Junichi Watanabe ( 渡辺淳一, Watanabe Jun'ichi, October 24, 1933 – April 30, 2014) was a Japanese writer, known for his portrayal of the extra-marital affairs of middle aged people.
His 1997 novel 'A Lost Paradise' became a bestseller in Japan and over Asia, and was made into a film and a TV miniseries. He has written more than 50 novels in total, and won awards including Naoki Prize in 1970 for 'Light and Shadow' (Hikari to kage), New Current Coterie magazine prize for Makeup, the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize in 1979 for 'The Setting Sun in the Distance' (Toki rakujitsu) and 'The Russian Brothel of Nagasaki' (Nagasaki roshia yujokan).
He was born in Sunagawamachi (present-day Kamisunagawa) and died on April 30, 2014 of prostate cancer in Tokyo.
052-A Lost Paradise-Junichi Watanabe-Novel-1997 Barack
——No matter how much the lovers have fallen in love if one person suddenly does not love the other, then let her go, maybe he should also wish her to find her true love.
"A Lost Paradise" first published in 1997. A novel book. It tells the story of 55-year-old Shoichiro Hisagi and 38-year-old Rinko Matsubara, who chose to take the poison and die to freeze love at its climax.
Junichi Watanabe was born in Hokkaido in 1933 and died in 2014. He graduated from Sapporo Medical University and received a doctorate in medicine in 1963. He is a surgeon. But he still uses his spare time for literary creation. Representative works: "The Man's Things", "Paradise Lost", "Blurry", "The Woman's Things", etc.
In 1985, the "Plaza Agreement" was signed. The rapid appreciation of the yen against the dollar has hit Japan ’s export competitiveness and indirectly played a catalytic role in the Japanese economy ’s downturn of more than 20 years. When this book was written, Japan was in such an economic depression. Career frustration caused people to seek comfort from lust.
According to statistics, when the economy is depressed, the sales of lipstick and condoms will increase. Probably because when people lack the opportunity to work hard, they will seek physical satisfaction and comfort. The gloomy economic outlook also makes it difficult for people to have an optimistic estimate of their future. This pessimism makes people tend to think that the current state is the pinnacle they can reach, and then they can only go downhill.
In 1981, 33-year-old Charles (prince) married 20-year-old Diana (princess). However, due to the entanglement between Charles and Camilla, Charles and Diana finally divorced in 1996. In 2005, Charles married Camilla. It can be seen that even with a spouse like Diana who is almost goddess in the eyes of ordinary people, Charles still has not been able to resist the temptation of derailment.
Therefore, marriage without love is suffocating. When there is no temptation outside, it may still be able to barely maintain the surface tranquility, but once the temptation appears, it will quickly collapse. No matter how good the husband himself is, or how rich the material guarantee is for the wife, if he cannot devote enough emotion to his wife, he will also lose his wife's love. Feelings are not food stored in the refrigerator. They will break if they are not well maintained.
I don’t like this kind of negative pessimism. Perhaps love is not eternal. But if you are at the pinnacle of love right now, you are fully committed. If one party has lost love. Then let her leave without asking. Why must love be frozen at the peak in the form of death?
No matter how deep the love was. Time will naturally erode love. Therefore, only by two people working together to strengthen and maintain each day can love become stronger and stronger with time, rather than decay.
But I think it is like life, even if we may fail, we must go with confidence to win. Even if one of them changes his mind one day in the future, wouldn’t it be a good thing to bless her to find true love again? Why must we use this method to solve it?
No one can guarantee that people's emotions will remain unchanged for life. I think a paragraph should be added to the wedding oath, "If you don't love me anymore. I won't force you to stay with me. I might even bless you. Bless you, to find your true love for I love you."
Life is bound to die. Since it may be deeply loved, it may not be loved. Why should you be afraid of this possibility? I haven't read many novels about martyrdom. What impressed me most is A Yi's "Valentine's Day Explosion" in addition to Junichi Watanabe's "A Paradise Lost".
This poignant book by Junichi Watanabe was flying off the shelves in Japan in 1992, fourteen years before Shades of Grey became a smutty bestseller here in America. So popular in fact, its title (Lost Paradise) "Shitsurakuen" in Japanese came to be used for "having an affair" in the common vernacular. Narrator Kuki is a married 54-yr old mid-level manager in publishing with a grown daughter and a wife he cheats on sometimes. But he falls harder than he ever has before, when he meets Rinko, a beautiful, married 37-yr old calligrapher. His constant pontificating about his own sexual prowess and encyclopaedic knowledge of what most turns women on got to be a bit numbing; as all Kuki and Rinko do is have sex every second they are together for an entire year. While essentially porn, Lost Paradise follows the strict decorum common to Japanese literary (and menu or letter writing) traditions, full of highly stylized seasonal imagery and headings.
I think Juliet Winters Carpenter, the translator, did a great job of conveying the Japaneseness of it all, but I can tell she left the U.S. a long time ago by her use of jarringly stale phrases like, "(pretending suicide) gave him the willies"... or, "He scolded himself for shilly-shallying".
I'm so glad I could get through all the appalling sex scenes and keep going to the end. This couple was horrible. The guy was patronizing and at the same time insecure (oh, tell me is there any guy not like this...) The girl was the true embodiment hipocrisy. Saying all the things opposed to what she really wanted. On top of it, she could go ahead looking innocent like a white rose (of course this is only pictured in my head).
**I wonder what Satoshi think if he knows I write this. I think he will just smile and says that I am being mean.
I spent so much energy cursing left and right throughout the book. I really think that this is exactly what Watanabe-san had in mind. The book was so neutrally written (I really don't know how he did that), the kind that let the readers judge for themselves what opinion they would prefer to have. Brilliant.
Számítottam rá már a cím alapján, hogy milyen jellegű történetet fogok olvasni, de régen lepett meg ennyire egy könyv nyitójelenete. Nem gondoltam volna, hogy egy erotikától túlfűtött szexjelenettel ennyire hatásosan lehet indítani. Ezután mutatja be a szerző apránként, mégis miről van valójában szó. Maga a sztori szerintem attól érdekes, hogy egy a miénktől teljesen eltérő kultúrában követhetünk nyomon egy szeretői viszonyt.
A ’90-es évekbeli Japánban meglepő módon elfogadottabbnak tűnt, legalábbis a leírtak alapján, a félrelépő felek nyílt összebútorozása, mint a válás. Ráadásul komoly következményei lehettek a munkahely, vagy más személyes kapcsolatok szempontjából. Ám aki Jápán sokszínű kultúráját akarná megismerni, nem ehhez a regényhez kell nyúlnia, mert itt inkább elejtett félinformációk vannak, mint tényleges adatok. Viszont érdekes adalék, hogy a főszereplő irodalmi szerkesztő, így relatíve sok utalás van japán írókra, költőkre, sőt még néhány híresebb bűnesetre is.
A dinamikus kezdés után azonban átcsap a regény a “szex vagy siránkozás”, “siránkozás vagy szex” kategóriába. Egyáltalán nem érzem azt a filozófiai mélységet, amit a fülszöveg ígér. Adott két felnőtt ember, akiknek tisztában kéne lennie a tettei következményeivel, mégsem ezt látjuk. Sőt, ha nagyon általánosítok, akkor elég tipikus felállás, középkorú férfi, 15-20 évvel fiatalabb nő. Maguk szexjelenetek is sztereotipikusak, mert alátámasztják azt a tévhitet, hogy egy nő minden egyes alkalommal, 100 %-ig sorozatos orgazmusokkal tarkítva élvezi a dolgot. Ettől függetlenül vannak benne érdekes gondolatok, de az nem igazán tetszett ahogy meg akarja magyarázni a párkapcsolati gyilkosságokat. A történet vége pedig enyhén túl van dramatizálva, ez még véletlenül sem a japán Madison megye hídjai!
Mindent összevetve egyébként érdekes olvasmány volt, messze jobb, mint amit erotikus-romantikus néven az átlag írók művelnek.
The description of sex is insanely great, so passionate to relate. There are tons of male gaze unfortunately given the limitations of the time, but the descriptions are full of pure beauty, in a Japanese way, restrained on the outside and burning within.
I definitely also imagined dying in the arms of lover before. If have to die this way or that, this could be the best way to do so. I can see the reason if someone to pursue dying on the “peak” of your life, but I don’t think I’ll support it. Having any extra days with your lover is gifted. It makes no sense to end the love now if you feel like it will change in 20 years. It’s just cowardly. Don’t make it change then.
At first, I was surprised that a writer like Junichi Watanabe—who so clearly rejects the constraints of social norms/ marital morality—would give his protagonists such a tragic ending. But then I realized: perhaps only tragedy could truly complete them. It’s a kind of mono no aware—a sorrowful, fleeting beauty that carries its own quiet sense of fulfillment.
The novel bears the unmistakable imprint of Japanese literature: somber, hauntingly melancholic, and at times laced with a seductive, otherworldly presence—like the faint trace of a spirit luring you toward the abyss.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Picked up this book by accident, thinking it was something else. The issue is, this is one of those books you need to have knowingly chosen to want to read. To know the premise, and be intrigued by it. Maybe done some work into the historical background it was borne into. Hopefully have someone guide you on the intricacies and hidden meanings along the way.
Otherwise, you will be like me.
Let me explain.
I am so far 25% into this book. (And I don't foresee that number climbing higher in the future.) And the reason I decided to put the book down quarter-way through is because I got so sick of the male gaze.
The book follows 久木 (Sholchiro), who has an affair with 凜子 (Rinko). It starts with them having sex, and basically doesn't even stop describe them having sex. Apparently this was serialized in newspaper form, so I guess that made it more palatable...? Your weekly sex scene....? I don't know.
Anyway. That's not even my main issue with this book. I felt so disconnected from the characters. There is no transition period, no will-he-won't-he, no internal struggle. For the most part, they are pretty happy to see each other, and happier still to fuck each other. And if any stray thoughts about their respective SOs surface, they are quickly quashed. And to the normal, non-adultering person, this is strange??? There is a reason most people aren't cheating??? So it would have been nice to have been privy to the transition from them going from I-don't-want-to-cheat to hmm-maybe to oh-god-yes, especially since this is the main focus of the book.
But. That is still not my main issue. My main issue is the Everpresent Male Gaze™ and it's lesser known brother, the Everpresent Male Voice™. To the point where, I'm not sure, maybe it's deliberate?? Maybe it's advanced social commentary that I'm not enlightened enough to get?? There was one whole section where they're at a party together and he keeps undressing her in his mind, and imagining other men undressing her. And feeling happy about how many other men are picturing her naked when he's the only one who will get to actually undress her later. And many many scenes like that.
Overall: uncomfortable and creepy to read. Please make sure you know you want to read a book like this before starting to read it.
Found this book in my middle school library for some reason; this book is pretty obscene and quite Japanese in terms of the author's obsession with a somewhat perverted romantic and sexual relationship. Might be an interesting read for a Western reader with some interest in Japanese pornographic films
It had just occurred to me how insane this book is. I actually read it after I was just out of grades school? I always wanted to know if it was A Lost Paradise or No Longer Human that got me hooked to the idea of suicide. Do you self a favor, read it when you are older.
Affairs have always been a popular topic in literatures, including these well-known ones like Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoj, L'Amant by Marguerite Duras or Lady Chatterley's lover by Lawrence.
But Japanese literature on such topic always stands out. Unlike other famous ones, affairs are normally the surface story and bait for reading, behind which lies deeper reflections and discussions of other social cultural issues.
While japanese ones, just focus on the affair itself, digging into the momental feelings, without moral judgements or discussions on issues at a upper scale. Such an attitude derives from the japanese island-cultural understanding of the universe that can trace back all the way in its litterateur even back to The tale of Genji.
And for exactly this reason, as a reader from a different culture, I didn't empathize too much during the reading, which led to a four star rating. The book itself is however really well-written that would worth a five star.