More than a cat's tale?

If one picture is worth a thousand words, one Japanese novel may be worth many more, offering a telescope into the fantastic realms of the modern Japanese experience.

A snapshot taken from the top of Kyoto's notably modern rail station, for example, shows an endless landscape of concrete business and residential units stretched for miles on each side, punctuated by narrow steeples resting atop obscured Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. The juxtaposition between modern life and tradition in Japan erks many foreigners, and poses the question of what is Japanese, in life as in art.

The plethora of books of Nihonjinron (discourse on, theories about, Japaneseness) between the 1940s and 1970s, premised that Japanese people and culture are unlike any in the world. Some Nihonjin authors were vocal about defining their society in essential terms, like a community defined by its "middle class," built on ideas of "mutual trust" and "respect for human rights." Others like Nakane Chie (Japanese Society) were critical about society but framed it as "vertical society" (tate shikai), "rank consciousness," and "groupism." But the discourse around Japanese through Nihonjinron stands in contradistinction with the development and increasing popularity of Japanese fiction within the last sixty or so years, which show that contemporary Japanese novelists may have more in common with the increasing diverse array of attending post-modern concerns like globalization and commodification than with the distinctly "Japanese" concerns of yesteryear, contained in aesthetics of supreme refinement encapsulated in Murasaki Shikibu's classic, Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji).

So what can we make of modern Japanese literature? On exhibit today are works that have been scoured from the voices of modern Japanese fiction – voices that emanate individual obsessions with identity, tug at realist post-war struggles, hint at poignant and quirky observations of Japanese life and to the almost universal existential examinations of the human condition. Of course, contemporary social issues have always been tackled by Japanese novelists, notably Natsume Soseki (1867-1917), who exemplified his mastery doing just that in the short story form. In I am a Cat, he personified a stray cat, mundanely observing the lives of ordinary people in a society rank with hierarchy. The cat sips milk, flirts with the neighborhood female feline, but also spends exorbitant amounts of time quietly pondering the tiny tragedies of bipedal giants looming above – from the tatters in his owner's coattails to a houseguest's mindless aping of Western customs.

The Expansion of New Literary Art Forms and Forces

Since the classic I am a Cat was published over a hundred years ago, the range of Japanese fiction available to the English-speaking audience has multiplied, ranging from the early works of Junichiro Tanizaki (Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters) to the conte- mporary voices of Banana Yoshimoto (Kitchen, Amrita), Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood), and Miyuki Miyabe (All She Was Worth). The literary styles employed by the full list of authors, too numerous to mention all by name, have also ranged widely. Modern Japanese fiction, in all its diversity, is a dazzling blend of surreal and numbingly real stories often interlinked with Japan's domestic and international affairs. Japan's literature is considered one of the world's most sophisticated, and it has spawned two Nobel Prize winners in the award's 106-year history. The Academy awarded Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) in 1968 and Kenzaburo Oe in 1994. Haruki Murakami has been mentioned numerous times as the next Japanese recipient of the world's most prestigious literary award.

Postwar Literature

The years immediately after World War II were traumatic times for Japanese society, but it was also a time of literary foment. Many styles competed for attention within the literary world, from Russian-influenced social realism to avant-garde. Understandably, authors shift away from the ultra-nationalistic themes condoned by the state during the war years. Yasunari Kawabata achieved worldwide acclaim for many of his novels (Thousand Cranes, Sound of the Mountain) in the years following Japan's defeat. Kawabata's novels retain timeless appeal for its lyricism, his aesthetic discourse over beauty, and his characters' inner struggles with human longing. Kawabata, born to a prosperous Osaka family, stoked the flames of a modern Japanese literary revolution when he and a number of young writers helped found the journal Bungei Jidai (Contemporary Literature). This literary movement, called Shinkankakuha (New Sensation), opposed the dominating realistic school of writing influenced by the Socialist and Communist schools. Kawabata was much more interested in European avant-garde literature and "art for art's sake" as espoused by the Dadaists. In his classic Yukiguni (Snow Country, 1947), he paints a story of a discontented city-dweller who finds solace in a maiden's simple beauty and sporadic love for her temporary guest, which are only magnified by the harshness of a cold countryside tinged with icicles and a closed society's wrath.

Surrealism exemplified some of the most famous works by Kobo Abe (1924-1993), earning him comparisons to Franz Kafka. Surrealism as a 20th-century literary and artistic movement attempted to express the workings of the sub-conscious. Through fantastic imagery and the incongruous juxtaposition of scientific data with bizarre nightmare-like scenarios, Abe explored the individual in contemporary society. His seminal work was Suna no onna (Woman in the Dunes, 1962), but his work Mikkai (Secret Rendezvous, 1977) is worth a read for its critique of a hospital system gone haywire. Every patient requires a secret agent to penetrate the bureaucratic system, and each person also appears to be under surveillance, mimicking the modern-day question, "Is Big Brother watching over you?"

Like Abe, Masuji Ibuse (1898-1993), a Hiroshima native, was also influenced by surrealism and western literary styles. But he is more renowned for his realist portrayal of the bombing of Hiroshima contained in his post-war work, Kuroi Ame (Black Rain, 1966). The book does not deal with the social and political considerations that led to the atomic bomb, but rather deals with the impact of the bombing on the daily lives of Hiroshima citizens. The protagonist, Shizuma Shigematsu, finds his plans to arrange a suitable husband for his niece foiled by fears of radiation sickness after she is contaminated by the soot-filled "black rain" that fell after the bombing.

The Emergence of the I-Novel, Irresponsibility, and Decadence

Osamu Dazai and Oda Sakunosuke are two authors associated as the Buraiha, "the school of irresponsibility and decadence." Literally meaning ruffian or hooligan school, Buraiha was not an actual literary style but a label coined by conservative critics who despised their portrayal of postwar Japan. Their writings stand in contrast to the traditions and morals of the state's earlier ultra-nationalist literature.

Critics disparaged Osamu Dazai (1909-1948), born on the northern tip of Tohoku, for his tackling of suicide and grim characterizations of society. As Donald Keene wrote, "[f]or once, nobody thought to use the damning adjective 'exquisite' about an unquestionably Japanese product." Some of Dazai's novels represent offshoots of the literary genre called the Watakushi shosetsu (I-novel) founded during the reception of naturalism in the earlier Taisho period (1912- 26). The genre suited authors who wished to expose the dark side of society or the dark side of the author's life, since the form itself required a story to remain in a natural realm and be completely realistic.

Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948) employs unsentimental, autobiographical language, to show a protagonist trapped between the traditions of an aristocratic family and the impact of Western culture. Three chapters divide the man's life, revealing his path towards self-destruction in the guise of alcohol abuse, prostitution, and suicide attempts. The fatalistic story suggests the impossibility of changing the course of one's life. Dazai writes, "I find it difficult to understand the kind of human being who lives, or who is sure he can live, purely, happily, serenely, while engaged in deceit. Humans never did teach me that abstruse secret."

Oda Sakunosuke (1913-1947), an Osaka native, also wrote about subjects considered inappropriate by contemporary critics, like stubborn individuality, debauchery, deceit, and the wastefulness of human beings. His subjects suffered from the abject poverty following the war and his stories illustrated the lives of people forced to use the black market. His novels, often employing characters based in Osaka, also helped to draw attention to the wit and rich culture of Kansai society.

New Themes and Directions

Japanese authors are tackling new themes within society, departing from older themes in exciting ways. Kenzaburo Oe incorporated themes relating to the psychology of modern criminals as well as personally touching issues raising a child born with mental retardation, highlighted in his novels, Kojinteki na taiken (A Personal Matter, 1964) and Shizuka na seikatsu (A Quiet Life, 1990).

Born in Osaka but largely unknown outside of Japan, Kono Taeko (1926~) wrote Yojigari (Toddler-Hunting, 1962), a collection of her stories from the 1960s based on an award-winning short story. The collection offers a rare voyeuristic peep inside the closets of her Japanese female prota-gonists, some who lead unhappy married lives, others who crave sado-masochistic sex, while others express fantasies involving little boys (hence the collection's title).

Ryu Murakami's (1952~) Koinrokka Beibizu (Coin-Locker Babies, 1980) recounts the graphic rages of orphaned children seeking revenge by the birth mothers who abandoned them. In za Misosupu (In The Miso Soup, 1997) begins with a sex tour through Tokyo's red-light district and leads the reader into the mind of an American psychopath. In the similar vein of storytelling, Out by Kirino Natsuo (1951) works as an engrossing thriller but also a highly effective examination of modern Japan.

On the lighter side, one can grab Hard-Boiled and Hard Luck (1999) by Banana Yoshimoto, who has been heralded by the foreign press as Japan's JD Salinger not only for her distaste for the press but for her melancholic stories of young people confronting death, drug abuse, and even transsexuality. Japanese fiction continues to cross boundaries and make its influence felt worldwide. But the jury is still out. How Japanese is modern Japanese fiction? What will you make of it? The books are readily available in your local bookshop, waiting for your answer.

This article does not attempt to be a comprehensive list of modern Japanese writers. Some obvious names have been deliberately left out to allow us to emphasise certain aspects of Japanese fiction.

Text: Albert Ting • Illustrations: Jack Lefcourt • Photos: Chris Page