Places

“Few writers have led as storied a life as Setouchi Jakuchō. Writer, translator, feminist, peace activist, Buddhist nun . . . even this list cannot contain the impressive sweep of her career. Along the way she has also been daughter, wife, mother, mistress, lover, role model, and femme fatale. Through each twist and turn, she has reacted with both feisty verve and self-reproving reflection. Basho (Places), superbly translated here by Liza Dalby, enjoins readers to accompany the author as she travels again over the familiar terrain of her life story, journeying through the places where she once lived, loved, suffered, and learned.” —from the Foreword by Rebecca L. Copeland In this scintillating work of autobiographical fiction, Setouchi Jakuchō recalls with almost photographic clarity scenes from her past: growing up in the Tokushima countryside in the 1920s, the daughter of a craftsman, and in Tokyo as a young student experiencing the heady freedom of college life; escaping to Kyoto at the end of a disastrous arranged marriage and an ill-starred love affair before returning to Tokyo, with its lively community of artists and writers, to establish herself as a novelist. Throughout, Jakuchō is propelled by a burning desire to write and make a living as one. Her memories, remarkably sharp and clear, also provide a fascinating picture of everyday life in Japan in the years surrounding World War II. "Few authors have led as storied a life as Setouchi Jakuchō. Writer, translator, feminist, peace activist, Buddhist nun . . . even this list cannot contain the impressive sweep of her career. Along the way she has also been daughter, wife, mother, mistress, lover, role model, and femme fatale. Through each twist and turn, she has reacted with both feisty verve and self-reproving reflection. Basho (Places), superbly translated here by Liza Dalby, enjoins readers to accompany the author as she travels again over the familiar terrain of her life story, journeying through the places where she once lived, loved, suffered, and learned." —from the Foreword by Rebecca L. Copeland In this scintillating work of autobiographical fiction, Setouchi Jakuchō recalls with almost photographic clarity scenes from her past: growing up in the Tokushima countryside in the 1920s, the daughter of a craftsman, and in Tokyo as a young student experiencing the heady freedom of college life; escaping to Kyoto at the end of a disastrous arranged marriage and an ill-starred love affair before returning to Tokyo, with its lively community of artists and writers, to establish herself as a novelist. Throughout, Jakuchō is propelled by a burning desire to write and to make a living as a writer. Her memories, sharp and clear, also provide a fascinating picture of everyday life in Japan in the years surrounding World War II. "Places is an English translation of Setouchi Jakuchō's 2001 memoir titled Basho ("Places") in Japanese. Born in 1922, Setouchi wrote this memoir when she was seventy-seven years old. In it she traces her journey back to the geographical locations that anchor memories and reminiscences of her childhood and scandalous earlier life as a novelist, seen through the filter of her later years as a Buddhist nun. The book is accordingly structured by place. Although the narrative proceeds roughly chronologically, it leaps about-the way thoughts and memories often do-connecting things across time and space. As a consciously constructed narrative, it calls to mind and has much in common with Vladimir Nabokov's Speak Memory-which he calls 'an autobiography revisited.'"-- Provided by publisher Mt. Nanzan -- Tatara River -- Nakazu Harbor -- Mt. Bizan -- Nagoya Station -- Aburanokōji Sanjō -- Mitaka Shimorenjaku -- Tōnosawa -- Nishi Ogikubo -- Nogata -- Nerima Takamatsu-chō -- Mejiro Sekiguchidai-machi -- Nakano Honchō Dōri -- Hongō Ikizaka