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The Crab Cannery Ship: and Other Novels of Struggle
This collection introduces the work of Japan’s foremost Marxist writer, Kobayashi Takiji (1903–1933), to an English-speaking audience, providing access to a vibrant, dramatic, politically engaged side of Japanese literature that is seldom seen outside Japan. The volume presents a new translation of Takiji’s fiercely anticapitalist Kani kōsen—a classic that became a runaway bestseller in Japan in 2008, nearly eight decades after its 1929 publication. It also offers the first-ever translations of Yasuko and Life of a Party Member, two outstanding works that unforgettably explore both the costs and fulfillments of revolutionary activism for men and women. The book features a comprehensive introduction by Komori Yōichi, a prominent Takiji scholar and professor of Japanese literature at Tokyo University.
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322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 30, 1929
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About the author
Takiji Kobayashi
59 books45 followersTakiji Kobayashi (小林 多喜二) was a Japanese author of proletarian literature.
Kobayashi was born in Odate, Akita, Japan and was brought up in Otaru, Hokkaidō. After graduating from the Otaru School of Higher Learning, which is the current Otaru University of Commerce, he worked at the Otaru branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. His most famous work is Kanikōsen, or Crab-Canning Boat – a novel published in 1929. It tells the story of several different people and the beginning of organization into unions of fishing workers. He joined the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. The young writer was killed during a torture session by Tokkō police two years later, at age 29.
Kobayashi was born in Odate, Akita, Japan and was brought up in Otaru, Hokkaidō. After graduating from the Otaru School of Higher Learning, which is the current Otaru University of Commerce, he worked at the Otaru branch of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. His most famous work is Kanikōsen, or Crab-Canning Boat – a novel published in 1929. It tells the story of several different people and the beginning of organization into unions of fishing workers. He joined the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. The young writer was killed during a torture session by Tokkō police two years later, at age 29.
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February 28, 2015
Kobayashi Takiji
I would never have believed it possible, but there is actually one positive outcome of what has come to be called The Great Recession: the economic and social situation became so dire in Japan that a long neglected novel by Kobayashi Takiji (1903-1933), Kani kōsen (The Cannery Ship - 1929), a product of the brief movement of proletarian literature in Japan before the militarists really clamped down,(*) experienced such a hugely successful revival in 2008 (**) that it and two other novellas were translated into English and made available by the University of Hawai'i Press.(***)
Kani kōsen, given the title The Crab Cannery Ship in this translation, portrays the unequal owner/worker relation in a particularly pure form: the owners are faceless and absent, their representatives are crude, brutal and ruthless, and the workers are perched together on an old tub turned into a crab cannery factory in which the only law is the manager's, and that law - how well we all know it - is: maximize the owners' profits. The drama is heightened by the fact that they are fishing in the winter in the seas north of Japan that are contested by the Soviet Union and patrolled by their warships. The cannery boats are therefore accompanied by a Japanese destroyer to protect them, though it soon becomes clear that the navy is also there to protect the interests of the owners against those of the workers. The workers toil through the 20 hour Siberian winter days in miserable conditions for four, five months at a time, until the crabs move on; they are fed so poorly that many of them come down with beriberi; as they weaken, the foreman beats them to keep them working; fishermen are launched in small boats in the teeth of a storm by the manager in order to improve his "performance."
Kobayashi lived in Otaru on the Hokkaido coast where such ships made their port and in the course of his political activities spoke with these fishermen; this is a reasonably accurate portrayal of actual circumstances back in the day when the fight for labor unions was viewed by the militarists and capitalists as collaboration with the Russians and treason to Japan.(4*) In fact, he makes the additional point that Hokkaido was beginning to be developed by capitalists then because it had much the same status as the colonies of Korea and Taiwan - they could do anything they wanted there without worrying about unions and laws.
Lest you think that Kani kōsen is just a tendentious piece of left-wing moralizing, Kobayashi energetically tells the story in a colorful manner (the crowded, stinking space that serves as the workers' dormitory on the ship is almost exclusively referred to as "the shit-hole") with moments of drama that keep the pages turning. Of interest is also his attempt to present the workers as something like a single organism (none of them have names and individual "characters" do not emerge until the end) and men such as the captain (though their humanity shows through now and again) solely as their role in the money-making machine that is the cannery ship; only the manager (and a malingerer who soon wished he had been swept overboard) has a name. But there is no denying that Kani kōsen is political reportage as novel.
Though Kani kōsen was the best seller, the second novella in this collection, Yasuko (1931), is better written and more finely nuanced. In Yasuko Kobayashi evokes the life of small tenant farmers on Hokkaido, clarifying the reasons why the original Japanese settlers on Hokkaido(5*) were quickly reduced to tenant status and finally to the role of day laborers (or workers on cannery ships). He also shows the political dynamics at the grass root level of the emerging struggle between this lower class and the middle class enablers of the capitalists. Though again very informative, Yasuko also offers fully developed characters to whom one can more readily become attached and about whom one can begin to care on a more than abstract level.
This may well be due to the fact that Kobayashi was close to the people involved: he fell in love with a waitress/amateur prostitute (young women in the lower classes often had to supplement their family's income in this manner) named Yasuko. The main characters in this novella are Yasuko, her mother, brother and sister; Kobayashi himself takes a minor role in the story. The women dominate the text: the simple, subservient, hardworking mother, the shy, fearful and hardworking eldest sister, Okei, and the curious, adventuresome and hardworking Yasuko. Kobayashi is very direct about the costs and rewards of political activism in this and the novella up next.
The third and shortest piece, Tōseikatsusha (1932), translated here as Life of a Party Member, details the difficulties met while trying to organize in a factory that has suddenly been ordered to produce gas masks for use on the Asian continent. The intent is twofold: to convince the workers to stand up for themselves and to resist the imperialist war being carried out against the Chinese by the nationalists and capitalists. Both of these goals were anathema to the powers that be, and the secret police were hovering. In the real world, they lured Kobayashi and a confederate into a trap, and he was dead within six hours of his arrest.
(*) Kobayashi died while being tortured by the Japanese analogue of the Gestapo at the age of 29. There are photos of his tortured corpse online I wish I had never seen.
(**) Over 500,000 copies were sold that year, four mangas based on the book appeared and two stage productions and a movie were made. Not enough, new phrases entered the language: including a verb “kanikō suru" (to do degrading labor) and the lamentation “kore ja maru de kani ko da naa!” (this is just like Kani Kosen!). For further, serious discussion of this phenomenon, see Norma Field's article, “Commercial Appetite and Human Need: The Accidental and Fated Revival of Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Ship” The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol. 8-8-09, February 22, 2009.
(***) Not that this excuses or otherwise justifies the greed and irresponsibility that caused the Great Recession, or, for that matter, the resultant additional huge transfer of wealth from the overwhelming majority at the bottom to the few at the top of the capitalistic food chain.
(4*) How reminiscent it is of the propaganda of the Koch brothers/Republican Party that has succeeded - against the interests of the majority working class in a supposed democracy - in convincing so many Americans that union = socialism and socialist = anti-American.
(5*) Hokkaido, the northernmost major island in the Japanese chain, was where the original inhabitants of islands, the Ainu, withdrew as the Japanese expanded their rule. Though the Ainu on Hokkaido had been under the Japanese thumb for some time, the latter had not seriously tried to colonize Hokkaido until the early 20th century.
Rating
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May 11, 2017
Before reading this fascinating collection, I had never delved into the vast oeuvre of proletarian literature. The three stories undoubtedly have a socialist agenda, but it never feels forced. Kobayashi's elegant writing is incredibly persuasive and powerful. In the title novella, you feel like a member of the crew, living under horrible, diseased conditions in the "shit-hole" of a gigantic trawler and working for almost no pay. In "Life of a Party Member," you can feel the eyes of the secret police following you as you walk down the street, just trying to meet a comrade.
While Kobayashi has an agenda, he does not propagandize. His characters fail significantly more than they succeed. They live in squalid conditions and are under immense psychological pressure from constant surveillance. Strikes are quashed and organizers languish without charge in prison. Trade unions are hijacked by conservative leaders hoping to get elected to the Diet, the Japanese parliament. The reactionary union bosses, which Kobayashi and his characters constantly battle, use their workers as political pawns. Kobayashi paints the political suppression of Japan in the 1930s with shiver-inducing clarity. Never once did I doubt the sincerity or drive of his characters to create a better future.
Kobayashi, an organizing member of the Japanese Communist Party, was brutally murdered by the secret police of Japan's fascist regime, only because his works exposed the daily horrors of Japanese factories. Whatever you think of the political left, it is impossible to deny that without the concerted efforts of millions of working class activists and politicians, many more workers would still be caught in the endless vortex of disgustingly low pay and gross exploitation of labor. Many sacrificed their lives for others. Their altruism deserves to be remembered.
Growing up in an affluent, non-industrial suburb, I had little contact with members of the working class. Workers were sneered at by the upper-middle class white collar workers and their children, my classmates. Unlike many of my peers at school, my mother grew up working class. Her father was a firefighter and her mother a teacher in Jersey City, NJ. Every time I heard one of my friends make a casual comment about custodians and dining workers, I cringed. My mom never let me forget that all workers deserve respect, and my grandpa (still alive at 95!) told me about the horrors of the Great Depression from a young age. Works like Kobayashi's should be required reading for students, especially those who grow up in affluent neighborhoods without any conception of what it means to be exploited.
Željko Cipriš's translation is masterful and expressive, and I'm sure that Kobayashi would be proud. You can feel Kobayashi through Cipriš's words. The only thing that weakens this collection is that Kobayashi's death left the last two works incomplete, and the cliffhangers left me unsatisfied. But the cut-offs are fitting because the story of this young, idealistic writer was cut short too.
Spurred by the Great Recession, The Crab Cannery Ship became a bestseller in Japan for the first time in 2008. That gives me an inkling of hope that in a future that is set to be dominated by the political right, working people will never forget how awful it used to be, and how awful it still is for many workers, especially in the sweatshops of the developing world. Absolutely recommended.
While Kobayashi has an agenda, he does not propagandize. His characters fail significantly more than they succeed. They live in squalid conditions and are under immense psychological pressure from constant surveillance. Strikes are quashed and organizers languish without charge in prison. Trade unions are hijacked by conservative leaders hoping to get elected to the Diet, the Japanese parliament. The reactionary union bosses, which Kobayashi and his characters constantly battle, use their workers as political pawns. Kobayashi paints the political suppression of Japan in the 1930s with shiver-inducing clarity. Never once did I doubt the sincerity or drive of his characters to create a better future.
Kobayashi, an organizing member of the Japanese Communist Party, was brutally murdered by the secret police of Japan's fascist regime, only because his works exposed the daily horrors of Japanese factories. Whatever you think of the political left, it is impossible to deny that without the concerted efforts of millions of working class activists and politicians, many more workers would still be caught in the endless vortex of disgustingly low pay and gross exploitation of labor. Many sacrificed their lives for others. Their altruism deserves to be remembered.
Growing up in an affluent, non-industrial suburb, I had little contact with members of the working class. Workers were sneered at by the upper-middle class white collar workers and their children, my classmates. Unlike many of my peers at school, my mother grew up working class. Her father was a firefighter and her mother a teacher in Jersey City, NJ. Every time I heard one of my friends make a casual comment about custodians and dining workers, I cringed. My mom never let me forget that all workers deserve respect, and my grandpa (still alive at 95!) told me about the horrors of the Great Depression from a young age. Works like Kobayashi's should be required reading for students, especially those who grow up in affluent neighborhoods without any conception of what it means to be exploited.
Željko Cipriš's translation is masterful and expressive, and I'm sure that Kobayashi would be proud. You can feel Kobayashi through Cipriš's words. The only thing that weakens this collection is that Kobayashi's death left the last two works incomplete, and the cliffhangers left me unsatisfied. But the cut-offs are fitting because the story of this young, idealistic writer was cut short too.
Spurred by the Great Recession, The Crab Cannery Ship became a bestseller in Japan for the first time in 2008. That gives me an inkling of hope that in a future that is set to be dominated by the political right, working people will never forget how awful it used to be, and how awful it still is for many workers, especially in the sweatshops of the developing world. Absolutely recommended.
April 28, 2023
This book really intrigued me. There's obviously tons of stories about working life in Japan, from the cliché of the salaryman to the recent hit Convenience Store Woman, but nothing I'm aware of from a Leftist perspective. Then reading the back cover, I remembered why: Takiji Kobayashi was tortured to death by the Tokkō Special Higher Police, which was created specifically for the suppression of left wing thoughts and organizations.
Really enjoyed these, though I skipped the middle of the three novellas.
The Crab Cannery reminded me a lot of Bruno Jasieński's contemporaneous I Burn Paris. The Crab Cannery doesn't exactly use the montage technique, but its sensibility is quite similar, in that only the villains have name and identities, whereas the heroic crew of the ship exist only in the collective, never identifiable as individuals except as 'the stuttering fisherman' or 'the trio of students' and even then they quickly fade back into the group.
Life of a Party Member reminded me of a spy novel, about a party member forced to go underground to help organize a factory. I imagine some of its lessons would still be useful for modern day union organizers. At times it's a bit flavourless and lacking specificity, but the stakes of the story are more than believably life and death--the novel remains unfinished because the author literally lost his life for doing this kind of work.
Really enjoyed these, though I skipped the middle of the three novellas.
The Crab Cannery reminded me a lot of Bruno Jasieński's contemporaneous I Burn Paris. The Crab Cannery doesn't exactly use the montage technique, but its sensibility is quite similar, in that only the villains have name and identities, whereas the heroic crew of the ship exist only in the collective, never identifiable as individuals except as 'the stuttering fisherman' or 'the trio of students' and even then they quickly fade back into the group.
Life of a Party Member reminded me of a spy novel, about a party member forced to go underground to help organize a factory. I imagine some of its lessons would still be useful for modern day union organizers. At times it's a bit flavourless and lacking specificity, but the stakes of the story are more than believably life and death--the novel remains unfinished because the author literally lost his life for doing this kind of work.
August 5, 2013
I'm an idiot and thought this would be a lefty version of something like Requiem for Battleship Yamato.
All three of these stories are just incredibly gruesome, dreary and depressing. Kobyashi seems incredibly frank: there's probably not much else in popular fiction of the 1930s that covers situational homosexuality, is there? Also: "Many men ejaculated in their sleep. Others masturbated when no one was around. Soiled underpants and loincloths, damp and giving off a sour stench, lay balled in shelf corners." TMI, Kobayashi. TMI.
"Life of a Party Member" was the most surprising. A union official is living like a foreign spy or a terrorist; he's broken off all contact with his former life and assumed a new identity to build support amongst workers. Others risk their lives and their dignity to help him in his work. One woman works as a prostitute. Truly amazing what people did for human rights. Makes you cry.
In real life, Kobayashi was beaten to death by the police. Who wouldn't give him 5 stars on goodreads?
All three of these stories are just incredibly gruesome, dreary and depressing. Kobyashi seems incredibly frank: there's probably not much else in popular fiction of the 1930s that covers situational homosexuality, is there? Also: "Many men ejaculated in their sleep. Others masturbated when no one was around. Soiled underpants and loincloths, damp and giving off a sour stench, lay balled in shelf corners." TMI, Kobayashi. TMI.
"Life of a Party Member" was the most surprising. A union official is living like a foreign spy or a terrorist; he's broken off all contact with his former life and assumed a new identity to build support amongst workers. Others risk their lives and their dignity to help him in his work. One woman works as a prostitute. Truly amazing what people did for human rights. Makes you cry.
In real life, Kobayashi was beaten to death by the police. Who wouldn't give him 5 stars on goodreads?
January 3, 2026
A really strong collection of three novellas, all of which are at least as important as cultural/historical/political touchstones as they are for their literary value.
Each story is simple and straightforward, yet with an underlying ideological complexity that allows them to serve as excellent introductions to Marxism/proletarianism for a lay reader. As a somewhat more advanced reader, I really appreciated the cultural depiction of 1920s-30s imperialist Japan, as well as the practical strategizing about how to organize under fascism.
I personally enjoyed "Yasuko" the most out of the three stories, as it felt the most developed and complex. But "Crab Cannery Row" and "Life of a Party Member" were both very worthwhile as well.
I would recommend this maybe not to everyone but to anyone interested in Japan, WWII, world literature, working class literature, anti-fascism, or anti-capitalism. It is a quick and contemplative read, and Takiji's own story/demise adds a melancholic backdrop to the stories.
Not Bad Reviews
Each story is simple and straightforward, yet with an underlying ideological complexity that allows them to serve as excellent introductions to Marxism/proletarianism for a lay reader. As a somewhat more advanced reader, I really appreciated the cultural depiction of 1920s-30s imperialist Japan, as well as the practical strategizing about how to organize under fascism.
I personally enjoyed "Yasuko" the most out of the three stories, as it felt the most developed and complex. But "Crab Cannery Row" and "Life of a Party Member" were both very worthwhile as well.
I would recommend this maybe not to everyone but to anyone interested in Japan, WWII, world literature, working class literature, anti-fascism, or anti-capitalism. It is a quick and contemplative read, and Takiji's own story/demise adds a melancholic backdrop to the stories.
Not Bad Reviews
June 28, 2017
Five stars because its hard to hold the author accountable for not properly finishing his work as he was tortured and killed by police for his political views. Despite not being the most famous work included, I thought Yasuko was the best of the three stories. The introduction was also very well done.
April 29, 2019
Unfortunately he was killed by the government while in the midst of organizing and finishing this book. This is a great collection of short stories by a talented story-teller and political organizer. The innovative narrative techniques used in Crab Cannery Ship are very effective, and the character development in the final unfinished story is very emotive, very moving.
February 21, 2022
Insane.. I am sorry, we should all be...
All three stories are, in a way, upsetting and dark, but somehow, Takiji is amazing at giving us hope. Do I think this is purely a propaganda-work? Don't know. Doesn't matter.
A world where everybody has the same life standards is off the charts, that I can see. Yet, we can -and must- thrive to have a world in which nobody suffers from famine, bad conditions etc. None of us (human beings) should be enforced to over-work to a degree that essentially kills us.
That being said, we are selling/renting (if not already sold) our souls, bodies, youth, bad times, good times to this system in some way or another. Just, READ!
After reading the stories, one can see that, whatever challenges the people in the book faced, is actually universal. It is not exclusive to Japan at all. "Those" people still use the same/similar justification mechanisms to clear their name, whilst exploiting workers...
I have highlighted many, many, many phrases; here's just a bunch:
All three stories are, in a way, upsetting and dark, but somehow, Takiji is amazing at giving us hope. Do I think this is purely a propaganda-work? Don't know. Doesn't matter.
A world where everybody has the same life standards is off the charts, that I can see. Yet, we can -and must- thrive to have a world in which nobody suffers from famine, bad conditions etc. None of us (human beings) should be enforced to over-work to a degree that essentially kills us.
That being said, we are selling/renting (if not already sold) our souls, bodies, youth, bad times, good times to this system in some way or another. Just, READ!
After reading the stories, one can see that, whatever challenges the people in the book faced, is actually universal. It is not exclusive to Japan at all. "Those" people still use the same/similar justification mechanisms to clear their name, whilst exploiting workers...
I have highlighted many, many, many phrases; here's just a bunch:
October 18, 2025
3,5*
Hardly a novel, there's no story or characters to speak off. But as a description of the horrendous circumstances of life aboard the crab cannery ships, and as a socialist call to action this is an effective and impressive book.
Hardly a novel, there's no story or characters to speak off. But as a description of the horrendous circumstances of life aboard the crab cannery ships, and as a socialist call to action this is an effective and impressive book.
December 15, 2024
More like The Crab CANTery Ship amarite 😹😹😹
To be serious love it, love u proletariat module even though I've left the essay very last minute :(
To be serious love it, love u proletariat module even though I've left the essay very last minute :(
June 15, 2023
It's not often that I write reviews, but this book (and the three novels contained within) were too engaging to leave unreviewed.
I came to find out about this author in a Modern Japanese Literature class where we covered a wall story of Takiji Kobayashi's. Since then, I have been trying to track down an English version of The Crab Cannery Ship, and I'm glad I came across this translation. The story isn't light reading, and often left me feeling deep sympathy and anger for the characters of the novel. It was shorter than I was expecting, but was just as, if not more than, impactful than if it had been 500 pages. Takiji Kobayashi's writing style is very blunt, but descriptive in unique ways that really bring his point across to the reader in a visceral way.
My personal favorite of the three stories was Yasuko, one of his included, unfinished works. The characters were likeable in their own right, and more fleshed out than in The Crab Cannery Ship (which I'm aware is by design). Personally, it appealed to me in a different way, but grabbed me just the same. I was invested in the characters and their pursuits, and I have a particular fondness for Okei. It's truly a shame Kobayashi was unable to finish it because I was sad to see it end (what felt like) so soon. Obviously, you have to go into reading it knowing there is no true resolution, but where the story ended, I still felt some sort of closure to the story.
The third story is Life of a Party Member, which didn't grip me as much as the other two stories did. However, that is not to say that I didn't like it. I was thoroughly drawn to Ito as a character, as I was to the characters in Yasuko. She was a strong female presence that I enjoyed following. Not only was this story anti-capitalist, it was also anti-imperialist and anti-war, which is refreshing for writings of the time considering such a stance was hardly allowed to even exist in the open.
All in all, this is longer than I was expecting, but I just have so much respect for this writer, and his message still resonates with me, a female reader in 2023. As a lover of Japanese history and a leftist, this was a must read. I'm glad Takiji Kobayashi's writings have been made more accessible in the English language, and these stories were very much worth the time.
I came to find out about this author in a Modern Japanese Literature class where we covered a wall story of Takiji Kobayashi's. Since then, I have been trying to track down an English version of The Crab Cannery Ship, and I'm glad I came across this translation. The story isn't light reading, and often left me feeling deep sympathy and anger for the characters of the novel. It was shorter than I was expecting, but was just as, if not more than, impactful than if it had been 500 pages. Takiji Kobayashi's writing style is very blunt, but descriptive in unique ways that really bring his point across to the reader in a visceral way.
My personal favorite of the three stories was Yasuko, one of his included, unfinished works. The characters were likeable in their own right, and more fleshed out than in The Crab Cannery Ship (which I'm aware is by design). Personally, it appealed to me in a different way, but grabbed me just the same. I was invested in the characters and their pursuits, and I have a particular fondness for Okei. It's truly a shame Kobayashi was unable to finish it because I was sad to see it end (what felt like) so soon. Obviously, you have to go into reading it knowing there is no true resolution, but where the story ended, I still felt some sort of closure to the story.
The third story is Life of a Party Member, which didn't grip me as much as the other two stories did. However, that is not to say that I didn't like it. I was thoroughly drawn to Ito as a character, as I was to the characters in Yasuko. She was a strong female presence that I enjoyed following. Not only was this story anti-capitalist, it was also anti-imperialist and anti-war, which is refreshing for writings of the time considering such a stance was hardly allowed to even exist in the open.
All in all, this is longer than I was expecting, but I just have so much respect for this writer, and his message still resonates with me, a female reader in 2023. As a lover of Japanese history and a leftist, this was a must read. I'm glad Takiji Kobayashi's writings have been made more accessible in the English language, and these stories were very much worth the time.
October 8, 2018
This is a grim sort of prose, but if you're in the market for a sort of Communistic Japanese take on Sinclair's The Jungle then you might like what you find here. This text includes 3 stories by Kobayashi, most famously the Crab Cannery Ship. I enjoyed reading these stories, though I was (unpleasantly) surprised to find that the Yasuko and Life of a Party Member were both unfinished tales.
The writing style here is descriptive with very little individual characterization, but the world that is created is convincing and engaging. The Crab Cannery Ship itself is likely worth the price of admission for anyone who would enjoy this sort of lit, the other 2 stories are take it or leave it affairs for me.
The writing style here is descriptive with very little individual characterization, but the world that is created is convincing and engaging. The Crab Cannery Ship itself is likely worth the price of admission for anyone who would enjoy this sort of lit, the other 2 stories are take it or leave it affairs for me.
September 26, 2019
Very colorful, if heavy handed by modern standards, stories of labor struggles.
January 23, 2022
These were wonderful proletarian stories. I have a soft spot for Kobayashi Takiji’s writing.❤️
I wish I had closure for some of these characters! :(
I wish I had closure for some of these characters! :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2024
This book consists of three novellas, all written in the late 1920s/early 1930s. All three concern class struggles, the rising of the working class, and the left-wing movements in Hokkaido.
- The Crab Cannery Ship is a novella about a season of crab fishing near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. Neither factory nor ship, local fishermen and other laborers from Hokkaido have to endure unspeakable hardships to feed their families, until, at last, there is an uprising…
- Upon the jailing of her brother, Okei and her mother must move to Otaru to make ends meet. Yasuko, the younger sister works there already, in a small restaurant. When she gets involved with Yamada, a member of the worker’s union, the lives of both sisters change, but whether it’s a change for the better remains to be seen.
- Life of a Party Member is exactly that, the struggles of a member of the left-wing party who is forced into the underground. However, he still keeps up his work to bring people to the socialist movement. It is not clear to me whether this piece is autobiographical.
The three stories in this book can safely be called left-wing propagandist literature, and the author as a member of the socialist movement does nothing to hide it. However, the writing is incredibly vivid and conjures up dreary pictures of the lives of impoverished people. I felt very drawn to the protagonists, and was ready to step in to help, all the while seeing through some of the more obvious propaganda (of course, with almost 100 years of hindsight). The first story was republished in 2008 and became a bestseller in Japan with more than 500,000 copies sold.
- The Crab Cannery Ship is a novella about a season of crab fishing near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. Neither factory nor ship, local fishermen and other laborers from Hokkaido have to endure unspeakable hardships to feed their families, until, at last, there is an uprising…
- Upon the jailing of her brother, Okei and her mother must move to Otaru to make ends meet. Yasuko, the younger sister works there already, in a small restaurant. When she gets involved with Yamada, a member of the worker’s union, the lives of both sisters change, but whether it’s a change for the better remains to be seen.
- Life of a Party Member is exactly that, the struggles of a member of the left-wing party who is forced into the underground. However, he still keeps up his work to bring people to the socialist movement. It is not clear to me whether this piece is autobiographical.
The three stories in this book can safely be called left-wing propagandist literature, and the author as a member of the socialist movement does nothing to hide it. However, the writing is incredibly vivid and conjures up dreary pictures of the lives of impoverished people. I felt very drawn to the protagonists, and was ready to step in to help, all the while seeing through some of the more obvious propaganda (of course, with almost 100 years of hindsight). The first story was republished in 2008 and became a bestseller in Japan with more than 500,000 copies sold.
February 8, 2025
Takiji Kobayashi was cruelly tortured to death by the Japanese secret police on account of his leftist ideology and activism in communist groups: “Life of a Party Member” remains unfinished precisely because of Kobayashi’s death.
“The Crab Cannery Ship” is Kobayashi’s most famous and most celebrated story and displays all of the author’s talents in recreating the hellish environment onboard a lawless and dangerous cannery ship cast adrift among the storms and swells of the North Pacific. The nameless cannery ship workers and fishermen drift along aimlessly in life, cruelly mistreated by the agent of the cannery company who values human life so little it becomes almost a travesty. They suffer illness, death, and suffering at sea until little by little they gain the awareness of their own situation and class consciousness before striking back against the agent and the company.
Kobayashi’s prose is Spartan and to-the-point; he isn’t sentimental but instead deeply realistic. He strives to awaken in the reader that same awareness of their own situation: we might not be aboard the hell ship but in many ways we too are like these workers, striving for bosses who care little for us. It’s an excellent piece of political fiction and political power.
The other two stories, “Yasuko” and “Life of a Party Member” continue the two themes of Kobayashi’s writing: women, especially prostitutes, who labour, and urban workers and their struggle to organise. These are still powerful pieces of realism in fiction, revealing the struggle workers faced and face still. Yet, compared to the austere and brutal reality of “The Crab Cannery Ship”, there’s something lacking.
Kobayashi’s fiction has received a new translation and with it the chance to reach a new audience, to continue the struggle the oppressive military regime tried to end in that heinous torture chamber decades ago but continues still.
“The Crab Cannery Ship” is Kobayashi’s most famous and most celebrated story and displays all of the author’s talents in recreating the hellish environment onboard a lawless and dangerous cannery ship cast adrift among the storms and swells of the North Pacific. The nameless cannery ship workers and fishermen drift along aimlessly in life, cruelly mistreated by the agent of the cannery company who values human life so little it becomes almost a travesty. They suffer illness, death, and suffering at sea until little by little they gain the awareness of their own situation and class consciousness before striking back against the agent and the company.
Kobayashi’s prose is Spartan and to-the-point; he isn’t sentimental but instead deeply realistic. He strives to awaken in the reader that same awareness of their own situation: we might not be aboard the hell ship but in many ways we too are like these workers, striving for bosses who care little for us. It’s an excellent piece of political fiction and political power.
The other two stories, “Yasuko” and “Life of a Party Member” continue the two themes of Kobayashi’s writing: women, especially prostitutes, who labour, and urban workers and their struggle to organise. These are still powerful pieces of realism in fiction, revealing the struggle workers faced and face still. Yet, compared to the austere and brutal reality of “The Crab Cannery Ship”, there’s something lacking.
Kobayashi’s fiction has received a new translation and with it the chance to reach a new audience, to continue the struggle the oppressive military regime tried to end in that heinous torture chamber decades ago but continues still.
February 18, 2020
My wife, who is Japanese, recommended this book and helped me find it in English. While it costs a lot, being hard to find a good translation, for someone who lives in Japan and loves it, this book provides a necessary perspective. Living in Hokkaido, makes a book like this even more important to my deeper understanding of the place I live, as the Crab Cannery Ship and ships often were located in the waters between Hokkaido and Russia. With many Marxist themes, this book shows the way crab canneries, which neither fit under maritime law nor factory law, were environments filled with cruel exploitation: the perfect setting to show the value of some of the ideals of Marxism. Not being close to a Marxist myself, I found it fascinating to look at this other perspective. Not only that, but I think it is valuable to read the work of an author who died writing his beliefs.
March 8, 2025
العنوان: سفينة تعليب السرطان
المؤلف: تاكيجي كوباياشي
ترجمة: يمان عبود (عن الانكليزية)
الناشر: الدار الليبرالية/ السويد
الطبعة الأولى ٢٠٢٣
رواية من الأدب الشيوعي يصف فيها المؤلف الطبقة الفقيرة المسحوقة التي تعمل وتُعامل مثل العبيد او أسوأ (ما يطلق عليه الماركسيين بالبروليتاريا) من قبل ملاك رأس المال و السياسيين
مع أن القارئ سيتعاطف مع هذه الطبقة من المحرومين إلا إن هذا التعاطف سيقترن بنفور و قرف
لما في الكتاب من صفات الادب الياباني الخادشة للحياء في نظري و البذيئة السمجة التي تجعلني لا انصح بقرائته وخصوصاً لغير البالغين المتزوجين.
المؤلف: تاكيجي كوباياشي
ترجمة: يمان عبود (عن الانكليزية)
الناشر: الدار الليبرالية/ السويد
الطبعة الأولى ٢٠٢٣
رواية من الأدب الشيوعي يصف فيها المؤلف الطبقة الفقيرة المسحوقة التي تعمل وتُعامل مثل العبيد او أسوأ (ما يطلق عليه الماركسيين بالبروليتاريا) من قبل ملاك رأس المال و السياسيين
مع أن القارئ سيتعاطف مع هذه الطبقة من المحرومين إلا إن هذا التعاطف سيقترن بنفور و قرف
لما في الكتاب من صفات الادب الياباني الخادشة للحياء في نظري و البذيئة السمجة التي تجعلني لا انصح بقرائته وخصوصاً لغير البالغين المتزوجين.
October 21, 2022
"However, the inhumane work aboard the crab cannery ships achieved precisely the opposite effect of uniting the workers—of organizing them. The capitalists, with all their “astuteness,” had not foreseen this marvelous development. The brutal toil educated the workers—both the unorganized laborers and the hopeless “drunks” whom they had expressly and cynically brought together. It taught them to unite."
October 2, 2021
just read eponymous novella
August 27, 2022
Typical Communist propaganda. Granted, the "managers" most likely exploited and treated employees like shit, yet the proposed "class struggle" is not the solution, as History proved.
September 3, 2022
4.5 stars.
June 17, 2024
It was good. I think the first two stories were beautiful and informative but the second was more of a manual, which was kinda cool.
February 19, 2025
Jesus christ in a can
Read
May 20, 2022“The Crab Cannery Ship” is an impressive novel in its depiction of struggle and organic development of class consciousness, as well as its deep empathy. Of all the novels in this collection, this one best uses the “proletarian novel” format, where the entire crew of the ship is the protagonist. It does so without getting lost in individual personalities or an overwhelming number of workers (the workers in the engine room are not introduced until the ending).
“Yasuko” feels underdeveloped (it is only the first part of an unfinished work), but it is a good story. It switches between characters and settings rapidly, almost a bit too disjointed. It reads more like Les Misérables than the other two novels, almost separate vignettes of lower class misery rather than didactic and explicitly socialist.
“Life of a Party Member” is a lot of fun. There are parts that make organizing the factory and evading the police read like a heist story. Despite the narrator explaining his depersonalization necessary for the organizing he does, you also notice the author’s suffering in here. Kobayashi Takiji and many of his comrades were tortured by the Japanese Police due to their associations with the outlawed Japanese Communist Party and organized labor. This brutality informs every aspect of the narrator’s life and the author’s tendencies towards the urgency of the work and the depersonalization of organizing institutions. This also comes across after the failed bargaining effort in “The Crab Cannery Ship.” I did find the brevity of one conversation curious: the contradiction in organizing against worker dismissal from a factory making supplies for the war effort. Anti-war themes are expressed throughout, so I don’t know if this was from lack of development of these ideas by the circles the author was in or that these ideas would be further expressed in later parts of the novel.
Either way, this is a great view into early socialism and pretty readable and enjoyable even for work that’s quite didactic.
“Yasuko” feels underdeveloped (it is only the first part of an unfinished work), but it is a good story. It switches between characters and settings rapidly, almost a bit too disjointed. It reads more like Les Misérables than the other two novels, almost separate vignettes of lower class misery rather than didactic and explicitly socialist.
“Life of a Party Member” is a lot of fun. There are parts that make organizing the factory and evading the police read like a heist story. Despite the narrator explaining his depersonalization necessary for the organizing he does, you also notice the author’s suffering in here. Kobayashi Takiji and many of his comrades were tortured by the Japanese Police due to their associations with the outlawed Japanese Communist Party and organized labor. This brutality informs every aspect of the narrator’s life and the author’s tendencies towards the urgency of the work and the depersonalization of organizing institutions. This also comes across after the failed bargaining effort in “The Crab Cannery Ship.” I did find the brevity of one conversation curious: the contradiction in organizing against worker dismissal from a factory making supplies for the war effort. Anti-war themes are expressed throughout, so I don’t know if this was from lack of development of these ideas by the circles the author was in or that these ideas would be further expressed in later parts of the novel.
Either way, this is a great view into early socialism and pretty readable and enjoyable even for work that’s quite didactic.
January 4, 2021
The standard read of proletariat literature (and for good reason). To the point, depressing (but with a revolution!), the representative of a really important body of literature, historically. Reads almost like a pamphlet, propaganda piece, how-to manual of working class revolution but with a lot of similes.
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