Tag Archives: RKS Japanese Literature

RKS Japanese Literature: A Repulsive Mess of Fish and Sorrow for the Japanese People (Nagai Kafū)

“Upon a wooden counter disturbingly overgrown with green moss sits a shallow, round sushi rice mixing bowl half filled with greasy water containing fish parts, shaved fish meat and rows of skewered shellfish that have been dried in the sun, almost all bearing price tags of ten sen or less. As far as I canContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: A Repulsive Mess of Fish and Sorrow for the Japanese People (Nagai Kafū)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Should I Become an Artist in Japan? (Nagai Kafū)

“Should I become an artist? No, this is Japan, not the West. Far from demanding art, Japanese society looks upon it as a nuisance. Those of us with a deep-seated desire to devote ourselves to the Muses or to Venus must leave this fatherland of ours with all its stringent rules before we can beginContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Should I Become an Artist in Japan? (Nagai Kafū)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Family Ties as Oppressive and Debilitating (Nagai Kafū)

“No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship-be it with friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult-is something one has consciously entered into at some point. Only one’s ties with parents and siblings are formed at birth and are unbreakable. And even if oneContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Family Ties as Oppressive and Debilitating (Nagai Kafū)”

RKS Japanese Literature: The Merest Whiff of the West Makes Tomada Gag (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)

“I did everything I could to resist the voice. But I could do nothing about the fear that gripped me tighter with each day that passed. By now, every aspect of my life in the West revolted me. I shuddered every time I had to walk past a high-rise building or get in a liftContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Merest Whiff of the West Makes Tomada Gag (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Tomada’s Transformation into a Westerner (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)

‘I was Japanese no longer! I had been transformed into a Westerner! To get there (Japan) you’d have to travel down to Marseilles and board a ship for the Orient. Eastward and eastward you’d sail crossing the seas for six weeks or more until you’d finally reached a small island country called Japan, where theContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Tomada’s Transformation into a Westerner (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Tomada’s Increasing Intoxication and Infatuation with the West (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)

‘My infatuation and intoxication grew deeper with every mile we travelled. When I reached Paris I threw myself wholeheartedly into a life of decadence. The bashful Oriental mind can hardly imagine the things I found there. Paris was a whirlpool of lust and desire-a dizzying vortex of excess, debauchery and sick perversions. It’s everything I’dContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Tomada’s Increasing Intoxication and Infatuation with the West (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)”

RKS Japanese Literature: The Failure of Orientals to Deal With a Full Dose of Excitement (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)

‘Subtle they call it. Suggestive. Refined. What a lot of nonsense. It’s a question of aptitude. Orientals just can’t deal with a full dose of excitement. Take singing. Here in the East, no one would dream of really opening up and belting out the loudest voice they can produce. It’s more refined you see toContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Failure of Orientals to Deal With a Full Dose of Excitement (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Tomoda Begins to Reject Japanese Culture (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)

‘A friend during my student days in Yokohama was another bad influence. He took me to Yokohama a couple of times, where I entered a dream world that few Japanese in those days had seen. It was my first glimpse into the world of the white man’s pleasures. From that moment, I had nothing butContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Tomoda Begins to Reject Japanese Culture (Tanizaki Jun’Ichiro)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires : Part Two (Yoshimoto Banana)

“Whenever I caught a cold. My mother would mix up a drink for me, dissolving honey in hot water, adding a splash of whisky, squeezing in the juice of a lemon. She was still doing that for me when I was at high school. On one of those evenings when children were bleeding and beingContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires : Part Two (Yoshimoto Banana)”

RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires (Yoshimoto Banana): Part One

“One morning her son, at the height of his teenage cockiness, goes off to school as always, hardly taking a sip of coffee, long and lanky in his favourite jeans. To his mother, he looks the same as he always has, ever since he was a boy. That look is where all her memories reside-it’sContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires (Yoshimoto Banana): Part One”