Mad Wives and Island Dreams: Shimao Toshio and the Margins of Japanese Literature

Hailed by the noted critic Karatani Kojin as a more important and lasting writer than Mishima, Shimao Toshio (1917-1986) remains almost unknown in the West. Several of his short stories have appeared in English translation, yet it is only now, with the publication of Philip Gabriel's comprehensive and searching study, that Shimao's work is being introduced to the worldwide audience it deserves. Mad Wives and Island Dreams not only is a thorough assessment of the literary legacy of a highly original and influential writer, but also represents a significant contribution to the consideration of much broader issues relating to the emergence and nature of the postwar Japanese sense of identity.  Shimao's fiction covers a wide range of topics: the war and its aftermath, the unconscious, the nuclear family, madness, the position of women, the culture of Japan's southern islands. Shimao's experiences as a survivor of a "kamikaze" unit underscore much of his literature and resulted in a series of compelling short stories unique in modern fiction. Many of these early, critically acclaimed works, including the classic "Everyday Life in a Dream," are based on the narrative logic of the unconscious. Mad Wives and Island Dreams contextualizes these "dream stories" as a literary expression of wartime trauma and argues that Shimao's powerful narration of guilt and victimization challenges standard readings of Japanese war literature.  Shimao's most popular works are the byosaimono (literally "stories of a sick wife"), which chronicle the real-life crisis of his wife's madness in the mid-1950s. Among these is the writer's best-known work, the 1977 novel Shi no toge (The sting of death), widely recognized as one of the masterpieces of Japanese literature. The novel further explores Shimao's "literature of the victimizer" and wartime experience while revealing a feminist perspective that explores links between the suppressed aspirations of women and madness. Perhaps, most importantly, just as the novel examines the relationship between the wife, Miho, and her southern island roots, Shi no toge parallels Shimao's growing concern over the culture of marginalized regions and notions of cultural diversity-a concern that would eventually result in the Yaponesia essays. In Mad Wives and Island Dreams, Gabriel succeeds in linking all of the seemingly disparate strands within Shimao's oeuvre--the war stories, the byosaimono, the dream stories, the Yaponesia writings-categories all too often discussed in isolation. He shows convincingly that together they represent a consistent and concerted attempt to depict the existence of "the Other," the significant periphery of a less than homogenous whole. This volume will prove fascinating and important reading for those interested in questions of cultural identity and marginalization as well as Japanese literature and culture.

Literature & Fiction

Gabriel, Philip

History & Criticism

University of Hawaii Press

Spirit Matters is a ground-breaking work, the first to explore a broad range of writings on spirituality in contemporary Japanese literature. It draws on a variety of literary works, from enormously popular fiction (Miura Ayako’s Hyôten and Shirokari Pass and the novels of Murakami Haruki) to more problematic "serious" fiction (Ôe Kenzaburô’s Somersault) to nonfiction meditations on martyrdom and miracles (Sono Ayako’s Kiseki) and the dynamics of religious cults (Murakami’s interviews with members of Aum Shinrikyô in Underground). The first half of the volume focuses on the work of two women Christian writers, Miura Ayako and Sono Ayako. Combining a decidedly evangelistic bent with the formulas of the popular novel, Miura’s 1964 novel Hyôten (Freezing Point) and its sequel are entertaining perennial bestsellers but also treat spiritual issues—like original sin—that are largely unexplored in modern Japanese literature. Her work also raises important questions regarding the tension between faith and art, religion and literature. Sono’s Kiseki (Miracles) and Miura’s Shiokari Pass focus on the meaning of self-sacrifice and the miraculous and survey both the paths by which people come to faith and the spiritual doubts that assail them. Perhaps most striking for Western readers, Gabriel reveals how Miura’s novel shows the lingering resistance to Christianity and its oppositional nature in Japan, and how in Kiseki Sono considers the kind of spiritual struggles many Japanese Christians experience as they try to reconcile their belief in a minority faith.The literary reaction to the 1995 Tokyo subway attack is discussed in the second half of Spirit Matters through the work of Murakami Haruki (Underground and subsequent fiction including the novels Sputnik Sweetheart and Kafka on the Shore) and Ôe Kenzaburô’s 1999 novel Somersault.! The attack, Japan’s first modern terrorist incident, sent shock waves throughout the nation, and led to widespread questioning of Japan’s spiritual direction. Murakami’s interviews with Aum followers in Underground provide an absorbing glimpse into the dangers of religious fanaticism, and here Gabriel deftly reads Murakami’s post-Aum fiction as literary responses to the enticing yet dangerous "narrative" of religious cults. Likewise Ôe’s Somersault is read as a kind of counter-narrative to Aum, a novel that portrays the attempt to diffuse the violence and fanaticism endemic to many cults. Gabriel’s incisive analysis interprets Somersault as the most detailed and ambitious statement of a Novel Prize–winning writer with longstanding concern over the possibilities of the spiritual in a nation that has renounced "belief."Spirit Matters is a fascinating look at some of the most influential works of contemporary Japanese literature. It will appeal to readers interested in women writers, Christian literature, the impact of religious fanaticism, and the intersection of faith and literature.

Spirit Matters: The Transcendent in Modern Japanese Literature

Gabriel, J. Philip

Univ of Hawaii Pr

The Forest of Wool and Steel

Million-copy bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, selected by bookshop staff as the book they most wanted to hand-sell: A tender and uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler. 
''A mesmerising reading experience for all of us seeking a meaningful life' Japan Times 
What he experienced that day wasn’t life-changing . . . It was life-making.\nTomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more. 
Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one cheery, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question: do I have what it takes? 
Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling – and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one’s purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation. 
[Contains 5 exquisite hand-drawn illustrations] 
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: 
'Everything about this book is just perfect. A compassionate novel that encourages us to be the best version of ourselves''A beautiful ode to pianos that brought me back to my childhood. Will no doubt speak to more than just piano enthusiasts' 
'Most readers will find it impossible to read the last page without feeling a little uplifted, without a smile on the face' 
'Natsua Miyashita has given us an instrument on which to play our own tunes' 
'A gem of a novel' 
'Thoroughly enjoyable, with beautiful cover artwork' 
'A rich, rewarding reading experience' 
'A reading experience not to be missed'

The Forest of Wool and Steel: Winner of the Japan Booksellers’ Award

Humor & Entertainment

Miyashita, Natsu

Humor

DOUBLEDAY

Million-copy bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, chosen as the title bookshop staff most wanted to hand-sell- A feel-good, uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler. OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD ''A mesmerising reading experience for all of us seeking a meaningful life' JAPAN TIMES What he experienced that day wasn't life-changing . . . It was life-making. Tomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more. Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners - one humble, one jovial, one ill-tempered - Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question- do I have what it takes? Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling - and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one's purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation. Mega-bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, selected by bookshop staff as the book they most wanted to hand-sell- A tender and uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler. Contains 5 exquisite hand-drawn illustrations

Humor & Satire

Black Swan.

LEGENDARY BLACK: FREDERICK BLACK AND THE TIES THAT BIND

Children's Books

Independently published

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