The Owl Reads in Spring

The Reading Party

On 1 March 2024, Haruki Murakami and Mieko Kawakami hosted a reading party entitled “The Owl Reads in Spring” at Waseda University to raise funds for the Waseda International House of Literature (Haruki Murakami Library). The event was the first reading party since “The Owl Reads in Winter“, held on 17 December 2019, just before the pandemic.

In Japan, Murakami rarely participates in public readings. The last one before 2019 was a charity reading in Kobe after the quake in 1995. Mieko Kawakami, a 19-year-old bookstore clerk at that time, attended Murakami’s reading party and queued for his autograph.

In 2007, her first novel, “My Ego Ratio, My Teeth, and the World”, won the Tsubouchi Shoyo Prize for Young Emerging Writers from Waseda University when Haruki Murakami received the Grand Prize. She won the Akutagawa Prize for “Breasts and Eggs” in 2008. Since then, her works have been translated into various languages and published worldwide.

Agenda

It began with Kawakami reading her story “Ao Kakeru Ao (Blue by Blue)”, published in 2022 and not yet translated, followed by guitarist Kaori Muraji playing songs including The Beatles’ “Yesterday” and “Michelle”. This reminded many in the audience of Reiko playing guitar in “Norwegian Wood”.

Then Haruki Murakami read the first half of the novel he had written ten days earlier, which his editor had probably yet to see.

After an intermission, actor Yukiyoshi Ozawa read excerpts from Kawakami’s “Heaven” and Murakami’s “Hear the Wind Sing”, accompanied by Muraji’s guitar playing in the background. Kawakami then read from her new story, and Murakami returned to read the second half of his new story, which he had just written.

The reading concluded with Kawakami’s “Naoko’s Last Letter” from Norwegian Wood, followed by conversations and, unusually for Murakami, an on-stage photo session.

Excuse me for not mentioning the details of the new stories that premiered, as it was suggested that the audience keep them in their hearts until publication.

The Literary Well

Kawakami’s first reading of “Ao Kakeru Ao” (Blue by Blue) was a monologue in the form of a letter from a young woman in a Tokyo hospital as the pandemic threatened. During the reading, coughing could be heard from various parts of the audience, reminiscent of the Covid era, but faded as she began to read the last part.

Thank you for finding me. Thank you for liking me. There are times in the world when the places we cannot return to all bloom at once. Please always stay well. Take care.

Ao kakeru Ao (Included in “Haru no Kowai-mono”, 2022, by Mieko Kawakami)

It responded as a foreshadowing of Kawakami’s later reading of an excerpt from Norwegian Wood, the final letter written by the heroine Naoko in the hospital, closing the reading section coherently.

Murakami’s and Kawakami’s new short stories were on the literary ground each had cultivated, creating a moment that encapsulated the joy of literature, as if to echo a phrase written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in 1927: The literary North – or the most literary literature – only silences us. When we come into contact with such works, we can only fall into a trance.

Yukiyoshi Ozawa, son of Seiji Ozawa, the genius conductor and close friend of Murakami who passed away last month, summed it up: “The literary well of Haruki Murakami unites us”.

Murakami’s Presence

Wearing sneakers, jeans and a casual jacket, the 75-year-old Murakami looked healthy, had good posture and an elegant voice, and spoke in a relaxed and sometimes humorous manner.

While Ozawa and Kawakami were reading Murakami’s earlier works, the maestro seemed to have his eyes slightly closed. Whether he was recalling various thoughts or thinking about something else entirely, he looked like a protagonist of his novels reflecting on his own life.

As he often does, he mentioned that he forgets the content of his earlier works because he never rereads them. However, he added that it was a delightful experience to present his first and latest stories side by side. And then he shared memories of his time in Kyoto with the late Seiji Ozawa and offered his condolences.

It was an unbelievably fabulous evening. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone involved in this party and my best wishes for Haruki Murakami’s health.