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[Jack]

Just finished “Haru wa basha ni notte” (Spring Riding in a Carriage) by Yokomitsu Riichi, translated by Donald Keene. It is a wonderfully sensitive short story, beautifully translated, and moving.

This year I am hoping to buy the complete Maiden's Bookshelf series from Kodansha. This is the December 2023 release of the series:
Spring Comes Riding in a Carriage: Maiden's Bookshelf, illustrated by Atsuki Ito.

[Ali-pie]

Love the Maiden's Bookshelf series! The Kodansha website lists it as ongoing but I haven't seen any new titles coming up.

[Jack]

Ali-pie wrote: "Love the Maiden's Bookshelf series! The Kodansha website lists it as ongoing but I haven't seen any new titles coming up."

If I started a buddy reads thread on the Maiden's bookshelf, would anyone make comments on the one you liked (or all of them)?

I have access to a few of the series electronically through the library. I started with the Dazai short story since I was researching his life and works, while reading No Longer Human.
It was so beautifully illustrated (and I loved the story) that I ordered for my home library to keep for the extended family.
The Girl Who Became a Fish: Maiden's Bookshelf

I consider them all new releases in translation for 2023 and 2024.
I believe that Vertical is the English publisher for this Kodansha series.

[Alwynne]

I finished Asako Yuzuki's flawed but fascinating Butter. I thought it was much too long, and the arguments confused and, at times, confusing. But I also liked the inventiveness of her approach to issues around food, gender and culture; and the insights/information around aspects of contemporary Japanese society. Although there were so many strands running through her narrative it could also be hard to follow or establish what points she really wanted to make.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bill]

It might seem like I've been reading The Thorn Puller forever. I read one or a few pages, it makes me smile, and then I put it down for a bit. I'm still only on page 100 out of 300. A number of other books have come and gone while I've been savoring this one.

Some would call it crude (though less crude than her Killing Kanako), but I prefer to think of it as unfiltered and dismissive of social convention. The author relates trying to live in two countries, looking after her aging parents in Japan and her aging husband in the US, while raising a younger daughter and working. The overwork really comes through. Ito is a poet, and the prose veers into poetry at times, which is also nice.

I'll probably put this down for a bit to read next month's group read. I'll get back to it soon enough.

[Alison]

Bill, I love The Thorn Puller! (Jeffrey Angles did such a perfect job translating, too.) The book is such a great example of trans-national fiction; Ito is at home in two countries… but also in no country. I absolutely agree about the poetry of her writing, too.

[Bill]

Hold on there, Alison! You're not allowed to love The Thorn Puller! I do!

[Jack]

I had been reading the short stories in Sayaka Murata's Life Ceremony (2019) but decided to back up and read her earlier translated short stories "A Clean Marriage" and "Final Days" (~2014) both translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. I feel that they provided a basis for appreciating her later works Convenience Store Woman (2016) and Earthlings (2018).

I have two short stories to read after I finish Life Ceremony. They are "Faith" and "Survival" (2022). "Culture Shock" (2022) has also been translated but not published yet. So, I am still looking for that.

Dates are when the works were published in Japan, not the translated in English versions.

(3/3/2024) I think elsewhere Allison recommended reading Life Ceremony before Earthlings. I see now where that would have been helpful in understanding her writings. My favorite short story in the collection was Body Magic.

[Alwynne]

I finished a novella by Toh Enjoe Harlequin Butterfly which I enjoyed a lot possibly because it reminded me of Philip K. Dick, it also worked well with the novel I'd just finished by Jennifer Croft The Extinction of Irena Rey which also deals with issues around authorship and identity - although from very different perspectives.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jack]

Is anyone aware of any Michiko Aoyama short stories available in translation? It could be in a journal or literary magazine.
thanks, Jack

[Alwynne]

I've been dipping in and out of Umi Sakurai's manga series A Man & His Cat Vol. 9 and finally finished the last of the ones avail. in English translation - three more due out later this year. I much preferred the earlier instalments but this still retains enough of its original charm to hold my attention, and a suitably escapist chaser after a run of more demanding/downbeat books.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jack]

Having a personal Yoshimoto month.
Kitchen :
Enriko, “I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness.”
…
Personally, I got there long ago and it seems to work

[Jack]

Taking a break from Yoshimoto month, then will reread The Premonition.
Slowly reading Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima, translated by Michael Gallagher and
The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott Stokes.
I like Spring Snow much, much more than Confessions of a Mask, though I may try to read it again someday.

[Alwynne]

I was completely caught up in Yōko Ogawa's Mina's Matchbox set in 1972, it's a deftly-told blend of coming of age story and reflection on transience/mortality, the ending of an era, and the complicated dynamics of a wealthy, eccentric family.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bill]

Just started on A Capella . I wonder if I'm a masochist for giving Koike Mariko another try. We read The Graveyard Apartment together a few years ago, and it was truly awful.

[Bill]

A Capella is a novel of teenagers growing up in the late 60s (Koike was growing up then, though she was a few years younger than her characters here). It portrays well the hopelessness and cluelessness common to teenagers, stuck in the middle of a riot of protest and cultural change that's likely foreign to most of us.

There is also violence, suicide, sex, and delinquency, so if that upsets you you might want to look elsewhere.

I'm a bit more than halfway through and glad I gave this book a chance.

[Bill]

A Capella certainly goes in directions I didn't expect. The last few pages are sappy, but then you expect that going in, because the whole novel is framed by the narrator traveling twenty years later to meet once more with one of the other characters.

Recommended

[Bill]

I've read the first story in The Laws of Evening so far.

This author falls into an ambiguous place here. The author is Japanese, being born and raised in Japan. She lives in the USA and writes in English for the US market. I don't think her writing qualifies as "Japanese literature", because it's not written in Japanese for the Japanese market. I've heard the argument before that being Japanese an author will write with 'Japanese sentiment' even writing in English for the US market. I worry that such an argument is essentialist: that there are inherently 'Japanese ways of thinking' and 'American ways of thinking'. It seems to me that living in another language, as well as thinking and writing in it, cause one to adopt a very different mindset, a more 'American mindset' (as if there could be such a thing).

I've bought the book knowing this. It's not like I only read Japanese literature. Heck, I've read Ishiguro, and he's a clear case of a British author writing in English.

[Jack]

Bill wrote: "I've read the first story in The Laws of Evening so far.

This author falls into an ambiguous place here. The author is Japanese, being born and raised in Japan. She lives in the US..."

Bill, I agree with your observations here and that it is no deterrent from reading Waters or Ishiguro if they appeal to the reader.

[Alison]

Finished listening to Ryu Murakami's Audition (trans Ralph McCarthy; read David Shih).

English-language readers get fixated on spoilers. Meanwhile, Murakami's over here like, (view spoiler)["This woman is clearly a psychopath who cuts off men's feet. How long can I keep the protagonist from noticing? 😜😆" (hide spoiler)]

[Bill]

I read the manga Ningyo Ouji (Mermaid Prince) by Ozaki Kaori yesterday. It contains three short stories, the first of which is kind of dark, but far less so than her one-volume story The Gods Lie.

The art in The Gods Lie was better than in most manga, and the art in Ningyo Ouji is even better.

[Jack]

reading (in parallel)
Fushi no Kami: Rebuilding Civilization Starts With a Village #1 by Mizuumi Amakawa, and the 4 volume available manga counterpart. (Finished both LN and Manga. I thought the LN was a good read and completed in 7 volumes. It was interesting to see how it was visualized in the manga.)

Moshi Moshi (audiobook) by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Asa Yoneda, read by Kathleen Li. I may have to switch to the written version. The audiobook is distracting me from the translation by Asa Yoneda and does not seem a thoughtful reading of the text. (I have given up on the audiobook version. It is taking a while to get the voice out of my head. It is too bad since I like listening to literature on my long morning walks.)

I had started with the audiobook and finally abandoned it for the text. Reading it was the right decision. It was a reflective and surprisingly good story. Losing a dear one is difficult and their memories are complex but by these memories we are also blessed.

“Each day, I walked across this battlefield of remembrance—which was littered with the dead bodies of the hopes of those who had fallen victim to invisible powers, and those who had departed but left their hearts in this town—knowing that my footsteps left their mark on the ground like flowers offered in their memory.”

Excerpt From
Moshi-Moshi
Banana Yoshimoto
This material may be protected by copyright.

The Sarashina Diary: A Woman's Life in Eleventh-Century Japan by Lady Sarashina, translated with introduction and analysis by Sonya Arntzen and Ito Moriyuki. This is for the Japan Society (boston Chapter) book club.

and the film Departures for the JSB film club.

and.... I am looking through a great list of Manga recommendations from Bill via our discord channel. (thanks! for Bill and the discord component of JLit GR folks)

[Alwynne]

I finished a collection of three short pieces by Natsuko Imamura originally issued in 2020 now available in English translation Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks. The simple style and apparently whimsical title are deceptive, these combine to form an indictment of the treatment of marginalised women in Japanese society.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jack]

Reading (with assistance) High & Dry. Primo amore (First Love) by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Gala Maria Follaco.

(For English readers:)
Yūko is able to see things that others don't see, and to guess the desires and thoughts of those around her thanks to an uncommon sensitivity. Once she turns fourteen, everything seems to take on mysterious nuances, and the world is populated with bizarre creatures. Yūko is learning to assign a color to every mood and every emotion; Kyū, her drawing master, who is twice their age, teaches her. When strange little green men emerge from the stem of a plant, they are the only ones who see them. At the same moment, Yūko savors the subtle enchantment of first love.
Suspended between reality and imagination, a teenager goes through life accompanied by her dearest loved ones, and discovers, day after day, the turmoil of the heart, the tenderness of feelings and the difficulty of growing up.
——-
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is an English translation. I would really like to hear what our forum members that read Italian think of the story since I can only struggle through it to get an overall sense. The magical quality of the story seems unique in Yoshimoto’s oeuvre from those I have read to date available in English translation.

The main character is 14 and is in the awe of her first love. However, this is not a 14 yr old that I have ever met, her thoughts are deep and clear, and more perceptive than mine at 5 times her character’s age. Kyū, her chaste love, is more tuned to his age and is very careful to not cross boundaries. Near then end of the story: “ In the car, Kyū’s favorite music was playing at a low volume.
After a while, in the midst of the din of the trucks we passed, he said: "Something, inside me, has fallen into place. Something very important, which I seriously risked losing. By now I think I'm very close to loving you. It's almost happiness, I've almost come to the point of saying that I'd do anything for you." “

It is a sweet and crystalline observation. One that I can relate to, the moment of near love that could last or be swept away.

[Bill]

I have the Japanese version and will try to get to it soon, since you're interested.

[Jack]

Bill wrote: "I have the Japanese version and will try to get to it soon, since you're interested."

Thanks Bill. I am interested in your impressions of the story and how this one compares to others that we have read.

[Alwynne]

I was glued to Seichō Matsumoto’s Inspector Imanishi Investigates a glorious mix of detective fiction and social realism and an intriguing snapshot of cultural and social developments in Japan in the late fifties/early sixties. Even better than Tokyo Express

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Nanae Aoyama's A Perfect Day to Be Alone which won an Akutagawa Prize. Beautifully observed study of coming of age and the transience of connection/existence.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bill]

I started on Kempeitai yesterday. It's about Japan's military/secret police before and during world war two, and the atrocities it committed.

I'm a quarter of the way in, and it seems to mostly be organization about Japanese terminology so far. It has touched on various war crimes, but perhaps that will be the focus of later chapters.

I wonder if the focus on Japanese terminology will put some people off. As an example, he introduces terms like rikugun for Army, and then continues to use rikugun. Why not just use Army throughout?

[Alex]

Hey everyone, I just finished reading territory of light by yuko Tsushima and I’m looking for people to discuss it with, if anyone has read it :)

[Jack]

Currently reading Rebecca Copeland’s (editor) Handbook of Modern and Contemporary Japanese Women Writers. I started it to read the chapters relating to some of our recent reads but the essays have all been very good so I am reading the rest of the book. Ms Copeland has a long history as an academic and translator. There is a great interview with her as part of the new books in Japanese Studies Podcast series.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

[Alwynne]

I finished Hiromi Kawakami's The Third Love this didn't totally work for me, I enjoyed the recreation of aspects of the Edo and Heian periods and the incorporation of storylines taken from classic Japanese texts.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jack]

Bill wrote: "Hold on there, Alison! You're not allowed to love The Thorn Puller! I do!"

I now have to read this since both of you have given thumbs up. So, I hope after the June 2024 group read since I have been wanting to dive into Hiromi Itō’s current works.

[Bill]

I highly recommend Killing Kanoko.

[Bill]

I started on Translucent Tree this morning.

It's a slow read because the author wants to avoid or recast stock phrases and to structure the book unusually. Some will find this infuriating. Others will find it refreshing. I'm trying to be the latter.

Perhaps it's going slowly because I'm reading it analytically rather than poetically. When a sentence throws me, I go back a sentence or two and then it makes sense again, so I move on.

The reviews of it so far say it's a steamy novel full of sex between the couple that meets at the beginning. It makes me wonder if this compares to Lost Paradise or Distant Thunder . One reviewer I respect likened it to Norwegian Wood (which needs no link).

[Bill]

That was disappointing. The interesting use of language only lasts through chapter two.

There are, as advertised, several explicit sex scenes in the novel. The whole thing is about a married man and his mistress, so I guess that's to be expected. I also have to confess to not caring for the ending, but I won't spoil it.

[Bill]

Currently on book 6 of 10 of the manga Ema

I was quite impressed with the art and much of the story of Mori's Bride Stories, so I picked up her earlier Ema (or Emma). The art and detail is again wonderful. The relationships and class distinctions are well done. My problem is with the language. It's so full of Japanese honorifics, formal language, and titles that it's hard to see this as British. The characters think too much like Japanese. I feel she improved on this in Bride Stories, getting rid of much of the Japanese-ness of the language to make the story understandable to a Japanese audience while being foreign. The katakana renderings of British names are also a mouthful to try to pronounce to myself and decipher. Since the manga is written for adults (with at times rather complex vocabulary and no furigana), perhaps she would have been better off leaving the British names in roman letters. Her Japanese audience had to take enough English in school to be able to pronounce them.

I'm rooting for Eleanor rather than Emma, but I expect to be disappointed.

[Jenny]

After finishing 嘘つきジェンガ (usotsuki jenga) from 辻村み深月(Tsujimura Mizuki) last night, I am now starting スピリング (Spring) from 恩田陸 (Onda Riku).
Unfortunately Spring seems not to be listed in Goodreads yet, maybe because it just came out in 2024.

I really liked 嘘つきジェンガ, it consists of three short stories which all talk about “normal” people who got somewhat entangled in fraud schemes, not as a victim but as an actor. I especially liked the introspection of the characters, the guilt and shame that comes with their actions as they are not fraudsters by design but by chance. It felt really close to reality and I could emotionally connect with the protagonists.

[Faustro]

I’m reading 1Q84 (book 2) by Murakami. I’m hooked!

[Jack]

I restarted Itō Hiromi’s Tree Spirits Grass Spirits, translated into English by Jon L Pitt. I moved from ebook to print edition. It makes me want to visit family in Southern California and wander around looking at plants. I have The Thorn Puller in my physical tbr stack and several recommendations from Bill and Alison. Maybe I will have an Itō summer…

[Alwynne]

I finished Nanako Hanada's bestselling memoir The Bookshop Woman slight but absorbing, particularly liked finding out about authors I hadn't encountered before.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jack]

Reading Killing Kanoko by Hiromi Itō, as translated into English by Jeffery Angles.
It is spoken word/performance art.

Here is a short reading and Ms Ito explaining poetry as performance.
https://channel.louisiana.dk/video/hi...

and here is poetry reading of Killing Kanoko by both Ito Hiromi and Jeffery Angles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BbTw...
on Apr 5, 2017 and sponsored by the UChicago Center for East Asian Studies and the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.
this is a great team performance reading in Japanese and English!
and then...
Ms. Ito and Mr. Angles read from her book/poem Wild Grass on the Riverbank.
...more
If you like Ito's work, it is a great recording.

[Bill]

Just started Mild Vertigo .

I don't mean for this comment to be too severe, but here goes. Writing in Japanese can have very long sentences, sometimes taking up an entire paragraph. It happens with enough authors that I don't think it's intended to sound unnatural.

In Mild Vertigo, apparently there are a lot of such sentences, and Barton chooses to translate them into run-on sentences in English rather than break them up. This makes the narrator sound hyperactive or scatterbrained. I have to wonder if this is how Kanai intended it.

[Samuel]

I recently finished 'The Bookshop Woman' and now reading 'The Easy Life in Kamusari.'

[JoeG]

Just finished this book (The Easy Life in Kamusari). Wonderful read - easy going and comfortable throughout.

[Nocturnalux]

告白 Kokuhaku .

It's been a while since I read in Japanese, really enjoying it.

[Samuel]

JoeG wrote: "Just finished this book (The Easy Life in Kamusari). Wonderful read - easy going and comfortable throughout."

I'm liking it too, it's been a very relaxing read, I'm about halfway through.

[Bill]

I just finished Sunrise .

It's a collection of short stories, most of them under 15 pages, but two of them are 60 pages long each. As the translator says in his afterward, the stories are poetic. To me, they hint at plots rather than expressing them. Even one of the two longer stories is like that.

The other long story is about an odd sort of epidemic. Given the year it was written, anyone would draw a parallel with COVID. But there isn't a firm one. In this epidemic, sufferers gradually lose their vocabulary and ability to speak. Victims are blamed. Murder and suicide are the results. There is something in this that reminds me more of Lonely Hearts Killer than of COVID.

I'll try a novel by Kobayashi. Hopefully one more like the epidemic story above.

[Alwynne]

I finished Yoko Tawada's Spontaneous Acts published in the US as Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel although this is not technically Japanese lit as it's one of her novels written entirely in German. It echoes her interest in the life and work of Romanian Jewish poet Paul Celan, and as an intro to Celan it's fairly effective. I enjoyed tracing the links between the narrative and Celan, but as a novel I wasn't as convinced.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Atsuhiro Yoshida's Goodnight Tokyo a short, undemanding but fairly absorbing, lightweight piece centred on the passengers of a single Tokyo taxi driver who routinely pulls the late night/early morning shift. The comparisons to Teju Cole and to Agatha Christie in the official outline make no sense to me whatsoever, it's not the kind of serious/semi-philosophical work that Cole's associated with, nor is it a conventional crime narrative in the Christie sense.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...