JWH Author's Voice Vol. 11 interview with Shusuke Michio [Part 1]courtesy of Dokushojin S husuke Michio debuted in 2004 with “Senome (Back Eye),” which received an honorable mention in the 5th Horror-Suspsense Award Contest. In 2007, he won the 7th Honkaku Mystery Award with “Shadow," and last year, both “Karasu no Oyayubi (by rule of CROW’s thumb)” and “Ratman” placed in the top ten in the KONOMYS Award Contest “Karasu no Oyayubi “(by rule of CROW’s thumb)” was also nominated for the Naoki Award).Q: Since your debut, Mr. Michio, you have released eight full-length novels, pumping them out at a fervent pace of two per year, and you recently published your first collection of short stories. First, take me through the two years you spent to complete “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil)”, and then please share how you find short stories to be different from full-length novels. In 2006, the first story I wrote was “Hakozume no Moji (Letters in a Box)”, and I intended for it to be a one-off project. I wasn’t really considering a series. But once I had finished writing it, I really loved the story, and my supervising editor loved it too, and so I began thinking that I should make this a series. I decided I definitely wanted to include the character “S” and the crow, and I wrote a second and third part. As I wrote each part, “S,” who I originally meant to be a “faceless” character, began to develop a clouded facade, and eventually evolved into a black presence like a shadow. This peculiar sense kept on building inside of me as I wrote each story, and this is not something that I generally experience when writing a full-length novel. Also, I believe that short stories have the overwhelming advantage of allowing the author to write “only” the world that he wants to write. When writing a novel, there are many characters, and as the story progresses these characters begin to interfere with one another and the constraints on their actions increase. The further the story goes forward, the more difficult it becomes to drive it in a whole new direction. When I write, as the characters begin to interact with each other and the story proceeds along a new path, I am the type who keeps following this new path even if it differs from my original idea of the story. But even so, the framework of a novel is fixed to a certain extent. With short stories, the number of characters is simply fewer, and this allows you to really take your story to extreme places. If you fail, you can always start over from the first line, and this is really the biggest difference. Regarding the labor required, there is hardly any difference in the amount of energy it takes to write one short story versus one full-length novel. They are the same in that sense, but as I wrote these six short stories, I realized that “short stories are not just short novels.” Recently, I think a great proportion of short stories just somehow seem like novels that are short, and I don’t like stories like that. I wanted to do things that I could only do with a short story, and I believe I achieved that with “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil).” At the same time, I ended up building a house and waited for my mother to recover from her illness. Then in 2002, I went on to establish the "Museum of Pictures for Coloring." When I flew to Paris on business, I was overwhelmed by French art, culture, and history. But on the flip side, by getting to know France, I began to notice the splendors of Japanese traditions and culture. Because of this, I came to recognize anew the distinctive cultural and aesthetic aspects of Japan reflected in the pictures for coloring left behind by my uncle, Kiichi Tsutaya, and I wished to somehow tell the world about this. Q: When you first wrote “Hakozume no Moji (Letters in a Box),” did you feel that it had some kind of resonance within you? I had a real sense that I had done something that could only be accomplished with a short story. But what I was actually thinking about when I was writing “Hakozume no Moji (Letters in a Box)” is that I hoped to realize a world that I had always wanted to write about, one which lies between a ghost tale and a mystery. When I first published the story in a magazine, it seemed like my idea wasn’t fully communicated to the readers. Most people took it as a tricky, real mystery. But I didn’t even consider that interpretation at all, and I was actually shocked when it was later included in Konbunsha’s Real Mystery Anthology. Of course, I think everyone is entitled to their own interpretation, and I didn’t necessarily dislike that it was considered to be a real mystery, but when I released it in book form, I wanted to be sure that my idea got through with the entire serial version. Although I wrote the first story as a stand-alone, when I started with the second story, I already had the idea in my head that I wanted to create a five or six part serial short story collection. In the end, I believe that I created a high quality collection that was in line with my original image. I hear many interesting things when I receive reactions from people who read the collection. For example, people have said that after reading “Yoigitsune” in the context of the collection, their impression of it changed nearly 180 degrees compared to when they had read it by itself in a magazine. The story had hardly been edited, but reading it in sequence with the other stories caused the reader’s feelings about the story to change completely. Actually, that changed impression is exactly what I had originally imagined for the story…serials really are interesting, aren’t they. Q: Considering “Hakozume no Moji (Letters in a Box)” as one part within this short story collection, it seems like it can't really be read as a tricky real mystery. Right. It seems like many people get a sense of unease or eeriness from this story. I wrote this story first in order to instill this kind of sense in the readers. However, if I had put “Hakozume no Moji (Letters in a Box)” at the beginning, I think it may have been misunderstood, and that's why I put it in the middle. I wanted people to read it after they had really immersed themselves in the atmosphere of “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil).” Q:The homepage of Kadogawa Shoten currently features a video message from you. In the video, you discuss the definition of a short story while touching on a monster from Chinese folklore called "Konton." Would you discuss your ideas about that a little bit? “Konton” is a creature that existed around the beginning of the universe in Chinese folklore, and took the form of a bear with long hair growing from the front of its body. “Konton” does not have the seven holes which should be on a face. It doesn’t have eyes, ears, a nose, or a mouth, and just runs around in circles. The gods took pity on “Konton” and gave it the seven holes, but because they gave it eyes and a nose, “Konton” died. I wanted to try to express something like this myth of “Konton” in my short stories, something like how one would die if he was given eyes and a nose. If you write something like that in a full-length novel, it would be difficult to make it interesting. But in a short story, the thought of seeing such an incomprehensible monster would be unforgettable to the reader. This kind of lingering image is what I focus on most in my short stories. Q:For example, the last story in the collection, “Akui no Kao (Face of Evil),” has an ending that really stays with you, and the reader can interpret the story in many different ways. One’s imagination can really run wild when thinking about what exactly happened with that strange picture, or what happened to the main character’s friend. I really think this reverberates through all of the other five stories. Changing the subject a little, during the two years you spent writing this short story serial collection, you also received extremely high praise for two other great works you released, “Ratman” and “Karasu no Oyayubi (by rule of CROW’s thumb).” Looking back, what did those two years mean for you, Mr. Michio? Through the serial “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil),” I tried to write about darkness and frightening parts of regular people who might exist anywhere, or about the fear and unease of suddenly falling into a trap on some random day. In other words, I wanted to write about all of these aspects within this collection. Of course, when necessary for the story, these kind of scenes come up in my novels as well, but they are not the main focus of the novel. If I don’t have somewhere to expel these kinds of feelings, I end up trying to force them all into a novel. But because I spent two years creating the story collection in “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil),” I was able to pump all of these feelings into the stories. In that sense, the reason I was able to write “Karasu no Oyayubi (by rule of CROW’s thumb)” and “Ratman” was because I had written “Oni no Ashioto (Footstepts of the Devil).” I don’t usually intend to calculate while I am writing, but looking back now, I think I was writing with really good timing. One more thing I can say is that every time I write a piece, be it a novel or a short story, I always have the feeling that I have grown. I can’t pinpoint exactly what has changed or how it changed, but if I was forced to describe it, I would say that it’s like I have become really adept at superimposing my perspective with that of my characters. A long time ago, even if I was writing in the first person, I couldn’t help but feeling like I was writing a “me” character. But now I no longer have that sense. Now if I am writing from the perspective of a boy, I naturally come to see things from that perspective. To be continued ... »»» To read other interviews | |
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