قصة الكتاب :
Shinchōsha (Shinchō Bunko), 2003. 375 pp. ¥552. ISBN 978-4-
10-116104-4.
Kōno Taeko
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1926. Has won various literary awards
including the Akutagawa Prize for the story “Kani” [Crabs] in 1963,
the Yomiuri Prize for Literature for Fui no koe [A Sudden Voice] in
1969 and Tanizaki bungaku to kōtei no yokubō [Tanizaki’s Literature
and Affirmative Desire] in 1977, the Tanizaki Jun’ichirō Prize for
Ichinen no bokka [A Year of Pastoral Poetry] in 1980, and the Kawabata
Yasunari Prize for Literature for Han shoyū sha in 2002. She
was the first female member of the Akutagawa Prize selection committee.
In 2014, she received the Order of Culture.

“Hiji,” the first tale in this book, is an unconventional love story. It is the reminiscences
of an apparently happy middle-aged couple, set against the background of
Japan’s 1960s high-growth period. The two come from good Kansai families, marrying
for love when they graduate from university. The husband’s job at a top
trading company brings them a lengthy period overseas in such cities as Sydney,
London, and New York. Despite the trials of this time, the couple remain extremely
close to each other. Enduring happiness in itself is a difficult theme for a novel,
and it could be said that this is a most unusual story. Kōno Taeko minutely details
the accident and scars that will come to form the foundation for the couple’s happiness
in the opening, gradually revealing their narcotic and apparently shared
predilections. As readers find themselves absorbed in the idiosyncratic love concealed
behind the life presented by these apparently upstanding members of society,
they will come to savor the true pleasures of this novel.
While “Hiji” centers on a couple named Mimura, the husband and wife in the
second short story, “Han shoyū sha,” are called Kubo. But the reader may derive
a greater interest by imagining them as the same couple. “Han shoyū sha” depicts
the ultimate act of love by a husband on the night when his dead wife’s body is
returned home, completing the couple’s love. The author, who is drawn irresistibly
to the masochism of Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, scrupulously delineates minor events
and details as the story approaches its climax. I do not know of another author
who can craft such a delicate story as Kōno Taeko. (OM)