09/2019 Life of a Counterfeiter, by Yasushi Inoue

[Carol]

This is our discussion thread for our September group read of Yasushi Inoue's Life of a Counterfeiter. Translated by Michael Emmerich. Pushkin Press' release includes "Reeds" and "Mr. Goodall's Gloves," in addition to "Life of a Counterfeiter."



I've read The Hunting Gun (with this group, I think) and Bullfight, and am looking forward to this collection and our discussion.

From a 2015 NYTimes review of both The Hunting Gun and this collection, when Pushkin first published both, comes this excerpt:

Inoue writes with the economy of a poet, though allusions intended to resonate eloquently with Japanese readers can be obscure in English. His stories are steeped in ambiguity and the melancholy piquancy of pain, informed by the Buddhist teaching that passion and suffering are inextricably entwined. “To love, to be loved — how sad such human doings are,” Saiko writes as she ends her letter, (view spoiler)[and her life (hide spoiler)]. These elegant new editions of Inoue’s work are in keeping with his masterfully understated prose. They are best read quietly, the better to hear what is left unsaid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/bo...

[Carol]

Here's NYRB's bio:

Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991) was born on Hokkaidō, Japan’s northernmost island, the eldest child of an army medical officer. After a youth devoted to poetry and judo, Inoue sat, unsuccessfully, for the entrance exam to the Kyushu Imperial University Medical School. He would go on to study philosophy and literature at Kyoto Imperial University, writing his thesis on Paul Valéry. In 1935, newly married and with an infant daughter, Inoue became an arts reporter for the Osaka edition of the Mainichi News. Following the Second World War, during which he briefly served in north China, he published two short novels, The Hunting Gun and The Bullfight (winner of the Akutagawa Prize for literature). In 1951 Inoue resigned from the newspaper and devoted himself to literature, becoming a best-selling and tremendously prolific author in multiple genres. Among his books translated into English are The Hunting Gun, The Roof Tile of Tempyō, and The Blue Wolf: A Novel of the Life of Chinggis Khan. In 1976 the emperor of Japan presented Inoue with the Order of Culture, the highest honor granted for artistic merit in Japan.

https://www.nyrb.com/collections/yasu...

If anyone has read other Inoue novels (in translation) that they've liked, let me know. I have to order and generally pay full price for my Japanese lit purchases so try to at least have a friend's recommendation as the basis for my buying. Help a spender out, lol.

[Bill]

I'll have to do more looking into exactly what I've read by Inoue. I just glanced at what I have listed here on GR, and I know I'm missing some (and possibly have read some of those shelved as to-read).

I'll re-read The Counterfeiter some time next month, but I can't really justify the price of this volume just for two new short stories.

[Tim]

I’m about a third of the way through Counterfeiter. I’ll probably have time to finish it tomorrow (early for once!).

I haven’t read anything else by the author, but I seem to recall that I picked up one of his novels: The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan

[Bill]

Perhaps because I saw the movie of Furin Kazan first, I liked it better. It was one of those big budget, color samurai movies from the 50s, IIRC.

[Carol]

Tim wrote: "I’m about a third of the way through Counterfeiter. I’ll probably have time to finish it tomorrow (early for once!).

I haven’t read anything else by the author, but I seem to recall that I picked..."

The move must be going well - woohoo!

I'll add Samurai Banner to my list of possibilities.

[Bill]

Tun-Huang is my favorite of his works, about the lost city along the silk road and the enormous haul of manuscripts found there last century.

There apparently isn't a lot of his works translated into English, and his GR page is rather sparse.

I was wrong about Furin Kazan; it wasn't made into a movie until 1969. Starring Nakamura Kinnosuke and Mifune Toshirou.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "Tun-Huang is my favorite of his works, about the lost city along the silk road and the enormous haul of manuscripts found there last century.

There apparently isn't a lot of his works translated i..."

And NYRB offers Tun-Huang with one of their typically gorgeous covers. You, tempter, you.

[Ann]

Spoiler
I wasn’t able to get the Emmerich translation at the library, so
I read the other translation, The Counterfeiter and other Stories, translated by Leon Picon, published in 1965. The Counterfeiter was a quiet, thoughtful, meandering tale, starting out one way, and turning into something else. We think we’ll learn about the celebrated artist but end up stumbling on the life of a man who forged the artist’s paintings. Written in the first person, Inoue’s voice is easy, personable, and intelligent. Inoue manages to paint pictures, literally fireworks, with his words. Somewhat of a downer story, but touching, nonetheless.

The second story Obasute, also written in the first person, was shorter, a little more depressing, but still pretty good. The third story, The Full Moon, the only one told in the third person, was pretty much in the same tone. All three visit themes of loneliness, identity, self-worth. I liked them all enough to read the stories in the other translation, and also explore Inoue’s other works.

[Carol]

I’m nearing the end of the initial story.

@curlysloppy- you’ve described it perfectly. I’m not sure why I find Inoue’s meanderings entirely compelling and never frustrating. This passage is an example of what I love:

If we might envision Keigaku at the turn of the century, around the thirtieth year of the Meiji era — around the time, in other words, when he wrote his diary — as a dragon blessed with a sky full of clouds, forming a path to the heavens, Hosen was a helpless grub who could only fall over when the mighty blast of that dragon’s glory fell upon him.

Our narrator remains an enigma. Why on earth has he failed to produce the biography he promised so long ago? I recall his excuses but he seems like a somewhat lazy, but financially secure, man. When he moves his wife to the mountains, to a house without heat, near the end of the war, he all but rolls his eyes at her unhappiness. He’s also quite judgy about Hosen’s moral failings as his discoveries progress, although eventually putting the facts together in a way that results in some understanding. He entirely lacks self-awareness, though, at least at the 80th page.

[Ann]

I also like the passage you quoted.

Maybe he is a lazy procrastinator, but I kinda relate to that. And couldn’t it sometimes take 10 years to research and write a biography of a famous person, with a World War sandwiched in there?

[Carol]

Curlysloppy wrote: "I also like the passage you quoted.

Maybe he is a lazy procrastinator, but I kinda relate to that. And couldn’t it sometimes take 10 years to research and write a biography of a famous person, wit..."

Maybe, except he kept missing deadlines (by years) and this story is all from his own perspective, so I have to think that if missing those deadlines was excusable/no big deal, he wouldn't have devoted so much time to expressing how pressed he was to deliver. It's also entirely possible that I read to much into that part of the framing.

I'm still thinking about Counterfeiter, and mulling over the topic of history/biographies, "history is written by the victors" and the like.

"Reeds" was far less interesting to me. I would have liked to see what Inoue might have done with it as a longer piece. There were several striking individual sentences, but, in sum, there didn't seem to be enough there there.

I've only just started the last story.

[Bill]

I have to say I don't 'get' the point of The Counterfeiter. I'm not sure why it was written.

I didn't feel interested in any of the characters, even during the most descriptive parts regarding Hara's life in the mountain village. Sure, none of them make the most of themselves, but who of us does? It doesn't take a Keigaku in our lives to make us not live up to our potential. But just because underperforming is the norm, doesn't mean it makes for a good story :)

[Agnetta]

I thought it was a very strange story indeed, but I did find it interesting.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

During the first part, I was confused due to the title, all of the time I was expecting Keigaku to be a fraud, or something, like a Milli Vanilli scheme in the painters world.
After some time it dawned on me that indeed the story was about Hara. I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to know about that painter. But ok then. I went with it.

I was interested, but did expect more of a big surprise in the end.... which did not come. Or some final success, like.. .instructions how to get the ultimate purple firework...nope. Just like real life, I guess...

I found the final remarks quite thougth-provoking though. This typical situation of being in the shadow of someone blessed with genius. How does that make us feel ? Can we really be friends with someone so overwhelming, or in the end is the gap just too big? For Hara, clearly the friendship was not real, he must never have felt close to the genius, and in the end just took advantage of him. Keigaku possibly never felt this gap, he must have been used to being surrounded by less gifted people. After that apparantly Keigaku did not manage to establish profound relationships with anyone, not even his son. Is that the price for the genius?

And then his flipping to a new obsession, fireworks, the symbol of what is fleeting, as opposed to the paintings that can last for hundreds of years...

So I think there was a lot in this story, but the author just does not work it out. He leaves us with an account of the life of a counterfeiter, written by an author who should be working on something else, but just needed to get this Hara story out of his head first by writing it down.
And then up to the reader to find some meaning in it. If we can.

I thought it was brilliantly composed in any case.

Now trying to get into Reeds but it is difficult to connect. At this point , few pages in, I am bored to death.

[Carol]

Agnetta wrote: "I thought it was a very strange story indeed, but I did find it interesting.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

During the first part, I was confused due to the title, all of the time I was expecting Keigaku to ..."

@agnetta --Reeds was weak, IMO. The last one re the Gloves had some interesting moments.

I think the fireworks was about Hara doing something he was good at, that he could openly own and that was appreciated by and good for his community. He felt valuable and successful at that, for the most part.

Keigaku is not only un-interesting, but - while a genius, as you note - he didn't connect with the people around him, even his son. One of the aspects of Life of a Counterfeiter that I find most intriguing to contemplate is Keigaku tolerated Hara's counterfeiting. He didn't shut it down; he didn't call him out or publicly embarrass him, at least I don't remember reading anything in the story that suggested Keigaku took action against Hara in any way. That suggests to me either that Keigaku understood Hara's behavior rose from the soul-crushing nature of the disparity in their talent or he simply thought it was unimportant.

@Bill - I think this is one of those stories that either resonates with a reader or it doesn't. It's all about moral ambiguity, the impact of great talent on those in the immediate glow of that talent, maybe even whose stories get memorialized and whose don't. Those themes are squarely in my sweet spot of a story's focus. OTOH, I'm the one who doesn't get why The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea was written, so I'm certain you're on the right side of things and I'm anchoring the lonesome, disfavored, lightly populated opposition.

[Agnetta]

Carol wrote: "I think the fireworks was about Hara doing something he was good at"

CONTAINS SPOILERS

yes, that made me feel good ... and I really thought, in the end, that the purple chrisanthemum would appear and someone would say, i found the instructions in a notebook in the trash after Hara died, ... but no. So I figured Inoue really kept it "real", no fancy literarty magic coincidence tricks to make it all click. I salute his effort - it woudl be easier to impress the readers wíth such tricks, but Inoue did not go for that.

Great comments everybody. I guess more people might share in the weeks to come, it is a good one to comment upon !

I loved Bill's observation about underperformance :)
It makes me want to do better, actually, isn't that something ?

[Bill]

Sorry, Carol, that wasn't my intention. Quite the opposite in fact; I was trying to say I don't get the story. Any conclusions drawn by me about all of us being underperformers is entirely my own guilty conscience speaking :)

Also, there are too many damn automatic sinks these days: I just stuck my hands under my own bathroom tap expecting water to magically come out of it.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "Sorry, Carol, that wasn't my intention. Quite the opposite in fact; I was trying to say I don't get the story. Any conclusions drawn by me about all of us being underperformers is entirely my own g..."

Ha! At work, our automated faucets are a never-ending source of frustration. We wave hands around, under, over, in front of the sensor and it doesn’t come on, but the soap dispenser will spray you with soap repeatedly while you fruitlessly seek water to rinse with. Then once utterly defeated, you take your overly soaped hands to another sink hoping to access water before ten minutes has elapsed. No doubt we picked the lowest bidder. Lol

[Agnetta]

So it is kind or amusing to see the Genius theme repeated over the 3 stories.

SPOILER
I suppose Inoue is exploring whether Genius is such a great thing. Apparantly, we all wish we were geniuses, I guess.... but on the other hand :
Keigaku seemed to have lived a quite lonesome life, Mitsu with her extraordinary attractiveness gained nothing but trouble and early death, Matsumoto Jun may have been all great and inspiring, but that your former pupil needs to sell off land each time you come to visit so that he can lend you money... that's pretty lame, isn't it. So what is greater ? Being the shiny genius just rolling on a wave bringing nuisance to all around you, or being the normal guy who just holds it all together by his own means, soldiering on, with or without fingers ?

Was Inoue trying to convey, genius is all good and well but it is no excuse to cause harm around you ? Keigaku apparently was the less harmful, but he was kind of gleeful about that calligraphy he left on Hara's door. Maybe that anecdote is an indication of how the narrator suspects how irritating the genius must have been, maybe he was really full of himself and just crushed Hara, somehow knowingly ?

On the other hand, i think the faucet discussion might be more interesting than the above thoughts. Bill and Carol's faucet experiences amused me much more than the stories :D

[Carol]

Agnetta wrote: "So it is kind or amusing to see the Genius theme repeated over the 3 stories.

SPOILER
I suppose Inoue is exploring whether Genius is such a great thing. Apparantly, we all wish we were geniuses,..."

This is brilliant and I missed it 100%. Thanks for sharing it. Oh, and come, my pretty, I have some shiny faucets to show you *cackles gleefully*

[Suki]

I enjoyed the stories in this book. I found Counterfeiter especially compelling-- I found it fascinating how Hosen emerged like a negative photographic image through the material that the narrator had researched for Keigaku's biography, in just the same way that he was a dark echo in Keigaku's life through his forgeries. I wonder if he might have emerged as a genius in his own right if he hadn't been so terribly overshadowed by Keigaku. Agnetta, I loved your comment about how the fleeting nature of his fireworks contrasted with the permanence of his and Keigaku's paintings.

Reeds resonated very strongly with me with the theme of matching cards. It spoke to a very powerful feeling I had when my Dad died-- I felt as if part of the foundation of my childhood had been torn away. We were very close, shared the same sense of humor and a lot of inside jokes. There were memories that only he could have validated or understood. When he died, I lost some of my cards. I lost many more when my Mom and aunt, the other two constants in my childhood, died. Now the questions that I never asked will never be answered, confused memories from childhood will never be clarified-- no one alive now can tell me what really happened and what my memory has embellished over the years.

Gloves was probably my least favorite of the stories, but I really liked the point it made about how a simple, thoughtless, throwaway act of kindness can have an enormous and lasting impact on another person's life.

[Agnetta]

I just finished by Higashino. One of the characters wrote a novel about a man who dedicates himself to fireworks in his later years. Check out this dialogue ! :

Kaga : - Was it Mr Hidaka's idea to have the main character become a fireworks maker ?
Editor : - Of course.
<...>
Kaga - Did it seem like his kind of idea?
Editor - Not particularly, but it certaily wasn't a suprise, either. He's not the first person to write about fireworks makers.


Isn't that fun ? Higashino must have been referring to Inoué , don't you think ? I mean such a coincidance, a man who finds his passion when he is already older, and it is fireworks and thén this phrase! but he never clarifies it, so it could be only a coincidence, but I would not think so. Made me laugh, this clever author, winking to the classics in his crime novel !!

[Carol]

Agnetta wrote: "I just finished by Higashino. One of the characters wrote a novel about a man who dedicates himself to fireworks in his later years. Check out this dialogue ! :

Kaga : ..."

Wow! This is so cool and now that you’ve reminded me, I remember that. I appreciate Higashino even more now. What do you think of .malice?

[Agnetta]

Oh, it was just so great. So much fun. You know who Higashino is and what he does, (I now read almost all his translated work , missing only, Journey under the midnight sun, and still he keeps surprising me every time.

What was really great in this one is that (view spoiler)[ in the middle of the book there was some dialogue that I thought, naa, this I just don't buy it, here Higashino was not on his best, I mean this sounds so fake, he slipped here. And then the conversation between the murderer and the victim actually WAS fake ! I picked up the false tone without realizing it wás really a false conversation ! How brilliant is that And well, there were more of such moments : moments when I believed the story while still thinking "No way". And then, yeah well , indeed, it wás false, but I totally believed the murderer! (view spoiler)[ I hope they will soon translate more. Malice and Newcomer are my favorites so far, but I enjoyed all of them. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jeshika]

I'm finally reading Life of a Counterfeiter (whoops for being well over 6 months late and it's such a fast read too), I finished the title story and basically agree with everyone's thoughts: I don't get the point of the story, I expected something more at the end with the fireworks but I also really enjoyed the story for what it was and I'm glad it followed Hosen because he seems far more interesting than Keigaku (in my opinion). I wish I had something more to say but you've all covered it perfectly.

[Carol]

Jeshika wrote: "I'm finally reading Life of a Counterfeiter (whoops for being well over 6 months late and it's such a fast read too), I finished the title story and basically agree with everyone's thoughts: I don'..."

What I should this “late” of which you speak? We call that right on time in this group. Glad you enjoyed it, too.