Chikuma River Sketches - Usato, ottime condizioni

Di: Shimazaki Toson, traduzione di William E. Naff

University of Hawaii Press ed., 1991, copertina rigida, 280 pag., 9780824813147

Unsurpassed for their intimate portrayals of Japanese provincial life at the turn of century, Tōson’s sketches set in the Chikuma River valley are rewarding from whatever approach the reader may choose. Delightful as belles letters, they are also illuminating and informative as history and ethnography. For in recording his observation of life in and around Komoro, an old castle town at the foot of a huge and ever-threatening volcano, Tōson has preserved vivid and lasting impression of the way in which the timeless and universal human questions manifested themselves at this stage in the history of this once-remote mountain town. At the same time, in his rendering of fine details he documents many of the assets and liabilities not only of life in Komoro and of Japanese rural life at the beginning of this century, but of rural life anywhere at any time.

The Chikuma River Sketchbooks and the related stories and essays making up this volume are the product of a crucial stage of Shimazaki Tōson’s development as a writer – the transition from poet to novelist. In the course of their writing, Tōson perfected the lean, yet lyrical, style that was to become one of the most important landmarks in the development of modern literary Japanese. He also laid the groundwork for the breadth of experience and reference that would make him one of the most provocative writers to address the significance of Japanese culture in the world, a perspective that would make possible his monumental novel Before the Dawn. In short, the themes and concerns taken up in these sketches continued to resonate throughout the forty years of active writing that followed, making them an ideal introduction to Tōson and to modern Japanese literature.