Le Fleuve Shinano - Intégrale

しなの川 [Shina no Kawa] #1-3

by Hideo Okazaki, Kazuo Kamimura (Illustrator)

Le fleuve Shinano est le fleuve le plus long du Japon. Les conditions de vie dans la région du bassin de ce fleuve ont toujours été difficiles : longs hivers enneigés, maigres récoltes... rien n'épargne les habitants. Même si la modernisation entreprise par l'État japonais depuis 1868 a développé les manufactures de tissage, les jeunes filles sont les premières victimes des difficultés économiques de la région. Et avec la crise des années 1930, elles ont le choix entre le travail à l'usine ou... le bordel. Pourtant issue d'un milieu aisé, Yukie ne fera pas exception à la règle. Elle cherchera alors le moyen de s'échapper de cette réalité cruelle...

Genres: Manga

720 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Name (in native language) : 岡崎英生

Reviews

[BookLoving-Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shinanogawa tells the story of Yukie, a young woman living during 1930s Japan, going from man to man, trying to survive and give her life meaning.

Visually beautiful and compelling, this graphic novel shows us the lives of harsh people living in an even harsher world, where doing as society tells them to destroys them, but being selfish also brings only misery. Yukie, the heroine, tries to live her life as she intends. She tries to understand the meaning of love and why she feels the need to love, while being involved with several men who are all too selfish and self-centered to make her happy, or to be made happy by her. There are no really good or bad people, just people trying to live in a world that seems to bring them nothing but suffering. It is all told brilliantly, poetically, with pages and pages of gorgeous art.

A couple of things that might push some people away. First, the way humans are drawn; the proportions of the bodies are sometimes a little weird, and the way tears are represented on faces can look unintentionnally funny. The style is quite old, it is true. The second, and most contentious, is the way the only homosexual characters are represented. They have a very unhealthy relationship, are terrible people and may seem a little too much like caricatures. To this I'd like to say that no character in this story is good or bad or sane even. They're all twisted, selfish and suffering and constantly bottling down what they truly want and desire and feel and think.

This book will make you feel, make you think and make you discover a terribly sad but poignant side of Japan. I strongly recommend, above all if you like Japanese graphic novels.

[Angela Natividad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such rich work, and a good introduction to Kamimura, who fuses gekiga and ukiyo-e in ways that are breathtaking. I spent eternities staring at the pages, circulating through the frames again and again with my eyes.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresque historique de mœurs dans un Japon riverain des années 1920

[DonJulio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful drawings and very touching (and quite sad) story of a woman who wants to be free but cannot escape her destiny.