japanese – Page 3 – Bookmarked!

Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Book # 22 of 2009

Back in college, everyone was reading Memoirs of a Geisha, naturally sending me running in the opposite direction, especially when the movie came out.

Then when I discovered BookMooch, I decicded to go and get myself a copy, only it turned out to be a mass market paperback (I am admittedly a mass market paperback snob) so I was reluctant to pick it up and I packed it on my RORO trip but a few pages ended up getting squashed inside my luggage (bus compartments and all)… Then I got a trade paperback copy from an FFP book swap, although I still didn’t read it. Finally, I was able to mooch a hardcover copy from Triccie early this year and I’ve pretty much run out of excuses already.

Like The Kite Runner, this book needs no introduction. I read it on and off for a couple of days, and it was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, but not so compelling that I could not put it down.

My bone to pick with the book is that while it is well-written (style-wise) and gives an insight into the geisha culture, the voice is startlingly Western, as if I was watching an anime character that has been dubbed over by an American accent. Aside from Golden giving the story a “fairy tale” (in Sayuri’s mind) ending, Sayuri’s cluttered train of thought was so distractingly un-Japanese, and I found myself looking for the quiet subtlety I’ve come to admire in Japanese writers.

I actually want to talk about another geisha book, one we read for Great Books class back in college, and was really memorable to me: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.

Kawabata is the first Japanese author to win a Nobel Prize for Literature, and Snow Country is his first full-length novel.

Snow Country, often touted as the convergence of haiku and a novel, is a tragic love story set in a geisha district in snowy Western Japan.

I love the juxtaposition of beauty and sadness (a specialty of Kawabata’s — he has another novel entitled Beauty and Sadness) in Snow Country, the breathtaking but bleak snow-capped mountains providing the perfect backdrop for this theme.

“In the depths of the mirror the evening landscape moved by, the mirror and the reflected figures like motion pictures superimposed one on the other. The figures and the background were unrelated, and yet the figures, transparent and intangible, and the background, dim in the gathering darkness, melted into a sort of symbolic world not of this world. Particularly when a light out in the mountains shone in the center of the girl’s face, Shimamura felt his chest rise at the inexpressible beauty of it.”

The tragic love affair is between the wealthy Shimamura and the hot-spring (provincial) geisha Komako. Shimamura trifles with feelings while Komako’s whole being revolves around them. Komako devotes all of herself to Shimamura, with full knowledge that the more they love each other, the farther apart they’ll become.

As plots go, nothing much happens in this book, but the moving emotion of Kawabata’s writing makes it a masterpiece.

I especially like this passage on journalling books:

“But even more than her diary, Shimamura was surprised at her statement that she had carefully cataloged every novel and short story she had read since she was fifteen or sixteen. The record already filled ten notebooks.

“You write down your criticisms, do you?”

“I could never do anything like that. I just write down the author and the characters and how they are related to each other. That is about all.”

“But what good does it do?”

“None at all.”

“A waste of effort.”

“A complete waste of effort,” she answered brightly, as though the admission meant little to her. She gazed solemnly at Shimamura, however.

A complete waste of effort. For some reason Shimamura wanted to stress the point. But, drawn to her at that moment, he felt a quiet like the voice of the rain flow over him. He knew well enough that for her it was in fact no waste of effort, but somehow the final determination that it was had the effect of distilling and purifying the woman’s existence.”

With all these books about geisha, wired_lain, a BookMooch friend in Japan, tells me that the geisha are getting sick of so much attention from tourists, who bug them to take photos. I can just imagine how irritating that is.

***
My copy: Memoirs of A Geisha, hardcover; Snow Country, trade paperback

My rating: Memoirs of A Geisha, 3/5 stars; Snow Country, 5/5 stars

Meet David.

Book #8 for 2009 – Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori

I’m not much of a sewer (as in person who sews, not drainage), but the cuteness of this book got me hooked as soon as I spotted it up on a high shelf at Book Sale.

I looked it over and decided my powers could take on the amount of sewing the projects in the book required, and started hunting for cast off socks at home.

The book contains a short story showcasing different softie animals. Very minimalist, very Japanese. Then the back of the book contains some pretty straightforward instructions on how to create 13 softie toys, including dog, monkey, cat, rabbit, zebra, panda, mouse, fish, etc., and even how to make clothes for them.

I realize I don’t have to write on and on about the book because last night, I unearthed my sewing supplies and decided to try it out. Voila, meet David the dog! My stitches were a bit wonky because I was in a hurry to finish (took me about three hours all in all) to see what it would look like. But I’m sure I’ll get better with practice.

Can’t wait to make friends for David.

***
My copy: paperback, about P125 at Book Sale

My review: 5/5 stars

Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Book 6 of 2009

Asian book #1 of Diversity Challenge

My first encounter with Ryunosuke Akutagawa was back in freshman English, in my Intro to Fiction Class, when we read “In a Grove.”

I remember we had small group discussions about it, and I couldn’t concentrate because this guy I was crushing on was sitting next to me (tee hee hee) but I remember someone saying that the story was the same as the Japanese film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa (The film was based largely on In a Grove, incorporating some elements from the short story Rashomon).

I still haven’t seen the movie, but I chanced upon this Akutagawa anthology at Book Sale and it was a 1970 edition (Liveright paperback) with some notes pencilled in the margins, but it was about P40, and I knew I wouldn’t come across it again. (I googled the name pencilled in the inside cover and apparently she’s an American minister of some religious congregation… Oh, in case you’re wondering, I started doing that sort of thing — googling the names inside old books– after watching Whisper of the Heart, hee hee hee).

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a writer in the modern period (early 20th century) who was disturbed by Japan’s industrialization, and writing was his way of response, with over a hundred works to his name, before committing suicide at the age of 35.

The book contains six medieval Japanese short stories: In a Grove, Rashomon, Yam Gruel, The Martyr, Kesa and Morito, and The Dragon, a varied collection dealing with different aspects of societal values and human psychology. Authentic illustratiions (by M. Kuwata) are interspersed throughout the text.

In a Grove is easily the frontispiece to this collection — it is a tale of crime (rape, murder and suicide) told from five different perspectives. I like the story’s philosophical exploration into the nature of truth — how it is impossible to know the absolute truth, and how easy it is to blur the lines with memory, human desires and motivations, and personal biases.

The next story features the Rashomon, the largest gate marking entry into Japan’s ancient capital, Kyoto. The gate crumbled with the decline of Kyoto, and the Rashomon soon became a nest for thieves and criminals, as well as a place to dump unclaimed corpses. A recently laid off servant vwitnesses an old hag stealing hair from corpses to make a wig, and the encounter changes his life.

Yam Gruel features a bumbling protagonist whose greatest ambition was to eat his fill of this aristocratic delicacy. When he is presented with an opportunity to fulfill his ambition, however, things do not go the way he imagined.

The Martyr was a surprise because of its Christian (and Jesuit, at that) roots – apparently Akutagawa liked dramatizing existing texts and events, and this one was based on volume two of the book Legenda Aurea. This is the story I least enjoyed — probably because it was less subtle in the moralistic aspect.

Kesa and Morito, I read somewhere, was based on a real affair. Kesa and Morito are illicit lovers, and Morito is driven to kill Kesa’s husband. Here’s the quandary — he doesn’t hate the man and he doesn’t love Kesa but he feels Kesa is compelling him to do it. Kesa doesn’t love Morito either, but is fascinated because Morito mirrors the ugliness she sees in herself. Out of guilt, Kesa switches with her husband on the night Morito comes to kill him. It’s also fascinating how the story tests the very thin line between love and hate.

The Dragon is more of a folk tale, like something out of JK Rowling’s Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was also lighter and more humorous than the rest, dealing with a fellow with a big nose who got so tired of being teased about it that he pulls the prank of the century!

I do not read many anthologies because I like meaty novels I can sink my teeth into, but I enjoyed this book, because while the stories offer a moralistic viewpoint, they pose philosophical questions that encourage the reader to ponder the situations presented and reassess his or her own values.

***
my copy: Liveright paperbound edition, 1970

my rating: 5/5 stars

Photo courtesy of: http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/images/poster/rashomon.jpg (poster)