曾根崎心中

by Mitsuyo Kakuta, 角田光代, 近松門左衛門 (原作)

愛し方も死に方も、自分で決める。いま、男と女はどこへむかうのか、究極の恋のかたち。

著者初の時代小説
300年の時を超え、究極の恋物語がふたたび始まる。

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
愛し方も死に方も、自分で決める。

ーー
江戸時代、元禄期の大坂で実際に起きた、醤油屋の手代・徳兵衛と、
堂島新地の遊女・初の心中事件をもとに書かれた、
人形浄瑠璃の古典演目『曾根崎心中』の小説化に、角田光代が挑みました。

原作の世界を踏襲しながら、初の心情に重きを置き、
運命の恋に出会う女の高揚、苦しみ、切迫、その他すべての感情を、
細やかな心理描写で描ききり、新たな物語として昇華させました。

運命の恋をまっとうする男女の生きざまは、
時代を超えて、美しく残酷に、立ち上がる―
この物語は、いまふたたび、わたしたちの心を掻きたてます。

------
これが恋か。初は思った。これが、恋か。
ほほえみながら、泣きながら、高笑いしながら、
物思いにふけりながら、不安に顔をゆがめながら、
嫉妬に胸を焦がしながら、記憶に指先まで浸りながら、
幾度も幾度も、思った。
これが、これが、これが、恋。

(本文より)
------

176 pages, Library Binding

Published December 22, 2011

About the author

Mitsuyo Kakuta (角田光代, 1967–) set her sights on becoming a writer from an early age. Her debut novel—Kōfuku na yūgi (A Blissful Pastime), written while she was a university student—received the Kaien Prize for New Writers in 1990. She has been working continuously as an author ever since, never having had to support herself with a separate job. Three nominations for the Akutagawa Prize serve as a measure of the promise with which she was regarded from early in her career. Then, at the encouragement of an editor, she shifted toward the entertainment end of the literary spectrum, where she garnered a much broader readership with works depicting the lives of women in her generation, from their mid-thirties to forties. After publishing two brilliant novels in 2002, Ekonomikaru paresu (Economical Palace) and Kūchū teien (Hanging Garden), she went on to win the Naoki Prize for the second half of 2004 with Woman on the Other Shore (tr. 2007). Her successes continued with The Eighth Day (tr. 2010), which received the 2007 Chūō Kōron Literary Prize and was made into a televised drama series as well as a movie; the book sold more than a million copies, vaulting her into the ranks of Japan's best-selling authors. In 2012 she added to her list of honors by earning the Shibata Renzaburō Award for her novel Kami no tsuki (Paper Moon), and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for her volume of short stories Kanata no ko (The Children Beyond).

Mitsuyo Kakuta is currently working on translating the Tale of Genji into modern Japanese.
(source: BooksFromJapan.jp)

Reviews

[Taka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Basically, a Japanese Romeo and Juliet based on a true story, it blew me away. The depth of female psychology that Mitsuyo Kakuta the translator draws from the original play by Monzaemon Chikamatsu is just staggering. The voice is perfect and in such a simple narrative voice Kakuta manages to pack in so much. Starts out slow, but it's well worth it. HIGHLY recommended.