Speculative Japan 2

Noticing that the contents list of the first volume of Speculative Japan included a slight overlap of stories - two I think, from The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories , I thought I'd better get a copy of Speculative Japan 2. Published by Kurodahan Press the collection comes with a Preface by Edward Lipsett who mentions that in this second collection the scope was broadened a little wider to include fiction that could be read as speculative, and the stories selected here offer a great range, Takagi Nobuko, who won the Tanizaki Prize with, Translucent Tree, is represented with the story Melk's Golden Acres, translated by Dink Tanaka, whose translation of the story won the 2009 Kurodahan Press Translation Prize, the narrative follows a woman's visit to Melk Abbey, taking in the Abbey's history and collection of ancient manuscripts, she pauses in the monastic atmosphere of the Abbey, the woman encounters a man who at first meeting exhibits some peculiar sentiments, looking up at the fresco/secco he points out the hidden image of a woman , the narrator slowly unravels the con-sequences of their relationship, this story seems to be distant to resembling science fiction but has an explorative theological theme to it. Open Up by Hori Akira, translated by Roy Berman, is a brief, but very readable homage to Hoshi Shinichi, narrated by two  perspectives, but possibly from one person, it follows a lone astronaut exiting from hyperspace, who's caught on the toilet when unexpectedly he hears a knock on the door.. The opening story is by Awa Naoko, A Gift From the Sea translated by Sheryl A. Hogg is an intriguing fable like tale, situated in a rural seaside village,  The Fox's Window and Other Stories, translated by Toshiya Kamei was recently published by University of New Orleans Press, Blue Shells, a short story by Awa Naoko along with an interview with translator Toshiya Kamei can be read at Moulin Review.

A story that seemed to fully represent the speculative is Freud by Enjoe Toh, translated by Kevin Steinbach , after the Grandmother of the narrator passes away the family are left with what should happen to the old woman's house, concluding that no one in the family wants to move into the house, and none can afford the upkeep they agree on pulling it down. The family gather to begin the demolition and under the floor they discover a 'crowd' of Freuds, yes, Sigmund Frueds, or 'old Mr. Scary Face', as the narrator puts it. Following the family as they ponder on the meaning of this mystifying discovery, the story is full of humorous metaphorical and philosophical explorations. The Big Drawer by Onda Riku, translated by Nora Stevens Heath, is a story that could straddle many genres. A brother, (Mitsunori) and sister, (Kimiko), of an extraordinary, possibly extra-terrestrial  family settle into their new life and school in Tokyo, the family have an ability to memorize vast chunks of Japanese Literature, Mitsunori has already memorized up to the 19th century, although they are told to keep this ability a secret from the other children by their parents. Walking to school Mitsunori usually passes an elderly neighbour, one morning the neighbour keels over and dies, at this moment Mitsunori has a psychic vision of the key events in the man's life, which enables him to expose a secret that will heal a rift between the man and his son. Mountaintop Symphony by Nakai Norio, translated by Terry Gallagher, follows an orchestra as they prepare to perform their movement in an epic symphony that is so long that no one alive has heard the beginning of or will ever hear it's completion, the story is a fantastically realized metaphorical one as the slight neurosis of each of the characters is subtly revealed and explored. The title story, The Man Who Watched the Sea, by Kobayashi Yasumi is translated by Anthea Murphy, is a tale of an unfulfilled romance between a couple who are in differing dimensions, one in Shoreville and the other in Mountville.

Other authors included are; Ogawa Issui, with Old Vohl's Planet, translated by Jim Hubbert who has also translated Ogawa's  The Next Continent and The Lord of the Sands of Time for Haikasoru. Kajio Shinji, whose story Reiko's Universe Box features in the first volume of Speculative Japan is represented with, Emanon: A Reminiscence, an award winning story translated by Edward Lipsett. Kitakuni Koji: Midst the Mist, translated by Rossa O'Muireartaigh, Tani Koshu with Q-Cruiser Basilisk translated by Simon Varnam and also Yamao Yuko, whose story Perspective is translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.  

           

The Paradise Bird Tattoo

 

Counterpoint Press has built up a great catalogue of translated Japanese fiction including; Manzuru and Shot By Both Sides, the latest is The Paradise Bird Tattoo, or attempted double suicide, by Kurumatani Choukitsu,  translated by Kenneth J. Bryson, and is intriguingly described as an I-novel. The novel was adapted to an award winning film in 2003, directed by Genjiro Arato. Taking place largely towards the end of the 1970's the novel covers a period of the narrator's life whilst working in Amagasaki skewering meat for a yakitori place. In the opening of the novel we learn that the narrator - Ikushima (Yoichi), used to work in an advertising agency, but had to get away from the job as he was working himself into non-existence, his exhaustion manifesting itself into physical illness, pushing him to the brink of karoshi, 'Amid the day to day routine of selling ads I had an uneasy feeling, as if my individuality were somehow being washed away.' His recollection of Amagasaki begins after encountering a rather clingy woman who follows him to a local library. When Ikushima first arrives at Amagasaki he's met in the street by a man with bloodshot eyes who thrusts a 10,000 Yen note into his hand. He works in his tenement apartment, the meat being delivered in the morning, he's expected to skewer 1000 pieces of meat a day at 3 Yen a piece. His employer is Seiko Nesasn, a woman in her fifties who  surmises of him after their brief interview as, 'one of those who got dealt a good hand, but go bust anyway', but remains puzzled as to why Ikushima wants to waste away in a dead end job, her suspicions of Ikushima are shared by the other tenant's of the building, who are slightly intimidated by his presence. Ikushima is ill at ease in Seiko Nesan's presence, as he feels she is attracted to him, and in a despair ladened confession she tells him that after the war she was a pan-pan girl. As Ikushima works away he begins to hear groans and moans through the thin walls of the building, his imagination offers up ideas as to their source; prostitution, gangster torture sessions?.

Slowly Ikushima's knowledge of the comings and goings of the building begins to grow, Ayako, who he met briefly with Seiko Nesan, he discovers lives in the apartment below, Horimayu-san who met him in the street is a tattooist working in rooms adjacent to him, and he notes the movements of the local gangs connected to Horimayu-san who boast of being Kusubori, (burn-outs). Ikushima forms a friendship with Shimpei, who he thinks at first is Ayako's brother, but their relationship is slightly enigmatic, he becomes increasingly attracted to Ayako who's brush off's end when she visits his room one night out of the blue, but then disappears again. Ikushima is an interestingly crafted character, he has dreams early in the novel of himself running around with his back on fire, which is an alarmingly symbolic depiction of his drifting-like existence after turning away from his ad agency job, he loathed falling into the 'middle class life style'. He labours under self deprecation and has an aversion to eating raw eggs, and also a beleaguered defiance against those who try to persuade him off his path. Slowly he gets embroiled into the world of Seiko Nesan and Horimayu-san's shady dealings, all the while trying to keep  his infatuation with Ayako in check. Seiko Nesan lays him off unexpectedly and he finds a note from  Ayako asking him to meet her in Osaka,  eventually Ikushima learns that Ayako's brother is in deep trouble with the gangs, it threatens to put them both on a route to the waterfalls of Akame neither of them seemingly can escape from.  

Kurumatani Choukitsu was born in Hyogo in 1945, Akame shijuya-taki shinju misui/Attempted Suicide at the Forty Eight Waterfalls of Akame, published in 1998 won the Naoki Prize. Kurumatani has also won many other literary awards including the Mishima Prize in 1993 for Shiotsubo no saji/Spoon of Salt, a novel centered around suicide, and also the Kawabata Prize in 2001, with the novel Musahimaru.  

Isle of Dreams - a novel by Keizo Hino

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isle of Dreams/Yume no shima was first published in Japan in 1985, just preceding the economic boom which in turn led to the overinflated valuation of property prices which would ultimately lead to the economic downturn at the end of the last millennium. The central character of Isle of Dreams, Shozo Sakai, aged 50 and widowed, is of the generation that witnessed both the poverty of the immediate post war years and a spectator to the economic ascension. At the beginning of the novel he is quietly in awe of the new Tokyo architecture which his company is constructing, Hino observes the shift in perspectives between the generations, ‘For Shozo and his contemporaries, buildings of steel and concrete were a goal in life, but for the next generation, they were no more than a starting point’. Often Shozo will get off the bus before reaching his destination to go back to examine a building more closely. Finding himself in one spot he reflects on the effects of the Tokyo bombing during the war, being slightly too young to remember it at first hand, he imagines the modern buildings engulfed in flames, Tokyo Tower collapsing in the immense heat. As Shozo traverses around districts of Tokyo; the Ginza, Tsukiji, and Tsukishima he encounters a manga convention,where the young participants are dressed up as their favourite characters, seeing them he reflects; Had Tokyo's neighbourhoods become such dreadful places that it was only here,on this artifical island,that these children could act out their fantasies? It was after all, he and his contemporaries who had produced that same metropolis. Another area Shozo is drawn to is the reclaimed land around Tokyo bay, walking there one day he is nearly knocked down by a motorcyclist dressed in black who when taking off her helmet Shozo discovers is a woman, incredulously to Shozo she offers him a lift. Walking again around the city another place that becomes an object of his curiosity is a shop window full of mannequins; the assistant arranging them has a familiarity. Shozo finds that his Sunday walks out on the reclaimed land offer him an opportunity to tap into his subconscious thoughts and desires, he feels detached from the past, his thinking is interrupted this time by a biker gang racing around, one falls off but the rest speed off leaving the fallen rider, approaching the body lying motionless Shozo recognises that it’s the woman who nearly ran him over, he hovers over her prostrate body caught in a moment of indecision, but hails a cab and takes her to a hospital. The next day he revisits the hospital to discover she’s signed herself out; he pays her bill and discovers her name, Yoko, and also her address.

Finding himself at the address, surprisingly the woman from the shop with the mannequins answers, is she Yoko’s sister? , as there’s a resemblance. Wandering out on the reclaimed land he’s not surprised when he encounters Yoko again, although this time she has a boy on the back of her bike, ‘Are you ready to go?’ she asks, they lead him to an island on the other side of the reclaimed land away from Tokyo Bay, walking through the overgrown bushes and trees Yoko cuts her head badly. Although not at first talkative, once on the island the boy demonstrates an almost extra sensory oneness with the nature of the island. This part of the novel’s setting is in complete contrast to the steel and concrete of the architecture at the beginning of the novel, amongst the overgrown trees and vegetation of the island Shozo makes out old houses and harbour buildings that probably date back to the time of Commodore Perry, which highlights one of the central themes of the novel, the transience of civilisations and the battle of man vs. nature, the novel also carries an allegorical environmental message which is conveyed in the fate of the birds of the island. The attention shifts focus of the main character at the closing of the novel, which reveals a few enigma's within the text. Hino’s writing is noted for being similar to J.G Ballard, reading this novel also brought to mind William Golding.

Isle of Dreams is published by Dalkey Archive Press, and translated by Charles de Wolf who has previously translated short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke collected in Mandarins. Keizo Hino won many literary prizes including the Tanizaki Prize and the Akutagawa Prize.

2/Duo

2/Duo begins with a morning scene with Kei describing a dream he had the previous night to his partner,Yu, before she leaves for work he asks for money from her, 'for lunch', he tells her. The film lingers with shots of him reclining on their bed, gazing at the ceiling. Later at his acting job, the director informs him that his scene has been pulled from the film,Kei goes home puts the washing machine on and slumps down in front of it.When Yu arrives home from work she notices the change in his attitude, he seems on edge, although on the surface things bounce along in a slightly animated joviality, with her jokingly applying make-up to him,until he erupts exclaiming 'That's enough!'. They meet later at a restaurant where, out of the blue he suggests that they get married,curious at Kei's sudden proposal she asks why, but all he can reply with is that he wants to. 2/Duo, (1997), Suwa Nobuhiro's debut as a director, has a documentary element to the film with both Yu and Kei being interviewed about their relationship as the film progresses,firstly Yu is asked about Kei's motives for the marriage, she's unsure but shares her observation that he seems sad, but doesn't know why. One day after work when she returns to their small apartment she finds him asleep again by the washing machine,the scene begins well with Yu talking and reminiscing about a visit to the beach,but as Kei begins to unpeg the washing the violence in which he throws the laundry at Yu intensifies, until she's forced to scream at him 'What's wrong?', 'I don't know' he screams back, and he storms out of the building, Yu is Kei's emotional punchbag, taking out all his frustrations on her, but he is unable to tell her his reasons.

Kei's fascination with acting is seen again when he is interviewed by an off screen interviewer,and what comes across greatly in the film is his inability to differentiate between acting and reality,as seen in a scene where he imagines his married life with Yu and the dialogues that they will share with each other, throughout the film Kei seems completely oblivious to the emotional turmoil and confusion he's inflicting on Yu, he constantly asks her for money, but at the same time this is blended with his frustrations at being an out of work actor and not being able to fulfill his vocation, taking out his anger on Yu.With each scene the pressure mounts on the couple, mainly it's Yu who bears the brunt of Kei's uncommunicated frustration at his inability to settle into a normal existence, and accept the fact that he's not going to make it as an actor, a climatic scene being where Yu has invited friends around for lunch,whilst she prepares the meal Kei continually criticizes her, the guests when they arrive feel the awkwardness between the two and after a while Kei apologies and asks them to leave,Yu almost hysterical announces to the guests that their getting married,which adds more confusion to the already fraught  situation, but the scene conveys the hidden turmoil that Yu has been trying to keep under control. 2/Duo realistically conveys a couple's disintegration and the frustration of Kei at failing to accept to settle down in a normal job and acknowledge that he failed it as an actor.Suwa's second film M/Other won the 1999 Fipresci award at the Cannes film Awards,his third film, H Story was a remake of Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour, which starred novelist/poet/Inu vocalist Ko Machida.

A Riot of Goldfish

First published in Japan in 1937, A Riot of Goldfish/Kingyo ryoran by Kanoko Okamoto has recently been published by the Hesperus Press,translated and with an introduction by J.Keith Vincent, this collection of two novella size stories comes with a foreword from David Mitchell, (Cloud Atlas, number9dream and most recently The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet). A Riot of Goldfish spans the end of the Taisho and early Showa eras and has as it's central character Mataichi, a student of fish breeding. The story starts with his sense of failure as he examines the results of his latest breed, disappointed, his attention turns again to the Chapel at the top of the cliff,where he can make out Masako sitting, knitting. Masako is the daughter of one of his father's best customers, the wealthy Teizo Araki, Mataichi's story is told in a retrospective style that sometimes skips between tenses. As a child Mataichi used to tease and taunt Masako, but as the two begin to grow up Mataichi can't help himself marvelling at Masako's growing beauty, to the degree that 'he could barely surpress his hostility'. Teizo frequently visits Mataichi's father's fishery, and eventually becomes a patron to Mataichi, paying for him to study in the Kansai area, Mataichi learns that Teizo has also paid for three other men to study ,which adds a slight confusion to Mataichi's thoughts. Before he leaves Masako invites him out for tea and as they walk down the street Mataichi is almost overcome by Masako's beauty, but he begins to put his feelings in check, and the conversation turns to the arts of goldfish breeding, Mataichi is left not knowing if she has any feelings for him or not. Whilst away studying Mataichi becomes a recluse but manages to become the object of attraction for a local girl, Yoshie,he writes to Masako about Yoshie in an attempt to coax out a hint of her true feelings for him, but the letters she writes back are scarce and filled with an indifference which rouses his curiosity and confusions even further, until he learns that she is pregnant and plans to marry. As Mataichi comes to the conclusion that Masako is now unattainable he sets out to reproduce the beauty he saw in her by creating the most beautiful breed of goldfish in emulation. It's incredible to learn through Vincent's introduction that Okamoto wrote fiction for only three years before dying from a stroke at the age of 49. Kawabata moved by one of her stories about the Tokaido Highway took a copy with him on a trip and retraced the route of it's protaganist.


The second story, The Food Demon/Shokuma was published in Japan in 1941, Besshiro is a cooking instructor to the daughters of the wealthy Araki family, Besshiro's arrogant streak is despised by the daughters but as Besshiro's story is revealed we learn that his arrogance is a symptom of thwarted aspirations. The story is told again in a retrospective style which retraces how Besshiro arrives at the point where the story opens. The Food Demon is a fantastically evocative character study, Besshiro's exasperation's are summed up when he arrives home from work with, 'his face frozen into an expression on the verge either exploding with anger or bursting into tears'. He lives with his wife and son in a house owned by his employer, Besshiro and his wife constantly worry of ruining the tatami, one the proviso's that his tenancy relies upon. The story follows Besshiro back to his beginnings to when he meets up with Higaki who runs a restaurant, and describes Besshiro's frustrations at trying to impress the artistic and intelligentsia clientele of the place, failing to prove himself with his paintings Besshiro tries to impress a visiting intellectual with his cooking skills, the woman recognises that aside from being completely delicious that the meal was created with love, and this is a theme to both of the stories the characters pursuing the purity of beauty, Besshiro trying to escape from his poverty stricken life becomes instead the victim of his own aspirations?, but after watching Higaki die from cancer his life takes another route, The Food Demon is filled with a bitter wisdom, and touched with a deep humility.


 Hesperus Press

From Trinity to Trinity

In her introduction translator, Eiko Otake,mentions the small number of writings of Hayashi's that have seen translation into English, the appearance of From Trinity to Trinity from independent publisher Station Hill Press is a much valued addition. From Trinity to Trinity charts Hayashi's pilgrimage to the Trinity site in New Mexico, the test site of the first atomic bomb on July 16th 1945, which she made at the end of the last millennium. Eiko Otake also gives a description of how her translation came into fruition and her correspondence with Hayashi, recounting her meetings with the author, and gives a biography of Hayashi and an overview of her major works. Hayashi was born in Nagasaki but raised in Japanese occupied Shanghai, her family was the only Japanese family on her block but was treated as an equal, the sense of viewing things as an outsider would inform her writing as a chronicler, she describes herself as being an 'un-Japanese Japanese'. The family returned to Nagasaki when Kyoko was 14, and she worked in a munitions factory, as the family settled on the edge of the city, Kyoko was the only member of her family exposed to the bomb, being a hibakusha she found not only alienated her from society at large but also within her own family. After the war she suffered from radioactive sickness but fled Nagasaki and married a man twenty years her senior, they had a son, a courageous act as cases of second generation radioactive sickness and abnormal births were becoming known. Hayashi began writing chronicling the lives of hibakusha, The Site of Rituals,also known as The Ritual of Death/Matsuri no ba won the Akutagawa Prize in 1975, in 2005 The Complete works of Hayashi Kyoko/Hayashi Kyoko zenshu were published in eight volumes.

Hayashi first travelled to America in 1985 when her son moved there to work, although wanting to visit the Trinity Site for many years it wasn't until 1999 that she could make her pilgrimage, Hayashi refers to the site as the 'hibakusha's birthplace', the site is only open to the public twice a year. Enroute to Los Alamos, Hayashi and her friend stop at the National Atomic Museum where Hayashi not only examines the exhibits but is also conscious of the other visitors to the museum, Hayashi examines her feelings as she takes in the museum, noticing that her feelings of being a hibakusha welled up in her only after a man sitting near to her gets up and leaves. At one end of the museum hangs a portrait of Oppenheimer, who Hayashi reminds us was once celebrated as a national hero, but who also fell from grace. On the wall also hangs the route map that Boxcar took, taking off from Tinian to Nagasaki, then returning to Okinawa. As Hayashi and her friend drive closer to the base Hayashi reflects on the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe who made the Rockies her home, observing the barrenness of the landscape on the road to Los Alamos, Hayashi notes, 'These stones that fell off the cliffs are the dead of the Mesas', nature and observations of the movements of time are a central aspect to Hayashi writings, informing us of the lives of the hibakusha, many episodes experienced in the book which are set in the present tense provoke memories from the past. As they and the other visitors sign into the site and wander in the still radioactive wilderness Hayashi comes face to face with the memorial set in the wilderness, From Trinity to Trinity ends with poetry from Ito Yasuko.

Station Hill Press

       

144th Akutagawa Prize winner announced

The Daily Manichi reports today the announcement of the awarding of the 144th Akutagawa Prize,the prize was shared between Mariko Asabuki for her novel Kikotowa  and also Kenta Nishimura for his novel Kueki Ressha.The 144th Naoki Prize winner was also shared between two authors, Nobori Kiuchi for her novel Hyosa no uta and also Shusuke Michio for Tsuki to Kani.

Kikotawa centers around two women Kiko and Towako who reunite after 25, Nishimura's novel,Kueki Ressha, follows a young man employed as a manual worker who hardly makes his monthly rent payments,filled with rage the man develops self destructive feelings.

Nobori Kiuchi's novel Hyosa no uta,has a historical setting,set just before the Meiji restoration,following the exploits of a samurai who has fallen on hard times,and works trying to lure customers into a red light district in Tokyo.Shusuke Michio's novel,Tsuki to Kani,follows a young fifth grader as reality begins to kick into his imaginary world.

For the original Daily Manichi article.

The Moon over the Mountain

Nakajima Atsushi was born in Tokyo in 1909, his father came from a family of scholars specializing in the classics of ancient China, this was to influence not only his reading but would inform the majority of his writing. Newly published by Autumn Hill Books,a non profit independent publisher and translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner, (who also include an informative afterword on Nakajima), the stories selected in The Moon over the Mountain are mainly set in ancient China, the stories were originally published in Japan in the years 1942-43. After leaving Tokyo University Nakajima took up a teaching post whilst at the same time beginning to write short stories and starting a manuscript of his novel, Hikari to kaze to yume/Light, Wind and Dreams - a novella of the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, which was published in Japan 1942, the same year as Nakajima's premature death at the age of 33, Nakajima, who suffered from asthma died from pneumonia. Nakajima seems to be strikingly at odds from other writers of his time for not writing about the war.

The Moon Over the Mountain is the first collection of stories by Nakajima to appear in English, the first story Sangetsuki,which has also been known by the name The Tiger Poet is one of Nakajima's most well known stories, was studied in Japanese schools. A tale of a frustrated poet, Li Zheng, who gives up his post as a local official to devote himself to poetry, failing in his attempt to fulfill his life's desire of becoming a great poet he falls into madness and one night runs off into the wilderness after hearing his name being called. This violent emotional change within himself also appears to provoke a physical transformation. The narrative jumps forward slightly and takes up with Yuan Can an old acquaintance of Li Zheng who is travelling into an area known for being a domain for a wild tiger. After sometime Yuan Can's party hear the roar of a great tiger coming from the bush, but as they draw near Yuan Can can hear the sound of human sobs, Li Zheng begins to tell of his misfortune and Yuan Can begins to realize that it's his old friend Li Zheng who laments of his transformation. Transformation seems to thread in and out these stories, in the first it is seen as a manifestation of suffering and later in the story On Admiration: Notes by the Monk Wu Jing it appears as a well sought after craft. Nakajima's finely crafted stories blend existential inquiry with that of ancient Chinese story telling, where the human and animal world often mix,  in the story The Master a young archer who wants to master his skills turns out to be a danger to his tutor who refers him to a mountain hermit for further training, he's forced to learn how to 'shoot without shooting' in a story that turns the notion of learning on it's head. Many of the stories are set in the ancient Chinese state of Qi and tell of courtly intrigue and can be read as resembling morality tales, where those who appear to be the victims of wrong doing often find their end after being the perpetrators of wrong doing, the stories are far from predictable. As in the story Forebodings which begins with warriors comparing undergarments and ends with the states of Chu and Chen at war, at the centre of this narrative is the beguiling beauty of Xiaja whose beauty subtly commands a destructive power. Nakajima's stories often drop subtle clues and pointers which will often end up being the decisive thread within a story, as can be seen in Waxing and Waning which again concerns an exiled Duke and familial power games, the reader cannot afford to miss a line in Nakajima's finely written narratives.

These translations offer up to the English reader a great opportunity to explore a unique voice amongst Japanese literature, to read an excerpt from this collection follow the links through at the publishers website.

The Moon over the Mountain - Autumn Hill Books      

The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories

Published in 1997 by Barricade Books this collection edited by John L. Apostolou and Martin H. Greenberg, brings together some intriguing short stories from authors not wholly associated with science-fiction, Morio Kita's story from 1973, The Empty Field includes a description of a crowd coming together in anticipation to watch a flying saucer make contact with earth, much of the story though concerns 'Youngman' as he navigates his way through an expansive void like place, The Empty Field of the title alludes to an undefined barren environment, and essentially the relationship between the man's kokoro and this desolate place, but there's a great sense of spiritual befreftness,Youngman is customised to the non-eventful life. A story rooted as much in the internal psyche as much as the extra terrestial. The most well known name here is Kobo Abe, his story is The Flood, translated by Lane Dunlop, I've read that this story was originally written by Abe in 1950, it's a surreal story which starts with a bored astronomer diverting his telescope from the heavens towards the earth and spots a worker making his way home from the factory, the astronomer is stunned to see the worker turn to liquid before his eyes and stranger still when the mercurial like liquid carries on making it's way over walls. Soon workers all over the world begin to liquefy, but things only begin to appear to get serious when the rich people begin to be affected, Abe works in an appearance from Noah into the ending of this short story in what called be seen as an early forerunner to his later novel The Ark Sakura. The brevity of some of these stories add to their effect as in Takashi Ishikawa's The Road to the Sea, a story only a few pages long which reads as if it were set in a  rural village until the reader comes to the final sentence to understand it's other worldly setting. Shinichi Hoshi has two stories selected, one concerning a robot girl created by the owner of a bar to attract customers, but his plan goes tragically wrong when one of his customers falls in love with her, the second story, He-y,Come on Ou-t! (1978) is one of my favourites in the collection, after a typhoon villagers notice that where the local shrine once stood now exists what appears to be a bottomless hole, one of them shouts down into the hole Hey,Come on Out! and then another villager throws down a pebble to see if he hears it land.Officials arrive to try to gauge how deep the hole is but without success, and leave with the advice 'Fill it!'. People begin to fill the hole and eventually it's arranged to deposit radioactive waste from power plants into the hole, then animals infected with unknown diseases, then boxes of classified documents,instead of dumping things at sea, the hole is used to get rid of any unwanted things that the inhabitants of the city want to get rid of, including criminals dumping incriminating evidence into it. The last paragraph starts with a seemingly unrelated scene of a builder on a building site thinking he hears someone above him shouting out 'Hey,Come on Out!', little after he sees a pebble falling past him.., Shinichi Hoshi is an author I hope to read more of in the near future. Cardboard Box is a metaphorical short story by Ryo Hanmura, narrated by a cardboard box, following it's literal search for life fulfillment, to dispel it's empty existence. 

The longest story is by Tetsu Yano who actually translated some of the collection's stories into English, The Legend of the Paper Spaceship is narrated by an unnamed serviceman recalling a village he was posted to during the war, quite a remote place he describes his memories of a naked woman who folded paper planes or spaceships and flew them at a place called Endworld Mere, a place that features a mythical lake were the elderly go to die. No one in the village could recollect the reason for the woman's nakedness,some think that she was traumatised during a family dispute, there are rumours that when she was a child a foreigner was trapped and killed in her house. Roaming naked she became the object of lust for the men of the village, the narrator observes the irony that someone regarded as the village idiot was in fact the person who held the most power over the men of the village. After time the woman (Osen) falls pregnant, the women of the village thinking that Osen wouldn't be able to look after the child plead with her to abort it, but Osen in her broken language refuses. The narrator notes hearing the songs that Osen sings as she plays with her paper planes/ spaceships, later in the story the narrator begins to come around to reasoning that maybe he had misheard what she had been singing, confusing the words, and what she was actually singing about was of some sort of craft that had landed, and that she wanted to go home. Osen gives birth to a son and names him Emon, during the story there are references to the myths surrounding the small community, and as Emon grows up we learn that he has psychic abilities, he tries to read his mothers thoughts but she remains a mystery to him, he comes to loathe the men that visit his mother, and begins to wonder about the identity of his father. The narrative is fantastically well balanced, leaving hints to the reader as to the possibility of involvement of the extra-terrestial, Emon one day suspects that his mother's insanity was just an act covering up a wholly different secret, and the narrator observes that during his time in the village he never met anyone else from the outside world, and that on occasions when he had tried to return to the village something has always seemed to intervene, stopping him from revisiting,his suspicions of a cover up are hinted at. Although this collection is I think out of print, it's well worth tracking out a copy.          

Children in the Wind

Hiroshi Shimizu is a film director I've regretfully yet to fully explore, I'd very much like to see his 1937 adaption of this novel which originally appeared in Japan a year before in 1936, written by Tsubota Joji (1890-1982), Kaze no naka kodomo was first serialized in the Asahi Shimbun. The edition I read was published by Kegan Paul International Publishers back in 1991, the novella was chosen for the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, the translation was by Robert Epp, a translator whose translations I'd like to read alot more of, especially his Egg in my Palm - The Poetry of Tsuboi Shigeji, Robert Epp also includes an afterword putting the novella into historical context, reminding us that the year it first appeared the Olympics were being held in Berlin, the two brothers of the novel whilst playing mention the names of Japan's medal winners of those games, (Tetsuo Hamuro, Naoto Tajima and Hideko Machata), also Robert Epp highlights the domestic scene familiar to that of the era. The novella is made of about forty chapters each slowly revealing the boys observations of the activities of the adult world going on around them, whose motives still seem to be just out of reach to the boys. Zenta the elder brother steps in to stop a quarrel his younger brother, Sampei is having with another local boy Kintaro who are arguing about the brothers father, Mr Aoyama. News that the stockholders at the factory where their father works are investigating a suspected fraud involving Mr Aoyama is circulating throughout the neighbour hood, later Zenta climbs the Persimmon tree in their garden, Sampei shouts up to his brother asking what he sees, the ocean?, whales?, Mt Fuji?. A man arrives asking their mother to fetch Mr Aoyama the boys see the man show her his card, she turns pale and their father is taken off to the Police station, the two boys watch as their father walks away from the house with the man.

Later whilst waiting for their mother to return from town the boys have two more men come to visit, a man from the factory where their father worked along with an official from court intending to seize the family's property as collateral, the boys remain silent in the house, after a while thinking that no one is at home the men leave. The following day it's decided that Sampei will have to stay with Uncle Ukai, Zenta will stay at home. Sampei's antics soon prove too stressful for his Uncle and Aunty to bear, after overhearing that his father maybe imprisoned for up to a year or two, Sampei exhibits mischievous behaviour and after disappearing for a while near a pond which reputedly is populated by kappas is duly returned to his mother. The vividness in which the emotional world of the family is put under duress whilst their father is under investigation is displayed in a number of brief moving segments when Sampei has to leave with his Uncle and his mother catches a glimpse of his toes she bursts into tears, and a scene when Zenta is on his own in the house and plays a game of hide and seek with himself, imagining he is playing with Sampei captures a moment of moving innocence. Sampei's defiant stubborn attitude permeates throughout this novella, which also ends the book with a defiant little epithet.

Robert Epp gives a brief biography of Tsubota Joji, born in Okayama Prefecture his family ran a small business making wicks for lamps, Epp mentions that many of Tsubota's other stories centre around factory life. In 1984 Okayama City set up a Literary Prize in his honour.