Labyrinth

by Takeo Arishima

Arishima Takeo spent four years in the United States studying and working at the turn of the century. He was one of the first Japanese men to do so. This book is a culmination of his experiences in a totally new, totally strange Western society.

Genres: Fiction, Japan

230 pages, Hardcover

First published December 23, 1991

About the author

ARISHIMA Takeo (有島 武郎) was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist during the late Meiji and Taishō periods. His two younger brothers, Ikuma Arishima (有島生馬) and Ton Satomi (里美弴) were also authors.

Reviews

[Sam Russo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arishima's mostly autobiographical account of his time in the United States as a student. He describes his internal struggles with faith, love, and trying to reconcile his belief in the goodness of humanity with how he is treated by Americans and self-professed Christians. A moving take on being a stranger in a strange land.

[Chōkōdo Shujin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest novels of Japan; as few have any knowledge of Takeo Arishima, "Labyrinth" reads as though Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote a full-length novel.

[Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

While visiting one of Sapporo, Hokkaido’s Sapporo Historic Village on a trip to Japan in 2015, which preserves many historic buildings from Hokkaido’s frontier period gathered from across the island, I visited the old home of Arishima Takeo (1878-1923), a socialist writer who'd settled in Hokkaido after spending some years attending universities in the United States.

Intrigued by this interesting figure, I tracked down one of his few works available in English, Labyrinth, published in Japan at the turn of the century. Sadly, this semi-autobiographical account of a Japanese man’s education and tribulations in the US, was less interesting than the life of the writer himself. Focusing on tragic relationships and the sense of not belonging, at least in translation Arishima's writing took a typically melodramatic Victorian style, with some rather deep seated misogyny. The neurotic, self-destructive tendencies of the viewpoint character made it a little annoying to read, as well. The most interesting part was the first chapter, which described the narrator’s time working as an aide at a Pennsylvania mental hospital. Still, Labyrinth seems to have little to offer the modern reader aside from an historical curiosity. Read more about this and other books I read inspired by my trip to Japan at my blog, Reading Rainstorm.