly sublimated those same conflicts in his novels. However, such ideological tensions are not apparent in his fantastic short stories,”Ten nights of dreams.” Although these 10 absurd stories seem immeasurably delirious, as if they come from the depths of the unconscious, they possess timeless and universal qualities. And what vivid depictions of life in 19th-century Tokyo!
The author Kafu Nagai traveled to the United States and France where he became deeply immersed in Western thoughts and ideas. He started publishing fiction at the beginning of the 20th century. In “A strange story from the east of the river” (also translated as “Something strange across the river”), the scene is Tokyo, as it undergoes tremendous changes in the days leading up to World War II. The appeal of this work is its metafictional structure, which features a gripping relationship between a writer and a prostitute. Just when you think the story is over, the author himself appears to relay several episodes of the ever-changing city as part of the plot. Here too, a nesting box story allows the reader to witness the passage of time.
Now we are finally approaching the layers that make up present-day Tokyo. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the country again underwent profound changes. The narrator of Kenzaburo Oe’s novel “Seventeen” is a young man who killed a politician. The novel is a detailed portrayal of a young man adrift, sliding into depression and driven to terrorism. The story references an event that happened not long before it was published, in which the chairman of Japan’s Socialist Party was stabbed to death by an ultra-nationalist in Tokyo’s Hibiya Public Hall. There were many protests and threats against Oe himself after “Seventeen” was published in a literary magazine. Despite being translated into several languages and published in numerous countries, the novel was not made available in book form in Japan until four years ago – 57 years after it was written – when it was included in a collected edition of Oe’s complete works.
Is there a short fiction I can read while traveling, especially if I’m jet lagged and can’t sleep?
The short story ‘Final Moments’, from the 1961 collection’Toddler Hunt and Other Stories,by Taeko Kono, is about a woman who suddenly learns that she will die the next day, and describes how she spends the hours after realizing that. Despite the terrible premise, the story is surprisingly calm and factual. I’ve often heard people say that it’s hard to say what a Japanese person is thinking, and this woman is no exception: she doesn’t show her feelings. Every time I reread this story, I am always amazed at how Kono chose to illustrate the workings of this woman’s mind with such bold and sophisticated creativity.
The women featured in the stories included in Kuniko Mukoda’s collection, “The neighbor”, embody the values of the generation that came of age during World War II. Although Mukoda’s stories are written 20 years after Kono’s, somehow Mukoda’s wives feel more remote. Nevertheless, Mukoda skillfully captures these Tokyo women who, towards the end of the 20th century and at a time of economic prosperity in Japan, continue to struggle to improve their position. They testify to their quest for even the simplest freedoms, despite the social oppression they faced.
The story of Haruki Murakami, written at the beginning of the last century,Super frog saves Tokyotakes place in Kabukicho, a red-light district in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, and is about how a frog saves the city from a massive earthquake. In January 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck western Japan, and in March of the same year, the Tokyo subway sarin attack was perpetrated by members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect movement. Murakami’s story is inspired by these events and is included in “After the earthquake”, a collection published five years later that examines the causes of various problems facing Japan. These stories contain connections to his next bestseller, “1Q84‘, but on their own they demonstrate Murakami’s genius as a short story writer, and ‘After the Quake’ is one of my favorite collections.
If I only want one part, what’s the best way to get a sense of Tokyo as a whole?
I would recommend the anthology”The Tokyo Book”, which brings together stories from 10 contemporary Japanese writers. Tokyo is a huge city. Even those born and raised here, like me, don’t know its breadth. It contains uninhabited forests and densely built-up zones and areas with remnants of the early 20th century city. Reading these 10 stories set in contemporary Tokyo makes me feel like I’m back home after a long journey. This is us, now in Tokyo. Yet we are still traveling. And as long as we keep traveling, the writers of the world will keep writing stories.
Hiromi Kawakami’s Tokyo Reading List
Hiromi Kawakami is one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists. She has won numerous literary awards in Japan and the United States, including the Akutagawa Prize for ‘A Snake Stepped On’ and the Tanizaki Prize for ‘Strange Weather in Tokyo’.
Allison Markin Powell is a New York City-based literary translator who has translated Osamu Dazai and Kaoru Takamura, and whose translation of Kawakami’s “The Ten Loves of Nishino” won the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize.
