夢見る帝国図書館

by Kyōko Nakajima, 中島 京子

「図書館が主人公の小説を書いてみるっていうのはどう?」
作家の〈わたし〉は年上の友人・喜和子さんにそう提案され、帝国図書館の歴史をひもとく小説を書き始める。もし、図書館に心があったなら――資金難に悩まされながら必至に蔵書を増やし守ろうとする司書たち(のちに永井荷風の父となる久一郎もその一人)の悪戦苦闘を、読書に通ってくる樋口一葉の可憐な佇まいを、友との決別の場に図書館を選んだ宮沢賢治の哀しみを、関東大震災を、避けがたく迫ってくる戦争の気配を、どう見守ってきたのか。
日本で最初の図書館をめぐるエピソードを綴るいっぽう、わたしは、敗戦直後に上野で子供時代を過ごし「図書館に住んでるみたいなもんだったんだから」と言う喜和子さんの人生に隠された秘密をたどってゆくことになる。
喜和子さんの「元愛人」だという怒りっぽくて涙もろい大学教授や、下宿人だった元藝大生、行きつけだった古本屋などと共に思い出を語り合い、喜和子さんが少女の頃に一度だけ読んで探していたという幻の絵本「としょかんのこじ」を探すうち、帝国図書館と喜和子さんの物語はわたしの中で分かち難く結びついていく……。

知的好奇心とユーモアと、何より本への愛情にあふれる、すべての本好きに贈る物語!

404 pages, Tankobon Hardcover

First published May 15, 2019

About the author

Nakajima (中島 京子) is an award-winning essayist and novelist from Japan. She studied at the Tokyo Woman's Christian University. Her many prizes include: the Naoki Prize, and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature. And her story Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House), was adapted for cinema in 2014.

Reviews

[Maya Liang · Rating 4 out of 5]

本書分成兩個部分，帝國圖書館設立的過程、名作家在帝國圖書館的足跡；以及喜和子謎團般的人生。撐過前半段，會愈來愈覺好看。
對於日本國立圖書館的設立過程有進一步的了解。
戰爭及壞心人殺上野動物園內動物一節，讓人氣憤與不捨。萬惡的人類。
喜和子的部位讓人好奇與糾心。被圖書館接納，是她安放心靈的所在。

[Ayumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ueno park(Tokyo, Japan) has lots of cultural facilities like art museums, a science museum and a library. This story is about the library these days known as International Library of Children’s Literature, National Diet Library. This architecture has quite complicated history, I just put the explanation from their website below.

“This Western, Renaissance-style building of the Meiji era, designated as a historic building by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, was first constructed in 1906 as the Imperial Library. In 1929 (Showa era) some additional building was done.

After World War II, the Imperial Library ceased to exist, and in 1947 it was renamed the National Library. In 1948 the National Diet Library was established and this library was reorganized as a branch of it.

In 2000, the building was born again as the International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL).”

This book is half fiction and nonfiction depicting about a Japanese woman’s life which deeply connected to the library. I really enjoyed the story and now really wanna revisit Ueno park. I’ve been there quite a lot to see art exhibitions but it must be much interesting to walk around the park with some historical info.

[Alistair · Rating 5 out of 5]

或許做夢的是圖書館吧，夢著戰火和聚落，夢著曾經來過的人們。