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Autumn Wind and Other Stories
Westerners familiar only with stereotypical images of bowing geisha and dark-suited businessmen will be surprised by the cast of characters translator Lane Dunlop introduces in this anthology. Lovers of fiction and students of Japan are certain to find these stories absorbing, engaging and instructive.
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 6, 2017
3.5 stars
Taken from Nakayama Gishu's story as the book title, this 14-story anthology bought at Books Sanseido in Nagoya early last June at first interested me because it seemed to me I had never read any one before. As for the writers, there are only two I have known and read his works elsewhere, that is, Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Kawabata Yasunari. I wonder why, probably my literary exploration hasn't discovered these stories "spanning sixty years of twentieth-century Japanese literature" (back cover), in other words, I should have expanded my reading that includes Nagai Kafu, Satomi Ton, Juichiya Gisaburo,Yokomitsu Riichi, Okamoto Kanoko, Nakayama Gishu, Sakaguchi Ango, Hayashi Fumiko, Kita Morio, Kurahashi Yumiko, Mizakami Tsutomu, and Watanabe Jun'ichi. Incidentally, When I first came across Nagai Kafu and Hayashi Fumiko in the Contents page, I thought I might have read them somewhere and I was right becuse I had read Nagai Kafu's "The River Sumida" and Hayashi Fumiko's "Tokyo" since 2012 in "Modern Japanese Literature" (Tuttle, 1972) compiled and edited by Prof. Donald Keene. I enjoyed reading these two highly recommended stories and would reread them in the meantime.
I found reading each story arguably enjoyable; however, my favorite one hasn't been written by Mr Akutagawa or Mr Kawabata but by Mr Mizukami. His "Bamboo Flowers" (Take no hana) surprisingly amazed me with his nostalgic reminiscence-like narration that captivates and reminds me of remote Thai villages with some bamboo groves I casually came across. Indeed, I was inexplicably thrilled with admiration and serenity while walking in one of the famous bamboo groves called Arashiyama in Kyoto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcibu...) during our visit there a few years ago. This YouTube clip as exemplary glimpses would, I think, help you see and imagine how Japanese bamboo groves look like and understand what I mean on the bamboo grove in the story.
The story in question suggests a good traditional foster system before the Child Welfare Law since the forty-eight-year-old narrator named Takarasu Shohachi his parents rumoredly long passed away has been adopted since the age of three into the Karayama family in Uchikoshi and he keeps wondering why his family name 'Takarasu' is different from 'Karayama' when he is a schoolboy. Unfairly teased by his friends that he is a child of a criminal, he furiously denied and later took twenty years in search of the finding in the newspaper articles that a man called Takarasu Yoshitaro committed a murder and died of natural causes at Abashiri. Still, he has no information related to his wife and child.
Miraculously, he recalled one summer's day when he walked back after school in his first year, he met a twenty-seven or twenty-eight-year-old woman in her pretty white kimono with a white parasol came toward calling him, "Sho. Sho." and he wondered how this lady stranger knew his name. Surprisingly, as if panic she fled from him walking down the road between the bamboo groves so out of his long despairing love, he presumed she was his mother and called after her "Mother ..." (p. 232)
Indeed, I think we could treat any anthology as a literary potpourri that eventually leads us to longer prose, complete fiction of those marvelous writers whose style amazes us till we long to read them more, that is, any of their works published under the sun. For instance, the anthology by Prof. Keene mentioned above has revealed me a tentative list of famous Japanese authors like Higuchi Ichiyo, Natsume Soseki, Shiga Naoya, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Kawabata, Yasunari, Tanizaki Junichiro, Dazai Osamu and, of course, Mishima Yukio. One of the advantages is that each of their stories are conveniently manageable for my reading in one sitting before my boredom creeps in.
Taken from Nakayama Gishu's story as the book title, this 14-story anthology bought at Books Sanseido in Nagoya early last June at first interested me because it seemed to me I had never read any one before. As for the writers, there are only two I have known and read his works elsewhere, that is, Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Kawabata Yasunari. I wonder why, probably my literary exploration hasn't discovered these stories "spanning sixty years of twentieth-century Japanese literature" (back cover), in other words, I should have expanded my reading that includes Nagai Kafu, Satomi Ton, Juichiya Gisaburo,Yokomitsu Riichi, Okamoto Kanoko, Nakayama Gishu, Sakaguchi Ango, Hayashi Fumiko, Kita Morio, Kurahashi Yumiko, Mizakami Tsutomu, and Watanabe Jun'ichi. Incidentally, When I first came across Nagai Kafu and Hayashi Fumiko in the Contents page, I thought I might have read them somewhere and I was right becuse I had read Nagai Kafu's "The River Sumida" and Hayashi Fumiko's "Tokyo" since 2012 in "Modern Japanese Literature" (Tuttle, 1972) compiled and edited by Prof. Donald Keene. I enjoyed reading these two highly recommended stories and would reread them in the meantime.
I found reading each story arguably enjoyable; however, my favorite one hasn't been written by Mr Akutagawa or Mr Kawabata but by Mr Mizukami. His "Bamboo Flowers" (Take no hana) surprisingly amazed me with his nostalgic reminiscence-like narration that captivates and reminds me of remote Thai villages with some bamboo groves I casually came across. Indeed, I was inexplicably thrilled with admiration and serenity while walking in one of the famous bamboo groves called Arashiyama in Kyoto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcibu...) during our visit there a few years ago. This YouTube clip as exemplary glimpses would, I think, help you see and imagine how Japanese bamboo groves look like and understand what I mean on the bamboo grove in the story.
The story in question suggests a good traditional foster system before the Child Welfare Law since the forty-eight-year-old narrator named Takarasu Shohachi his parents rumoredly long passed away has been adopted since the age of three into the Karayama family in Uchikoshi and he keeps wondering why his family name 'Takarasu' is different from 'Karayama' when he is a schoolboy. Unfairly teased by his friends that he is a child of a criminal, he furiously denied and later took twenty years in search of the finding in the newspaper articles that a man called Takarasu Yoshitaro committed a murder and died of natural causes at Abashiri. Still, he has no information related to his wife and child.
Miraculously, he recalled one summer's day when he walked back after school in his first year, he met a twenty-seven or twenty-eight-year-old woman in her pretty white kimono with a white parasol came toward calling him, "Sho. Sho." and he wondered how this lady stranger knew his name. Surprisingly, as if panic she fled from him walking down the road between the bamboo groves so out of his long despairing love, he presumed she was his mother and called after her "Mother ..." (p. 232)
Indeed, I think we could treat any anthology as a literary potpourri that eventually leads us to longer prose, complete fiction of those marvelous writers whose style amazes us till we long to read them more, that is, any of their works published under the sun. For instance, the anthology by Prof. Keene mentioned above has revealed me a tentative list of famous Japanese authors like Higuchi Ichiyo, Natsume Soseki, Shiga Naoya, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Kawabata, Yasunari, Tanizaki Junichiro, Dazai Osamu and, of course, Mishima Yukio. One of the advantages is that each of their stories are conveniently manageable for my reading in one sitting before my boredom creeps in.
October 1, 2023
I only started reading Japanese fiction in earnest this year; my preferred category of reads is non-fiction and my fiction selections tend to be on mostly sci-fi or the occasional fantasy. But I do have a pretty broad and relatively deep understanding of Japanese culture and history.
So I started to read Japanese literature because I wanted to broaden my range of reads and expand my horizons. As someone whose only other encounter with Japanese short stories was a similar book by Tuttle Publishers, this collection left me befuddled at times but also strangely content.
From what I read of other reviews, many of these authors are pretty well-known. I heard of a few names like Nagai Kafu, Akutagawa Ryonosuke and Hayashi Fumiko but the rest are unknown to me.
But known names or not, the stories were quite a delight. My favourite is probably Autumn Wind, though Ivy Gates and Mount Hiei spoke to me as well.
I think that this is a pretty good selection to get into twentieth century Japanese literature, and would recommend this as a kind of sampler of Japanese fiction. They are best enjoyed slowly, with a cup of green tea and maybe on a rainy day.
So I started to read Japanese literature because I wanted to broaden my range of reads and expand my horizons. As someone whose only other encounter with Japanese short stories was a similar book by Tuttle Publishers, this collection left me befuddled at times but also strangely content.
From what I read of other reviews, many of these authors are pretty well-known. I heard of a few names like Nagai Kafu, Akutagawa Ryonosuke and Hayashi Fumiko but the rest are unknown to me.
But known names or not, the stories were quite a delight. My favourite is probably Autumn Wind, though Ivy Gates and Mount Hiei spoke to me as well.
I think that this is a pretty good selection to get into twentieth century Japanese literature, and would recommend this as a kind of sampler of Japanese fiction. They are best enjoyed slowly, with a cup of green tea and maybe on a rainy day.
February 26, 2022
Fourteen stories by 14 authors, salvaged by translator Lane Dunlop from the magazines in which he originally published them. All stories are good and by famous authors as Kawabata, but happily also some lesser known writers have been included - even one writer of popular fiction, Watanabe Jun'ichi, known for his portrayal of extra-marital affairs often ending in suicide. The best two stories for me are "The Fox", a nostalgic evocation of childhood by Nagai Kafu, and "One Woman and the War" by Sakaguchi Ango.
See my blog at https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/p/...
See my blog at https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/p/...
November 3, 2024
A nice collection of short stories. The ones that stood out were "Ugly Demons", "One Woman and the War", "Flash Storm" and "Along the Mountain Ridge". Most of the stories have this very serene, introspective atmosphere about them.
May 29, 2016
"The Fox" by Kafū Nagai: Boy's wealthy family has a fox on their Tokyo estate.
"Flash Storm" by Ton Satomi: Young man and his best friend's cute wife.
"The Garden" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Old family try to maintain an old garden. It's turned over to a railway line. That's Japan!
"Grass" by Juichiya Gisaburo: Two brothers, one girl.
"Mount Hiei" by Yokomitsu Riichi: Man takes wife and child up a mountain.
"Ivy Gates" by Kanoko Okamoto: Family's old maidservant and neighbourhood girl.
"Autumn Wind" by Nakayama Gishū: This was my favourite! Starnge women at onsen resort and local lumberjacks.
"The Titmouse" by Yasunari Kawabata: Birds as gifts.
"One Woman and the War" by Ango Sakaguchi: Actually, this was my favourite.
"Borneo Diamond" by Fumiko Hayashi: Wartime prostitutes in Borneo.
"Along the Mountain Ridge" by Kita Morio: Ghosts on the mountain climb.
"Ugly Demons" by Kurahashi Yumiko: Corpse on the beach.
"Bamboo Flowers" by Tsutomu Mizukami: Did an orphan see his mother when the bamboo flowers were blooming?
"Invitation to suicide" by Junichi Watanabe: Author's top 2 suicides.
"Flash Storm" by Ton Satomi: Young man and his best friend's cute wife.
"The Garden" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Old family try to maintain an old garden. It's turned over to a railway line. That's Japan!
"Grass" by Juichiya Gisaburo: Two brothers, one girl.
"Mount Hiei" by Yokomitsu Riichi: Man takes wife and child up a mountain.
"Ivy Gates" by Kanoko Okamoto: Family's old maidservant and neighbourhood girl.
"Autumn Wind" by Nakayama Gishū: This was my favourite! Starnge women at onsen resort and local lumberjacks.
"The Titmouse" by Yasunari Kawabata: Birds as gifts.
"One Woman and the War" by Ango Sakaguchi: Actually, this was my favourite.
"Borneo Diamond" by Fumiko Hayashi: Wartime prostitutes in Borneo.
"Along the Mountain Ridge" by Kita Morio: Ghosts on the mountain climb.
"Ugly Demons" by Kurahashi Yumiko: Corpse on the beach.
"Bamboo Flowers" by Tsutomu Mizukami: Did an orphan see his mother when the bamboo flowers were blooming?
"Invitation to suicide" by Junichi Watanabe: Author's top 2 suicides.
June 7, 2013
Lane Dunlop has translated a handful of Japanese short stories by well-regarded authors. All of them are set in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Many of these stories are rather quiet and contemplative, perhaps too much so for many American readers (I don't exclude myself from this). These authors often spend much time on the details of the natural environment, using them to highlight or provide contrast with their characters' emotions, thoughts, and situations. On more than one occasion, I finished a story feeling puzzled about just what the author was trying to communicate to me. However, this was by no means the case in all of the stories. For example, in Kita Morio's "Along the Mountain Ridge," a hiker makes a grisly discovery and witnesses a climber's precarious progress up a treacherous mountainside as prologue to a haunting meditation on mortality. Several other such gems make this a collection worth reading.
February 1, 2014
Lane Dunlop has translated a handful of Japanese short stories by well-regarded authors. All of them are set in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Many of these stories are rather quiet and contemplative, perhaps too much so for many American readers (I don't exclude myself from this). These authors often spend much time on the details of the natural environment, using them to highlight or provide contrast with their characters' emotions, thoughts, and situations. On more than one occasion, I finished a story feeling puzzled about just what the author was trying to communicate to me. However, this was by no means the case in all of the stories. For example, in Kita Morio's "Along the Mountain Ridge," a hiker makes a grisly discovery and witnesses a climber's precarious progress up a treacherous mountainside as prologue to a haunting meditation on mortality. Several other such gems make this a collection worth reading.
July 15, 2011
I enjoyed how the authors highlighted certain scenes, making them as important to the story as the characters and plot, like so many Japanese films do. I could picture myself there in the flash storm, in the Japanese garden, on the mountain ridge, in a bamboo grove. Favorite line: "Like most women, as she considered a fact that she had placed center stage in her consciousness, if she felt it was an inconvenient fact that might make for trouble in a given situation, she at once and skillfully pushed it back down under the threshold of her thoughts, using sensitivity, guile, timidity, and wisdom to make sure it didn't raise its head again. This is a characteristic of women that might well be called intelligent foolishness. It gives a lot of men difficulty" (42).
August 28, 2016
《actually finished it a few days ago but watevs》 was really looking forward to reading this but it was just...meh, i think because the recurring motif of sex(?) put me off and there's only so many stories i can read in a row with allusions to sex!!! the stories read on their own would be ok but as a collection...not really stellar in my honest opinion.
September 3, 2016
A good collection of short stories. Most of them centred to a specific event. How's before and how's after.
But I guess I give it a 4-star rating because it was a break from a long streak of bad books. Kind of an "autumn wind" for me :-)
But I guess I give it a 4-star rating because it was a break from a long streak of bad books. Kind of an "autumn wind" for me :-)
August 25, 2015
Wonderful collection of stories. One of them was a little harder to comprehend but beyond that the stories were a great read. Good variety and very well done. I highly suggest it to others who want a glimpse of Japanese daily culture through literature
July 23, 2008
"The Peony Garden" by Nagai Kafu is possibly one of the best short stories ever written.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews