The Clan Records: Five Stories of Korea

by 梶山 季之, Toshiyuki Kajiyama

Although little known in the West, Kajiyama Toshiyuki was one of Japan's most prolific and popular writers. Celebrated for his crisp, fast-paced style and incisive analysis, Kajiyama's popularity may be attributed to his finely tuned sense of what many Japanese felt but could not articulate: the feeling of irreplaceable loss that lay beneath post-World War II Japan's highly successful economic recovery. The son of a civil engineer, Kajiyama was born in Seoul in 1930 and remained there until his family was repatriated to Japan at the end of the war. The Clan Records: Five Stories of Korea not only offers a sampling of Kajiyama's work in English for the first time but also represents the first English translations from the Japanese that deal with Korea under Japan's harsh military rule, which lasted from 1910 to 1945. Kajiyama intended these tales to be one of the components of his "lifework," a trilogy that remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1975. Kajiyama had outlined a tour de force that was to have focused on three interlocking landscapes - Korea, the place of his birth and childhood; Hawaii, his mother's birthplace and the setting for the Japanese immigration experience; and Hiroshima, his father's birthplace and the site of the atomic bombing. The Clan Records includes five of Kajiyama's Korea tales, among them the title story "Richo zan'ei," winner of the prestigious Naoki Prize and the basis of a highly acclaimed movie made in Korea in 1967. Laced with local expressions and accurate descriptions of Korean culture, Kajiyama's narratives infuse his Korean protagonists with dignity and courage. They depict sensitive subjects in an unusually subtle and emphatic manner without being patronizing. In these stories, too, Kajiyama avoided the temptation to soften the often brutal consequences of the inhumanity of the Japanese occupation.

Genres: Literature, Japanese Literature

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Toshiyuki KAJIYAMA was a Japanese novelist (born in Korea during the Japanese occupation).

Reviews

[Peter A]

This collection of five short stories paints vivid pictures of Korea during the Japanese colonization. The protagonists are Japanese who lived in Korea, often since birth. The stories explore the repression of Koreans by the Japanese, which in some cases leads the protagonists into difficult circumstances.

The author achieves his vivid portrayal through details, never overwhelming, and insights into Korean culture: the behavior of women in Confucian society, types of alcohol, descriptions of the national flower, and the Diamond Mountains.

The author is also able to conjure emotions in the reader, of sadness and melancholy. On the other hand, there is strength in his characters to endure.

In “The Clan Record,” we meet a timid Japanese administrator who is forced by his boss to coerce a Korean to change his name to Japanese. The Korean offers up his dedication to his ancestors. Through the Korean’s kindness, the Japanese administrator does not push him. Ultimately, the boss takes over and exerts so much pressure that the Korean gentleman kills himself. The administrator had quit post, knowing that the consequences were to be drafted. This story was turned into a movie.

In “When the Hibiscus Bloom,” we meet a teacher who falls in love with a Korean kisaeng. He wants to marry her, but she refuses. But he developed a love of Korean pottery from the Yi dynasty and began a business with her. Subplots add to the challenge of their relationship: his marriage (done as a favor to his elder brother); the befriending of a Korean who betrays him to gain Korea’s independence. When the war ends, he encounters hatred from young Koreas but his now de facto wife, the kisaeng, defends him. But she refused to leave for Japan, simply stating, “I am a Korean woman.”

In “The Remembered Shadow of the Yi Dynasty,” an artist loves to paint pictures to capture Korean culture. He, too, meets a kisaeng and wants to paint her. He overcomes her resistance and succeeds, titling his painting the name of the story. But the Pacific War breaks out and the title of his painting became a symbol of non-patriotism. This was also made into a movie.

The two other stories are “Seeking Life amidst Death: The Last Day of the War” and “A Crane on Dunghill: Seoul in 1936.”

This collection was published in English in 1995, though the orginal Japanese-language stories often date to the 1960s.

I highly recommend this collection of stories for its emotional depth, its sympathetic look at Korea, its clear depiction of the demeaning violence committed by the Japanese, and the detail that will make this time come alive.