The author Kafu Nagai traveled to the United States and France, where he was profoundly immersed in Western thoughts and ideas. And what vivid depictions of life in 19th-century Tokyo! Such ideological tensions are not, however, outwardly apparent in his fantastical short stories, “ Ten Nights’ Dreams.” Although these 10 absurd tales may seem immeasurably delirious, as if drawn from the depths of the unconscious, they possess timeless and universal qualities. Natsume Soseki taught literature at the University of Tokyo after studying abroad in London, and, when he later became an author, he brilliantly sublimated those very conflicts in his novels. With the influx of Western thought and ideas in the newly open Tokyo in the late 19th century, intellectuals wrestled with the conflicts that arose between traditional Confucian ideologies and contemporary European spirituality. And what makes the book all the more intriguing - for me, at least - is knowing that the author Yukio Mishima (also born and raised in Tokyo) was himself enchanted by Momoko, one of the characters who appears in this humorous and eventful family drama, whom he found to be “a truly endearing young girl” and for whom he couldn’t help but hope for a happy ending. “ The House of Nire,” by Morio Kita, follows three generations of a family, modeled after the author’s own Kita’s father, Mokichi Saito (Morio Kita was a pen name), was a psychiatrist as well as a renowned tanka poet, and the author of the collection “Red Lights.” Spanning the start of the 20th century through the end of World War II, this period novel elucidates the mentality of Tokyo’s inhabitants. We may see ourselves as forming the outermost box in this arrangement, but soon enough we too will become part of the past and another box will form around us. These Edo mysteries, from an era when there was no surveillance footage or forensics, move at a languorous pace and illustrate 19th-century customs and manners that were already obsolete in Okamoto’s Tokyo of the early 20th century.įrom a modern perspective, the narrative structure, in which the historical character of Inspector Hanshichi looks back even further into the past, creates the impression of a set of nesting boxes.
Way of the samurai 4 guide book series#
“ The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi,” by Kido Okamoto, is a series of detective stories told by a retired okappiki - a kind of non-samurai investigator - as he reflects on cases he solved. In 1868, Japan emerged from a long period of isolation and Edo was renamed Tokyo. Detective stories and historical fiction often offer a keyhole glimpse into a city’s culture. Whenever I myself leave on a trip, I cannot help but think of this verse. The poem connotes a scene in which even the birds and the fishes mourn the passing of spring, which is compounded by Basho’s lament that he doesn’t know whether he will die on this journey. Setting out from Senju, on the banks of the Sumida River, in present-day Sumida-ku, Basho composed this haiku: Departing spring, birds cry out, tears in the eyes of fishes.
The book is the record of a five-month, 1,500-mile journey on foot, which started in Edo and wound its way throughout the vast northern territories of the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions. Many of his journeys are collected in various travelogues, but “ The Narrow Road to the Deep North” (also translated as “ The Narrow Road to the Interior”), written toward the end of his life, remains beloved in Japan and has been translated into many languages. Matsuo Basho was born in the mid-17th century and spent his life as a wandering poet. What might set the tone for my journey? Are there Japanese travelogues? I hope these Tokyoites will reveal to you the many layers of the city and its past. The novels and poetry included here serve as an introduction to various inhabitants depicted in Tokyo’s literature over the course of 400 years - from the 17th century, when Tokyo was still called Edo, to the present day. It is as if the strata of the land’s history and the people who lived there have emerged through the pages of the novels. But once I’m back home, when I revisit the books after my trip, curiously, little by little, aspects from fiction that were distinct while I was traveling begin to converge with what I actually saw and heard on my journey. I can keep a sense of them as being distinct. The people I actually met and the people from the novels, the scenery I actually saw and the scenery from the books: Most of the time, these things do not overlap while on my trip. I start reading as soon as I know my departure date, and keep reading throughout my stay, remaining immersed in those novels even after I’ve returned home. So I make sure to take along in my suitcase a few novels written by authors from wherever it is I’m going. When I travel, I always find myself wondering about the people who live in the cities that I visit.
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