The name sounded familiar to Tengo, but he couldn’t remember where he might have heard it before. When his attempt to trace the memory back ended in failure, he felt unusually frustrated. (Ch.10, 1Q84) Recently, I happened to know that Sakigake and Akebono are the names of the silkworm species which become chrysalis in the […]
“And so now you’re crushed, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, and that’s why you went down in the well.” (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Ch.10) Just happened to think about whether a well is common for the use in the city in other countries. Here, the old part of Tokyo, the old wells are kept working in preparation […]
It was nice to see Killing Commendatore (2017) was displayed between the classic masterpieces, The Pillow Book (1002) and The Tale of Genji (1008), at the bookshop in Guangzhou.
“So we got the right spot picked out. Now what are you going to do?” “I’ve got to find the entrance stone.” “Entrance stone?” “That’s right.” (Kafka on the Shore, ch.24) Murakami’s “surreality” exists in the boundaries between daily life and the twisted otherworld. I wonder if you have experienced such an unrealistic reality in […]
Catwings, Ursula K. Le Guin, translated by Haruki Murakami.
This month’s Engine Magazine features Murakami’s essay on Porsche 356A Speedster. Like Cinnamon’s Porsche Carrera 911s in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I suppose it could be driven by his character in his future novel.
Murakami inspired art exhibition will be held from September 5 to 14 in Ginza, Tokyo. Each work is based on the inspiration from Murakami’s novel and this is the third one in the series of “Haruki Murakami in Me” since 2015. Gallery Echo An8F Ginza Bldg, 3 Chome−3−12 Ginza, Chuo-ku Tokyo, 104-0061
Rereading Murakami’s essay on Sydney 2000. He wrote “The Olympic Games is like a typhoon eye. If we are in the middle of that, it is not easy to see the whole picture. The longer we stay there, the less we do catch the subject. Of course, more details are visible; for example, a hockey […]
Mieko Kawakami is an Akutagawa Prize-winning novelist. When she was 19, she worked at a bookshop and attended Murakami’s charity public reading for the quake victims in Kobe; after some years, she became an author. In 2017, she interviewed Murakami on Killing Commendatore, his creativeness, memories, fame, daily life, and the next world. Some of […]
Today’s lunchtime reading is a Japanese short stories collection curated by Jay Rubin and introduced by Haruki Murakami. My situation is a bit twisted; this book was originally published in English and I am reading the original texts of those short stories which had been translated to English in the original edition of this book. […]