What do you think?
Rate this book
The Quilt and Other Stories by Tayama Katai
English, Japanese (translation)
204 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1981
3 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Katai Tayama
115 books16 followersTayama Katai was a Japanese author. His most famous works include Rural Teacher (田舎教師) and Futon (蒲団). He is noted for writing naturalistic I novels which revolve around the author. His writings are considered pseudo-autobiographical. He wrote about his experiences in the Russo-Japanese war.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 6, 2017
Tayama Katai (1872-1930) made his name as an author through his works of Romanticism, then became the voice of Japanese Naturalism, creating the literary genre of the nautalistic I novel (detailed self-examinations of an introspective author, based on actual events in his life) along the way. The Quilt and Other Stories examines the conflicts between Nature and Society in his 20th century works.
His most famous work (giving birth to the I novel) is The Quilt, in which a notable author takes on a female pupil and becomes obsessed with her, bemoaning the social norms that bind a husband to a wife and his children, and was quite scandalous when published. (Everyone knew that the author was talking about the events of his own life as it was well-known he had taken on a female pupil).
The other works in this slim volume show a continually shifting attitude toward society (as he became familiar with the literature of the newly-opened western world), but his ability as a writer shines through gloriously. Since he views natural man as incompatible with society , his stories often end in horrific tragedy as Nature takes its course.
I became aware of this author when I read Shrike by Quentin S. Crisp, a modern take on the traditional I novel (The Quilt was referenced in Shrike and I was delighted to find mention of a shrike in The Quilt) . Now that I have finally been able to experience Tayama's work, i am desirous of reading more classic Japanese authors.
NOTE: I find it humorous to read translated works as the occasional bit of the translator's cultural jargon slips in. For instance, at one point a protagonist expresses surprise at the "cheek" another characters has shown--probably not a term used by this author; it reminded me of a translated Chekhov play I read in which a bunch of Russian peasants departed a gathering by saying "Cheerio!"
His most famous work (giving birth to the I novel) is The Quilt, in which a notable author takes on a female pupil and becomes obsessed with her, bemoaning the social norms that bind a husband to a wife and his children, and was quite scandalous when published. (Everyone knew that the author was talking about the events of his own life as it was well-known he had taken on a female pupil).
The other works in this slim volume show a continually shifting attitude toward society (as he became familiar with the literature of the newly-opened western world), but his ability as a writer shines through gloriously. Since he views natural man as incompatible with society , his stories often end in horrific tragedy as Nature takes its course.
I became aware of this author when I read Shrike by Quentin S. Crisp, a modern take on the traditional I novel (The Quilt was referenced in Shrike and I was delighted to find mention of a shrike in The Quilt) . Now that I have finally been able to experience Tayama's work, i am desirous of reading more classic Japanese authors.
NOTE: I find it humorous to read translated works as the occasional bit of the translator's cultural jargon slips in. For instance, at one point a protagonist expresses surprise at the "cheek" another characters has shown--probably not a term used by this author; it reminded me of a translated Chekhov play I read in which a bunch of Russian peasants departed a gathering by saying "Cheerio!"
December 21, 2022
I read The Quilt for my Japanese Literature: Women in Love graduate course. I think maybe I don't understand the underlying purposefulness, but from just finishing this read, I did not like the main character. He was a hypocrite most of the time, going back and forth between idolizing modern Meiji women/the future/ young people in general and the "old ways," and "old tradition."
Yoshiko was not much of a character. It was sad how her life and her love were dictated by the men she trusted.
Even Tanaka, the guy she fell in love with and the guy she fell from grace for, seemed like a tool bag who didn't do much.
Hopefully once I go into further analysis of the story and perhaps get help from secondary resources, I'll appreciate The Quilt more, but if I had to sum it up, I would just say it was way too long for being the bleak story that it was.
Yoshiko was not much of a character. It was sad how her life and her love were dictated by the men she trusted.
Even Tanaka, the guy she fell in love with and the guy she fell from grace for, seemed like a tool bag who didn't do much.
Hopefully once I go into further analysis of the story and perhaps get help from secondary resources, I'll appreciate The Quilt more, but if I had to sum it up, I would just say it was way too long for being the bleak story that it was.
February 28, 2019
3.6- The girl watcher
Read
September 22, 2025for class, interesting intro to "i-novels"
July 18, 2019
Born in Gunma Prefecture, Tayama Katai (1872-1930) was trained in the Kenyusha, but after the death of Koyo he switched from a highly romantic style to a more sober realism under the influence of French literature (Maupassant, the Goncourt brothers). The Quilt made his reputation and was followed by three autobiographical novels consisting of Life (1903), The Wife (1908) and Family Ties (1910), which treat of his family, he himself being the leading character. In The Quilt Katai established the confessional mode as typical for "Naturalist" Japanese fiction. Katai wrote on purpose in a flat and unadorned style which he called "heimen byosha," "flat description." Major novels as Futon and Inaka kyoshi (The Country Teacher, 1909) are part of the canon.
Tayama Katai's Futon is generally seen as the precursor of the shishosetsu (or watakushi-shosetsu), an important form of prose narrative in Japan (especially during the Taisho period) that purports to represent faithfully the ordinary experiences of the author. The term "shishosetsu" is often wrongly translated as "I-novel," which - although a literal rendering - is incorrect: shishosetsu do not have to be in the I-form and can very well be in the third person. But they have to be "true," so a form of autobiographical "confession." This is in fact the return of the traditional Confucian idea that fiction is suspect (and not high literature, that is why it is called "shosetsu," "small words") and that only writings which "sincerely" reflect true experiences are worth considering as literature. The Western idea that a fictional narrative can through its characters and plot be used to express a truth of a higher order, was foreign to Japanese culture. The shishosetsu is thus a single-voiced, self-referential and unmediated work of literature in which the protagonist can be assumed to be the author. It is close to autobiography, but is still fiction and should not be confused with a real autobiography in which a more balanced overview of a writer's life is expected. The shishosetsu picked out just a few elements, often of a confessional or "shameful" nature. The most important shishosetsu authors were Shiga Naoya, Chikamatsu Shuko and Kasai Zenzo; others are Uno Koji, Muro Saisei and Mushanokoji Saneatsu. The shishosetsu dominated Japanese literature until far in the 1920s, and in fact long after. Later shishosetsu authors are Dazai Osamu, Ozaki Kazuo and Kawasaki Chotaro. A postwar example is the novel Confessions of a Mask by Mishima Yukio, and other writers from the 1960s include Shimao Toshio, Yakuoka Shotaro, Shono Junzo, Abe Akita, Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, and Tomioka Taeko.
The present book contains the novel The Quilt plus several short stories.
Futon (The Quilt) is a novel about the unconsummated attraction a middle-aged writer feels for an idealistic female student, whose mentor he was and who lived in his house, described in sometimes embarrassing detail. The young woman was a modern intellectual and, instead of having any interest in her married teacher, became intimate with a student of her own age (taking her teacher's advice about individualism and romantic love seriously!). In the end the teacher has to do his duty by persuading her parents to allow her to marry the young man. The conclusion of the story created a shock: when the teacher realizes that his protégé has left his house forever, he takes out the bedding on which she used to sleep and "pressed his face to the quilt, filling his lungs with the odor of the woman he loved." The shock was all the more severe as the teacher in the story was clearly Katai, who related an episode from his own life. In other words, The Quilt was the undisguised confession by a well-known author. It gave a new, subjective direction to Japanese Naturalism, as mentioned above, and contributed to the future rise of the Shishosetsu.
One of the best short stories in the collection is "Shojobyo" ("The Girl Watcher").
A writer dissatisfied with his marriage falls into the voyeuristic habit of watching girls on trains and streetcars (these modern inventions indeed brought men and women in the early years of the 20th c. in closer proximity than had been normal in the past) and becomes so enraptured that he tumbles out of a streetcar and dies. A tale of urban alienation.
Tayama Katai's Futon is generally seen as the precursor of the shishosetsu (or watakushi-shosetsu), an important form of prose narrative in Japan (especially during the Taisho period) that purports to represent faithfully the ordinary experiences of the author. The term "shishosetsu" is often wrongly translated as "I-novel," which - although a literal rendering - is incorrect: shishosetsu do not have to be in the I-form and can very well be in the third person. But they have to be "true," so a form of autobiographical "confession." This is in fact the return of the traditional Confucian idea that fiction is suspect (and not high literature, that is why it is called "shosetsu," "small words") and that only writings which "sincerely" reflect true experiences are worth considering as literature. The Western idea that a fictional narrative can through its characters and plot be used to express a truth of a higher order, was foreign to Japanese culture. The shishosetsu is thus a single-voiced, self-referential and unmediated work of literature in which the protagonist can be assumed to be the author. It is close to autobiography, but is still fiction and should not be confused with a real autobiography in which a more balanced overview of a writer's life is expected. The shishosetsu picked out just a few elements, often of a confessional or "shameful" nature. The most important shishosetsu authors were Shiga Naoya, Chikamatsu Shuko and Kasai Zenzo; others are Uno Koji, Muro Saisei and Mushanokoji Saneatsu. The shishosetsu dominated Japanese literature until far in the 1920s, and in fact long after. Later shishosetsu authors are Dazai Osamu, Ozaki Kazuo and Kawasaki Chotaro. A postwar example is the novel Confessions of a Mask by Mishima Yukio, and other writers from the 1960s include Shimao Toshio, Yakuoka Shotaro, Shono Junzo, Abe Akita, Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, and Tomioka Taeko.
The present book contains the novel The Quilt plus several short stories.
Futon (The Quilt) is a novel about the unconsummated attraction a middle-aged writer feels for an idealistic female student, whose mentor he was and who lived in his house, described in sometimes embarrassing detail. The young woman was a modern intellectual and, instead of having any interest in her married teacher, became intimate with a student of her own age (taking her teacher's advice about individualism and romantic love seriously!). In the end the teacher has to do his duty by persuading her parents to allow her to marry the young man. The conclusion of the story created a shock: when the teacher realizes that his protégé has left his house forever, he takes out the bedding on which she used to sleep and "pressed his face to the quilt, filling his lungs with the odor of the woman he loved." The shock was all the more severe as the teacher in the story was clearly Katai, who related an episode from his own life. In other words, The Quilt was the undisguised confession by a well-known author. It gave a new, subjective direction to Japanese Naturalism, as mentioned above, and contributed to the future rise of the Shishosetsu.
One of the best short stories in the collection is "Shojobyo" ("The Girl Watcher").
A writer dissatisfied with his marriage falls into the voyeuristic habit of watching girls on trains and streetcars (these modern inventions indeed brought men and women in the early years of the 20th c. in closer proximity than had been normal in the past) and becomes so enraptured that he tumbles out of a streetcar and dies. A tale of urban alienation.
June 5, 2024
I generally do not read short stories because I am typically frustrated by the lack of character development found in this genre. I decided to read this book, however, because I recently enjoyed Tayama’s Country Teacher a great deal.
In a 30+ page Introduction translator Henshall placed Tayama’s short stories in context for the reader. This included a succinct but informative summary of the author’s early family and his subsequent marital life. The influence which the latter had on his depictions of marriage and family in his stories, particularly the Quilt, was articulated. The ways in which Tayama’s study of Western literature affected his work were also nicely explicated by Henshall.
The Quilt is a 60 page autobiographical portrayal of a 37 year old married man’s obsession with a 19 year old female student. His tormented ambivalence about her and his wife in the context of early 20th century Japanese social mores is depicted with an insightful, albeit at times painstaking, intensity.
Another 50 page story, The End of Joemon, is an equally engaging story of life in an early 20th century mountainous village. Through the observations of a Tokyoite visitor the reader will learn much about the social dynamics and mores of the residents of this fictional place.
One other 15 page story, The Girl Watcher, also depicted Tayama’s unhappiness as a married man. And another, One Soldier, was based on his experiences as a journalist working at the front of the Russo Japanese War in 1904-05. Both of these have at least some character development which held my interest.
The remaining four stories of 3-5 pages in length were rather nondescript portrayals of Japanese life in the first decade of the 20th century. These confirmed my general experience with the short story genre: they were so brief as to be of little interest to me.
When he wrote a longer story, Tayama’s ability to depict his alienation from traditional early 20th century Japanese social expectations and dynamics is impressive. Likewise for his descriptions of nature, the Japanese countryside, and the weather.
I would recommend this collection for those wanting some skillful portrayals of a man’s struggles to live within the confines of conventional, patriarchal early 20th century Japan. Since the last four shorter stories are less than stellar, I will rate the book at 3 stars. But The Quilt and The End of Joemon are quite worthwhile.
In a 30+ page Introduction translator Henshall placed Tayama’s short stories in context for the reader. This included a succinct but informative summary of the author’s early family and his subsequent marital life. The influence which the latter had on his depictions of marriage and family in his stories, particularly the Quilt, was articulated. The ways in which Tayama’s study of Western literature affected his work were also nicely explicated by Henshall.
The Quilt is a 60 page autobiographical portrayal of a 37 year old married man’s obsession with a 19 year old female student. His tormented ambivalence about her and his wife in the context of early 20th century Japanese social mores is depicted with an insightful, albeit at times painstaking, intensity.
Another 50 page story, The End of Joemon, is an equally engaging story of life in an early 20th century mountainous village. Through the observations of a Tokyoite visitor the reader will learn much about the social dynamics and mores of the residents of this fictional place.
One other 15 page story, The Girl Watcher, also depicted Tayama’s unhappiness as a married man. And another, One Soldier, was based on his experiences as a journalist working at the front of the Russo Japanese War in 1904-05. Both of these have at least some character development which held my interest.
The remaining four stories of 3-5 pages in length were rather nondescript portrayals of Japanese life in the first decade of the 20th century. These confirmed my general experience with the short story genre: they were so brief as to be of little interest to me.
When he wrote a longer story, Tayama’s ability to depict his alienation from traditional early 20th century Japanese social expectations and dynamics is impressive. Likewise for his descriptions of nature, the Japanese countryside, and the weather.
I would recommend this collection for those wanting some skillful portrayals of a man’s struggles to live within the confines of conventional, patriarchal early 20th century Japan. Since the last four shorter stories are less than stellar, I will rate the book at 3 stars. But The Quilt and The End of Joemon are quite worthwhile.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews