L'intrigue se noue dans un village de montagne au début des années 60, pas très loin de la capitale mais totalement à l'écart de son agitation. Un étudiant parti pour une randonnée de quelques jours échoue dans un sanctuaire abandonné, au bord d'un torrent, prisonnier d'une étrange relation amoureuse. Une jeune femme lui demande de jouer le rôle de mendiant-fossoyeur et de passeur de morts pour sa grand-mère agonisante.
Dans cette fiction moderne, l'auteur ressuscite d'antiques usages. L'histoire d'amour n'est pas seulement celle de deux individus: se profile toujours derrière le couple la présence d'une force collective, le village, qu'on ne voit jamais, tandis que le torrent menaçant l'autre rive, domaine des trépassés, est omniprésent.
Il émane de ce roman acide et ironique une impression d'angoisse diffuse et d'érotisme persistant, qui dénotent à l'extrême l'ambiguïté du sacré au Japon.
Yoshikichi Furui (古井 由吉 , born November 19, 1937) is a noted Japanese author and translator.
Furui was born in Tokyo, Japan. He was educated at the University of Tokyo, where he majored in German literature, receiving a BA in 1960. His undergraduate thesis was on Franz Kafka. He remained at Tokyo University for graduate work for another two years, earning an MA in German literature in 1962. After graduating, he accepted a position at Kanazawa University where he taught German language and literature for 3 years. He subsequently moved to Rikkyo University in Tokyo where he remained as an assistant professor of German literature until the watershed year of 1970.
The early 1970s was a period of rapid economic growth and cultural efflorescence. In the literary sphere, a new group of authors was emerging. These authors differed notably from their predecessors because of their move away from the overt social and political commentary—particularity as directed against the system that supported Japan's involvement in World War II—then common both in recent works of literature, and as a measure by which literature was measured. Because this new group of authors turned their gaze from society to the individual, looking inward, engaging the fears and fantasies of an urban population beset by a crisis of identity in a time of rapid economic growth, they were called the introverted generation, and Furui was, perhaps, their exemplar.
In 1970 Furui resigned from Rikkyo University to become a full-time writer. In 1971 his novella Yoko (杳子) was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, and he has subsequently won both the Tanizaki Prize and Kawabata Prize.
Furui has also translated Robert Musil and Hermann Broch.
J avais pris ce livre car je trouve passionnant les croyances et les rites associés.c est certes le sujet pour cette histoire mais Je ne suis jamais arrivé à rentrer dans ce livre . Est ce le style avec ces répétition multiples ?