Inside and other short fiction:Japanese women by Japanese women

Weekend Beat/ Inside and other short fiction:Japanese women by Japanese women
06/03/2006
BY MARIE DOEZEMA, STAFF WRITER
IHT/Asahi

Inside and other short fiction:
Japanese women by Japanese women
Foreword by Ruth Ozeki
Tokyo: Kodansha International
ISBN 4-7700-3006-1, 256 pp, ¥2,520

The very title, "Inside and other short fiction: Japanese women by Japanese women," gives you high hopes. Ruth Ozeki's introduction to the collection continues to build expectations. An accomplished writer and filmmaker, Ozeki--herself half-Japanese--asserts that the book offers perspectives on Japanese females that are progressive, perhaps even shocking.

"Japanese women have indeed come a long way from the world of geesha-girls and Madame Butterfly," she writes. "How far? Turn the page and see."

Ozeki, author of "My Year of Meats," a scourging tale about the beef industry, and "All Over Creation," a disturbing novel about bioengineered foods, has also delved into the world of autobiography with her film "Halving the Bones," an account of taking her grandmother's remains from Japan to North America. Ozeki, born to an American father and Japanese mother, grew up in Connecticut and first moved to Japan as a graduate student. Today, she lives in New York City and British Columbia.

Ozeki's feminist approach in her own work lends credence to the glowing introduction she writes to "Inside." But turning the page is a bit of a disappointment. Though the eight short stories that follow are, as promised, representative of women of different classes, ages and occupations, the portrait they all too often paint is of a woman who has not come far enough from the world of geisha girls and Madame Butterfly.

Yuzuki Muroi's contribution is the sad story of a prostitute on the verge of her 20th birthday who, among other sordid actions, sells her urine to thirsty lechers. Miyuki is desperate, gullible and void of any sense of self-worth--abused by her boyfriend, abused by the men who buy her sex.

"Milk," by Tamaki Daido, tells the story of four friends in the throes of puberty. Female friendships, first loves and teenage insecurities take center stage, along with the requisite sleazy businessman in search of scoring a uniform-clad schoolgirl.

Rio Shimamoto's "Inside" also focuses on the difficult period between childhood and womanhood. The author, born in 1983, captures what it's like to grow up as the offspring of a loveless marriage. The narrator struggles to understand her sexuality and first relationship while caring for a sick mother and dealing with a whiny, absent father.

Shungiku Uchida's "My Son's Lips" is the story of a seemingly inconsequential but oddly meaningful encounter with a taxi driver. A young mother struggles to balance her career, children and husband, while also trying to cope with unanticipated urges that find their way into daily monotony.

"Her Room," by Chiya Fujino, describes a vaguely unsettling dinner date between two acquaintances. Kitahara, though overeager, is a kind host. But Kyoko can't shake the feeling that her host is a bit off, and a closed door--entering is forbidden--at the end of the hallway ups the creepiness factor considerably. A hatchet horror story doesn't ensue, but what does is more subtle and disturbing, the recognition of someone who is out of sync with the world around her.

"The Unfertilized Egg," by Junko Hasegawa, tells the story of Moriko, a woman obsessed by the sound of her biological clock. She spends her time pining away for her absent lover--also her married boss--eating tapioca pudding and lamenting the lack of procreation in her life. She flirts, drinks and dreams of eggs to no avail. Dismaying thoughts such as "My God, I'm being goaded by my own vulva" repeat themselves ad infinitum.

Amy Yamada's "Fiesta" is a murky tale of personified emotion. It's the ranting of a sexually frustrated office employee in which Desire and Murderous Intent take on Obsession, Passion, Reason and Pride.

"The Shadow of the Orchid" is perhaps the collection's most mature short story, and not only because it focuses on the life of a woman in the stages of menopause. Nobuko Takagi's tale tells the story of Michiko, a pensive woman whose son's departure for school makes her doubt her purpose in life. Her husband's preoccupation with his medical profession doesn't help, and Michiko ultimately centers her anxieties and insecurities on an inherited orchid plant. It's a gentle story that unfurls much like the orchid--subtly and mysteriously.

Unfortunately, much of the collection is neither subtle nor mysterious. Although it aims to reappropriate traditional versions of Japanese femininity, what it gives us is not necessarily new and is often uninspiring.

While the collection offers the opportunity to read several authors who have until now been unavailable to English readers, don't get your hopes up. Several of the stories have plenty of shock value and smut, and thereby succeed in dismantling stale stereotypes of the demure, exotic Japanese female, but that doesn't mean the collection is as revolutionary as the introduction promises.(IHT/Asahi: June 3,2006)


インサイド
Inside and other short fiction
Japanese Women by Japanese Women

大道 珠貴, 島本 理生,
室井 佑月, 内田 春菊,
藤野 千夜, 山田 詠美,
長谷川 純子, 高樹 のぶ子
ルース・オゼキ /序文
ジャケットアート： アーティスト 澤田知子『ＩＤ４００』より
Tamaki Daido, Rio Shimamoto,
Yuzuki Muroi, Shungiku Uchida
Chiya Fujino, Amy Yamada,
Junko Hasegawa, Nobuko Takagi
Foreword by Ruth Ozeki
Jacket Art by Tomoko Sawada

A5判変型 152 x 226mm 620g
ハードカバー 240ページ
ISBN：4-7700-3006-1
発行：2006/1/12
定価：2,520円 (税込)

購入したい!


[ 内　容 ]
繊細であからさま、印象深くて強引、優しくて刺激的、せつなくてコミカル・・・性の目覚めから、愛、倒錯、母性、離婚、そして死。
ここに集められた８つの物語が共有するものは、大胆に真っ向から見つめた現代日本女性の生き様だ。
―ルース・オゼキ 序文より


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日本を代表する女性作家８名の異色作を集めたアンソロジー。

【収録作品】
『ミルク』 "MILK" ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 大道珠貴
『Inside』 "INSIDE" ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 島本理生
『Piss』 "PISS" ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 室井佑月
『息子の唇』 "MY SON'S LIPS"・・・・・・・ 内田春菊
『彼女の部屋』 "HER ROOM" ・・・・・・・・藤野千夜
『フィエスタ』 "FIESTA"・・・・・・・・・・・・・・山田詠美
『無精卵』 "THE UNFERTILIZED EGG" ・・・・・・・ 長谷川純子
『蘭の影』 "THE SHADOW OF THE ORCHID" ・・・ 高樹のぶ子


Inside and other short fiction
Japanese Women by Japanese Women
Tamaki Daido, Rio Shimamoto,
Yuzuki Muroi, Shungiku Uchida
Chiya Fujino, Amy Yamada,
Junko Hasegawa, Nobuko Takagi
Foreword by Ruth Ozeki
Jacket Art by Tomoko Sawada

Hardcover 240 pages
152 x 226mm 620g
ISBN : 4-7700-3006-1
Publish : Jun, 2006
Price : $22.95

Want to Purchase


[ About the Book ]
"Delicate and explicit, haunting and aggressive, tender and titillating, poignant and comical . . . from emerging sexuality to love, perversion, motherhood, divorce, and finally death . . . what these eight stories share is a fearless and unsentimental narrative gaze that is fixed unblinkingly on the female experience in Japan today."
—Ruth Ozeki


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Fresh, bold, and vibrant, Inside and other short fiction paints a vivid portrait of the lives of contemporary Japanese women through the most original, thoughtful, and cutting-edge fiction from Japanese women writers today.

With provocative titles such as "Piss," "The Unfertilized Egg," and "My Son's Lips," these eight short stories explore the issue of female identity in a rapidly changing society, where women have unprecedented sexual and economic freedom. From teens to fifties; married, single, divorced; the high school girl, the career woman, the sex worker, the housewife, the mother—this anthology deals frankly and explicitly with a broad range of women's experiences, and showcases the very best of recent writing by Japanese women.

With eight short stories from Amy Yamada, Chiya Fujino, Shungiku Uchida, Tamaki Daido, Rio Shimamoto, Yuzuki Muroi, Junko Hasegawa, and Nobuko Takagi, this anthology presents a range of styles and perspectives from long-established favorites, prize-winning novelists, and outspoken newcomers—many of whom are published here for the first time in English. The foreword is by award-winning Japanese-American novelist Ruth Ozeki, author of My Year of Meats, and the jacket art is a section of ID400 by internationally renowned artist Tomoko Sawara, whose striking photo-booth images of herself in various guises question her own identity and the identity of all women.


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[Contents]

Milk, by Tamaki Daido, Takes us inside the mind of an opinionated high school girl as she reflects on her relationships with friends, family and boyfriends.

Inside, by Rio Shimamoto, is the sensitive account of a teenage girl's first sexual experience against the backdrop of her parents' divorce.

Piss, by Yuzuki Muroi, tells the sexually explicit and very moving story of a young Tokyo prostitute.

My Son's Lips, by Shungiku Uchida, depicts the trials and tribulations of a harassed working mother.

Her Room, by Chiya Fujino, delves into the relationship between two women, one divorced and one single, with a subtle and powerful tale.

Fiesta, by Amy Yamada, is a sophisticated psychological portrait of a sexually repressed woman.

The Unfertilized Egg, by Junko Hasegawa, gives a hard-hitting portrayal of the single thirty-something lifestyle.

The Shadow of the Orchid, by Nobuko Takagi, is the story of a moment of crisis in the life of a fifty-year-old housewife.


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About the authors

Milk, by Tamaki Daido, translation by Louise Heal

TAMAKI DAIDO was born in 1966 and worked as a radio scriptwriter before becoming a novelist. Her novel Naked won the 30th Kyushu Art Festival Prize in 2000. She was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize four times before finally winning the award in 2002 for Salty Drive, a novel that caused some controversy in Japan for its depiction of the unconventional love affair between a woman in her thirties and a man in his sixties. Daido's work is characterized by a cynical sense of humor and an offbeat take on female sexuality.


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Inside, by Rio Shimamoto, translation by Avery Fischer Udagawa

RIO SHIMAMOTO was born in 1983. By the age of twenty, she had twice been nominated for the Akutagawa Prize for her novels Little by Little (2003) and The Depths of the Forest (2004). Little by Little was awarded the Noma Prize for Literature, making Shimamoto the youngest-ever recipient of the award. Her fiction often portrays the loneliness and isolation that young people feel as they cross the threshold from childhood to adulthood.


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Piss, by Yuzuki Muroi, translation by Hisako Ifshin and Leza Lowitz

YUZUKI MUROI was born in 1970. Her resume lists beauty queen, actress, and bar hostess among her past occupations. Today she is better known as a prolific writer of essays and novels, and for her regular appearances on television and radio, where her outspoken views on current affairs make her a sought-after guest panelist on news shows. Since Muroi's debut as a writer in 1997, she has written more than twenty fiction and nonfiction titles. Her essays on love, marriage, and motherhood are particularly popular.


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My Son's Lips, by Shungiku Uchida, translation by Cathy Layne

SHUNGIKU UCHIDA was born in 1959. She shocked Japan with the publication of her novel Father Fucker (1993), a hard-hitting story of domestic sexual abuse, but she is perhaps best known as a manga artist. Uchida is also an actress, winning critical acclaim for her performance as the mother in cult director Takashi Miike's Visitor Q.


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Her Room, by Chiya Fujino, translation by Cathy Layne

CHIYA FUJINO was born in 1962. Her debut novel Afternoon Timetable was published in 1995, the first in a string of prizewinners. Fujino is a transsexual, but her stories do not particularly focus on gay or gender issues. Instead, she prefers to portray characters who are slightly out of step with society, and to hint at what may lurk behind the ordinary facade of everyday life. In 2000 she won the Akutagawa Prize for Summer's Promise, the tale of a group of friends in their twenties, centered around a gay couple and the transsexual next door.


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Fiesta, by Amy Yamada, translation by Philip Price

AMY YAMADA, born in 1959, is widely considered the pioneer of a new generation of Japanese women novelists noted for their frank, sexually explicit portrayals of women's lives. Her first novel, Bedtime Eyes, published in 1985, is the controversial story of the relationship between a black American soldier and a Japanese woman. Since then, Yamada has written more than a hundred novels, essay collections, and short story collections, and has won many major literary prizes. Her novels Trash, Bedtime Eyes, Jesse, and The Piano Player's Fingers have been translated into English.


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The Unfertilized Egg, by Junko Hasegawa, translation by Philip Price

JUNKO HASEGAWA was born in 1966. She is well-known in Japan for her regular appearances in a variety of magazines as a writer of "illustrated reports"; humorous, comic-strip style essays in which Hasegawa depicts the trials and tribulations of the generation of Japanese women to which she belongs. She has recently embarked on a career as a writer of fiction and essays. "The Unfertilized Egg" is taken from her first short story collection, Germination.


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The Shadow of the Orchid, by Nobuko Takagi, translation by Avery Fischer Udagawa

NOBUKO TAKAGI was born in 1946. She won the Akutagawa Prize in 1984 for her novel Embracing the Light. Takagi is perhaps best known for her explorations around the theme of love. Her fiction deals with love in many different guises: pure love, married love, extra-marital affairs, and love triangles. Her rich, sensuous prose often focuses on the dark side of human nature, and on the psychological mechanisms of love.