Eh.
I finished this book about a week ago, but just really haven't had much to talk about it. Since I read the original language version, I'm just going to point you to the translated edition, here.
11. Shipwrecks by Yoshimura Akira
From what I understand, this is the first of his books to be translated in English. I happen to have the original because my fiancee at the time left it over my place one day, and it's been gathering dust on my shelves for years now, so I might as well put it to some use.
It's a period piece, set around the end of the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States era), and talks about the hardships of a coastal town that's in enough dire straits that they have to regularly sell members of the village into conscription and indentured servitude. The protagonist of the story is Isaku, a 9-year-old boy who must endure growing up in this tough little town, and like so many others, contribute to its darkest secret, that of the ofunesama - causing ships to wreck on the shoals offshore - so that they can plunder the ships to survive. Over the course of the years, as Isaku grows older, he learns how to live in the village, and of what the joys and terrors that ofunesama can bring.
Since it's historical fiction, and had nothing to do with samurai, miko, ninja and all of that, I found it fascinating to read. One thing, however, is that this not a feel-good book. This is more akin to the original Little House on the Prairie stories, and all the not-so-feel-good moments that go with it. It's a tale of survival in a real world situation, not a Disneyfied, antiseptic tone which television seems to make us think the past was.
11. Shipwrecks by Yoshimura Akira
From what I understand, this is the first of his books to be translated in English. I happen to have the original because my fiancee at the time left it over my place one day, and it's been gathering dust on my shelves for years now, so I might as well put it to some use.
It's a period piece, set around the end of the Sengoku Jidai (Warring States era), and talks about the hardships of a coastal town that's in enough dire straits that they have to regularly sell members of the village into conscription and indentured servitude. The protagonist of the story is Isaku, a 9-year-old boy who must endure growing up in this tough little town, and like so many others, contribute to its darkest secret, that of the ofunesama - causing ships to wreck on the shoals offshore - so that they can plunder the ships to survive. Over the course of the years, as Isaku grows older, he learns how to live in the village, and of what the joys and terrors that ofunesama can bring.
Since it's historical fiction, and had nothing to do with samurai, miko, ninja and all of that, I found it fascinating to read. One thing, however, is that this not a feel-good book. This is more akin to the original Little House on the Prairie stories, and all the not-so-feel-good moments that go with it. It's a tale of survival in a real world situation, not a Disneyfied, antiseptic tone which television seems to make us think the past was.