The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki, Translated by Howard Hibbett

The Key is a story told in a diary format. Alternating between the husband's and the wife's entries. It is a he said she said take on what was going on in their life, mostly, their sexual life.

The husband and wife lack communication and instead they conceive ideas about what each of them might be feeling or thinking. All of these they put forth in writing in their diaries which they chose to write in secret but secretly, both wanted each other to read what they have written.

I did not find any of the characters likeable. At first I thought the daughter, Toshiko, is quiet, well-mannered girl. But later on, she came out rude to her parents. I also find her somewhat perverted. Setting up her mother with a younger guy which may be caused by jealousy as Ikuko, the mother, realizes in her last diary entries.

Rated this 2 stars in Goodreads. I still have Makioka Sisters to read and I'm hoping that in that novel, I will see why Junichiro Tanizaki is considered a giant in the Japanese literature.

Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, translated by Edwin McClellan

Published by Charles E Tuttle Company 
Copyright 1957

KOKORO is a quiet story about the state of the human heart. What lies within its walls. The unfortunate things of the past that hover over us. The rusts that build within the heart that slowly eat out whatever life has left.

Sensei, the protagonist of the story, unfolds his past through a letter to the unnamed narrator. The past which determined his current state of being.

The story reminded me how people behave differently in different circumstances. 

"Under normal conditions, everybody is more or less good, or at least ordinary. But tempt them and they may suddenly change."

And though some actions are made in vain, 

"who are we to judge the needs of another man's heart."

The beauty of the story is evasive like that of sensei’s character.  I think this is so because more than beauty, the book offers moral principles. 

Kokoro is a quiet story that requires a quiet mind.

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, Translated by Louise Heal Kawai

Ms Ice Sandwhich and Mieko Kawakami

I HAD previous wrote a review on this book but as I re-read it, I was not happy with my composition. So I deleted it and instead, I'm just putting here some of my favorite lines from the book.

Goodbye. There’s the sound of someone breathing, that’s what I’m listening to, Goodbye. The stars are setting, and in their last breath somebody tells me goodbye. Someone is saying goodbye, and now I can’t move at all, and all I can do is hold my breath, and silently listen to the final sound, nothing to do but listen silently to the very last echo of that sound.

You haven’t gone to see her, not for ages. And if it goes on like that forever, then you’ll never see her again… If you want to see somebody, you have to make plans to meet, or even make plans to make plans… If you don’t see somebody, you end up never seeing them again. And then there’s going to be nothing left of them at all…. The worst thing is, you never know when somebody’s going to just disappear.

I stopped doing that kind of thing a long time ago. You know—putting off stuff and not doing anything, and not going and seeing somebody when I really wanted to. I stopped that. It’s too risky... You just go and see someone when you can.

First Person Singuar by Haruki Murakami, Translated by Philip Gabriel

 

MY honest opinion about this book is that I didn't like it as much as I liked Haruki Murakami's other books. There are eight short stories and only three of them captured my interest.

The stories are written in first person hence the title of the book. Some of them don't have definite plots but  recollections of the narrator's memories from different times in his life. 

The three stories which I really like are On a Stone Pillow, With the Beatles, and Confessions of a Shinegawa Monkey.

On a Stone Pillow is about a Tanka writer who carries an unrequited love.

With the Beatles is one of the stories that has no definite plot. What captured my interest was the narrator's girlfriend's brother who suffers from a memory loss from time to time. This story has been published in the The New Yorker February 2020 issue. 

The Expert by Nakajima Atsushi

THE STORY is about a man who lived in the City of Hantan, the capital of the ancient Chinese state of Chao.⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣He wanted to be the greatest archer in the world so he devoted his life learning and honing archery skills to master the craft. He met two masters who taught him different techniques. ⁣⁣⁣

A postcard from china which I received in 2016 from a girl named Bowie.

⁣⁣⁣I like the story because it is an action-packed story that is full of humor and symbolism. ⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣A line in the story says–⁣⁣⁣

⁣"The ultimate stage of activity is inactivity; the ultimate stage of speaking is to refrain from speech; the ultimate in shooting is not to shoot."⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣From the line above, the "activity" was shown in the first part of the story when the man learned physical and mental techniques and the "inactivity" was shown in the latter part when the man attained a higher level of understanding by which I think the author implicated that self-control or self-mastery is the greater power of the two.⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣During our class discussion, it was debated whether we think the second master deceived the man because in the end, the man seemed to have lost his interest in archery. He became such a “master” himself that never once did he pick up again bow and arrows in his life. 

I do not want to believe the version of the man being deceived by the second master as I feel that it would have wasted the story if that is so.⁣⁣⁣ Rather in my mind, it symbolizes deeper sense of strength that once one becomes a master, proving yourself to being, negates the idea of being one.

⁣⁣⁣As of writing this, I am thinking of the words knowledge and wisdom and how the latter is the ultimate lesson for us to learn.⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣⁣

Onnagata by Mishima Yukio

AN ONNAGATA is a male actor who plays a woman's role in a traditional Japanese drama called Kabuki.⁣⁣

This story is about a young man's disillusionment in the world of Kabuki.⁣⁣

⁣⁣"Masuyama's fascination did not reside in any surface illusion."

⁣⁣

I think, in general, disillusionment is something that one cannot grasp. If it be a place, it is a place where one cannot have his foot in and have his other foot out. The very same thing about being an Onnagata. It was said that to be a skillful Onnagata, one must behave as a woman both onstage and offstage.⁣⁣

⁣⁣Mangiku, the Onnagata in the story, had a mystic air in him. 

His exquisite appearance on stage lay concealed within him."⁣⁣

⁣⁣In our Japanese Literature discussion, it was pointed out that perhaps Mangiku was effective because of what he actually is—a homosexual; so one can conclude that being an Onnagata is something almost innate in him.⁣⁣

⁣⁣I find it interesting how the author wove the story around Mangiku without revealing so much about him. I feel that his identity was buried underneath the layers of characters he played throughout his career. The only instance I saw a glimpse of him was when he was described as someone being in love, although it felt as if only a thin layer has been peeled off.⁣⁣

⁣⁣I also find it interesting how the author was able to captivate different senses throughout the story. Some of my favorite lines are as follows.⁣⁣

⁣⁣"The drum, suggesting the dark sound of the waterfall and contributing constant agitation to the stage.."⁣⁣

"The pain she revealed outwardly is backed with joy like her robe, on the outside dark and shot with gold thread, but bright with variegated silken strands within.."⁣⁣

⁣⁣* * * ⁣⁣

⁣⁣After I read the story, it made me think of a Neapolitan writer, Elena Ferrante, and her work called “Frantumaglia” (a word she borrowed from her mother) which means “a malaise that could not be defined otherwise and that hinted at a crowded, heterogeneous mix of things in her head, like rubbles floating on a brain’s muddy waters”⁣⁣

⁣⁣On some level, I think what Masuyama went through is something that can be identified as “Frantumaglia”.⁣⁣

The Peony Garden by Kafu Nagai

IN LAST week’s Japanese Literature class, we discussed Kafu Nagai’s Peony Garden.⁣⁣

I did not like the story at first but after re-reading it, I came to realize how much I really like it. I think Japanese literature can be fully appreciated if one would first immerse in the study of the writer’s background and the era when it was written.⁣⁣

The Peony Garden was written in the Meiji era when Tokyo was in the midst of its transition. I think Kafu Nagai expressed in this story his inability to accept changes or his hesitation to be a part of the newly forming society norms. I feel that this story is quite relevant to our current situation especially now that we are in the process of embracing a so called “new normal”.⁣⁣

The story is about a man and a women who visited a Peony Garden. On the way to the garden, they took a boat ride where they were lulled into talking about things of the past. Their relationship in particular. They had a very confusing relationship, in my opinion. They seem to be both agreeable about something, but each kept a hidden desire about something else.

When they reached the garden, they were both disappointed by the dullness of the surroundings. The novelty of the garden seemed to have been lost in the turn of the season. Just how their relationship have already bloomed, yet, at the wrong time. I think this story layers on change, time, nostalgia, depression, and missed chances.

My favorite part in the story is the last part when the peonies were falling off. The description of the petals falling in the shadow is just so vivid that I could almost hear them fade-away. ♡ ⁣⁣

⁣

* * * * *⁣⁣⁣⁣

Kafu Nagai 1879-1959⁣⁣

“Most acute critic of Tokyo in transition—the writer who most perspicaciously described the ugly realities of the city – and as the writer who described Tokyo’s cultural features that never should have been, but ultimately were, forever lost”⁣⁣⁣⁣

– Sakagami Hiroichi⁣⁣ (Dictionary of Literary Biography)