The Kobe Hotel

by Sanki Saito, Saito Masaya (Translator)

English (translation)Original Japanese

Genres: Japan, Short Stories, Fiction, Poetry, Japanese Literature

Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

Reviews

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un esbozo autobiográfico que, desafortunadamente, en la introducción de Masaya Saitō pasan por “stories”, cuentos o relatos, que se inscriben muy bien en el género de la autoficción.

Este volumen, también desafortunadamente muy difícil de conseguir, contiene tres libros de Sanki Saitō y nos da una visión panorámica bastante completa de su obra, a saber, El hotel Kobe (primera y segunda partes) y una generosa selección de haikus del autor —el género con el que más se identificaba— que se complementan de manera maravillosa. Este autor es desvergonzado, chocarrero, rebelde y poco convencional, y solo aguarda que su obra sea más conocida fuera de Japón. El único inconveniente de este libro es que no se tiene (aún) una versión en español y el aparato crítico —notas, referencias para el lector no japonés— es, salvo por la introducción de la traductora, prácticamente inexistente.

[Yolanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book comes off as a pretty important historical document. A lot of literature about post-defeat Japan is overly focused on the experience of people in Tokyo and its environs, also incorrectly presenting Japan as the Asians-only world its ultra-militarists dreamed of, and it's difficult to find anything about Kansai province. This latter point is bizarre considering the importance of Osaka and Kobe as cities within Japan both then and now. If you know Kobe now, this fills in blanks and colours in between the lines. Saito's sketches of the people he knew whilst staying at a dockside hotel, and then later in a crumbling requisitioned house at the foot of Mt Rokko, bring the city to life as well as making points about the country. It is really difficult for me to work out what a casual reader would think of this book, because I already know a ton about the time and its culture, including the accounts of Americans stationed there in Kobe, as well as being able to infer from Saito's information from life experience (the GIs were probably breaking the flushes on plumbed squat toilets by stamping on them hard; I've seen it done.) However, Saito's ability to evoke personality and conjure up a visual image despite bare description is masterful and as my mate who was reading the 'Taiwanese' story with me said, it is reminiscent of Turgenev or another Russian writer. (Russian writing was popular post-war and there was a Russian community in Kobe for ages, so there might be something in that.)

The chapter telling the story of the Brave Sailor and the Taiwanese illuminates something that seems to be little understood, that is the presence of non-Japanese in Japan's criminal underworld in relatively recent times. It also directly contradicts later western and, I suspect, Chinese historians, who claim Taiwanese in Japan were Chiang Kai Shekists, by showing how 'Keelung' was more Japanese than the Japanese in ways I shan't spoil the tale by explaining - and using the KMT flag as a symbol of Taiwan did not preclude that. This story ironically indicates that Saito understood the nuance and complexity of Taiwanese identity a lot better than modern commentators who have declassified files from dictatorship days at their fingertips!

The one thing I would say is that the Hiroshima section isn't really that long and the blurb kind of insinuates that it is. My honest view is this is to get casual readers, who don't know what kind of hellscape post-defeat Japan was, to find the book exciting and read it, because they only know about the nukes. If you come to this with an open mind and the desire to find out about the demi-monde of those days, you'll find out it there is a lot more to say than only things about nuclear warfare.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite charming but rather plain and lacking in vivid detail. These vignettes chronicle the author's life in Kobe during the last years of WWII and in the immediate post-war period. A poet at heart, Sanki lived from hand to mouth in Kobe after spending a few scary weeks in prison for writing haiku, an activity briefly considered subversive by the ultranationalist government. His first residence was a hotel inhabited mostly by prostitutes and more or less louche foreigners. Later Sanki moved up the hill into a home built for some European merchant back in the days. Always a skirt-chaser but also (if he is to be believed) a decent soul at heart, Sanki was often involved against his will in the love affairs and business deals of the madams and others. His removal to the top of the hill saved his life, since a lot of people in downtown Kobe died in the fire bombing. Later, because he had good English, he found work as a building contractor for the American Occupation forces. Although daily life in Kobe during those difficult years sounded like an interesting subject, the stories disappointed me by their sameness and lack of colorful characters or memorable anecdotes. The narrator feels a kind of universal tolerance and even for all the people around him, be they victims, grifters or worse, but although observant, he rarely tries to dig behind the surface. My favorite story is about the woman who begs him to impregnate her, then drags him to meet her parents in Nagasaki, where he gets sick watching her family gorge on boiled shark.

[Jerome Berglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!! A riveting read of great social and political import...

If you're interested in better understanding the gestating, emergence, flourish of modern haiku+its powerful application across contemporary Japanese culture the short fiction and poetry, rich history of Saito Sanki represent a foundational building block. On par with the best prose, flash you'll ever encounter.

[Brašna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A whole new perspective on the World War, flowing with the rhythm of the life in Kobe at the time. A peculiar place full of peculiar people. The author is nonchalantly honest about his companions, whose lives would be forgotten if not for him, not to mention that one would not think to write about them. Kobe, a place surprisingly swarming with various nationalities, all equally strugling with the war except of course for the soldiers who are better off). And despite all the death, it is full of life.
Recs to those who don't like long WWII novels of destruction and despair. Not that the book does not have that, it is only watered down with some happier moments and the author's cynicism.
The book contains both short sotries and haiku poems.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read the re-issue from Isobar Press, but it doesn't seem to be listed on Goodreads.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slightly dissolute stories set in Kobe during the war years, Sanki, (1900-1962), left his wife and child in Tokyo and moved in to what he calls 'an odd international hotel' on the Tor Road in Kobe, he avoided the draft as he was too old. The stories are made up of character portraits and histories of the continental tenants and the barmaids who often turn to prostitution.

Through these stories elements of Sanki's own history emerge also the intellectual repression of the early war years, he describes what he refers to as the Kyoto University Haiku Incident of 1940, Sanki didn't resume writing haiku again until the wars end in 1945.

Another presence to the stories is that of the German Naval Serviceman blockaded in Kobe Harbour who frequented the city, and also of the spy network operating at the time, and the figure of Richard Sorge is briefly mentioned.

As well as the stories there is a varied selection of Sanki's haiku, some from one of his most well known collections Momo no Yoru/Peaches at Night, from 1948. Sanki's haiku add another dimension to the events of the stories, opening a window to his inner observations.

An interesting collection of prose and haiku, a distilled haibun of sorts, perhaps. Very much worth seeking out a copy.

[Rebecca Gransden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sanki Saito relays tales which draw from his experiences during and post WW2. He writes with affection and wry regard for those who sail through his wilful existence. With the tone of any ruddy faced man recounting his war year exploits we are taken to Kobe. A port city, with all that implies. Usually I recoil from anything labelled as quirky but here the people inhabiting his world are fleshed out and his reflections on them understated. There are the wistful and melancholic references to nature you'd expect but these are not overdone. An amusement at his own failings and that of wider humanity set the overall scene. This falls away, however, when needed; particularly in a simple and disarming description of a fleeting night time visit to a destroyed Hiroshima and a disquieting vision of a military brothel he is tasked with preventing being overcome with groundwater seeping from below.
I ended up quite liking the guy, despite of his slack ways.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really the best reason to read this book is Sanki's haiku. It was the perfect companion for my relaxing Vermont Thanksgiving. The nonfictional vignettes were more interesting than great literature, but this book is a good way to get a full portrait of a unique artist.