森見登美彦 – Shosetsu.ninja

Run, Melos! by Morimi Tomihiko

Morimi has re-written five Japanese modern-classic short stories with his own twist. He recreates the stories with his specialty, college students in Kyoto, bringing in references from his earlier works such as The Night Is Short Walk on Girl.

I was thrilled to see that one of Morimi’s works is available on Audiobook.jp. This one is more challenging to understand than other audiobooks I have listened to because of some of the decorative phrasing used in descriptions, but even without 100% knowledge of some of the advanced vocabulary used, the stories are still understandable.

The Moon Over the Mountain

This first story of the collection one was my favorite. Not just for the story itself but for where it led me. This story was written by Nakajima Atsushi. I found that he wrote short stories in the early 20th century that are set in ancient China. I have been working on learning Chinese lately, and I have found learning about China from Japanese sources is quite rewarding. The original story is, although short, quite difficult to read, so I haven’t worked through it yet. Once I get to it, I’ll share my thoughts in another post.

Another neat aspect of this story is the incorporation of Daimonji Mountain, which shows up in many of Morimi’s works including The Tropics

In a Grove

This story is about a student in a university film-making club who creates a film featuring his girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend rekindling their love. It takes the perspective of several different characters describing the same situation.

The final narrator uses a lazy way of speaking, possibly with Kansai intonation—it’s hard for me to pick out accents in Japanese. It was difficult for me to understand, but with the many other descriptions of the same situation, I was better able to parse what he is saying. I have a very hard time understanding conversation, as opposed to something like an audiobook, which is relatively slow and deliberate. I think listening to the final narrator a few more times will be helpful for my listening comprehension of conversations, where you need to be able to understand a wide variety of speaking styles, which are not always clear and deliberate.

Run, Melos!

This feature story is also the most humorous and ridiculous. While the original, by Dazai, based on a Greek myth was probably not so humorous, peach-colored briefs play a prominent role in this updated version.

Under The Full-bloom Sakura Forest

This one had the least humor and seemed more serious to me. Quite possibly I’m missing humor if it is there though. I really liked the structure of this story, but I can’t give away the details.

One Hundred Ghost Stories

This is a great story to tie everything together. A mysterious character organizes an event where one hundred ghost stories are told, with one of 100 candles blown out after each story. When it becomes pitch dark, the real ghost is said to appear!

Final Thoughts

This work will probably be most enjoyable if you have read Morimi’s other older works that are based on university students in Kyoto, such as Walk on Girl The Night Is Young, Tatami Galaxy, and Tower of the Sun. I haven’t read the latter two, but I have a feeling I’m missing references from those works. Overall, this compilation of short stories is an enjoyable way to get some exposure to modern-classic short stories, all while never leaving Morimi-world, which has been fleshed out in his other works.

Image of Daimonji used under Creative Commons License

この短編集は５冊の古典文学作品をパロディーした物語にできています。森見先生のよくあるパターンで京大の大学生を通して物語を語れています。当作品中、夜は短し歩けよ乙女などの以前の森見作品のこともよく触れています。

当作家の作品はAudiobook.jpに一冊出ていると見て大変喜びました。たまに独特な言い回しが使われているので僕が聞いた他の作品よりやや聞き取りにくかったですが、語彙を１００％わからなくても、なんとなくあらすじをついていけたと思います。

山月記

この短編集の中でこれは一番好きでした。作品そのもののためだけじゃなくて、導かれた道もその理由のひとつでした。原作の作家である中島敦を調べたところで、中国の古典を素材にして小説を書いていたと気づきました。僕は最近広東語を学んでいてその文化も学びたいと思っていますが、日本語の材料を使って中国のことを学ぶことは英語の材料を使うより深みがあると気づきました。日本語では地名や人命の漢字はそのまま使われていますし、中国のことを表現するには日本語の方がふさわしいという気がします。ちなみに、原作は漢語風な書き方で非常に読みにくいのでまだ読んでいないですが、読んだら感想をブログに投稿しようと思います。

他に面白いと思ったことは大文字山の登場でした。熱帯を含んで、森見先生の多くの作品に出ている名所で面白かったです。

藪の中

こちらは大学の映画サークル所属の学生の映画製作の事情についてです。監督と登場する男女の複雑な関係がいろいろな人の観点から語られています。

最後に出てくる語り手は少し早口で、もしかして関西のイントネーションで喋っているかもしれない—外国人の僕には訛りを見分けるのは難しいです。でもこの物語の形のかげで、最後の語り手が出てくる際、あらすじはすでに大体把握していましたから、言っていることもほとんど全部わかりました。

日本語の会話はオーディオブックに比べると僕にとって聞き取りにくいです。オーディオブックははっかり、ゆっくり語れていますが会話はそうでもないです。会話で使われているような日本語を慣れるため、この短編の最後の語り手を何回か聞いておきたいと思います。

走れメロス

これは表題作で一番おかしくて、笑わせられます。原作は太宰治の作品でその原作はギリシアの神話です。その二つの原作はこんなに軽くないと思います。森見先生版では桃色ブリーフは物語の中心にありますし。

桜の森の満開の下

これは一番真面目な短編でした。多分笑ってもいい部分がありましたが読み逃したかもしれないです。この話の形が好きでしたがネタバレしたくないですからこのへんにしておきましょう。

百物語

この短編は全部をまとめるには最適でした。謎の人物は独特なイベントを催します。幽霊話を100本語りながら、蝋燭を一本ずつ消していきます。最後の蝋燭が消されて真っ暗になったとき、本物の幽霊は現われるそうです。

最後に

この短編集を読む前に森見先生の他に京大生が出ている作品を読んだ方がいいと思います。例えば夜は短し歩けよ乙女や四畳半神話体系や太陽の塔。後者の二冊はまだ読んだことがないですが、読んでいないから見逃してる部分はないと思えないです。結局、これを読んで、森見ワルドを一歩も出ずに楽しく近代文学の名作に紹介してもらいました。

大文字山の写真はクリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンス

Japanese Book Review: The Tropics by Morimi Tomihiko

(熱帯　森見　登美彦）

I don’t normally write in-depth summaries of the books I read, but this one had an intricate enough plot that I wanted to do it for myself, and hopefully, someone else will come across this and find it helpful. This book has the most complicated plot I have read. Early on, we learn that one of the characters carries around a notebook to keep track everything that happens, a lesson he learned after his copy of The Tropics, a mysterious book that no one has ever finished, disappeared.

I took this as a hint and began writing down what happened as I read. If you plan to read this book I would suggest doing the same, or to save time, you can use my summary as a map.

Obviously, this includes spoilers, so if you plan on reading the book come back when you’re finished. Here goes:

Japanese Book Review: Endless Night – Morimi Tomihiko

（夜行 – 森見登美彦）

The title of this book could be read Yakou or Yagyou depending on whether it functions as part of the word for night train or part of the word for “The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons” . For my translation of the title into English, I didn’t have a punchy way to make the night train reference and the reference to Japanese folklore simultaneously, so I chose to use a recurring motif in the book: endless night.

This book doesn’t really fall into the horror genre, but the eerie tone can occasionally send you into a cold sweat. It is more like a ghost story, or more accurately, a collection of ghost stories.

Five friends gather at a traditional inn near Kyoto on the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of their friend Hasegawa, which occurred on the night of the annual Kurama Fire Festival. Imagine a night of half-naked men carrying giant torches and portable shrines through a small town that only sees that kind of crowd once a year.

Continue reading “Japanese Book Review: Endless Night – Morimi Tomihiko”

Ten Japanese Four-Character Idioms in Context from “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl”

Four-character idioms are an interesting feature of the Japanese language. From here on I will call them yojijukugo, which is the romaniztion of 四字熟語. One example that a beginner may be familiar with is, “一生懸命いっしょうけんめい (is shou ken mei)”, which basically means to try hard. It’s often quite relevant for someone trying to learn Japanese.

I have been interested in yojijukugo since soon after I started learning Japanese. I bought a pocket-size yojijukugo dictionary and would highlight entries as I came across them in real life. I have mostly discovered them reading but have sometimes noticed them in podcasts after I know what to listen for. I would be very unlikely to pick up any yojujukugo from context by listening. When I re-discover an idiom in a podcast, I get a very rewarding feeling—lots of reading is paying off.

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl by Morimi Tomihiko (夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見登美彦) is filled with interesting yojijukugo. As with any vocabulary, yojijukugo are hard to learn in isolation, so this novel provides a great opportunity to see many instances used in context by an expert. I will pull out my ten favorite and include the sentence they came from as well as the context.

Continue reading “Ten Japanese Four-Character Idioms in Context from “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl””

Translation of a scene from Morimi Tomihiko’s “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl”

夜は短し歩けよ乙女 by 森見登美彦 has been popular for a long time, and has recently gained in popularity based on its rankings in bookemeter.com. I think this is because an animated movie based on the book came out in theaters this month in Japan.

I have read a couple of novels from Morimi Tomihiko, and his writing style is my favorite I’ve encountered so far. The extensive and out of the ordinary vocabulary he uses, and his roundabout ways of expressing things makes his writing very interesting to read. His books are also a treasure trove of new (to me) and interesting, but not necessarily common, vocabulary to learn.

I haven’t been too drawn to the plots and settings of the Morimi books I have read so far. It’s not that they’re bad, but they’re just not quite my taste. I find that the writing style is so interesting, that I’m not too worried if the plot and setting are not my favorite and look forward to reading more of his books.

I will translate a strange scene from the middle of this novel. I’m not able to do the writing style justice in translation, but I try to get the meaning across. The section I translated was not actually too dense with challenging vocabulary.

Continue reading “Translation of a scene from Morimi Tomihiko’s “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl””

Japanese Book Review: 有頂天家族 – 森見登美彦

(uchoten kazoku – Morimi Tomihiko)

Most of the characters in this book are tanukis, of which the standard English translation seems to be “Japanese racoon dogs.” Tanukis can shape shift into quite a range of things, people, or even places in this book. The story is about the interaction between humans, tanukis, and tengus, who can fly and create massive winds. The story is told by Yasaburo, the 3rd son in a family of tanukis made up of a mother and 4 sons who are struggling to fill the shoes of their late father, who was the leader of the Tanuki world.

The rules for this fantastic world are a bit crazy and hard to understand, but it is grounded in the actual geography of Kyoto. It contains lots of detailed and excellent descriptions of real places, and almost acts like a travel book. You’ll find yourself wanting to walk around Kyoto and see the book’s setting in person.

Continue reading “Japanese Book Review: 有頂天家族 – 森見登美彦”