"Through the long tunnel of the border, there is the snow country. The night sky is white. The train stopped in front of the signal field. Above the distant peaks, there is still a faint remnant of the sunset. The silhouette of the scene seen through the window glass of the car retreated into the distance, but it did not fade, but it was eclipsed..."
The beginning of Yasushi Kawabata's famous article "Snow Country" is still evocative to read to this day. For this work, he won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first time a Japanese person had won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
According to the statistics of Japan's ShinchoSha on the cumulative sales of literary works sold over the past 100 years since its founding, Yasunari Kawabata's "Snow Country" ranked seventh in the total sales list. Also in the top ten on the list are Natsume Soseki's "Heart" and "Young Master", Osamu Dazai's "Human Disqualification" and "Slanting Sun", Shimazaki Fujimura's "Breaking the Ring" and Samurai Koji's "Friendship", all of which are famous masterpieces in the history of modern Japanese literature, without exception. This also shows that in contemporary Japanese society, where cutting-edge writers and trendy works emerge in an endless stream, Today, which has long entered the electronic age and the digital age, Japan's classic literature still has extremely tenacious vitality. This phenomenon is rare in the world, and the reason behind it is indeed a very worthy topic for study in Japan, a literary power.
The talent of national tradition can become a classic
"Snow Country" is one of the representative works of Yasunari Kawabata, and it is also a classic of Japanese new feeling literature with him and Yokomitsu As the representative figures, and Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, which was the first time that Japanese people won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was also one of only two Japanese writers whose portraits were printed on banknotes (the other being Higuchi Kazuba).
Yasunari Kawabata
Speaking of new sensation literature, it is a literary trend in the Japanese literary circles at the beginning of the 20th century that mainly focuses on the creation of novels, and some Japanese writers who use it as a creative concept to try literary innovation are collectively called "new sensations". In the 1920s, the rapid development of Japanese capitalism provided a hotbed for the birth of new literature, and the Great Kanto Earthquake brought people extraordinary panic and excitement (the earthquake killed about 150,000 people and displaced more than 2 million people), strengthening the "new feeling" that people had already developed.
Fan magazine "Literature and Art Spring and Autumn"
They advocate reflecting the objective world through the subjective world, describing surreal fantasies and psychology, pursuing "new feelings", "new methods of expression" and "stylistic revolution", emphasizing the supremacy of art, believing that art and beauty do not exist in reality, but only exist in the fantasy world, in other words, "beauty in the sense". In 1924, 14 writers, including Toshiichi Yokomitsu, Yasunari Kawabata, Kazuichi Nakagawa, Imatomitsu, and Tetsubei Kataoka, with the support of the literary tycoon Kikuchi Hiroshi, founded the fan magazine "Literary and Art Times" with the support of the literary world tycoon Kikuchi Hiroshi, and began the New Sensation Literature Movement.
Japanese writers have one thing in common, they all have extremely delicate sensibility and pen power, to transform the ordinary scenes common in our daily lives into wonderful words. It does not require so-called "grand narrative", epic or critical realism, often through details and emotions alone, and can even be composed of almost entirely details and emotions, which is also one of the special charms of Japanese literature, especially new feeling literature.
For example, in the opening part of "Snow Country", it is depicted that Shimamura observes the leaves for a long time through the images projected by the window glass, which leads to speculation, memories, etc., which seems bland, but in fact, the author uses the glass as a reflector to observe the real world, while blocking the direct intrusion of reality, which is similar to the use of a long tunnel to separate the real society from the imaginary world. At that time, Japan was on the eve of a major war, the fascist forces were extremely rampant, the contradictions at home and abroad were very sharp, and the author's "snow country" was a peaceful and quiet paradise.
Yasunari Kawabata and Shima Iwashita were filmed on "Snow Country"
The serialization process of "Snow Country" is during World War II, the war leads to intermittent serialization, plus the conversion of many locations, the conversion of character narratives, the conversion of the real world and the memory world are not explained, very abrupt, to repeatedly recall the aforementioned plot, many places to be supplemented by the reader's imagination, so reading "Snow Country" needs to "feel", carefully taste the author's setting of the plot, characters, scenery and some subtle descriptions, etc., in order to realize the subtlety of Kawabata Yasunari's novel.
Beauty lies in discovery, in encounters, in chance.
At four o'clock in the morning, seeing the begonia flowers sleeping, even if you are in hell with the ghost, you can feel at ease; you can pull out your legs at any time. This is the freedom that I, a lonely man at the end of the world, have in my heart.
—— Yasunari Kawabata, "Flowers Don't Sleep"
Including "Snow Country", "Sound of the Mountain", "Thousand Cranes", and "Ancient Capital", Yasunari Kawabata's writing not only absorbs the expression methods of the New Sensation School and stream of consciousness, but also abandons it, and at the same time draws on the traditional factor of Japanese national literature - "material mourning", so that the work naturally becomes the best interpretation of Yasunari Kawabata's literary philosophy, which is also the fundamental reason why his works are loved by Japanese readers, because this kind of interest does not belong to Japanese literature alone, it has long been rooted in the daily life of Ritsuru in Japan.
Literature and film and television converge, and the library helps popularize classics
Japan has always had a good tradition of merging literary works with film and television, and complementing each other, and literary works are often adapted into film and television works, which has played a role in promoting the dissemination of literary works. Yasunari Kawabata has been adapted into nearly twenty films and television works, and in addition to him, many of Japan's classic writers also enjoy this honor.
Natsume Soseki's Yumeiren grass was adapted into a film in 1935 by Kenji Mizoguchi (starring Daijiro Natsukawa, Ichiro Tsukida, and Chiyoko Okura), Heart was adapted into films by Ichikawa Kun and Kanto Shinto in 1955 and 1973, and "Since Then" was made into a film by Yoshimitsu Morita in 1985 (starring Yusaku Matsuda)... After the war, another important writer, Osamu Dazai, whose "Goodbye" was adapted by Koji Shima in 1949 (starring Hideko Takayama); "The Wife of Wei Yong" was directed by Yoshitaro Negishi (starring Takako Matsu), "Pandora's Box" was made into a film by Masashi Tominaga in 2009 (starring Shota Someya and Yosuke Kurazuka), "Shaiyang" was made into a film by Hokuin Akihara (starring Sato Eriko), and Osamu Dazai's most famous work "Human Disqualification" In 2010, it was adapted into a movie by Genjiro Arado (starring Yusuke Isetani and Rimi Ishihara); "Girl Apprentice" was adapted into a movie by Yuzo Fukuma in 2013 (starring Miho Shibata); in addition to adapting the original work, Japanese filmmakers also boldly tried to combine the writer with his work for secondary creation, which also had a great promotion effect on writers and works.
Osamu Dazai
The most sensational thing about this is that Shikazu Kanagawa took the real emotional entanglement between Osamu Dazai and the three women and the process of creating his masterpiece "Human Disqualification" as the story thread, and filmed the film of the same name ,"Human Disqualification" (starring Shun Oguri, Riki Miyazawa, Hideryū wataka Sawajiri, and Fumi Futajido), and it was difficult for the strong idol-level kashi lineup to attract young people. The japanese writer whose works are very popular with screenwriters and directors, and who have been adapted into films, is also one of them, Junichiro Tanizaki.
Koichiro Tanizaki
"Harumi Copy" starring Momoe Miguchi and Tomokazu Miura
Tanizaki Junichiro is known as the representative of Japanese aesthetic literature, the works are mostly depicted women, which seems to be in line with the hearts of film directors, giving them full use, his "tattoo", "Diary of a Crazy Old Man", "Foolish Love", "Swastika", "Haruka Copy", "Fine Snow", "Daydream", "Key", "Hana kui", "Akikao" and so on have been put on the screen.
The film of the same name based on The Autobiographical Novel by Kenzaburo Oe
Kenzaburo Oe's autobiographical novels "Calm Life" and "Feeding" and "Our Time", Inoue Yasushi's "Early Autumn", "Wind Forest Volcano", "Dunhuang", "RememberIng My Mother" and so on have also been adapted and filmed into movies.
Today, classic literary works can be purchased at Japan's largest physical bookstores, Kii Kuniya, Yaesu Book Center, Junkudo, Mifukudo Bookstore, Tsukaya Bookstore, and many online bookstores. In addition to the promotion of film and television adaptations, a fact that cannot be ignored is that the library books launched by many publishing houses have played the role of "light cavalry" in the inheritance of classic literary works. It can be said that without the library, there would be no situation of "classics forever" like today.
In Japan, "bunkomoto" refers to a small, inexpensive, one-line paper book for the purpose of popularization. The folio is the same size and fixed (105x148cm, equivalent to the A6 specification), the same binding, the same style, and the pricing is similar. This kind of book is easy to carry around, the price is low (generally priced at 300-400 yen, equivalent to half a hamburger), very popular with readers, usually in the subway car or café, park bench to see the Japanese buried in the book, they basically hold the library book. Compared with the beautifully bound and exquisite paper-based one-line books, the small, light and inexpensive library books attract the widest reading crowd, especially students.
Founded in 1914 by the Shinchosha Society, the "Shincho Bunko" has gone through 105 years and is the oldest of all the surviving bunko series. Subsequently, Iwanami Shoten, Kodansha, Chuo Kodansha, and The Spring and Autumn Society of Literature and Art have also created their own bunko series, and at present, there are more than 200 kinds of bunko series in Japan, which can be described as prosperous. Since the development of the New Wave Library, it has formed its own unique style in terms of design style, binding and typesetting, printing paper, etc. For example, the spines of the book usually have a uniform color according to different writers: Osamu Dazai is black, Junichiro Tanizaki is white, Yasunari Kawabata is blue... This design allows readers to find search targets on bookshelves extremely efficiently. In addition, in order to make people less prone to visual fatigue when reading, the paper used in the Xinchao Library is yellowish instead of pure white; for environmental reasons, the cover of the Xinchao Library is never coated or any complex process is applied. In order to encourage readers to read more books and read good books, Xinchao Society has worked hard in all aspects. For example, each book is printed with a triangular grape logo, which can be exchanged for small gifts (book covers, eco bags, literary watches, etc.) after collecting a certain amount.
On the occasion of the arrival of summer, the New Wave Club will launch the prestigious "New Wave Library 100 Volumes" seasonal book selection and reading theme activity as usual, and put a unified yellow waist seal on the selected 100 kinds of books, which are displayed in the most eye-catching position of the bookstore for readers to choose and buy. The reason why such activities are held every year in the middle of summer is mainly because students will have more time to study during the summer vacation.
It can be said that the reason why the reading rate of the Japanese people remains high and the reason why the classic works have endured for a long time is inseparable from the efforts made by Japanese publishers in popularizing and promoting them. According to relevant data from a few years ago, only the Shincho Bunko series, Natsume Soseki's "Heart" and Osamu Dazai's "Human Disqualification" have sold a total of 6.73 million copies and 6.57 million copies. Coupled with the sales of the Iwanami Bunko Library, the Set English Library, and the Kotan Bunko Library, several writers who occupy an important position in the history of Japanese literature have exceeded tens of millions of copies of their single works. Conversely, whether a work can be published in Japan has become the only criterion for testing whether the work is up to the classic.
"Classic is crazy" – from paper to ACG interface
After entering the digital age, the popularization and promotion of Japanese classic literature has also kept pace with the times, no longer limited to paper books, but breaking through the shackles, introducing reading elements such as sound, painting, and travel, and classic works have begun to work more hand in hand with anime and games that millennials like to hear, and carry out cross-border reinterpretation, thus stepping out of a new world.
Edogawa's wandering reading of "Ghosts of a Lonely Island"
For example, the Neptune Society, which has always focused on publishing manga books, has also "not done its job" and launched a series of manga editions of literary masterpieces with a reading CD, according to the information collected by the author, the currently known publications include "Takase Shiro Yamanabe Doctor" outside of MoriOka, Natsume Soseki's "I Am a Cat", "Young Master", Ryunosuke Wasagawa's "Rashomon", Osamu Dazai's "Girl Apprentice Lantern", "Run, Melos!" Kenji Miyazawa's "Asking for Too Many Restaurants", Junichiro Tanizaki's "Foolish Love", Edogawa's "Ghost of a Lonely Island", Nakajima Atsushi's "Yamazuki", etc.
Masato Sakai's anime version of the masterpiece is very popular with young readers
In 2009, taking the 100th anniversary of Osamu Dazai's birth as an opportunity, Shueisha and MadHouse co-produced an anime version of the famous artist's short story adaptation series "Blue Literature" (also translated as "Blue Literature"), including Natsume Soseki's "Heart", Osamu Dazai's "Human Disqualification", "Run, Melos!" Ryunosuke Wasagawa's "Hell Change" and "Spider Silk", and "Under the Cherry Blossom Tree" by Ango Sakaguchi are broadcast on TV every Saturday at 1:20 p.m. (October 10, 2009 to December 26, 2009) for half an hour at a time. The manga artists involved in the production are all manga artists who have launched serial works in the manga weekly "Shonen Jump", such as Ken Obata, etc., which are extremely popular in their own right, and with the voice of the powerful actor Masato Sakai, the famous works are very popular with readers, especially young readers.
Coincidentally, Japan's TBS Television has also worked with Kadokawa Bunko and invited well-known directors and actors to produce a six-episode TV series entitled "BUNKO - Japanese Literary Film", including "Takase Boat" by Mori Ouwai, "Golden Scenery" and "Goodbye" by Osamu Dazai, "Lemon" by Kijiro Kajii, "Magic" by Ryunosuke Wasagawa, and "Foot of Tomiko" by Junichiro Tanizaki, each episode is about 25 minutes, making a micro-TV movie series with both texture and topic.
The most recent impact is the "Wenhao Wild Dog" series. Originally a light novel written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Harukawa 35, "Bunhao Wild Dog" was serialized in the monthly manga magazine YOUNGACE in January 2013, and was later adapted into manga, tv anime, and theatrical versions, in which the TV anime was adapted and produced by Bones (Bone Society) for two seasons and 24 episodes, and began broadcasting in April 2016 and distributed by Kadokawa Shoten. This series is also introduced in China.
Interestingly, "The Wild Dog" has gone far beyond the scale of the original adaptation, it combines a group of literary heroes and their characters into a new work with a strange style, for example, Dazaiji is a member of the "Armed Detective Agency" and is good at detecting strange events that even the police can't do; Kunimita is a strange man who wears glasses and likes to nervously flip through his handbook... Yukiyoshi Fukuzawa, Izumi Kyokazu, Kazuba Higuchi, Mori Ouwai, Kenji Miyazawa, Akiko Yosano, Ryunosuke Wasagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki, Kijiro Kajii, Sakunosuke Oda, Ango Sakaguchi, Nakahara Nakaya, Edogawa Ryubu... Many Japanese literary celebrities have been "invited" to this stage.
Strictly speaking, this is a surreal game work developed in the name of classic literature, borrowing the names of some classic writers and combining the characteristics of their works, but who can say that those former celebrities do not want to continue to stay in people's memories in this way?
Author: Lu Qiushi is an expert and translator in Japanese literature
Editor: Chen Xihan