Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure

Perhaps on a first reading of Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure, what first remains is a sense of distance imparted to the reader, although written and published in the immediate months after the disaster that hit Fukushima and the North East in 2011, Furukawa's blend of fiction and non-fiction, travelogue and memoir creates a space for contemplation and presents various perspectives of narrative, early on in the book the phrase 'use imagination for the good' reaches out and stays with the reader. With it's blend of voices Horses, Horses searches out for the narratives not found in official history books in an attempt to reclaim and present the authentic, there is a fascinating use of allegory within Furukawa's telling of the history of the horses associated with the area of the North East, in particular with Soma City which carries within it's name the word horse, reading this allegory and the way Furukawa has structured this element of the book brought to mind Julian Barnes's A History of the World in Ten and 1/2 Chapters, which similarly presents an alternate allegorical perspective of history. Furukawa pinpoints two figures from medieval Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Oda Nobunaga in his observations of historical paths.

The main branch of narrative of Horses, Horses is of Furukawa caught between writing projects and of the sequence of the events of the disaster unfolding, his personal history of this period is examined and then returned to when being both in and outside of Japan. This proceeds with him and colleagues from his publishers hiring a car to travel to the area to see how close they can go, (the slowly enlarging red circles of the exclusion zones feature), Furukawa toys with the notion of exposing himself to the radiation, and confronts suicidal feelings unexpectedly arising that he assumed he had over come in his youth. There's a measured economy to the prose, the reader very much gets the sense that although with the literary experimentation, the dipping into fiction and non-fiction, (in places in a talking direct to the camera type of way, with the appearance of a character from one of his novels in the car that they are travelling in), Furukawa is not attempting to place words where they cannot be placed, it very much feels that apprehension is never too distant from the surface.

Along the way there are number of names referenced, one of the first being The Beatles in particular their songs Strawberry Fields and Tomorrow Never Knows, with it's screeching sound at it's beginning which sounds similar to that of the squawk of a gull, poetically evocative of being at the coast and in a way a warning cry. A number of Japanese writers are mentioned, in particular Miyazawa Kenji and Nakagami Kenji, both writers Furukawa obviously has an affinity and strongly identifies with, similar themes and motifs appear in their works, animals, and the sense of alternate histories being written and born out of alternative myth. Another aspect that appears whilst reading the book is a rather pensive sense of apprehension and fear, this is highlighted in the quote that Furukawa borrows from Nakagami, and Furukawa later examines this fascination of dates - 3.11 - 9.11, and of how these events cannot be confined to a single day, although the book has the subtitle - A Tale That Begins With Fukushima, it also feels that it resembles a memoir of an approach. Throughout these narratives there are incidences of subtle poetical examinations of the second part of it's title - that of light and in one place the prose arrives at a stop and Furukawa turns to poetry to express himself. Throughout it's various modes of narrative Horses, Horses moves and posits questions in equal measure.


Horses, Horses, in the End the Light Remains Pure, translated by Doug Slaymaker and Akiko Takenaka is available via Columbia University Press
            

travels and book prompts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the recent lack of posts but have been on journeys, nice to amble through familiar neighbourhoods and to get lost in some more slightly unfamiliar ones. My trip back would probably best be described as being domestic in nature and on the whole off the tourist track but did keep an eye out for books, although two that I'm particularly looking out for remained elusive, but perhaps maybe next time. A book spotted in an Aeon discount stall, that I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret letting slip through the net, was a book of Domon Ken's photography published by Mainichi, for a book of this type it was at a really good price, just over a thousand yen, but indecision got the better of me. Another more recent book that caught my eye was a recent book on Okamoto Taro, called Okamoto Art which is an informative bilingual survey of the artist's work, 1911-1996. A book that I thought I caught glimpse of was a new one on Ishida Tetsuya, I returned to the store to find it again but it had disappeared in the space of an afternoon... I did make a couple of purchases but perhaps posts will be forthcoming, one being the first volume of I Am a Hero by Hanazawa Kengo, film adaption forthcoming.

Aside from books some other landmarks during my visit were the ending of Massan on NHK, a dramatized account of the life of Rita Taketsuru, (Japan Times article), which was a tad too weepy for me, along with this was the animated version of Oda Tobira's manga series of Danchi Tomoo, (wiki on the manga), which by turns introduced the band Mongol 800. Three places to visit next time - Koyasan, which is celebrating it's 1200th anniversary, and also Shitennō-ji, and also a castle that I've passed many times and whose park I've walked in but still not yet entered is Himeji jo, recently reopened after extensive renovations. Perhaps not actually too many book prompts, there's always a stack of novels that grab my attention on each trip, and I've a few reads to catch up with in forthcoming posts, but recently time hasn't been my own - apologies.

  

recent visit.

 

Recently returned from some time in Japan, although not really intending to look too specifically at books or bookshops I did end up with a few that I'll hope to post on in the near future, my time was mainly spent meeting up with people that I've not seen in a long time and visiting some places that were both familiar and also some that were new to me. Along with this I had some new first time experiences, managed to fit in visits to various places including - Osaka, Kyoto, Niigata, and a brief night out and drive in Shiga around Lake Biwa, for my stay in Kyoto I owe a massive thank you to H-san and S-san, as always the generosity of people and friends I met astounded me, (the memory of six of us eating in a 30 mat banquet room is one that I'll not forget for a while), from Osaka we took the night bus to Niigata, I've not taken the night bus before and for me it was a little similar in some ways to taking a flight on a plane, initially there is a sense that the passengers feel a slight wariness of each other but by the end of the trip certain barriers have fallen by the wayside, the bus made breaks nearly every two hours or so, I'm one of those people who find it nearly impossible to sleep in transit, and it was quite amusing that the announcements for each of the stops was given in almost whispered tones and then the interior coach lights were suddenly fully switched on almost blinding those that had customised themselves to the darkness of the drawn curtains. As usual I discover things in the wrong order and browsing some interesting mooks, (a cross between a book and a magazine), on Kyoto, on my return learned of London Books, but there's always next time. 

Another experience new to me was carrying the mikoshi of the local shrine, I was following the procession as I knew someone involved but found myself being included, (perhaps slightly coerced), among the carriers, it's something that is recommended in forming a sense of unity within neighbourhoods, (!) within seconds of shouldering the burden I felt complete affinity with my fellow carriers, I presumed that I'd be permitted to shoulder the mikoshi for a minute or two, but no we went across the busy junction in front of the local mall, stopping traffic and being photographed all the way, I've been invited back for the autumn procession, perhaps it'll be easier in a cooler temperature but I'm not sure if my shoulder could take another pounding, I winced when seeing a mikoshi being carried on a television programme a week later much to the amusement to the others in the room, the burden of the carriers was occasionally added to when one of the carriers thought it amusing to stop carrying and jump up on top of the mikoshi adding to the already crushing weight, even the experienced guy behind me was saying "no more, no more!"               

 

Whilst travelling I dipped into Monkey Business vol 3, stories that stuck out in particular for me included Kawakami Mieko's Dreams of Love, Etc, translated by Hitomi Yoshio, Furukawa Hideo's Neither Purity Nor Defilement Now translated by Ryan Shaldjian Morrison, which left me wondering whether to add his novel Music to my small library of books in Japanese text, also the story Monkey Child - Human Children by Masatsugu Ono translated by Michael Emmerich. Two art books that I'll probably come to regret not buying were Yamaguchi Akira's The Big Picture, current exhibition at NCAM, and also Makota Aida's Monument for Nothing. I also took many photographs, but my mind lingers on the instances and scenes when I didn't have my camera at hand - a group of white show room dummies left outside an empty apartment store that had gone bankrupt, a lone farmer walking through the deep tanbo juxtaposed against his solitary bike parked at the edge of the field, an elderly man taking part with the matsuri, with a tengu mask hanging loosely from his neck, a young woman crouched in a pedestrian tunnel sheltering from a rain shower, these images and many more that remain uncaptured stay on in my thoughts. Before the trip I found that my mind was fixed on things that I'd be doing on my return, I think I'd have to admit to having a certain sense of detachment during my visit, brief and fleeting as it now begins to feel. Surprisingly using the public bath is something that I've not done before but can now add to the list of my meagre but enriching experiences. 

Whilst waiting for the driver on a Nankai local.