日々のこと [Hibi no koto]

by Banana Yoshimoto, よしもと ばなな

ウェイトレス時代の店長一家のこと。ロンドンに旅立つ前のいとこと行った憧れの「お風呂の国」。恋人と行ってひどい目にあった京都の宿。女ばっかり３人の香港旅行。電気屋さんに聞かされた友人の結婚話……。強大な「愛」のようなものがまわりにあふれかえっていた２０代。人を愛するように、日々を大切に想って描いた名エッセイ。

177 pages

First published October 26, 2013

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto (よしもと ばなな or 吉本 ばなな) is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto (吉本 真秀子), a Japanese contemporary writer. She writes her name in hiragana. (See also 吉本芭娜娜 (Chinese).)

Along with having a famous father, poet Takaaki Yoshimoto, Banana's sister, Haruno Yoiko, is a well-known cartoonist in Japan. Growing up in a liberal family, she learned the value of independence from a young age.

She graduated from Nihon University's Art College, majoring in Literature. During that time, she took the pseudonym "Banana" after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous."

Despite her success, Yoshimoto remains a down-to-earth and obscure figure. Whenever she appears in public she eschews make-up and dresses simply. She keeps her personal life guarded, and reveals little about her certified Rolfing practitioner, Hiroyoshi Tahata and son (born in 2003). Instead, she talks about her writing. Each day she takes half an hour to write at her computer, and she says, "I tend to feel guilty because I write these stories almost for fun."