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Places
“Few authors have led as storied a life as Setouchi Jakuchō. Writer, translator, feminist, peace activist, Buddhist nun . . . even this list cannot contain the impressive sweep of her career. Along the way she has also been daughter, wife, mother, mistress, lover, role model, and femme fatale. Through each twist and turn, she has reacted with both feisty verve and self-reproving reflection. Basho (Places), superbly translated here by Liza Dalby, enjoins readers to accompany the author as she travels again over the familiar terrain of her life story, journeying through the places where she once lived, loved, suffered, and learned.” ―from the Foreword by Rebecca L. Copeland
In this scintillating work of autobiographical fiction, Setouchi Jakuchō recalls with almost photographic clarity scenes from her growing up in the Tokushima countryside in the 1920s, the daughter of a craftsman, and in Tokyo as a young student experiencing the heady freedom of college life; escaping to Kyoto at the end of a disastrous arranged marriage and an ill-starred love affair before returning to Tokyo, with its lively community of artists and writers, to establish herself as a novelist. Throughout, Jakuchō is propelled by a burning desire to write and to make a living as a writer. Her memories, sharp and clear, also provide a fascinating picture of everyday life in Japan in the years surrounding World War II.
In this scintillating work of autobiographical fiction, Setouchi Jakuchō recalls with almost photographic clarity scenes from her growing up in the Tokushima countryside in the 1920s, the daughter of a craftsman, and in Tokyo as a young student experiencing the heady freedom of college life; escaping to Kyoto at the end of a disastrous arranged marriage and an ill-starred love affair before returning to Tokyo, with its lively community of artists and writers, to establish herself as a novelist. Throughout, Jakuchō is propelled by a burning desire to write and to make a living as a writer. Her memories, sharp and clear, also provide a fascinating picture of everyday life in Japan in the years surrounding World War II.
248 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 24, 2024
Setouchi Jakuchō, or Harumi Setouchi, was a Japanese Buddhist nun, writer, and activist. She translated the best-selling edition of The Tale of Genji and published other fictional, biographical, and historical works. In 1997, she was named a Person of Cultural Merit, and in 2006, she received the Order of Culture of Japan, as per her Wikipedia article.
"Places" by Setouchi Jakuchō is a captivating journey through a remarkable life. It's more than just a memoir. The writer transports us to the bustling streets of Tokyo, the serene temples of Kyoto, and the quiet beauty of her childhood home. The book's unique structure uses these locations as anchors, drawing us into Jakuchō's experiences at different stages of her life. We witness her burning desire to write take root, navigate the complexities of love and relationships, and ultimately find solace in the path of Buddhism.
This memoir also documents the societal changes brought about by World War II, as well as the burgeoning world of literature during this transition time. Jakuchō references other writers, including Dazai Osamu, Hayashi Fumiko, Mishima Yukio, Mori Ogai, and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro.
Jakuchō writes with clarity and emotion. She doesn't hide from the challenges of life, but her fortitude and candor come through. She comes to light as an inspiration—a woman who, in defiance of social norms, forged her own path and became a renowned author.
My only criticism of the book is that, despite it being the most significant aspect of her life, the author does not go into great length about the daughter she left behind or her journey to become a Buddhist nun.
For anybody looking for a compelling memoir, an insight into Japan throughout the 20th century, or the tale of a remarkable woman's journey, "Places" is a must-read. You will enjoy Places if you like Annie Ernaux's works.
This book was a Goodreads Japanese Literature Bookclub selection for February 2024. Thanks to the tasteful choices of the club members, I read a wonderful book.
"Places" by Setouchi Jakuchō is a captivating journey through a remarkable life. It's more than just a memoir. The writer transports us to the bustling streets of Tokyo, the serene temples of Kyoto, and the quiet beauty of her childhood home. The book's unique structure uses these locations as anchors, drawing us into Jakuchō's experiences at different stages of her life. We witness her burning desire to write take root, navigate the complexities of love and relationships, and ultimately find solace in the path of Buddhism.
This memoir also documents the societal changes brought about by World War II, as well as the burgeoning world of literature during this transition time. Jakuchō references other writers, including Dazai Osamu, Hayashi Fumiko, Mishima Yukio, Mori Ogai, and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro.
Jakuchō writes with clarity and emotion. She doesn't hide from the challenges of life, but her fortitude and candor come through. She comes to light as an inspiration—a woman who, in defiance of social norms, forged her own path and became a renowned author.
My only criticism of the book is that, despite it being the most significant aspect of her life, the author does not go into great length about the daughter she left behind or her journey to become a Buddhist nun.
For anybody looking for a compelling memoir, an insight into Japan throughout the 20th century, or the tale of a remarkable woman's journey, "Places" is a must-read. You will enjoy Places if you like Annie Ernaux's works.
This book was a Goodreads Japanese Literature Bookclub selection for February 2024. Thanks to the tasteful choices of the club members, I read a wonderful book.
December 19, 2021
Review by Chad Kohalyk
Setouchi Jakucho—energetic nun, outspoken activist, and prolific author—passed away last month at the age of 99. Spending nearly half her life as a Buddhist nun of the Tendai sect, Jakuchō charmed the Japanese public with her television and public speaking appearances. Prior to 1973, the year she went forth into monastic life and took the Dharma name Jakuchō, she was Harumi Setouchi, a prize-winning author as well as a biographer of Japanese feminist pioneers such as novelist Tamura Toshiko. How did Harumi become Jakuchō? That is the question she sets out to answer in Places (University of Hawaii Press, Oct 2021), translated by author Liza Dalby, who counts herself as one of Setouchi’s many fans.
Places could be said to be just the beginning of an autobiography. Setouchi originally published the book in Japanese in 2001, at the age of 79. Yet she is only interested in showing us vignettes from the first 51 years of her life, entirely skipping the twenty-eight years of her experience as a nun. This tale is about the journey, rather than the destination. And though it is autobiographical, decades-old memories are enhanced by Setouchi’s venerated literary skill. Setouchi herself writes, “plausible-sounding lies are the stock-in-trade of a novelist.” Not wanting to doubt the veracity of our narrator, I favour Dalby’s assessment: “All autobiographies are fiction; all fiction is autobiographical.”
Places weaves a story with two entangled strands: the personal relationships of Setouchi Harumi, and her development into a successful novelist. The former had much influence on the latter, as Setouchi is known for her “I novels” involving intimate details and straight forward descriptions of sex that some critics at the time branded “pornography.”
"I have to admit that the number of my love affairs is nothing like what has been rumored and whispered, but it isn’t limited either to what I have written about in my novels."—Setouchi
As the title of the book indicates, the twin threads of Setouchi’s early life are framed by revisiting places that represent significant milestones of her career or life. Liza Dalby explains Setouchi’s intention “to summon memories from the physical traces of that former time.” This delightful premise turns the book into more than a mere autobiography. We are treated to slices of daily life in rural Japan, as well as Kyoto and Tokyo, during the immediate post-war and high growth period of the 1960s. In her Endnotes, Dalby provides additional context on each location for non-Japanese readers.
Readers familiar with twentieth century Japanese literary history will be delighted by a string of celebrity cameos woven throughout the book: Shinsho Fumiko, Niwa Fumio, Mishima Yukio just to name a few. Dazai Osamu’s suicide casts a shadow over a middle section of the book, just as Setouchi is entering the elite community of Japan’s literati. One place featured is an apartment building Setouchi lived in. The tall building overlooks the New Edogawa Park in Tokyo, with a clear view of Mount Fuji, suggesting her career is reaching new heights. Other resident authors included Hirabayashi Taiko, Enchi Fumiko, and Setouchi’s hero Tanizaki Junichiro himself. She dotes:
"If there was nobody in the hallway, I would sometimes touch his door with my forehead, or rub my palm on it, whispering, 'May I share your good fortune.'"
Each chapter follows a basic pattern. First a location from Setouchi Harumi’s past is introduced with rich, historical detail:
"My recollection of the tactile sensation of my mother’s breast, velvety soft in its smoothness, is always accompanied by sound-the echo of the steamship whistle as the boats departed the wharf at Nakazu Harbor, not far from our house. That heart rending sound, ripping the night, came rushing up from the wharf straight to our bedside."
With the scene set, Setouchi spins a tale of dramatic events. She had much drama in her early years—divorcing young, leaving her child, living in poverty, having multiple affairs (sometimes simultaneously)—as she built up her independence. Such experiences are why so many people, especially women, sought out Jakuchō’s counsel. Unlike relationship advice from other monastics unable to speak from direct experience due to their vows, it is well known that Setouchi went through the highest highs and lowest lows. She speaks from both wisdom and experience.
After relating an illustrative vignette of her life and musing on the significance, each chapter draws down with a visit to the location in the present day. Setouchi, by now a Buddhist nun in her late seventies, regards the location and its elicited memories from a new perspective of experience and wisdom. The chapter then takes on a new dimension becoming a parable of impermanence.
"I have experienced the height of pleasure in sexual love, but in the end it never fulfilled a spiritual need."
Setouchi Harumi’s path to Buddhism was not straightforward. From an early age a relation from Kobe dubbed “Amen Aunty” would “read the Bible to my sister and me, and enthusiastically teach us hymns.” She attended Sunday School. Late in the book, describing her nervous breakdown, a desperate Setouchi telephones her friend Endo Shūsaku, asking his advice on how to be baptized. Yet during Bible study she comes to the realization that having been raised Buddhist, “Intellectually and culturally, it was hard to extricate myself from that.”
Most readers picking up Places will be familiar with the smiling visage of Jakuchō, the “unlikely nun”, dressed in her robes. Such a radiant image indicates the book is not merely a story of Setouchi the writer achieving fame despite the odds. It is also about Setouchi the nun showing us the workings of the “monkey mind” and how she was finally able to tame it. Places is a braid of success stories: female independence, authorial achievement, and a mind taken to the brink of suicide, and back. Setouchi Jakuchō ends the book expressing her desire to wander, to leave the material world behind, which she achieved as a nun for the last 46 years of her life—until a very impressive age of 99. May she rest in peace.
Setouchi Jakucho—energetic nun, outspoken activist, and prolific author—passed away last month at the age of 99. Spending nearly half her life as a Buddhist nun of the Tendai sect, Jakuchō charmed the Japanese public with her television and public speaking appearances. Prior to 1973, the year she went forth into monastic life and took the Dharma name Jakuchō, she was Harumi Setouchi, a prize-winning author as well as a biographer of Japanese feminist pioneers such as novelist Tamura Toshiko. How did Harumi become Jakuchō? That is the question she sets out to answer in Places (University of Hawaii Press, Oct 2021), translated by author Liza Dalby, who counts herself as one of Setouchi’s many fans.
Places could be said to be just the beginning of an autobiography. Setouchi originally published the book in Japanese in 2001, at the age of 79. Yet she is only interested in showing us vignettes from the first 51 years of her life, entirely skipping the twenty-eight years of her experience as a nun. This tale is about the journey, rather than the destination. And though it is autobiographical, decades-old memories are enhanced by Setouchi’s venerated literary skill. Setouchi herself writes, “plausible-sounding lies are the stock-in-trade of a novelist.” Not wanting to doubt the veracity of our narrator, I favour Dalby’s assessment: “All autobiographies are fiction; all fiction is autobiographical.”
Places weaves a story with two entangled strands: the personal relationships of Setouchi Harumi, and her development into a successful novelist. The former had much influence on the latter, as Setouchi is known for her “I novels” involving intimate details and straight forward descriptions of sex that some critics at the time branded “pornography.”
"I have to admit that the number of my love affairs is nothing like what has been rumored and whispered, but it isn’t limited either to what I have written about in my novels."—Setouchi
As the title of the book indicates, the twin threads of Setouchi’s early life are framed by revisiting places that represent significant milestones of her career or life. Liza Dalby explains Setouchi’s intention “to summon memories from the physical traces of that former time.” This delightful premise turns the book into more than a mere autobiography. We are treated to slices of daily life in rural Japan, as well as Kyoto and Tokyo, during the immediate post-war and high growth period of the 1960s. In her Endnotes, Dalby provides additional context on each location for non-Japanese readers.
Readers familiar with twentieth century Japanese literary history will be delighted by a string of celebrity cameos woven throughout the book: Shinsho Fumiko, Niwa Fumio, Mishima Yukio just to name a few. Dazai Osamu’s suicide casts a shadow over a middle section of the book, just as Setouchi is entering the elite community of Japan’s literati. One place featured is an apartment building Setouchi lived in. The tall building overlooks the New Edogawa Park in Tokyo, with a clear view of Mount Fuji, suggesting her career is reaching new heights. Other resident authors included Hirabayashi Taiko, Enchi Fumiko, and Setouchi’s hero Tanizaki Junichiro himself. She dotes:
"If there was nobody in the hallway, I would sometimes touch his door with my forehead, or rub my palm on it, whispering, 'May I share your good fortune.'"
Each chapter follows a basic pattern. First a location from Setouchi Harumi’s past is introduced with rich, historical detail:
"My recollection of the tactile sensation of my mother’s breast, velvety soft in its smoothness, is always accompanied by sound-the echo of the steamship whistle as the boats departed the wharf at Nakazu Harbor, not far from our house. That heart rending sound, ripping the night, came rushing up from the wharf straight to our bedside."
With the scene set, Setouchi spins a tale of dramatic events. She had much drama in her early years—divorcing young, leaving her child, living in poverty, having multiple affairs (sometimes simultaneously)—as she built up her independence. Such experiences are why so many people, especially women, sought out Jakuchō’s counsel. Unlike relationship advice from other monastics unable to speak from direct experience due to their vows, it is well known that Setouchi went through the highest highs and lowest lows. She speaks from both wisdom and experience.
After relating an illustrative vignette of her life and musing on the significance, each chapter draws down with a visit to the location in the present day. Setouchi, by now a Buddhist nun in her late seventies, regards the location and its elicited memories from a new perspective of experience and wisdom. The chapter then takes on a new dimension becoming a parable of impermanence.
"I have experienced the height of pleasure in sexual love, but in the end it never fulfilled a spiritual need."
Setouchi Harumi’s path to Buddhism was not straightforward. From an early age a relation from Kobe dubbed “Amen Aunty” would “read the Bible to my sister and me, and enthusiastically teach us hymns.” She attended Sunday School. Late in the book, describing her nervous breakdown, a desperate Setouchi telephones her friend Endo Shūsaku, asking his advice on how to be baptized. Yet during Bible study she comes to the realization that having been raised Buddhist, “Intellectually and culturally, it was hard to extricate myself from that.”
Most readers picking up Places will be familiar with the smiling visage of Jakuchō, the “unlikely nun”, dressed in her robes. Such a radiant image indicates the book is not merely a story of Setouchi the writer achieving fame despite the odds. It is also about Setouchi the nun showing us the workings of the “monkey mind” and how she was finally able to tame it. Places is a braid of success stories: female independence, authorial achievement, and a mind taken to the brink of suicide, and back. Setouchi Jakuchō ends the book expressing her desire to wander, to leave the material world behind, which she achieved as a nun for the last 46 years of her life—until a very impressive age of 99. May she rest in peace.
March 22, 2022
This book was especially interesting to me because I live in Tokushima, where Setouchi grew up, and where an entire huge room is devoted to her and her work in the local Literature and Calligraphy Museum. Although there are still some local conservatives who disapprove of her because of her wild past, she was mostly a beloved and popular figure, and her frequent public lectures were always sold out.
In this "autobiographical novel," which is really a memoir, I think, Setouchi revisits places that were significant in her development as a writer and in her romantic entanglements, up until she took vows to become a Buddhist nun. I think the structure of the book is clever and effective, although there is a bit of overlap, and a bit of going and forth in time.
Very few of her more than 100 published books have been translated into English. Hopefully this slim volume will inspire readers to clamor for more. I appreciate Liz Dalby for taking up the challenge to translate this award-winning title.
In this "autobiographical novel," which is really a memoir, I think, Setouchi revisits places that were significant in her development as a writer and in her romantic entanglements, up until she took vows to become a Buddhist nun. I think the structure of the book is clever and effective, although there is a bit of overlap, and a bit of going and forth in time.
Very few of her more than 100 published books have been translated into English. Hopefully this slim volume will inspire readers to clamor for more. I appreciate Liz Dalby for taking up the challenge to translate this award-winning title.
March 1, 2024
Setouchi's painterly descriptions of the places in which she lived and loved are so vivid that they render her musings on the events connected with that place (both past and present) quite seamless. The breadth of Setouchi's experiences, and the amazing array of historical figures who make appearances in her life, provides a fascinating time capsule of contemporary Japan.
April 13, 2025
Feb 2024 Goodreads Japaneses Literature Bookclub selection.
February 23, 2024
As interesting and certainly outside the box, the way the author narrates her existence seemed to me very, too much, detached. As if there was a complete separation between the person to whom those things had happened and the person telling them. Maybe it's just a very Japanese way of writing, I don't know, I'm not able to read in the original language and I don't think there are incompetent translators at certain levels anyway, but the feeling that this autobiography, maybe even fictionalized, left me, is one of total alienation.
Per quanto si possa parlare di una vita interessante e sicuramente fuori dagli schemi, il modo in cui l'autrice racconta la sua esistenza mi é sembrato molto, troppo, distaccato. Come se ci fosse una scissione completa tra la persona a cui erano successe quelle cose e quella che le raccontava. Magari é solo un modo molto giapponese di scrivere, non saprei, non sono in grado di leggere in lingua originale e credo che comunque a certi livelli non ci siano traduttori incapaci, ma la sensazione che mi ha lasciato questa autobiografia, magari anche romanzata, é di totale estraniamento.
Per quanto si possa parlare di una vita interessante e sicuramente fuori dagli schemi, il modo in cui l'autrice racconta la sua esistenza mi é sembrato molto, troppo, distaccato. Come se ci fosse una scissione completa tra la persona a cui erano successe quelle cose e quella che le raccontava. Magari é solo un modo molto giapponese di scrivere, non saprei, non sono in grado di leggere in lingua originale e credo che comunque a certi livelli non ci siano traduttori incapaci, ma la sensazione che mi ha lasciato questa autobiografia, magari anche romanzata, é di totale estraniamento.
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