We are well into the second week of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and while many events are held indoors, catching glimpses of the city as triathletes, runners and more move through it has me craving deeper engagement with the people and places of Tokyo. So I have turned, naturally, to fiction. Here are a few works, mostly by Japanese authors, set in and around Tokyo.
Choosing just one novel by master novelist Haruki Murakami is a daunting proposition, but let’s start with Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, in which Tazaki is prompted to pause his quiet life to visit four friends from high school and understand why their friendship ended. It’s a Murakami novel, though, so expect plenty of surreality and pop culture references. Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is a sparse novel that questions the push to conform to societal expectations as seen through the experiences of 36-year-old convenience store clerk Keiko Furukawa. The classic novel Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, originally published in 1914, tells the story of a young man and his mentor, simultaneously providing a portrait of pre-war Japan. For a more whimsical read, check out Soseki’s I Am a Cat.
In the manga (graphic novel) My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame, Canadian Mike unexpectedly shows up on the doorstep of Yaichi, the twin brother of Mike’s late husband Ryoji, hoping to learn more about Ryoji’s life before he knew Mike. The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami is a slice-of-life story told in vignettes, following twenty-something Hiromi as she works in a secondhand shop, interacting with customers and pursuing a crush on her coworker. Miri Yu’s National Book Award-winning Tokyo Ueno Station follows unsettled ghost Kazu as he wanders a park where he lived for a time in a homeless encampment, recounting the ups-and-downs of his life, including time spent as a laborer helping build the facilities for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
In the mood for a mystery? Originally published in 1962 but just now translated into English, Masako Togawa’s The Master Key is set in Tokyo’s K Apartments for Ladies, where the building of a new highway threatens to uncover secrets – and a body – buried for many years. Newcomer by Keigo Higashino is told through the police interviews of Detective Kaga as he investigates a baffling murder. And the sprawling Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama reinvestigates a 14-year-old kidnapping, shedding light on the underbelly of society and internal power relations.
I am, of course, just barely scratching the surface. What are your favorite Tokyo-set novels?
~ posted by Andrea G.
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