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Mieko Kawakami
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Mieko describes influences on her writing:"
From a very young age, I was highly sensitive to the issue of life and death. I had not intended to perpetuate this cycle, but I ended up giving birth to a child, and this has had much influence on my writing.
I have always been obsessed with the questions: What drives our actions? What shapes our judgment? What makes us happy? Ethical issues are at the root of my work and appear in my stories as different themes. The common essence is the human body, which we cannot step out of throughout our lives, but which is at the same time our ultimate other. To me, the body is a hub, and thinking about the body is equivalent to thinking about the past and the future, as well as about others, and also language, which is the other “other.”
"
From Author and Poet Mieko Kawakami in conversation with Author Roland Kelts
Asia Society Japan Center
Sunday, 18 October 2020
https://asiasociety.org/japan/special...
Mieko Kawakami in conversation with Max Liu: All the Lovers in the NightFrom Wednesday 1st June 2022 at Foyles Charing Cross Road, London, here's Mieko Kawakami in conversation with Max Liu for her novel All the Lovers in the Night. Interpreting for Kawakami is Kozue Etsuzen.
Mieko Kawakami is the author of the internationally bestselling novel Breasts and Eggs, and her second novel to be translated into English, Heaven, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022. Born in Osaka, Kawakami made her literary debut as a poet in 2006, and published her first novella, My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, in 2007. Her writing is known for its poetic qualities and its insights into the female body, ethical preoccupations, and the dilemmas of modern society.
Here, in a wide-ranging discussion, Kawakami talks to journalist Max Liu about her writing and what she seeks to address, writing women's experience and the rise of reading in translation—and you'll also find out about her love for the band Oasis.
All the Lovers in the Night is translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd. The book is published in the UK by Picador Books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi1pR...
For those interested: we made a podcast on 'Breasts and Eggs' by Mieko Kawakami, together with the Dutch translator of the novel, Maarten Liebregts. Unfortunately it's in Dutch only, but you can find it on YouTube and in your favorite podcast app (under the name 'Aap Noot Mishima'). Hopefully we'll be able to subtitle it someday, but it takes a lot of time. ☺️
Laurens wrote: "For those interested: we made a podcast on 'Breasts and Eggs' by Mieko Kawakami, together with the Dutch translator of the novel, Maarten Liebregts. Unfortunately it's in Dutch only, but you can fi..."Thanks Laurens. This is a lot to listen to in your podcast series.
The specific one on Kawakami is: https://youtu.be/7i97WA8sdEA?feature=...
In YouTube one can turn on captions and then set it to auto translate to several languages. It is not perfect but one can get much from podcasts that would not normally be language accessible.
Japanese Literature friends, post any of your reviews on Kawakami books in this thread to help current and future readers. I know Allison did one on All the Lovers in the Night:
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/conten... and on
Heaven: https://asianreviewofbooks.com/conten...
Coincidentally, I just finished reading 乳と卵, which is the original version of Breast and Eggs. (The translated version is 夏物語, which is 乳と卵 but rewritten with as a fuller novel.)The prose is dense, with single paragraphs weaving together freely associated ideas across several pages. On top of the stream of consciousness, the main story is written in a moderately heavy Kansai dialect, which made the book almost unapproachable at first. But as I got used to the style, it became surprisingly easy to read, and I think that might be due to the clarity of Kamakami's intent.
It's easy to see Kawakami, and this work in particular, as feminist, but in the context of the other Akutagawa Prize winners I've read, this seems to me as more of, in essence, an existential drama, just set from the point of a woman (which, funnily enough, isn't actually enough of a qualifier to differentiate it from those other prize winners). That grounding in women's problems presents itself wonderfully in one 6 page paragraph where the narrator recalls an argument between two women about whether one can truly undergo breast augmentation without men in mind (think of a more extreme version of the argument about whether women wear make up/dress nice/keep up appearances for themselves or for men). Though that example may seem a bit theoretical and abstract, most of the story is very heartfelt with just as much wit, e.g. the climax revolves around a surprising use of eggs (food), not the eggs (ovaries) written about in the rest of the story.
乳と卵 is bookended with a short story, "Your Love Is on the Verge of Death", which seems to be translated in this book and also for free (and of dubious quality) on some language learning blog I found on Google. I think it may be easy to interpret this story as a satire, especially with the very shocking ending, but I walked away with a very harrowing portrayal of Tokyo loneliness and misery. The nameless main character (just written as "woman") is obsessed with makeup, beauty, and physical appearances, but it's not so much out of vanity as it seems to be resulting from a lack of emotional fulfillment. She doesn't have any hobbies and her friends are all in relationships, marriage or strictly sexual, so her preoccupation with looks may just be the only way she understands how to solve her dissatisfaction. Here, the stream of consciousness affects a feeling of panic, maybe from the lack of options in life to feel a sense of worth and the futility of the current options, and it works really well when the perspective temporarily shifts to a man on the street handing out tissues. I started reading this short without much of an expectation, but I was really sort of unsettled and saddened by the cruelty of the ending. Definitely worth seeking out, and I'm very excited to read her other works.
I am reading Heaven now. Certainly, the bullying is disturbing, and I admit to skimming some of that to get to the other parts of the story. To me, it's enough to know that the main characters are being bullied, and not how.I find it interesting that so many of her works have multiple translators. This isn't at all common. Also, surprisingly, the translation for Heaven is copyright Kawakami, not either or both of the translators.
I don't think Kawakami is too far off in her description of a lazy eye.I was never bullied (directly) for my lazy eye by the other students. I would say I was more bullied by the administration for being forced to participate in sports that involved throwing or catching, that I had no possibility of active participation in. It's not that I was totally uninterested in sports; I played soccer in junior high until the point where the ball was in the air too often and had to give it up. But school tried its hardest to turn me off of sports (as well as fiction and history, but that's another story).
So what's a lazy eye? It's two eyes that never point in the same direction. So no binocular vision. Permanent double vision. But it's not quite as bad as Kawakami thinks. When I concentrate on one eye, it's image gets 'stronger' and the other image gets 'weaker', so I can read without holding a book right up to my eye or closing one eye. I'm used to ignoring the 'weaker' image. I can judge distances well when things are on the ground (like cars), and can tell when I'm walking too close to something by parallax.
Of course everyone notices it, and of course no one ever says anything. But occasionally someone doesn't realize I'm trying to get their attention by looking at them, because they're not sure which way I'm looking.
These days it can be corrected by making eyeglasses that force the eyes to focus on the same spot (no, I have no idea how that works). But you have to start on them at a younger age than I did. I tried them once and it just led to constant headaches, so I gave up. Our main character in Heaven should have gotten glasses like these when he was younger, and I think they would have helped correct his lazy eye.
I poured through the rest of the book, though I didn't see the need to read the most painful, bullying parts. Why suffer something you don't have to?I don't doubt that there are a few people this evil in the word, but they can't be all that common, and so in the end it just seems exaggerated and overdone. I don't have any ideas as to what would have tempered the plot and made it seem more realistic, but can't help but think that Kawakami should have thought of something.
I've read other stories of extreme bullying that have such elements, that come across as more realistic. I recall one where the girls in class are all bullying one girl, but something happens to turn the tide, and suddenly the leader of the bullies is now the victim and everyone is out for her blood. Or another where there is one normal student in the class who refuses to go along. So I guess I have to say that the static (always the same victims) and absolute (everyone else was an abuser) plot of Heaven broke down my 'suspension of disbelief' and I could no longer see the book as plausible.
Bill wrote: "I poured through the rest of the book, though I didn't see the need to read the most painful, bullying parts. Why suffer something you don't have to?I don't doubt that there are a few people this..."
I am still puzzling about the purpose of Momose's dialog as the main counterpoint the purpose/purposeless nature of the human life. It seems a main component of the book's philosophical discussion that Kawakami is exploring.
Of course the nature and rationale of sociopaths with power is a major fulcrum point of the American experience at the moment. So maybe the discussion resonated large for me.
I don't get what Kawakami is trying to say here, either. Sure, moral nihilism can be a logically consistent system, though not a rational one in my opinion. Yet when Momose says "I'm not a monster" I have to shake my head and respond "Yes, you are."
Bill wrote: "I don't get what Kawakami is trying to say here, either. Sure, moral nihilism can be a logically consistent system, though not a rational one in my opinion. Yet when Momose says "I'm not a monster"..."(I had the same reaction...)
There was a New Yorker Magazine review of Heaven in ~ 07 June 2021 issue (pg. 72-75) that talked about the underlying philosophical currents in Heaven.
Books: School of Hard Knocks
A philosophical novel about adolescent bullying.
by Merve Emre
"Mieko Kawakami dissolves Nietzschean ideas into the confusion of adolescence."
Jack - I highly recommend this article. You can find it via library sites that have online magazine access to The New Yorker.
Below is an update of Kawakami Meiko's (translated into English) works as taken from her web site as of 24 April 2024. It includes fiction, poetry, essays, audio and translations in progress. There are dual listings if more than one publisher in English.Fiction:
"March Yarn"
March Was Made of Yarn: Writers respond to Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown,
Vintage, 2012.
Translated by Michael Emmerich.
"Dreams of Love, etc."
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 3 (2013).
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
This work is also included in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. (2018)
Introduction by Haruki Murakami, Translated by Jay Rubin.
"Where Have All the Sundays Gone?"
Special Issue: On Memory: New Japanese Writing, Words without Borders, 2015.3.
Web. (http://wordswithoutborders.org/articl...)
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"The Thirteenth Month"
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 5 (2015).
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"About Her and the Memories that Belong to Her" – longer short story
Granta, Issue 132: Possession, 2015.1.
Web. (https://granta.com/memories-belong/)
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"Strawberry Fields Forever and Ever" – short story
Pleiades: Literature in Context, 2016.1.
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"The Flower Garden" – short story
Freeman's: The Future of New Writing, 2017.10.
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
Ms Ice Sandwich – novella
Pushkin Press, 2017.
Translated by Louise Heal Kawai.
"How Much Heart" – short story
Granta, 2018.8.
Web. (https://granta.com/how-much-heart/)
Translated by David Boyd.
Breasts and Eggs – novel
Europa Editions, 2020.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
Breasts and Eggs – novel
Picador, 2020.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
"Golden Slumbers" – short story
New York Times, 2020. 5.19.
Web. (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/op...)
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
"Shame" – short story
Granta, 2020.11.9.
Web. (https://granta.com/shame-mieko-kawakami/ )
Translated by Louise Heal Kawai and Hitomi Yoshio.
"Marie's Proof of Love" – short story
World Literature Today, Winter, 2021.
Web. (https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...)
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
Heaven – novel
Europa Editions, 2021.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
Heaven – novel
Picador, 2021.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
All the Lovers in the Night – novel
Europa Editions, 2022.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
All the Lovers in the Night – novel
Picador, 2022.
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
Poetry:
"A Once-Perfect Day for Bananafish"
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 2 (2012).
Reprinted in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading vol.12, no.4, April 2013.
(http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/...- recommends-a-once-perfect-day-for)
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"The Little Girl Blows Up Her Pee Anxiety, My Heart Races"
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan 4 (2014).
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"The Elephant's Eye is Burning, Burning" – prose poem
Denver Quarterly Vol.49 No.4, University of Denver, October 2015.
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"My Baby"
Monkey Business: New Writing From Japan 6 (2016).
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
"War Bride"
Monkey Business: New Writing From Japan 7 (2017).
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
Essay:
"Acts of Recognition: On the Women Characters of Haruki Murakami"
Literary Hub, October 3, 2019.
(https://lithub.com/acts-of-recognitio...)
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd.
"The Flowers Look More Beautiful Now Than Ever"
Granta , 2020.6.
Web. (https://granta.com/the-flowers-look-m...)
Translated by Hitomi Yoshio.
Audio:
Breasts and Eggs – novel
Blackstone Publishing, 2020.
Read by Emily Woo Zeller and Jeena Yi.
Breasts and Eggs – novel
Howes Ltd., 2020.
Read by Emily Woo Zeller and Jeena Yi.
Translations in Progress
"Ice Cream Fever" – short story
Ashes of Spring (2025?)
Sisters in Yellow (2025/6?)
Dreams of Love, Etc. (2026/7?)
I saw in an older NYTimes review of B&E that “Sisters in Yellow” will be published by Knopf in 2025. it was originally serialized in The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s biggest daily newspaper, which paid for the exclusive rights to publish it in bite-size installments over the course of six months. It will be published by Knopf in 2025.The Bookseller website reported:
"Picador swoops for novel and short story collection from Kawakami
MAY 2, 2023
BY KATIE FRASER
In a major acquisition, Picador has scooped a two-book deal, including a novel Sisters in Yellow and a short story collection Dreams of Love, Etc from Mieko Kawakami.
Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly, commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Karolina Sutton at Creative Artists Agency. John Freeman at Knopf acquired the rights from Amelia Atlas at Creative Artists Agency and will publish the novel and short stories in the US. Claire Nozieres at CAA is managing the translation rights. Rights have also been sold in Germany (Dumont), France (Gallimard) and Italy (Edizioni E/O). Picador will publish Sisters in Yellow, translated by David Boyd, in spring 2025 with Dreams of Love, Etc publishing in 2026.
"
I think Dreams of Love, Etc. is being co-translated by Hitomi Yoshio, maybe with David Boyd.From the Harvard-Yenching web site:
https://www.harvard-yenching.org/pers...
"She is the translator of Natsuko Imamura’s This Is Amiko, Do You Copy? (Pushkin Press, 2023) and co-translator of Mieko Kawakami’s Ashes of Spring (Amazon Audible, 2025), Sister in Yellow (Knopf, 2026), and Dreams of Love, Etc. (Knopf, 2027)."
Here is a (teaser for me) article on Sisters in Yellow from July 2023:https://tokion.jp/en/2023/07/21/tokin...
Currently reading わたくし率 イン 歯ー、または世界 Watakushiritsu In Hā Matawa Sekai . I think it's very unfortunate this hasn't been translated yet, though I completely understand why. This and 乳と卵, and her early poetic period in general, have such an uncompromising stream-of-consciousness style written in heavy Kansai-ben that these are accidentally relatively difficult reads despite being extremely short novellas. But the style is utterly brilliant in a way that forces you to contend with the narrator's way of thinking first and foremost. I feel it's probably unmatched for the time, and it's this style that put her on Japan's literary map in the first place, so it's almost ironic that she's not really know in the English world for her more heady "pure literature" accomplishments.
Thanks Vj. I think Watakushi ritsu in ha, mata wa sekai (わたくし率 イン 歯一、または世界, ~ ‘My Ego Ratio, My Teeth, and the Worlds), 2007, was her first published novel. It was nominated for the 137th Akutagawa Award.Chichi to Ran (Japanese: 乳と卵, 'Breasts and Eggs') was the short novel by Mieko Kawakami, published by Bungeishunjū in February 2008 that was later expanded to the novel Breast and Eggs that we had a group read on. The original short novel was awarded the 138th Akutagawa Prize.
Vj, it is fortunate for us that some on the j-lit forum can read in Japanese. I am a fan of her writing in translation so it is great to get your impression and thoughts on her works.
Jack wrote: "Thanks Vj. I think Watakushi ritsu in ha, mata wa sekai (わたくし率 イン 歯一、または世界, ~ ‘My Ego Ratio, My Teeth, and the Worlds), 2007, was her first published novel. It was nominated for the 137th Akutagawa..."Thank you, hopefully one day at least Watakushi ritsu in ha, mata wa sekai will be translated (seeing as Breast and Eggs is already sort of translated). (view spoiler)
Vj wrote: "Currently reading わたくし率 イン 歯ー、または世界 Watakushiritsu In Hā Matawa Sekai . I think it's very unfortunate this hasn't been translated yet, though I completely understand why. This and 乳と..."Vj's posted review was great. Located at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review of All the Lovers in the Night by Japan Society Reviews, UK:https://www.japansociety.org.uk/revie...
Japanese Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
All the Lovers in the Night (other topics)わたくし率 イン 歯ー、または世界 [Watakushiritsu In Hā Matawa Sekai] (other topics)
わたくし率 イン 歯ー、または世界 [Watakushiritsu In Hā Matawa Sekai] (other topics)
Seni e uova (other topics)
Heaven (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Sam Bett (other topics)David Boyd (other topics)
Gianluca Coci (other topics)
Mieko Kawakami (other topics)
Merve Emre (other topics)
Breasts and Eggs (eng), translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd, was the May 2024 group read: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Seni e uova (ita), tradotto da Gianluca Coci
https://www.mieko.jp/ (jpn)
https://www.mieko.jp/mieko-kawakami (eng)
and her Instagram link:
https://www.instagram.com/kawakami_mi...
Selected works in English:
"From Breasts and Eggs," trans. Louise Heal Kawai, Words Without Borders, 2012
"March Yarn," trans. Michael Emmerich, March Was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Meltdown, 2012
"Where Have All the Sundays Gone?", trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Words Without Borders, 2015
"About Her and the Memories That Belong to Her", trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Granta 132, 2015
"Strawberry Fields Forever and Ever," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Pleiades: Literature in Context, 2016
"The Flower Garden," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Freeman's: The Future of New Writing, 2017
Ms Ice Sandwich, trans. Louise Heal Kawai, Pushkin Press, 2018, ISBN 9781782273301
"How Much Heart," trans. David Boyd, Granta Online, 2018
Breasts and Eggs, trans. Sam Bett and David Boyd, Europa Editions, 2020, ISBN 9781609455873
"The Flowers Look More Beautiful Now Than Ever," trans. Hitomi Yoshio, Granta Online, 2020
"Shame", trans. Louise Heal Kawai and Hitomi Yoshio, Granta Online, 2020
Heaven, trans. Sam Bett and David Boyd, Europa Editions, 2021, ISBN 9781609456214
All the Lovers in the Night, trans. Sam Bett and David Boyd, Europa Editions, 2022, ISBN 9781609456993. This was a group read for 8/2022. You can look at previous comments here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
"Marie’s Proof of Love", translated by Hitomi Yoshio, available online at World Literature today: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
I will additional background and other resources to the thread. Please feel free to add comments and articles of interest to you.
Thanks for your interest in this author discussion.