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Vol.3: Musashino and the beauty of seasons
When I talk about Tokyo to foreigners who used to live here for some time, it often happens to me to have to struggle in order to explain why I like Shinjuku’s cement so much, why I think one could stay in Koenji for years without any need to go anywhere else for any reason, or why I do not feel so enthusiastic about Shibuya and Roppongi’s movida. But in this endless city there is, actually, a place one can always declare to be in love with without the need of any further explanation, and that place is Musashino. As long as I remember, nobody ever talked to me about this area without giving in to the bittersweet sense of subtle excitement its name evokes. 
Recently I read Doppo Kunikida’s Musashino, a work of - especially at the time of its publication -questioned literary value, but, from my point of view, extremely interesting. Doppo’s approach to writing was slightly different from most of his colleagues because he was a shakaijin, someone who lived and worked into society and did not observe it as a looker-on, as the artist who portrays people while watching them by a more or less distant perspective. Doppo’s experience of society from the inside provided him with the ability to show things and feelings as they really are, and this is evident in Musashino. The work is conceived as a sort of diary in which the flow of time in the beautiful area collocated in the west of Tokyo is recorded. Musashino is said to be beautiful especially when the cherry trees are in bloom, but, as it happens in life, every season has its peculiar flavour.
Also these rainy days of October, the same beginning of autumn that Doppo chose as the starting point of his ode to Musashino, can be the best time to move westwards. As soundtrack, let me suggest Dôji Morita’s album "Kôkô kyôshi OST."
Gala M. Follaco: Born in Italy. Graduated from the University of Naples "L'Orientale." Currently living in Tokyo and graduate student at Waseda University. | ||
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TOKYO MAP back number: Vol.1 Vol.2 CONTACT INFO TranNet K.K. / Japanese Writers' House Email: rights@trannet.co.jp JAPANESE WRITERS' HOUSE Newsletter is an English language newsletter brings you latest publishing market news of Japan. Distribution: The second and fourth Wednesday of the month by email. [Subscribe] If you wish to receive future Japanese Writers' House Newsletter , let us know by clicking the link below. Subscribe now!>>Click here! Please do not detele the default title, "Subscribe." |