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Kazumi Yumoto

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born

January 01, 1959 in Tokyo, Japan

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Kazumi Yumoto was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1959 and got into literature via music. She studied composition at Tokyo College of music and during this time wrote opera libretti and plays for radio and television. Her first novel “Natsu no niwa” (Engl. “The Friends”, 1996) appeared in 1992 to international acclaim. In a direct an warmhearted style it tells the story of three adolescents in contemporary Japan who want to learn more about death and decide to spy on an old man whom they assume will die soon, but things develop in an unexpected manner. A fragile friendship grows between Kiyama, Yamashita and Kawabe, in which they learn a lot about life, tolerance and the dignity of getting old. Yumoto approaches the frightening and fascinating ‘ev...more Kazumi Yumoto was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1959 and got into literature via music. She studied composition at Tokyo College of music and during this time wrote opera libretti and plays for radio and television. Her first novel “Natsu no niwa” (Engl. “The Friends”, 1996) appeared in 1992 to international acclaim. In a direct an warmhearted style it tells the story of three adolescents in contemporary Japan who want to learn more about death and decide to spy on an old man whom they assume will die soon, but things develop in an unexpected manner. A fragile friendship grows between Kiyama, Yamashita and Kawabe, in which they learn a lot about life, tolerance and the dignity of getting old. Yumoto approaches the frightening and fascinating ‘event’ of death in a vital and uninhibited way. What does a dead body look like? How many times have we taken breath? What happens afterwards? The book is narrated in a clear and quiet fashion. Other issues, such as the mother’s alcoholicism or the troubling war memories of the old man, are also discreetly incorporated. In this way, a children’s novel is built up which excludes nothing, which touches on the horrible without dramatising it, which treats a delicate issue lightly but never frivolously (Neue Züricher) and which quietly brings a strange culture closer. “Natsu no niwa” received the Boston Globe-Horn Award (1997) and was nominated for the German Juvenile’s Literature Prize (1996); it was made into a film by Shinji Somai (1996).

Again and again Yumoto takes up the difficult experiences of growing up and the conflicts that for children can be associated with it. In doing so she never avoids serious questions such as illness, death, suicide and religion, as in the book for young adults, “Popura no aki” (1997; Engl. “The Letters”, 2002), her third novel that was translated into German. Chiaki, a young woman, remembers how she moved into the “Poplar-House” with her mother when she was six years old. There the eccentric yet loveable landlady Mrs Yanagi helped her to fight her anxieties – which above all had to do with the to her incomprehensible fact of her father’s death. When the old lady tells her that she will convey letters to the dead when dying, Chiaki starts writing letters to her father dealing with her pain and her questions. Very often in Yumoto’s novels old people play a fundamental role. “I believe that there is a kind of relationship with children that is only feasible for adults who at the same time are not the parents, and that such a relationship can strongly influence a child’s course in a certain part of its life.” Kazumi Yumoto lives in Tokyo.

(From http://www.literaturfestival.com/part...)(less)

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Books by Kazumi Yumoto

Average rating: 3.87 · 180 ratings · 31 reviews · 11 distinct works

	The Friends 3.96 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 1992 — 11 editions	My rating:
	The Letters 3.64 avg rating — 56 ratings — published 1997 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Bear and the Wildcat. by Kazumi Yumoto by Kazumi Yumoto, Komako Sakai (Illustrator) 4.67 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2011	My rating:
	The Spring Tone 3.50 avg rating — 8 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Nishibi No Machi 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2005	My rating:
	Tomomis Traum by Kazumi Yumoto, Ulli und Herbert Günther (Übersetzer) 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2003	My rating:
	Prijateljom 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:
	La Ville Au Crépuscule 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2005	My rating:
	El Oso Y El Gato Salvaje 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	Haru No Orugan 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2008	My rating:

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Quotes by Kazumi Yumoto

“Ngày xưa, hồi tôi còn nhỏ, có một ống bác đã dạy tôi rằng chết là ngừng thở. Và suốt cả một thời gian dài, tôi đã tin như vậy. Nhưng điều đó không đúng. Bởi vì sống không chỉ có nghĩa là thở. Điều đó chắc chắn sai rồi.”
― Kazumi Yumoto, The Friends

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“Nếu như, nếu như ông sống lại, cháu sẽ kể cho ông nghe rất nhiều chuyện, chắc chắn ông cũng sẽ đáp lại lời cháu. Chuyện nỗi lo về kỳ thi chuyển cấp, chuyện hoàn toàn không biết tương lai mình muốn làm gì, cháu mong ông lắng nghe những nỗi niềm đó. Đến mùa hè, mình lại cùng nhau ăn dưa hấu, có lẽ cả bắn pháo hoa nữa. Khi nào cháu thành người lớn, một lúc nào đó ta có thể cùng nhau uống bia ở cửa hàng bánh xèo. Không thể làm được những điều đó, cháu thấy rất buồn, rất cô độc. Nhưng, rốt cuộc, đó vẫn là khó khăn của cháu. Ông đã sống thật trọn vẹn, thật tuyệt vời. Những mảnh xương trắng của ông đã chỉ cho cháu thấy điều đó. Chúng nói rằng ông đã sống hết mình. Cháu cũng sẽ cố gắng.”
― Kazumi Yumoto, The Friends