The Transparent Labyrinth by Keiichiro Hirano

The Transparent Labyrinth is the eighth and last title in the recently published series Keshiki - New Voices From Japan from Strangers Press, a part of the UEA Publishing Project, Norwich, the story is translated by Kerim Yasar, Hirano has been awarded many literary prizes among them the Akutagawa Prize. The Transparent Labyrinth is a thoroughly contemporary tale, set predominately in Budapest the story is narrated by Okada who has travelled to the city on business and whilst there he makes the acquaintance of Misa - a young Japanese woman whose reasons for staying on in the city seem to tie in mysteriously with a female friend of hers - Federica, Okada speculates to himself that there is the possibility that the two are lesbians, but despite this Okada and Misa are drawn to each other, a fractiously fraught relationship is kernelled. An aspect to the premise and theme of the story is reminiscent of Rupert Thomson's The Book of Revelation, and in his foreword John Freeman points to Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers for likeness, although unlike Thomson's novel the difference here is that instead of a kidnapping over a prolonged period, Okada and Misa find themselves taken to a Bacchanalian orgy where they're coerced into making love in front of a selected group, this episode is brutal with it's scenes of sexual violence including male rape.

An aspect of Hirano's prose which impresses through this short piece is of his ability to paint an absorbingly detailed portrait of his protagonist as he works through the various enigmas that he finds himself in and presented with. Initially there's the disarming events of the evening of enforced sexual escapades and it's ramifications, and also of the enigma of Misa and his feelings for her, as she disappears and re-appears in and out of his life, a wider game of incomprehension seems to be playing out though just out of sight for the reader, some kind of answer occurs to the end of the story which acts to wrong foot, although in a way it remains partial. Another aspect to the story is of Okada trying to reconcile and release himself to the past events which he and Misa endeavour to grapple with, what had violated them also binds them, the psychological forces that flow beneath the story feel fractious, bifurcated, and again Hirano handles this infectiously well. Although I've picked up the last in the series first, mainly attracted by it's enigmatic title, The Transparent Labyrinth was a compelling and provocative start to what looks to be a fascinating and welcome series of stories.


The Transparent Labyrinth at Strangers Press   

Clear Water

Clear Water/Shimizu, (2003) by Hirano Keiichiro draws some parallels with Kajii Motojiro's story Lemon, where the protaganist wanders the streets of Kyoto, although the preoccupying thoughts of the two narrators differ markedly. Clear Water opens with the narrator hearing the sound of clear water dripping somewhere, and he has the feeling that something is happening to him, memories,'of a sun long ago, a memory of a day when the gigantic sun that covered everything over our heads drew away from us', it feels like he could be referring to some distant apocalypse, adding that 'In tears I gazed futilely at the scene,on and on'. But he's unable to decipher if the memory might have come from a movie, or something he thought up for a novel, and he contemplates 'Is there such a thing as an indubitable memory?', whilst drinking coffee and eating cookies he sifts through which of his senses seem to offer up the the best evidence of proving the existence of the cookie in his hand.

Looking out of the window he observes 'Sure enough the sun was scattering more fiercely than ever', walking out down Shimogawa Avenue he encounters some people, a woman sweeping leaves, a couple leafing through a guidebook, these people turn into sounds and vanish,the sound he says sounds like a splitting sound, thinking about were they might be vanishing to he thinks of his own death, 'But one day I realized that my own death had long since been lost in time' 'The spot were the drip lands is none other than death-but how to reach that point?', at each realization he arrives at....another drip, he observes. In Kitaoji Street more people he sees vanish with the same sound, and crossing the road he notes the stream of traffic. Coming to a halt at the Kamo River, he's mesmerised by the sunlight reflecting on the water's surface, 'I was crazed by the falling petals of sun', vision and sound begin to merge and watching the reflecting/scattering light he feels his sense of hearing contract, and is overcome by an encompassing silence, but his vision gains a lucid clarity as he watches cherry blossom petals as they drift down and fall on the water's surface.'Just as my hearing searches for a sound in the silence,my vision found it's way only as far as the expanding light', he wonders off down Kitayama Avenue,finding himself in Shichiku Street, he discovers an explanantion of his observations in a revelation. Clear Water/Shimizu is translated by Anthony H.Chambers and is in the anthology The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature:1945 to the Present, published by CUP, Hirano Keiichiro won the Akutagawa Prize for his novel Solar Eclipse/Nisshoku,a novel set in France just prior to the Renaissance.

Hirano Keiichiro (Japanese)