How gorgeous is this Picador hardback edition of Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved Books??
Look at those little kitty-themed spredges!!! 😺😸😸!!
#books #livres #SosukeNatsukawa #cats #chats #TheCatWhoSavedBooks #Fiction #Roman #JapaneseFiction #JapaneseLiterature #bookstodon
There is a scene in the novel "Higanbana Ga Saku Shima" by Li Kotomi where Umi, a girl of about 15 who was washed up on the shore of the eponymous "Island", is taught to write kanji by her same-age friend Yona:
"""
With a black pen, Yona showed Umi how to write a character stroke by stroke. One of those deep black, square "Island" characters that Umi could not read. It started with a dot, dot, then a horizontal line drawn from left to right, from there a short sweeping stroke to the left, then again a horizontal line and another one, and finally a vertical line with a again small upward turn at the bottom. Just by piling up dots, lines, sweeps and little hooks, a complete character was created. Umi scrutinised it curiously. "This is the 'U' in 'Umi'," Yona said. "Let's see if you can write it!"
"""
The character in question is 宇. Earlier in the novel, Yona had given Umi her name and she had wanted to write it as 霧実 but she changed it to 宇実 as it was simpler.
I love this scene as it takes me back to when I first started to learn kanji. I never learned to write them properly by hand though.
I'm still reading "Higanbana Ga Saku Shima" by Li Kotomi and it is one of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read in Japanese. Not that it is all that easy, for one thing it's full of Chinese words; but it's so well-written and well-constructed, and the characters are very relatable.
I went looking for the meaning of the Chinese words. It's not easy as they are written with Japanese kanji with katakana ruby, but fortunately I found a list on a Japanese forum.
What I also learned there was the existence of the island of Yonaguni, which is part of Japan but very close to Taiwan. It has its own language (sadly now highly endangered) and has a fascinating history, and was at least part of the inspiration of this novel.
"I stare at the sky and see naught but magnolia blossoms"
"Mokuren no hana bakari naru Sora o miru"
Gorgeous, bilingual edition of Haiku by the legendary Soseki Natsume, published by Tuttle Publishing, trans Erik R Lofgren
#books #livres #poetry #haiku #SosekiNatsume #Japan #JapaneseLiterature #bookshops #librairies #bookstodon
Arunima Mazumdar, 39, is the founder of Dokusha Book Club, a New Delhi-based group dedicated to Japanese literature. The club reads Japanese books in English translation, opening up conversations around a literary niche that is enjoying a recent boom in India. Outside of the club, Mazumdar works as a communications professional.1. What sparked your interest in Japanese literature? I studied English literature at Delhi University, and that’s when my love for reading really deepened. But we never read any Japanese works — the English honors program is still very colonial. I discovered Japanese literature around 2011 or 2012 when I
Sayaka Murata's Vanishing Word is out in English next week! ❤️ (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
‘Marriage feels like a hostage situation, and motherhood a curse’: Japanese author Sayaka Murata https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/19/marriage-feels-like-a-hostage-situation-and-motherhood-a-curse-japanese-author-sayaka-murata
I've started reading 彼岸花が咲く島 (Higanbana ga saku shima) by Li Kotomi and it is such a relief after struggling through Yōko Tawada's 献灯使 (Kentōshi, translated as "The Last Children of Tokyo"). I was starting to doubt my Japanese abilities, but this new novel is a delight to read. I still have to look up quite a few words, but that is actually fun. With Tawada's writing, for so many sentences I have to read them three times or more to get what they actually mean. By comparison, the writing in this novel is simple and transparent (only by comparison though).
The novel has not been translated yet. The title is translated on Li Kotomi's web site as "The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom". I don't like the name "spider lily", I feel it does the flower a discourtesy. The other name is "cluster amaryllis" but that sounds too botanical. The Japanese word Higanbana refers to the period of Higan. The term is derived from the Sanskrit pāram which means something like "going to the further bank", with the notion of a river separating this world from nirvana. It is the name for the Buddhist rites held in the week around the autumn equinox, and this is also the period when those flowers bloom. So I prefer to translate the title as "The Island where the Equinox Flowers Bloom".
𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: "𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝗕𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱" 𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝘂𝗸𝗶 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶 (𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀. 𝗝𝗮𝘆 𝗥𝘂𝗯𝗶𝗻) -
Rubin's new translation of this classic Murakami re-discovering the story in compelling ways: a must for Murakami fans!
#bookreviews #literature #books #bookworm #read #book #readreadread #sciencefiction #fantasy #noir #translation #jayrubin #harukimurakami #japaneseliterature
I have finally worked my way through The Emissary (UK title The Last Children of Tokyo), in Japanese 献灯使 _kentoushi_, which is a combination of kentou (votive lantern) and shi, envoy; the word as such does not exist but is a homonym of 遣唐使, "envoy to T'ang China".
I really struggled with this book. I think Yoko Tawada is a very accomplished writer, and some parts of the novel are very poetic, and others genuinely funny. But on the whole I did not enjoy reading it. For many of the scenes described I got rather impatient when reading them, as I found them over long for their purpose. I also did not like it that many threads were were started but then not followed up at all. What is interesting about the novel is the world it pictures. A very polluted world, in unspecific ways. But the novel was published in 2014 so it is not far-fetched to assume that part of the inspiration came from the Fukushima disaster. And having Japan as a closed-off country is quite plausible as well.
It requires a huge suspension of disbelief to accept that hundred-year-old people are as fit as current twenty-year-olds and stay like that virtually forever. It's much easier to accept that the children are weak, in very poor health and for the most part disabled. What I liked in particular is the optimism of the protagonist Mumei, who is such a child. Mumei's health is getting worse and worse throughout the novel and yet he does never lose heart. He even consoles his great-grandfather Yoshiro who looks after him.
Although I do like the final scene, because I like the description of the beach and the sea and I like it that Mumei and Suiren meet again, I did not like the ending.
The justification of the title _kentoushi_ also feels a bit forced to me: the members of the secret _kentoushi_ society (献灯使の会) light a stubby candle first thing in the morning to chase away the darkness, and that is a bit like burning a votive candle. The link with 遣唐使, "envoy to T'ang China" is explicitly made: Yoshiro has once written a book with that title.
It's certainly not a bad book, just not an easy read. I'm sure scenes from the story will keep popping up in my head for a while.
TheEdinburghBookshop
Wim 🅾→Ⓣ
The Japan Times
Alo Japan
マリオ (Mario Menti)
Waywords Studio