Setagaya Literary Museum in Tokyo is currently holding an exhibition on Mizumaru Anzai (1942-2014), an illustrator and best friend of Haruki Murakami. In addition to the numerous illustration works, the exhibition includes books of Murakami’s that Anzai designed. In 1980, an editor introduced Anzai to Murakami, who ran a jazz bar in Sendagaya. Since then, […]
Chungking Express is a 1994 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai. captures the vibe of the people in a big city that Murakami’s novels portrayed.
Murakami’s latest book is ” My Good Old Classical Records “, released on 24 June 2021 in Japan. Murakami, known as a jazz record collector and for his deep knowledge of classical records, introduced 486 LP records in this book, covering 100 chapters; some are categorized by music, while some are by a conductor. Murakami […]
Murakami’s novels are known for their surrealism. Still, this surrealism does not exist independently but is further enhanced by the reality of the scenes and place names detailed in his novels. From the point of view of a local Tokyo resident who experienced the period in which the novel is set, the scenery and the […]
In 1974, at the age of 25, Haruki Murakami and his wife Yoko opened a jazz café, Peter Cat, in Kokubunji. At this point in his life, Murakami had not written a novel. No one could have predicted that this unspectacular town would become the setting for a popular novel that has sold 12 million […]
Many foods appear in Haruki Murakami’s works, but eel is special among them. In “Kafka on the Shore”, Murakami has Satoru Nakata talk about how irreplaceable eels are. “Eel is quite a treat. There’s something different about it, compared to other food. Certain foods can take the place of others, but as far as I […]
First Person Singular is Haruki Murakami’s latest collection of short stories, released in Japanese in July 2020 and in English in April 2021. The eight stories include memories of a mysterious old man, a missing poet, music and records, a first lover and literature, a monkey who speaks human, baseball and family, and an unexpected […]
*This article includes possible spoiler Unlike the other stories, ‘First Person Singular’ is not a memoir but an ongoing narrative of the protagonist. This story receives the run-off from the seven stories and concludes the collection. One day, the protagonist (“I”) happened to decide to wear a suit, but felt uncomfortable in front of the […]
*This article includes possible spoiler The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection is different from the other stories in the book. Some readers may think it is a kind of filler, but there is more to it than that. It begins by explaining how the protagonist became a fan of the Swallows: from its foundation in 1950 […]
*This article includes possible spoiler Carnaval is about a friendly relationship with a woman with a deep knowledge of classical music, and the destiny of that woman in the form of a recollection of past memories. Besides the story, Murakami seems to have assumed that he would write about the portrayal of the female character […]