Excerpts from Japanese novels
1. Tanizaki Jun'ichiro:
Chijin no Ai (Naomi)
The earthquake that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama in 1923 was a dramatic turning point in Tanizaki
Jun'ichirő's career. For almost a year, he had been living a fast life on the Bluff, the home of most of the
Westerners who gave Yokohama its cosmopolitan reputation. The earthquake forced him to evacuate to
Osaka, where he settled down to wait for Tokyo and Yokohama to rebuild; but, unlike most of the other
refugees, he stayed on in western Japan. Though he visited Tokyo from time to time, he would never again
live there.
Thirty-seven years old at the time of the earthquake, Tanizaki had made a name for himself as a writer of
audacious, sometimes shocking, stories, plays, and motion picture scenarios. But it was only after the
earthquake that he wrote his first important novel, Naomi. (The original title, Chijin no
Ai, has often been translated as A Fool's Love.) The move and the novel pulled him out of a slump
and initiated the long succession of masterpieces that continued until his death in 1965. Today,
Naomi is one of the two or three works for which Tanizaki is best remembered in Japan.
The novel is, among other things, a vivid evocation of popular culture in Tokyo between World War I and
the earthquake: the "operas," reviews, and movie theaters of Asakusa; sea bathing at Kamakura; and,
above all, the cafes of Asakusa and dance halls of Ginza.
And, of course, a story of a relationship between man and woman....
I'd be happy to present more but there are copyright laws on this planet....
Just about two pages, what I translated (and proofread) so far. It's going to be more but because of KTutor,
I had to put aside Chijin no Ai for a long while.
Eventually you'll find the whole novel here in Japanese but I haven't finished proofreading the scan.
2. Saga Jun'ichi:
Confessions of a Yakuza
The title may promise more than the book actually is. This is not a fancy story about great yakuza fights,
not one of a great love in the Japanese underworld; no, it's a cruelly blunt story of the life a real
yakuza, the big earthquake in Tokyo, and in every sense, a very vivid picture drawn by raw colors. A
different story that you may expect, but a story you won't mind to have read...