Hell by Yasutaka Tsutsui, tranlated by Evan Emswiler (Alma Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Yusataka Tsutsui is a Japanese writer who is mostly known for his science fiction novels. One of his earliest novels - 時をかける少女 (Toki o Kakeru Shojo), known in English as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was adapted into a feature length movie in 1983, 1997, and 2010. It was also made into a full length animation movie directed by Mamoru Hosoda in 2006. 

Hell is an altogether different kind of book. It was originally published in the Japanese language as ヘル (Heru, which is just romaji for Hell) and not 地獄 (Jigoku) which is Japanese for hell, in 2003 by Bungei Shunju Ltd. 

Nobuteru and his friends, Yuzo and Takeshi, were playing on a school-yard platform about five feet off the ground. However, the boys weren’t thinking how dangerous the platform was. They were just goofing off. Unfortunately, one of the boys bumped into Takeshi, who fell to the ground and hurt his leg. The other two boys just laughed, jumped down, and began dragging around Takeshi by his oddly bent leg singing one of the songs that was popular on TV at the time. 

But then, Nobuteru thought, that’s kind of strange. The song was released after the war. They couldn’t possibly have sung that song. The more Nobuteru thought about it, an even stranger thing occurred to him. Nobuteru and his family moved to a different city when he was in the fifth grade. After the war was over, Takeshi and Yuzo had never returned to school. In fact, Nobuteru had no idea what had happened to either one of them. 

Nobuteru was in his seventies and often thought about Takeshi and how he and Yuzo crippled had crippled him. While at university, Nobuteru had heard from one of his classmates that Yuzo became a yakuza and was killed by a rival gang member when he was in his twenties.  He also heard through the grapevine that Takeshi graduated with honors from a top university and was working up the ladder in a large corporation. Nobuteru was happy and relieved but still felt a little uneasy, thinking that one day, Takeshi might want to take revenge on him and Yuzo for what they did to him.  

However, Takeshi died in an automobile accident when he was fifty-seven years old. When he awoke, he was in a dimly lit bar. He was no longer crippled and his damaged organs were all repaired. The other people he met in the bar called this place “Hell”. Takeshi wasn’t perturbed about being there. He remembered what a man once told him when he first arrived, “You know what Hell is? It’s just a place without God. The Japanese don’t believe in God to begin with, so what’s the difference between this world and the world of the living?”

The same man who had told Takeshi that Hell is no different from the world of the living also told him, “Most Japanese have no religious faith, and they have no one, including their parents, who can serve in God’s stead. So if they get even a little power, they start to think of themselves as gods. You might say that Hell exists solely for the purpose of ridding ourselves of that illusion. After all, there’s no place that can do that in the world of the living.”

So, what exactly is Hell? In Tsutsui’s world, it certainly isn’t a “fiery place of torment” or “an outer darkness and separation from God”. People don’t suffer eternal damnation in Tsutsui’s hell. He does get the reader thinking about what happens to us after we die. Do we go to heaven or do we go to hell? Is Tsutsui’s Hell more akin to purgatory? It will up to you, the reader, to decide.

Abroad In Japan by Chris Broad (Penguin) ~Janet Brown

Chris Broad is a real-life incarnation of Forrest Gump. Looking for his first job after leaving his university, he applies to Japan’s JET program that supplies native speakers of English to Japanese schools, despite having no interest in teaching, no knowledge of Japan, and absolutely no proficiency in Japanese. He has one thing going for him. He’s savvy enough to know that few applicants will voice their preference for a rural assignment and this gets him a job.

He arrives in a city in decline where boarded-up windows are a common sight and the bordering mountain range makes the place isolated in winter. The most flourishing feature of Sakata is Chris’s workplace, a high school with 1200 students and 120 teachers. In this area with a population of 100,000, Chris is one of fewer than ten Westerners, with only one other gaijin in his school.

To anyone who’s ever taught in Asia, it looks as if Chris has fallen into a rather cushy gig. He’s never in a classroom without a Japanese co-worker and his workload consists of lessons taught straight out of the supplied textbooks. His apartment is ready for him upon arrival and costs a mere $110 a month. On the other hand, he’s had only three days of training, he’s given a workload of thirty classes with forty students in each, his Japanese colleagues who are seasoned English teachers speak minimal amounts of that language with maximum amounts of errors, and they’re the ones who have written the textbooks.

His sole compatriot in the school is a hard-drinking chainsmoker, the only affordable nightlife is found in a local tavern, and the winter brings two feet of snow every night, burying cars in drifts and making the mountain roads impassable. Out of boredom and in competition with his colleague who’s one of the few gaijin who has passed the Kanji Kentei, an examination that demands the knowledge of 3000 characters, Chris sets himself a goal of learning the basic requirement of 2200 characters, memorizing 25 of them every day.

His luck continues, first with a group of middle-aged adults who ask him to tutor them in English and who become his social safety net. But he hits the jackpot when he’s approached by a convivial passerby who insists on becoming his friend. Natsuki is a fearless English speaker who loves nothing better than sprinkling his usage with the f-bomb. He quickly becomes Chris’s mainstay and eventually his video co-star.

His biggest stroke of Gumpian luck comes through Youtube. Chris once had dreams of making movies so this becomes his way to stay in touch with family and friends while amusing himself in the evenings. Youtube is still a novelty back in 2012 and Chris becomes a version of Mr. Bean, bumbling his way through Japanese culture as he strives to assimilate. When he goes to the public baths and finds he’s meant to be in the nude, armed only with a modesty towel; when he ventures into the rarified atmosphere of a hostess club where a night out can easily cost $240; when he’s thrown out of a love hotel; when he samples McDonald’s fries drizzled with chocolate sauce, Chris begins to clock up views, sometimes a quarter of a million in a night. In a fit of daring that’s perilously close to madness, he decides to make Youtube his primary occupation--and it works. 

A friend in Sakato knows a man in a nearby city who works in “in-bound tourism,” went to school in Seattle and London, worked for years in Frankfurt and Sydney, speaks fluent British English, and has adopted a Western mindset. Ryotaro hires Chris as a videographer who explores Japan via Youtube.

By this expansion of his territory, Chris’s luck continues. A video of him leaping from his bed when a nation-wide alarm system announces an incoming North Korean missile makes him famous. A visit to an island recovering from the disaster of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami puts him up close and personal with his idol, Ken Watanabe. Even an earthquake that destroys his filming studio proves to be a bit of good fortune.

The same convivial charm that has made him a Youtube star makes this memoir irresistible. He’s a clever phrasemaker, describing his first breath in Japan as “so despicably humid, each breath was like inhaling a mouthful of steam.” On his first visit to a Tokyo sushi bar, he decides “The sushi I’d experienced in the U.K. felt like a hate crime compared to this.” Unlike far too many other expats in Asia, he reserves his ridicule for himself rather than a culture that is frequently confusing.

There’s little in his memoir that can’t be read in every book ever written about Japan but only this one is told by Forrest Gump. For a distraction from the bleak and the dispiriting literature that’s all too easy to find,  Abroad in Japan is hard to beat.

Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri (Yearling Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Eiko Kadono is a Japanese children’s author and illustrator. She is also a nonfiction writer and essayist. One of her most popular books to be translated into English and which has also been adapted into a feature length animation film by Studio Ghibli is Kiki’s Delivery Service. 

The previously reviewed Kiki’s Delivery Service (Asia by the Book, September 2024) was the graphic novelization of the movie and was written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. As much as I enjoy watching the movie, I was interested in reading the original story. As a reminder, the story was originally written in the Japanese language with the title 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyubin) which translates to The Witch’s Delivery Service and was published in 1985. 

This English edition of Kadono’s story was published in 2021 by Yearling Books, a division of Random House Children’s Books. The book includes a note from the author. She tells her readers that the story was inspired by one of her daughter’s drawings. It was a picture of a witch flying in the sky while listening to a radio. The picture included musical notes that danced around the witch. 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a young girl’s coming-of-age story. It is set in a world where witches still live among ordinary humans. The protagonist, Kiki, is the daughter of Kokiri and Okino. Kokiri is Kiki’s mother and comes from a long line of witches. Her father, Okino, is an ordinary human. Okino is a folklorist who studied legends and tales about spirits and magic. Kiki was about to turn thirteen years old. 

In Kadono’s world, when the daughter of witches and humans turn ten years old, they must decide if they want to follow in their mother’s footsteps and become a witch. If they chose this path, they would learn their mother’s magic and would have to choose a full-moon night of their thirteenth birthday to leave home. 

This meant that a young witch would have to search for a town of their own where there wasn’t a witch in residence. Over the years, the witches' powers have gotten weaker and their population has decreased. It is also difficult for young witches to find a witchless town or a town that will welcome a witch to their community. 

Kokiri had only two magic powers. One was to grow herbs to make sneeze medicine and the other was flying through the air on a broom. Kiki took to flying pretty well but would often get distracted and fall to the earth. She was never able to get the hang of growing herbs to make the sneeze medicine her mother perfected. Still, Kiki believes she can become anything she wants. 

Kiki would leave her home accompanied by her black cat Jiji. They would have all kinds of adventures, not only searching for a new town, but also in becoming a member of that town. As a young girl, Kiki will have her ups and downs as do all adolescents. She must also find a place to live and needs to find a way to make a living. It may seem like an impossible task for such a young girl but it’s a well known fact that girls mature faster than boys. I imagine a young female witch matures even faster!

A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson (Princeton Architectural Press) ~Ernie Hoyt

Kate Williamson is a writer and illustrator who studied film at Harvard University. She is also fond of traveling. She was awarded the George Peady Gardner Travel Fellowship which grants post-graduate students an opportunity to further their education by immersing them in a foreign culture. Thanks to the grant, Williamson was able to spend a year in Kyoto, Japan. 

Her book, A Year in Japan, is full of illustrations and her musings about what she saw and thought while wandering the streets of Kyoto. It is a humorous travelogue with beautiful drawings. It is not a guide about where’s the best place to eat or where’s the best place to stay. The drawings are of the things that she saw and experienced. 

When Williamson got off the train at Kyoto station and was walking along the ground floor department store to the street,  the first thing that caught her eye was a display of colors and patterns next to some purses and scarves - “plaid, polka dots, orange and turquoise, , red and magenta, lime and navy”. When she took a closer look, she discovered it to be a display of washcloths or hand towels. She writes, “the washcloths were my first exposure to the attention to detail that characterizes much of Japan - both socially and visually”. 

She noticed that the wagashi shops, traditional Japanese confectionery shops, the colors of the shapes of the sweets would change with the seasons. The sweets are often sold in boxes and seem almost as if it would be a crime to eat since they are so beautifully displayed. 

Williamson immersed herself in Japanese culture. Not only did she eat wagashi, but she made a request to visit a Saihoji Temple, also known as Kokedera or the Moss Temple. At the temple, Williamson, along with a few other people, were taken to a large room set with small tables. Next to each table was a brush and ink set and a Buddhist sutra written in Japanese. It is the task of the visitors to copy the sutras with the materials at hand. 

Another thing, most visitors, Williamson included, like to do, is to travel on the Shinkansen. Many people still refer to the shinkansen as the “bullet train” due to its shape. Whenever Williamson took a trip on the shinkansen, she would treat herself to an ekiben, special bento boxed measl that are sold on trains and at train stations. 

In the spring, Japanese people have hanami or “flower viewing” parties. They gather with friends and family or co-workers and drink and eat while enjoying the cherry blossoms in full bloom. 

In the fall, when there is a full moon, Japanese also enjoy tsukimi or “moon-viewing” parties. It is a festival to celebrate the autumn moon. It is a tradition that dates back to the Heian era (794 - 1185). 

As a long time resident of Japan (over thirty years), I still enjoy reading the perspectives from newcomers to the nation.  Their wonderment at all they see and experience reminds me of my first days in the country as a resident. It really is one thing to visit a country but quite another when you decide to live there, be it three months, one year or even thirty years or more. There’s always something new to discover.

Across the Nightingale Floor : Tales of the Otori Book 1 by Lian Hearn (Riverhead Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Lian Hearn is the pen name for Gillian Rubinstein, a British-born children’s writer and playwright. Across the Nightingale Floor is the first of three books in her adult-oriented series Tales of the Otori which continues with Grass for His Pillow and concludes with Brilliance of the Moon.

The story is set in a fictional country that’s modeled after feudal Japan. According to the author’s note, “Neither the setting nor the period is intended to correspond to any true historical era, though echoes of many Japanese customs and traditions will be found, and the landscape and seasons are those of Japan. 

Hearn has also used Japanese names for most of the cities and towns which are also mostly fictional except for the towns of Hagi and Matsue. In the story she has placed these two towns in their true geographical positions. Also, the only character based on a real person is Sesshu, a Japanese zen monk and artist who she felt was “impossible to replicate”. 

The story opens with a young boy named Tomasu picking mushrooms alone in the mountains near his rural home of Mino. He and the people he lives among are members of the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who believe in the ways of peace. 

However, unbeknownst to Tomas, his father was a member of the Tribe, a group of well-trained assassins who also possess preternatural skills such as having the capacity to hear better than dogs and being able to make themselves appear in two places at one time. 

The day that Tomasu went picking mushrooms was the same day that the warlord Sadamu Iida of the Tohan and his men pillaged his village. Tomasu was the only surviving member of that massacre. Tomasu was rescued and later adopted by the Lord of the Otori, Shigeru Otori. As Tomasu was a name known among the Hidden, Lord Otori has Tomasu change his name to Takeo. 

Takeo later meets Kenji Muto of the Muto Clan. Muto tells Takeo that he knew Takeo’s father. He tells him that his father was the most skilled assassin of the Kikuta, the greatest family of the Tribe. Muto then trains Takeo in the ways of the Tribe. Takeo is able to hone his hearing skills and has listened in on a conversation between Shigeru’s two older brothers who are plotting to ally themselves with Iida.

The elder brothers tell Shigeru that they will let him adopt Takeo on the condition that he marries Kaede Shirakawa, a beautiful girl of fifteen who has been held prisoner by the Noguchi, one of the families of the Tohan, since she was seven. 

Lord Shigeru Otori has two older brothers who want to make peace with the Tohan but Shgeru does not trust Iida. He has already seen the cruelty of the Tohan firsthand. He is also aware of his brother’s plans thanks to the listening powers of Takeo. However, Shigeru decides to placate his brother and says he will accept their condition. He also tells his brothers that since Takeo is soon to be his adopted son, that Takeo should come with him. 

It’s one plot twist after another as Shigeru has no intention of marrying Kaede and has a totally different reason for bringing Takeo with him. Shigeru and Takeo know they are going into the lion’s den, but will their gamble pay off. And what will become of Kaede Shirakawa?

If you love stories like James Clavell’s Shogun and Eric van Lustbader’s The Sunset Warrior Cycle then you will be sure to enjoy the action, romance, and intrigue in Tales of the Otori.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton (4th Estate) ~Ernie Hoyt

Asako Yuzuki is a Japanese writer who was born in Tokyo in 1981. In her childhood she read books by foreign authors such as Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gable series, and Judy Blume’s young adult novels. It was after reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen which got her interested in Japanese literature. 

Her first book was a collection of three short stories and was released as 終点のあの子 (Shuten no Ano Ko). Her first novel was 嘆きの美女 (Nageki no Bijou) was published in 2011 and was later adapted into an NHK cable television series. 

Butter is her first novel to be published in English. It was originally released in the Japanese language with the same title by Shinchosha in 2017. The book is translated by Polly Barton who has also translated Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoto Matsuda (Asia by the Book, May 2022) and Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (Asia by the Book, August 2025). 

The story was inspired by the real-life serial murder case in Japan by Kanae Kijima, whom the mass media dubbed as the konkatsu killer. Konkatsu means “marriage-hunting”. She was convicted of poisoning three of her victims who were planning on marrying her. She was also suspected of killing four others. She is currently on death row and has been in prison since 2019. 

Manako Kajii is sitting in the Tokyo Detention Center serving a life sentence for killing three lonely businessmen. The mass media says she seduced the men by her delicious home cooking. She claims her innocence but refuses to discuss her case with any journalists. 

Rika Machida is a young reporter at a weekly magazine. She is interested in writing an article about Manako Kajii or “Kajimana” as she was known in the mass media. The woman who was convicted of killing three men and extorted money from them as well. What made the Kajimana story interesting to so many people was because of how she looked. 

Rika tells her boyfriend she’s not interested in rehashing old stories told from the same perspective. She wants to find a new lead into the case. Machida is interested in the “social background to it all”. She feels the whole case “is steeped in intense misogyny”, that “Everyone in it, from Kajimana herself to her victims and all the men involved, seems to have a deep-seated hatred of women”. 

Manako Kajii isn’t what you would call beautiful. She is a bit overweight. Rika's on and off boyfriend said to her, “I bet Kajimana eats an absolute ton! That’s why she’s that huge. It’s a miracle that someone that fat could con so many people into wanting to marry her”. However, the men who fell under spell all had the same thing to say - they were lonely and didn’t care what she looked like. 

It was Rika’s friend Reiko who gave her the idea that the next time she writes to Manako Kajii, to ask for the recipe of the beef stew she served her last victim. Her friend tells her, “Women who love to cook are so delighted when someone asks them for a recipe that they’ll tell you all kinds of things you haven’t asked for along with it”. Amazingly, Kajii responds to Rika’s latest request for an interview. When Rika goes to see Manako Kajii at the Tokyo Detention Center, the first thing Kajimana asks Rika is what’s in her fridge at home. 

Rika is caught off guard but answers politely. After Rika tells her, Kajimana reponds with, “Did you just say margarine?” As Rika tries to defend why she has margarine in her refrigerator, Kajimana tells her, “Your problem is you’ve decided that butter is bad without even understanding what it tastes like”. Before Rika can respond, Kajimana continues with her diatribe saying, “I learned from my late father that women should show generosity to everyone. But there are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine”. 

The interview didn’t go as Rika planned. It was all at Kajimana’s pace. Rika even promised to eat hot white rice topped with real butter and a bit of soy sauce. But she had to use an expensive brand of butter called Echire.

So begins Rika Machida’s interviews with Manako Kajii. But the more she interviews Kajii, the more her way of thinking is turned towards Kajii’s. Her friend Reiko believes that Kajimana has been manipulating Rika into her way of thinking and is not going about her job objectively. 

Not only is this story a mystery about whether or not Manako Kajii killed her would-be husbands, but it is also a criticism of the different standards set by men for women. In the story, all of Kajimana’s victims say they don’t care what she looks like, however, whenever they’re speaking to their peers or colleagues, they denounce her and say terrible things about her. 

In modern day Japan, the posters and commercial ads still feature women who are slim and beautiful. In a line in the book that seems to have come right out of a feminist manifesto, Yuzuki writes, “From early childhood, everyone had it drummed into them that if a woman wasn’t slim, she wasn’t worth bothering with”. It appears to be a disturbing fact that this still holds true today.

The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani, translated by Sam Bett (Faber & Faber) ~Ernie Hoyt

Akira Otani is a Japanese writer who got her start by writing for video games. She is a self-proclaimed lesbian and her first literary work was a collection of short stories in a book titled Nobody Said We’re Perfect which was about relationships between women. 

The Night of Baba Yaga is her first book to be published in English. It was originally published in Japanese in 2020 by Kawade Shobo Shinsha with the title ババヤガの夜 (Baba Yaga no Yoru). The English version was translated by Sam Bett. He was the co-translator for three of Mieko Kawakami’s books - Breasts and Eggs (Asia by the Book, November 2021), Heaven (Asia by the Book, July 2022), and All the Lovers in the Night (Asia by the Book, December 2022).

Yoriko Shindo was just getting off work and thought she would catch a movie at the local cinema. As she was walking through Kabukicho in Shinjuku, she ran into a group of young guys who were obviously drunk and bumped into her on purpose. One guy slapped her backside. She turned around and grabbed the guy's lapels and kicked his feet from under him. 

The fallen guy’s buddy then took a swing at her. She took him down as well after she had taken a fist to the face. The second fighter may have been drunk or just didn’t know how to fight well. Shindo dislocated his shoulder and was hoping to walk away before the police arrived but three more bad guys stepped out of the building and blocked her way. 

Unfortunately for Shindo, she was knocked out with a thick-glassed beer bottle. When she came to, she found herself at a large home in a nice part of Setagaya Ward in Tokyo. Shindo wasn’t done fighting though. “Faced with all this rage and consternation, the woman showed her teeth and smiled. She was covered in their blood. She laughed out loud and doled out punch after punch, kick after kick”. 

This is how Yoriko Shindo found herself being recruited by the boss of the Naiki Yakuza family. The boss had a special job in mind for her. She was to become the full-time bodyguard of the boss’s only daughter, Shoko. 

To Shindo, Shoko seemed really out of place in a Yakuza den, “like a crane perched in a landfill”. Naiki gave Shindo a simple job description - “Any shady character comes near her, break his neck”. Shindo still didn’t understand why a Yakuza boss would trust his daughter with a total stranger. However, he tells Shindo what happened to the last bodyguard. One of his lackeys brought in a lacquer box. Shindo opened it and saw that it contained a man' s right hand. “Severed through the wrist , where you might wear a wristwatch”. 

Shindo thought Shoko was a spoiled and naive rich girl. “She looked so delicate even a gentle prod might shatter her to pieces”. However, the more time Shindo spends with Shoko, she becomes more protective of her. When she sees Shoko in front of a bank on the verge of tears while a stranger is holding her by the wrists, Shindo goes into animal mode - “she charged, winding up, and drove her fist between his eyes”. 

After the man went down, the doors of a Mercedes opened and out came more well-built guys - Yakuza! Shindo thought, “Not again”. However, Shoko screamed for Shindo to stop. The man she had knocked out was Shoko’s future husband - promised to him by Shoko’s father. 

Will Shindo ever be able to extricate herself from this life? Will she be able to protect Shoko from this life where violence begets violence?

Otani has created an action-packed story that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Unfortunately, the latter half of the book, not only does the action dwindle down, but the timeline jumps from two years later to ten years later to twenty years later and makes you wonder what happened in between those times. Still, I believe this would be a great book to be adapted into a feature length movie!

The Bomb by Makoto Oda, translated by D. H. Whitaker (Kodansha) ~Ernie Hoyt

Makoto Oda is a Japanese writer who was born in 1932 and died in 2007. He was also a political activist and was the founder of the Citizens’ Coalition for Peace in Vietnam and one of the founders of the Article 9 Association of Japan. Article 9 is a clause in the Japanese constitution which outlaws war as a means to settling international disputes of state. 

The Bomb is his first book to be translated into English. It was first published as Hiroshima in the Japanese language by Kodansha. This new edition was translated by D.H. Whitaker, who at the time of publication, worked as lecturer in Japanese Studies at Cambridge University. 

This book is not your average story about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It does not focus on the destruction of the city. It is not about the making and dropping of the bomb and is ethical usage. It is about how war affects everyone - those abroad and those at home. 

Oda presents a collage of stories and people that are interconnected - a young man working in a small town near White Sands, New Mexico, the testing ground of the atomic bomb. Japanese emigrants and their internment, the legends of the Hopi and how the U.S. government forced them off their own land. 

When the story shifts to Japan, Oda focuses on the problems that face returnees from the U.S., the plight of the Koreans forced into labor, the portrait of the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and of course, the devastation caused by the bomb. 

Joe was a ranch hand who worked for a man named Will, the owner of the ranch. Joe often ran in the desert gaining him the nickname of “the runner” by the locals. Joe had left home when he was seventeen to find work and a place to live on his own. His parents were already dead and he felt he was becoming a burden on his brother’s family. 

Will had introduced Joe to Chuck, an Indian who was famous among his tribe. Chuck was also a runner and had won the bronze medal in the marathon at the Olympics some thirty years ago. He was famous, even in the white man’s world. 

Joe had a secret admirer. Her name was Peggy. Laura, an Indian who worked as a maid at Peggy’s house, had told Peggy about Chuck. Of course, Peggy didn’t believe her. Her mother had said to her, “Indians are liars”. Her mother also said, “you never knew what those people were thinking”. Those people included “Indians, Negroes, Chinese and especially Japs”. 

The Hopi, the tribe which Chuck belonged to, are a peaceful tribe. It was against the tribe’s tradition and culture to take up arms against another race. Chuck was given the choice of joining the army or going to prison. He decided to join the army. 

The Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and it’s only a matter of time before Joe would be called up to service. After the bombing, the U.S. government issued Executive Order 9066 and Public Law 77-503. These laws authorized the forced interment of over 120,000 Japanese-American citizens during World War II. 

Many nisei or second generation Japanese - people who were born and raised in the United States, chose to move to Japan even though they couldn’t speak the language. They were as unwelcome in their parent’s home country as they were in their own. 

Oda sheds light on many aspects of the bombing of Hiroshima that a lot of Americans may be unaware of. If I remember my U.S. history classes, we were taught that the U.S. tried to remain neutral but joined the war after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. 

What we are not taught is why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (it had something to do with the oil embargo the U.S. placed on Japan). We were not taught that the U.S. governments forcibly removed Native Americans from their lands so the government could build and test a new weapon they were working on. The classes also didn’t teach us about the Americans who worked in the uranium mines and suffered the same fate as the bombing victims of Hiroshima. 

The Bomb may be a fictional account of actual incidents but it makes its point quite clear - “In war, there are no winners!”. We, as humans, have a long way to go before we can achieve world peace but it’s a goal worth attaining.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda (Soft Skull Press) ~Ernie Hoyt

Hiromi Kawakam is a Japanese writer from Tokyo. She started her career writing and editing for a science-fiction magazine called NW-SF after graduating from college. She also taught science in middle school and high school. She debuted as a writer in 1994 when she was thirty-six. Her first book was a collection of short stories titled 神様 (Kamisama) which translates to God in English. 

Under the Eye of the Big Bird is a speculative fiction novel. It was originally published in the Japanese language in 2016 by Kodansha as 大きな鳥にさらわれないよう (Okina na tori ni sarawarenai yo). The title literally translates to To Avoid Being Carried Away by Big Birds. The English edition was translated by Asa Yoneda, who also translated Rin Usami’s Idol, Burning (Asia by the Book, December 2023). 

The book is written as a collection of connected short stories. It’s the distant future and humans are on the verge of extinction. Those who are left live in small, isolated communities. They are under the protection and care of “Mothers” who are not really considered human. The “Mothers” all share one memory and consciousness and are very kind to humans. 

Some children are made in factories, others are clones from the original copy of themselves, while some children grow by photosynthesis, similar to plants. They also have a slight green hue to their complexion.

There are also a number of “Watchers” who may or may not be human. They can live for thousands of years as their consciousnesses can be transferred to their clones. It is their job to oversee the community of humans in the hopes that mankind will survive. It was the “Watchers”, Ian and Jakob who came up with the current system to preserve the last remaining humans and hope for evolution to occur to ensure mankind’s survival. 

Near the end of the book, mankind’s quest for progress and ultimate decline is described by one of the final living “Mother”. She uses “you” to collectively refer to humans as she describes her emergence, how she came into being. 

She tells one of the last living humans, “At a certain point in the past, you came up with the technology to produce learning machines whose capacity to process information was extremely close to your own”. This new technology was called Artificial Intelligence or AI for short. The mother further explains, “But before you could use what you created as a result of your success, you first had to consider the implications - legal, moral, philosophical and so on”. 

What really hits home and is true even today is how the “Mother” describes the fear humans feel towards their own creation. The “Mother” says, “what you feared, to put it bluntly, was the possibility that the powers AI had would grow far to surpass yours, such that AI would take over human society as result”.

Can we really leave the future to humanity to humans or will they make the same mistakes they made in the past over and over again? Are humans leading the way to their own extinction? Will there be such a thing as “hope” left in the future? 

It is my opinion that this book will haunt your mind long after you have finished reading it.

One Hundred Sacks of Rice by Yuzo Yamamoto, translated by Donald Keene (Nagaoka City Kome Hyappyo Foundation) ~Ernie Hoyt

One Hudred Sacks of Rice is an English translation of a stage play based on the fictionalized story of Torasaburo Kobayashi, the Grand Council of the Nagaoka Domain in feudal Japan. The play titled 米百袋 (Kome Hyappyo) was written by Yuzo Yamato. This English edition was translated by Japanese scholar and permanent Japan resident, Donald Keene. 

The story is set in the city of Nagaoka in Echigo Province, present-day Niigata Prefecture. Currently, the  city is famous for its summer fireworks display. The time is the third year of the Meiji era (1870) at the end of May. There were still many domains throughout the country and the order for men to cut their hair and give up their swords had not yet been issued. Many of the policies of the new government had yet to take effect and a lot of old customs still lingered. 

During the Boshin War, Japan’s Civil War, Nagaoka had sided with the Tokugawa Shogunate who fought against the domains for the Imperial Court who wanted to “revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians”. To put down the rebellion, the Shogunate forces literally wiped Nagaoka off the map. After the war, Nagaoka was impoverished and the people were starving. A neighboring province gifted the city with one hundred sacks of rice. 

In feudal Japan, rice was the equivalent of hard currency. When the lower ranked samurai of Nagaoka learned that the city would be getting one hundred sacks of rice, they felt they would be relieved from their suffering. However, when they learned that the Grand Councillor was going to sell the rice so he could build a school.

This decision angered the samurai and they decided to take action against the Great Councillor. They went to Grand Councillor Torasaburo Kobayashi’s home, brandished their swords and demanded that he divide up the rice and comply with their wishes immediately.

Torasaburo Kobayashi doesn’t answer them. The samurai ask Torasaburo, “Why don’t you answer?”, “What’s the matter? Why are you silent?”. He finally responds by saying, “Nothing can be done to help”. One of the samurai says, “No, there is something. Don’t we have the hundred sacks of rice given to us for relife. If you distribute it, that will settle everything”. 

Kobayashi is not taken in by their threats. He admonishes them, saying, “Have you nothing better in mind? Why do you suggest anything to picayune? ‘A hundred sacks of rice’, ‘a hundred sacks of rice’. He asks the samurai, “just how much do you think this represents?”. He tells them if he were to divide up the rice for everybody, they would have enough to eat for two days. What will the samurai do after that?

Kobayashi tells them it’s because there were no capable men in the government. What the nation needs are capable men, and the only way to get capable men is by education. “Whether a town flourishes or decays, the answer relies in every instance with the people” - “as long as people continue to appeary and they are educated, no matter how badly a country has declined, they will restore it”. 

What really shames the samurai is Torasaburo Kobayashi’s final trump card. He shows the samurai a scroll written by Shozan (Sakuma Shoza, aka Sakuma Zozan), a scholar and teacher that every samurai is familiar with. Written on the scroll is “Always on the Battlefied!”. Kobayashi reminds the samurai that these words have been instilled in every samurai of the Mikawa clan (which includes Nagaoka) and has been observed as a particarly important principle. He explains, “To say ‘We are always on the battlefield’ means that even in times of peace, we must endure every hardship and privation in the same spirit as on the battlefield”. 

Although the script for the stage play is rather short, falling around less than one hundred pages, this book includes a lot of extra material that will help the reader appreciate the story even more. 

First, Keene says to better understand the story, you need to know about the writer, Yuzu Yamamoto, as well. Although the play is based on an actual incident and Torasaburo Kobayashi did exist, the rest of the characters were from the imagination of Yamamoto. The story is not presented as a mere history lesson but is an entertaining piece of literature as well. 

Keene also provides background on the “Spirit of Bushido”, the “Way of the Warrior”, a short history of the Boshin War and the true story of the “The Hundred Sacks of Rice”, followed by a profile of Torasaburo Kobayashi. 

Torasaburo Kobayahi may not be as well known Ieyasu Tokugawa, Japan’s first Shogun” or Nobunaga Oda, Takamori Saigo, or Ryoma Sakamoto but he is an integral part of the modernification of Japan. The story still holds true today - “Whether a country rises or falls, whether a town flourishes or decays, the answer lies in every case with the people” - educated ones at that!

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton (Penguin) ~Ernie Hoyt

Hunchback is the debut novel by Japanese writer Saou Ichikawa. It won the 128th Bungakukai Prize for New Writers and the 169th Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards, in 2023. She is Japan’s first disabled writer to receive the Akutagawa Award.

The book was originally published in the Japanese language as ハンチバック (Hunchback) by Bungeisha in 2023. The English edition, translated by Polly Barton, was published in 2025. Barton is also an author in her own right and has published two non-fiction books. She has translated a number of titles of Japanese books including Where the Wild Ladies Are (Asia by the Book, May 2021). 

Ichikawa was born in 1979. She has congenital myopathy, a muscle disorder which confines her to a wheelchair. She has also been on a respirator since she was thirteen years old. She decided to become a writer at twenty as she felt her job opportunities were very limited due to her handicap. 

The protagonist of Hunchback is also born with a congenital muscle disorder. Shaka Ishizawa has a severe curvature of her spine and must use a wheelchair and ventilator. She lives in a nursing home and makes a living by freelancing, contributing stories and articles to erotic online websites. 

After writing Part 1 of her story, My Steamy Threesome with Super-Sexy Students in One of Tokyo’s Most Sought After-Swingers’ Club, she had to turn her attention to her body. She explains, “mucus had built up in my windpipe, and the alarm on my Trilogy ventilator was chirruping furiously”. 

Ishazawa says that she’s been living in Nirvana for twenty-nine years, “ever since the day my underdeveloped muscles had prevented my heart and lungs from maintaining a normal level of oxygen saturation, and I’d grown faint and passed out by the classroom window in my second year of middle school”. 

Ishizawa also spends a lot of time tweeting on Twitter. However, she says she has hardly any followers and never got any “likes”. She assumed that people didn’t know how to respond to a bed-bound woman who would tweet things like - “In another life, I’d like to work as a high class prostitute” or “I’d have liked to try working at McDonald’s”, “I’d have liked to see what it was like to be a high-school student”. 

Another tweet she saved in her drafts on her iPhone was “I’d like to know what it’s like to have an abortion”. She says this is one of her tools to organize her thoughts. She has also saved tweets such as “I want to get pregnant, then have an abortion” and continues with “I can’t imagine a foetus growing properly inside this crooked body of mine”. She ends this line of thought with “My ultimate dream is to get pregnant and have an abortion, just like a normal woman”. 

One day, one of the male carers at the facility she lives in tells her that he has read all of the material she’s written. He has read her sexploints on the erotic websites, he has read her tweets on Twitter. 

Ishizawa then makes a proposal to the man. She would pay him one hundred fifty-five million yen to have a sex with her. Will the carer take Ishikawa up on her offer? Is this really what Shaka Ishikawa wants? 

Only someone who suffers the same condition as Shaka Ishizawa could concoct a story so out of the ordinary that it may make a normal, healthy person think about the things they take for granted - being able to read a book, walking to the neighborhood convenience store, riding on trains. Everyday, ordinary things. Ichikawa shows the world that disabled people have the same hopes and dreams as normal people and that they can be successful as well. 

Japan is still far behind the times where it comes to caring for the disabled. The handicapped are still shunned and are prone to be victims of prejudice. Perhaps if people like that were to read this book, they would learn what empathy means.

The End of August by Yu Miri, tranlated by Morgan Giles (Tilted Axis Press) ~Ernie Hoyt

Yu Miri is a Zainichi Korean novelist. Zainichi Koreans are ethnic Koreans who immigrated to Japan before 1945 and are citizens or permanent residents of Japan, or who are children of those immigrants. Her native language is Japanese but she is a citizen of South Korea. She writes her books in Japanese. 

She is the author of Tokyo Ueno Station (Asia by the Book, May 2021). The End of August is her latest novel. It was originally published by Shinchosha in 2007 in the Japanese language as 八月の果て (Hachigatsu no Hate). The English edition, translated by Morgan Giles, was published in 2023. 

The End of August is a semi-biographical family epic. The tome is over seven hundred pages and focuses on several generations of Yu Miri’s family. The story takes place in Japanese-occupied Korea in the mid-1920’s. The reader should be warned that they should study Yu Miri’s family tree, provided at the beginning of the book,  before taking on the immense task of reading this saga.

Here is a short summary of Yu Miri’s family, starting with her great grandfather, Lee Young-Ha. He was married to Park Hee-Hyang and had five children with her. They had four sons and one daughter. The eldest son was Lee Woo-Seon, followed by their daughter, Lee So-Won. Lee Woo-Cheol was the second son. His two younger brothers were Lee Woo-Gun and Lee Su-Yong. 

Lee Yong-Ha also had a mistress named Mi-Ryeong. They had a daughter named So-Jin, a girl who would never meet her father. The only thing she would know about him is that he gave her her name.

Lee Woo-Cheol is married to Chee In-Hye and has four children with her. Their daughter’s names are Mi-Ok, Shin-Ja, and Ja-Ok. They named their son Shin-Tae and like his father before him, Lee Woo-Cheol has a son with his mistress, Kim Me-Yeong, who the name’s Shin-Cheol. 

Chee In-Hye is Lee Woo-Cheol’s first wife. After she leaves him, Woo-Cheol marries An Jeong-Hye and has four children with her. They have three daughters and a son. Their daughter’s names are Shin-Ho, Shin-Myeong, and Shin-Hee. Their son is named Shin-Hwa. Shin-Hee marries a Japanese citizen named Yu, against her parent’s wishes. Shin-Hee and her husband are the parents of Yu Miri. 

As the country becomes more unstable, Lee Woo-Cheol runs away to Japan. His brother becomes the leader of a resistance movement against the Japanese forces. Their stories are both hopeful and tragic. After running away to Japan, Lee Woo-Cheol marries a Japanese woman named Nemoto Fusako and has a son with her who he names Shin-Il. Fusako only discovers that Woo-Cheol was married and has children when his second wife, Jeong-Hee appears at their door with children in tow causing more family turmoil.

As interesting and entertaining as the story is, the book has many flaws as well. My first and foremost complaint is the Morgan Giles translation. Although the book was originally written in Japanese, the characters often speak in Korean and most of the Korean words and phrases are not translated and the translator does not provide a glossary forcing the reader to look up the words and phrases on their own or they must infer meaning from the context of what’s being said. 

The writing style is also quite difficult to follow especially when Lee Woo-Cheol or Yu Miri are running. The sentences are mostly fragmented and interspersed with “inhale-exhale” making it very difficult to understand what the character is thinking. 

On the positive side, the book sheds light on the atrocity and experiences of the “comfort women” - young women, sometimes as young as thirteen, who were tricked and made to serve as sexual slaves for the Japanese army. It also sheds light on the treatment of Zainichi Koreans who are still oppressed even today. 

A remarkable book but a very difficult read. Be sure to invest a lot of time if you plan to challenge yourself to the task of reading it.

May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase, translated by Morgan Giles (Hutchinson) ~Ernie Hoyt

Junko Takase is a Japanese writer whose first novel was 犬のかたちをしてるもの (Inu no Katachi wo Shiteru Mono) (Things with the Shape of a Dog), won the Subaru Literary Prize, a literature prize sponsored by the publisher Shueisha. The book was published the following year. 

Takase was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan’s most prestigious literary awards, along with the Naoki Prize, for her book 水たまりでいきをする (Mizutamari de Iki o Suru) (Breathing in a Puddle) in 2021 and won the Akutagawa Prize the following year for May You Have Delicious Meals.

May You Have Delicous Meals which was originally published in the Japanese language as おいしいごはんをたべられるますように (Oishii Gohan wo Taberareru masu yo ni) and was serialized in the magazine 群像 (Gunzo) in 2020. The English edition was translated by Morgan Giles who also translated Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station (Asia by the Book, May 2021).

The story centers around three main characters - Oshio, Nitani, and Ashikawa. They all work for the same company in Saitama Prefecture. Their company produces labels and packaging for food and beverage products. Oshio was hired right out of university five years ago. Ashikawa was hired a year before and Nitani was hired a year before Ashikawa although he worked at a different branch for six years before being transferred to the Saitama branch. 

The story is narrated by Oshio. She and Nitani were heading back to the office after taking part in an off-site training course. It was already five thirty in the evening so they decided to grab a bite to eat and have some drinks at a local izakaya. Once the booze starts flowing, Oshio says to Nitani, “Do you know who I can’t stand? Ashikawa.”

As Oshio explains why she doesn’t really like Ashikawa, Nitani discovers that it wasn’t anything Ashikawa did or said to Oshio. He surmises, “you don’t like her because she’s not competent?”. Oshio’s response is, “More like, because everyone knows she isn’t, I guess.” 

When Nitani joined the Saitama office, Ashikawa was supposed to show him the ropes. But after two weeks, Nitani had the thought, “I’m gonna overtake her in no time at all, easy. It’s hard to respect someone after that”. 

Nitani gave up respecting Ashikawa “the moment the thought she lacked a backbone came to the surface of his mind”. However, he is attracted to her weakness and they begin dating. However, there is one thing that really annoys him - it is her love of eating proper food. Nitani is happy with instant pot noodles. He wished he could “eat pot noodles three meals a day and still meet all the dietary requirements for a healthy life”. 

The story is an interesting take on office dynamics. I’m sure many people can relate to disliking a co-worker either because they are incompetent or because they have annoying habits or maybe a bit of both and yet they tolerate their presence to keep harmony in the office.. I’m no different. There are co-workers in the past I did not particularly enjoy working with but I didn’t go out of my way to get them fired. 

You can’t help but wonder what will become of the trio. Will Nitani end up marrying Ashikawa? And what will happen to Oshio? Was she also in love with Nitani? You’ll just have to read and find out.

Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray (Abacus Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Keigo Higashino is one of Japan’s most prominent mystery writers. Many of his books have been adapted into movies and television series. One of the most popular is the adaptation of his Detective Galileo series starring popular actor and singer-songwriter Masaharu Fukuyama. The book series includes The Devotion of Suspect X (Asia by the Book, December 2020), Salvation of a Saint, A Midsummer’s Equation, and Silent Parade.

Invisible Helix is the latest addition to the Detective Galileo series. It was originally published in the Japanese language as 透明の螺旋 (Tomei no Rasen) in 2021 by Bungeishunju Ltd. The English edition was translated by Giles Murray who has translated a number of Japanese books, from business biographies to history, fiction and essays and even manga. 

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay off the coast of Chiba Prefecture. The corpse’s body was so decomposed that it was hard to determine the victim’s age. There were no clues to his identity either; however, the police did discover something very important - the man had a small wound that looked similar to a bullet wound. The autopsy confirmed that it was indeed a bullet wound, turning this into a homicide case. 

After making a number of inquiries, the police were able to determine that the dead body was most likely a man from Adachi Ward in Tokyo named Ryota Uetsuji and was currently living with his girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi. It was his girlfriend who filed a missing persons report. When the officer who took her report tried to contact her, he had no response and went to her apartment  but she wasn’t home. 

The detectives called her employer and found that she had suddenly taken time off from work only three days after filing the report. When the detectives investigated the couple’s apartment, they found clothes and other items were missing as well. It also came to the light that Sonoko was a victim of sexual abuse and the police assumed she must be the killer since she disappeared shortly after his  body was found. 

However, Shimauchi has an airtight alibi. She can prove that she was miles away, in Kyoto, when Ryota Uetsuji disappeared. Now the two detectives on the case, Detective Kusanagi and Detective Utsumi have to restart their investigation. If Sonoko Shimauchi didn’t kill her boyfriend, then who did?

They found that before her boyfriend moved in with her, she was living with her mother Chizuko. Chizuko had died a year and half earlier.  The detectives discover that Chizuko became good friends with a children’s book author named Nana Asahi who writes unusual stories usually related to science. The detectives managed to talk to her editor and learned a little more about her. One of her books was titled Little Lonely Monopo. It was a story about a monopole. In physics it is a single electric charge or a magnetic pole. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is a “hypothetical north or south magnetic pole existing alone”. 

The detectives were able to contact Ms. Asahi’s editor and they discovered that was a pseudonym she used. Her real name is Nae Matsunaga. However, what really caputured Detective Kusanagi’s interest was the bibliography where he saw the following entry: Yukawa Manabu, If I Ever Met a Monopole, Teito University. 

Manabu Yukawa is a physics professor and an old friend of Kusanagi’s. He has also helped the police department solve difficult cases in the past. Once Yukawa gets involved, another name is added to the list of suspects. The owner and mama-san of a high-class hostess bar called VOWM. This woman seemed determined to recruit Sonoko to work at her club even though Sonoko wasn’t as beautiful as most of her other employees. 

As Manuba Yukawa, nicknamed “Galileo” helps the police in the investigation, he must confront his own past as well. Will he help the police to solve the case? Will he be able to find Sonoko Shimauchi? And will he be able to find out who exactly murdered Ryota Uetsuji and why…

Inside and Other Short Fiction edited by Ruth Ozeki (Kodansha America) ~Ernie Hoyt

Editor Ruth Ozeki, a half-Japanese woman who grew up in rural New England, writes in the Forward to this anthology of how she feels the perception of Japanese women has been transformed over the years. She says when she was a little girl, an older gentleman who worked in a feed store used to call her “Suzy”. It wasn't until she was older when she discovered the old guy was an army veteran who served in the Pacific Theater and that the name “Suzy” came from a Chinese prostitute Suzy Wong from a 1960 movie, The World of Suzy Wong.

Not too long ago, Ozeki saw an ad for a California-based skateboard company, which gave a different impression of Japanese women. Their boards featured an “anime-style image of a saucer-eyed, knock-kneed schoolgirl, dressed in a blood-spattered, miniskirted school uniform and sailor blouse, carrying a chain saw and dragging a severed head.”

Ozeki finds it fascinating that the perception of Japanese women has gone from the “docile submissive Madame Butterfly of the early 1900s, or the docile, submissive pan-pan or geisha-girl of the post-World War II Occupation, or the docile, submissive office lady or salaryman’s wife of the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

According to Ozeki, the image of Japanese women today has transformed into something different. She says, “The new Japanese woman is not only redefining her sexual prowess; she is even acquiring supernatural powers: the demure schoolgirl has morphed into a superheroine, or antiheroine, out to save or to destroy the world.”

Ozeki introduces the eight writers whose stories are collected in this anthology. Many of them are prizewinning popular Japanese novelists who have never before been published in English. Their stories portray a different type of Japanese woman in today’s modern society. 

Inside and Other Short Fiction is a collection of short stories by contemporary Japanese women writers whose main protagonists are all women. There are a total of eight stories featuring works by Tamaki Daido, Rio Shimamoto, Yazuki Muroi, Shungkiku Uehida, Chiya Fujino, Amy Yamada, Junko Hasegawa, and Nobuko Takagi. 

Three of the stories are written from the point of view of a teenager. Three other stories are told through the voice of working women. The final two stories are told by a divorced woman and a woman who is married to a doctor. 

Milk is about a teenage girl who takes us into her world where she and her three close friends date older men for money. It examines how close friendships change when teenagers become high school students, and about a girl faced with the choice of whether to have sex with her boyfriend or not. 

Inside focuses on another teenage girl whose boyfriend wants to become more intimate but is unaware of his girlfriend’s home life. It’s a story about love, friendship, and trust. 

Piss is not a story for the faint of heart. It is the story of a sex worker in Kabukicho who is about to turn twenty. One of her regular customers doesn’t have sex with her. All he wants to do is drink her urine. Although the story is quite graphic, its main theme is about love and betrayal and having the courage to go on when things look bleak. 

Other stories included in this anthology are My Son’s Lips, Her Room, Fiesta, The Unfertilized Egg, and The Shadow of the Orchid. 

The subjects of the stories range from love, sex, marriage and even the supernatural. The stories are diverse and innovative. It is a great introduction to modern Japanese women writers and will most likely make you a fan of Japanese fiction.

The Narrow Road to Oku by Matsuo Basho, translated by Donald Keene, illustrations by Masayuki Miyata (Kodansha International) ~ Ernie Hoyt

Matsuo Basho is probably the most famous Japanese poet from the Edo era. He is recognized as a master of haiku, a short form of poetry. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of seventeen morae, known as on in Japanese and are very similar to syllables, in a five-seven-five pattern. 

The Narrow Road to Oku is a book written as a haibun, a poetic diary that combines prose with haiku. It has also been translated as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior. The original title of the book in Japanese is 奥の細道 (Oku no Hosomichi). It was written by Basho over three hundred years ago. He wrote it while traveling from Edo (modern day Tokyo) to the northern interior of Japan, known as Oku. He traveled over one hundred fifty days and covered about 1,500 miles or almost 2.400 kilometers, mostly on foot.

He was joined by his friend Sora Kawaii. to visit places that were mentioned by ancient poets whom Basho admired and who he references quite often in his diaries. Their journey took them to the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko in present day Tochigi Prefecture, the Shirakawa Barrier in present day Fukushima Prefecture, the islands of Matsushima, Hiraizumi in present day Miyagi Prefecture, Sakata in present day Yamagata Prefecture, Kisakata in present Akita Prefecture, and present day Toyama Prefecture which was known in Basho’s time as Etchu.

This modern English edition was translated by Donald Keene, an American who was well known for being a Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, and writer. He has also translated many works of Japanese literature. The book also includes illustrations by papercutting artist Masayuki Miyata, who took on the task of creating images related to Basho’s haiku. Miyata said, “If you misread that one point, the work will instantly become something that has nothing to do with Basho’s spirituality and will end up being just an illustration to accompany a haiku poem”. He further expounds, “I couldn’t let a single word of the seventeen characters go unmentioned”. 

The book begins with Basho’s prose before he even starts his journey. He writes, “the months and days are the travellers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers. Those who float away their lives on ships or who grow old leading horses are forever journeying, and their homes are wherever their travels take them”. 

Before leaving he composed the following poem: 

Kusa no to mo Even a thatched hut

sumikawaru yo zo May change with a new owner

hina no ie Into a doll’s house

Before leaving on his journey, it is believed that Basho sold his house to a man with small daughters. At the time of the Momo no Sekku (Peach Festiva)l, currently known as the Hina Matsuri known in English as “Girl’s Day” or “Dolls Festival”, the dolls would be displayed in the house. As Basho was a life-long bachelor, dolls had never been displayed in the house. 

Keene’s translation of Basho’s travel diary and haiku make it easier for the modern reader to understand the deeper meaning of each haiku poem as it relates to Basho’s travels. It also helps the reader to have the footnotes explaining in more detail about many of the poets and poems that Basho makes references to. He often cites Confucius, Saigyo, Du Fu, ancient Chinese poetry, and The Tale of the Heike. 

This book has inspired many people to follow in Basho’s footsteps and perhaps it will inspire you to as well, although I don’t recommend going on foot as the journey would take you approximately four and half months.

It's a Shodo World by Gakusho Furuya, illustrated by Shoko Matsui (Taiseido) ~Ernie Hoyt

It’s a Shodo World is a great introduction to the world of Japanese calligraphy. The subtitle is 日本の伝統 墨のこころ (Nihon no Dento : Sumi no Kokoro) whichtranslates in English to Japanese Tradition : The Heart of Ink. It is the author’s hope that this book “will give its readers Japanese true aesthetic pleasure by looking at intensely expressive and beautiful Japanese writing symbols and fascinating sumi paintings”. 

Shodo written in kanji characters is 書道. It translates to the Way of Writing in English. It is “an art to draw characters on hanshi (Japanese paper for calligraphy) with a Japanese brush in sumi (India ink)”.  It is a form of Japanese calligraphy that originated in China during the Tang dynasty (618-690). 

There are many different scripts that are used in shodo. Three of the basic styles are kaisho, gyosho, and sosho. Kaisho is a square style, gyosho is a semi cursive style, and sosho is a cursive style.

The calligrapher controls the thickness and shading of the characters with every stroke of the brush. It is an art form “to express one’s spirit and ideas”. A great calligrapher not only has to train to master the brush techniques but they must also train their mind.

I had the chance to speak to a calligraphy artist who told me that the most difficult style to write is the kaisho script. As a novice to calligraphy, I thought the square style would be the simplest to write. The artist told me that sosho script is the easiest. As it’s the fastest form of writing, the calligrapher said artists writing in that script often cover up their mistakes. 

After talking to the calligraphy artist, I went through the book a second time to see the different styles the book’s artist used. I could now understand how the kaisho script is the most difficult to master. Although the characters look simple, the artist controls the thickness of the character and also controls the flow of the brush. 

The accompanying sumi-e or ink-paintings give more meaning to each character or characters that are written. The sume-e next to the kanji character for sky (空) is of some koinobori (carp streamers) which are displayed on Children’s Day (May 5th).  Although the holiday is called “Children’s Day”, it is a festival for boys. Legend has it that a courageous carp managed to climb a waterfall.The koinoboriare cloth streamers have an open mouth which the wind can blow through, making the carp appear to swim in the sky. Koinobori  “symbolize parents’ hope that their sons will have a splendid physique and a courageous spirit”.

The latter part of the book include haiku written in the gyosho script. Haiku is a short poetic form which includes three phrases composed in seventeen syllables in a five-seven-five pattern and includes a kigo or seasonal word or phrase. 

Reading and taking the time to look at how the characters were written and how the sume-e relate to the characters will give the reader a new appreciation for the art of calligraphy.  Some readers may even be tempted into writing calligraphy for themselves.

I don’t think I have the discipline to study calligraphy but I still enjoy looking at it as art. I even collect calligraphy written by monks and priests from temples and shrines. They are called goshuin and include stamps of the temple or shrine. Then the priest or monk writes calligraphy on top of the stamp and writes the name of the place of worship, the date of the visit and sometimes the name of the deity housed in that particular place.

Maneki Neko : The Secret to Good Luck and Happiness by Nobuo Suzuki, translated from Spanish by Russell Andrew Calvert (Tuttle) ~Ernie Hoyt

Nobuo Suzuki is a Japanese writer and philosopher. He studied art and literature in Europe before focusing on zen buddhism, creativity, and personal development. His first book was Wabi Sabi : The Wisdom in Imperfection in which he “considers the beauty of imperfection and how understanding this concept can deeply transform our lives”. 

In Maneki Neko, Suzuki writes about good luck": “lucky symbols, lucky numbers, lucky charms and luck-creating rituals”. He asks himself, “How is it that a disciplined and hard-working people like the Japanese are so invested in the idea of luck? And what exactly does “good luck” mean?” (The book was first published in Spanish as Maneki Neko : il Libros Japones de la Buena Fortuna in 2023 by Ediciones Obelisco.)

Anyone new to Japan will be surprised at how seriously the Japanese rely on luck and good fortune. They go to shrines and temples and buy amulets and good luck charms, known as omamori, for a variety of reasons—good health, wealth, traffic safety, a safe birth, and success in education and business. 

In his preface, Suzuki says, “Luck is not a question of chance.” He has always been fascinated by the concept of good luck and bad luck. When he was a child, he often thought, “Why are there some people for whom nothing ever goes right, while others always achieve their objectives?”

Suzuki introduces the Western reader to some of Japan’s most common icons of good luck: the maneki neko, known in English as the “beckoning cat”, the daruma or “lucky Buddha”, the senzaburu or “thousand cranes”, the seven lucky gods of fortune, and explains how the Japanese people use these items to improve their lives. Before delving into the history of the lucky charms, he talks about the four types of good luck. 

Suzuki references James A. Austin’s book Chase, Chance and Creativity : The Lucky Art of Novelty, describing how Austin defined the four types of good luck as blind luck which is out of our control, luck through perseverance and action which is partly under our control, luck through opportunity hunting and luck through invitation which are also partly under our control. 

Out of the four types of good luck, only blind luck is completely out of our control. Some examples would be being born into a wealthy family, winning the lottery, having good or bad weather on a trip. The other types of luck require a bit of effort on our part. Suzuki says, “In these pages, we’ll meet a concept of luck that is not a question of chance, but is gently simmered with three ingredients essential to Japanese culture—effort, wisdom, and confidence”.

The Japanese have a word for effort. Ganbatte roughly translates in English to “do your best”. It’s about perseverance. It is “the basic ingredient for progressing and achieving good results”. 

Wisdom is about knowing the key to success, “what makes money flow and what makes you lose it”. Suzuki believes it is the second keystone to good luck. For confidence, Suzuki refers to a popular saying - “If you believe it, you create it”.

Although the book is more of a self-help book about improving your life through good luck, it is a great introduction to the mysteries surrounding the icons and symbols of good luck in Japan. Most Americans probably pray for good luck but how many Americans do you know who carry a rabbit’s foot or a four-leaf clover?

Jungle Emperor Leo : Leo Edition by Osamu Tezuka (Jitsugyono Nihon-sha) ~Ernie Hoyt

After reading Mighty Atom : Best Selection, I decided to read one other manga by Osamu Tezuka which was published in the same format. I chose Jungle Emperor Leo : Leo Edition. The original manga and anime series is titled ジャングル大帝 (Jungle Taitei). “Taitei” is a Japanese word for “Great Emperor”. 

Jungle Emperor Leo : Leo Edition is a coming-of-age story of a young white lion who is born on a ship en route to London. Leo is the son of Panja, a fierce lion who was also known as the King of the Jungle. It was Panja who fought against the humans to keep the animals in the jungle safe. 

After Panja is killed by humans, the killers capture Panja’s mate and plan on taking her to a zoo in London. Leo is born while the ship is in transit and is discovered by a member of the ship’s crew. The Captain says they only need to take the mother lion to London and that they should just toss the infant lion into the ocean. However, the crew member suggests another plan. The ship is full of mice and as lions are also felines, he suggests to the Captain that the cub could get rid of the mice on the ship. 

The Captain thinks it’s a good idea but doesn’t know the lion cub will befriend all the mice instead. During the trip, Leo’s mother says to him, “You are the son of Panja. You must go back to Africa and become a great leader, like your father.” Leo doesn’t want to leave his mother but she is adamant that Leo shouldn’t stay on board. And since Leo didn’t get rid of the mice, the Captain is angry and shouts for the crew to throw him overboard. 

Fortunately for Leo and one of the mice, a kind-hearted crewman sets them on a little raft and leaves them to drift in the ocean. While the two are adrift, they are attacked by a large shark. However, Leo’s instincts take over and he overpowers the shark. The defeated shark says to Leo, “You’re such a strong one. I thought you were just a child, but you’re more than that”. The shark then asks, “Where will you be heading now?”.

Leo says he’s headed for Africa and asks if it’s far. The shark says, “If you keep floating around here, you’ll never reach her shores. Not unless you swim there yourself”. Swim? To Africa?

The sharks says, “Just move your body like me, and you can swim”. Leo asks the shark if it could teach him. However, the shark says he can’t, he knows his end is near. He tells Leo to see the fish attached to his bellies. He tells Leo that they are called sharksuckers, a type of fish that have a symbiotic relationship with sharks.

The shark tells Leo to “detach them from my belly and put them on yours. They will swim for you”. Leo and his companion attach the sharksuckers to their bellies. The mouse also spots a kaleidoscope of tiger butterflies and says their in luck. He explains that the tiger butterflies migrate from continent to continent so if they follow them, they will find land.

Unfortunately, they don’t land in Africa. They find themselves in a place full of people and cars—and people fear animals—especially wild animals, even when the animal happens to be a white lion. One human, a young boy, does befriend the lion and convinces his schoolmaster to let the white lion stay in the school. 

Follow Leo and his adventures with humans and animals alike in a story of friendship and survival. Leo does make it back to Africa eventually after a few other episodes among his human hosts. However, he has become more of a house pet than a wild animal. Will Leo be able to survive in the real jungle? Will he be able to follow in his father’s footsteps and become “King of the Jungle”? You will have to read this book to find out.

Mighty Atom : Best Selection by Osamu Tezuka (Jitsugyono Nihon-sha) ~Ernie Hoyt

Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, movie producer, and animator. He was appointed President of Toei Company, Ltd. in 2020, one of Japan’s largest movie production companies. He held the position until his death from pulmonary artery thrombosis in 2023. 

He is the creator of Mighty Atom, Phoenix, Jungle Emperor Leo, Black Jack, and a number of other mangas. Many of them have been adapted into an anime series. Mighty Atom, known in the United States as Atom Boy is probably his most popular.

Mighty Atom : Best Selection is an English-Japanese bilingual edition and is a compilation of the manga’s best stories. Although the main comic is written in English, as with a typical Japanese manga, you read the book from the right to left and the panels all read from right to left and top to bottom. The English is written in the panels while the Japanese is written right outside of the panels. 

At the end of each episode, Japanese translations of words that may be a little difficult for beginners of English are provided (some upon request). The Japanese translation of the manga is exactly as it is in the original manga. At the end of the book, there is a section that features colloquial expressions in English which could be very useful in English conversation. 

Mighty Atom : Best Selection features eight popular episodes. The opening story is The Birth of Atom. Also included in this volume are Giant Uran, Atom’s First Love, Touch and Go for a Slippery Snake, Atom the Second, and The Story of Foolish Ivan. 

The Birth of Atom introduces us to Mighty Atom or Atom Boy. Atom Boy is a robot with human emotions. He was created by Doctor Tenma, the Director of the Science Ministry, to replace his son Tobio, who died in an automobile accident. At first the doctor seemed very happy to have his son back but he discovered a fatal flaw in his creation—as a robot, Tobio would never grow up. Tobio was eventually sold to a circus. Another scientist, Doctor Ochanomizu, realized the boy was no ordinary robot and took him away from the circus to become his guardian. 

Thanks to Doctor Ochanomizu, Tobio, the boy robot, “soars through the sky on jet boosters and becomes a rocket in space. He knows sixty languages and can sense the good and evil in others. He has super-human hearing and has sarchlights in his eyes. He has machine guns in his bottom, and is as strong as 100,000 horses. Thus, young Tobio is reborn…as MIGHTY ATOM!”. 

Darling Uran introduces the readers to Mighty Atom’s siblings, Cobalt and Uran. Cobalt is Mighty Atom’s younger brother and Uran is his younger sister. Mighty Atom decides to show his siblings around Tokyo but finds that their understanding of the human world is still a bit limited. He then takes his siblings to a robot tournament. He explains to them, “it’s a tournament where robots duel each other once a year””. After the three find seats to watch the tournament, the two boy robots realize Uran is missing. They spot her in the middle of the ring. People cannot believe she is a competitor but she defeats the reigning champion easily and becomes fond of taking part in the tournament which highly troubles Mighty Atom. 

Atom vs. Atlas pits Mighty Atom against another robot who was built to defeat Mighty Atom. Unfortunately for Atlas’s creators, Atlas befriends Mighty Atom and helps him to defeat evil in the world. 

As this publication is a compilation of some of the best episodes, the stories do not follow a linear pattern. The introduction of Cobalt and Uran was quite sudden as it was the second episode to be featured in this book. However, if you read each episode as a separate story, you can still enjoy Mighty Atom and his adventures. The stories are timeless and fun. They can be enjoyed by both adults and children alike.