LITERARY PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHY OF EDO/TOKYO & AMSTERDAM
End-Report for the Japan Foundation of the research done by Tjebbe van Tijen in the cadre of the Medium Term Visitors’ Program in Commemoration with the Okinawa/Kyushu Summit 2000 from 2/10/2000 to 28/2/2001, extended (on own costs) to 28/3/2001
1
LITERARY PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHY OF EDO/TOKYO & AMSTERDAM End-Report for the Japan Foundation of the research done by Tjebbe van Tijen in the cadre of the Medium Term Visitors’ Program in Commemoration with the Okinawa/Kyushu Summit 2000 from 2/10/2000 to 28/2/2001, extended (on own costs) to 28/3/2001 This report describes the six different types of activities I have pursued during my half year stay in Japan: 1. discovering the morphology and many city-scapes of Tokyo; 2. searching and selecting quotations from (translated) Japanese literature with concise and expressive descriptions of moods evoked by specific areas and realms of Edo/Tokyo; 3. developing mapping principles as navigation instruments through these literary time, space and mood descriptions; 4. developing visualisation principles to relate the present to the past on the basis of photography and computer-graphics; 5. making contacts for future development of the project (website for public participation in the searching and selection of quotations, finding further research opportunities and facilities, finding potential collaborators who could make and continue the Japanese version of the project); 6. exchange ideas with people in related fields (social geography, urban.anthropology, historical cartography, inter-action design, sonology/soundscapes, bibliography, literature, visual arts, database technology, digital mapping). What is there concretely after six months of work in Tokyo? •
Four hundred quotations, ‘psych-geographic’ descriptions, of the area now called Tokyo, Musashino Plain a millennium before that, and Edo until one and a half century ago. Fifty thousand words by a hundred different writers, taken from one and a half hundred different sources, organized in a series of several related databases (full bibliographical descriptions, authors, quotations, maps, emblematic photographs, topographical names, glossaries, notes , classification terms). This quantity is only to give sufficient examples to set rules how to make a large collection of psycho-geographic quotations. The number of quotes is below 10% of the actual number of quotes needed to be able to experience and display the complexity of the Edo/Tokyo area through several centuries. This is a task that is far beyond my capabilities and endurance. From the beginning public participation in the research (through the internet and public libraries) has been thought of; it will be only through such a modern process of sharing of knowledge that the project can be realized. (see Appendix II for the texts of the first example quotes)
•
A bibliographical research database with almost seven hundred titles with linkages to the national academic library system of Japan NACSIS.
•
A list of almost two hundred authors/titles which still need to be checked, read, for possible descriptive passages on Edo/Tokyo. (see Appendix I)
•
A series of digital sketches that establish the basic principles for the time/space mapping system and an inventory of available actual paper and digital maps of Tokyo.
•
A first concept for mapping moods as expressed in literary texts, based on color and light changes as observed by the author and his created subjects (season, part of day, weather, artificial lights, reflections, light movement, etc.).
1
Literary-Psycho-geography, origin of idea As my subject may sound unfamiliar and makes one wonder why a Dutchman wants to discover and compare the psychology of two cities so wide apart and so different as Edo/Tokyo and Amsterdam, I will start to describe in some detail the origin and development of the actual research project. The project of literary psycho-geography developed over many years and relates to my double profession (multi-media artist &librarian/curator) and my long term engagement with citizens actions. It started twenty five years ago in Amsterdam, being involved in debates and citizens actions related to urban renewal of parts of the inner city of Amsterdam. That debate centered on differences of opinion about renewal plans, especially about the building of new transport infrastructure (highways and underground railways) cutting straight through parts of the old center of Amsterdam and the replacement of houses by big offices and the like. The debate had several levels: - the preservation of the historical townscape; the loss of cheap housing in the inner town; - the breaking up of local communities that for a great part were going to be forced out of their homes and shops. In this process, that took two decades, a strong citizens movement arose, and major confrontations with the official politics of those days occurred. The debate expanded, from local to city wide, and became even an issue on a national level. It resulted in a chance in public opinion, which led to a fundamental change in the urban politics of the city of Amsterdam. When the future development of a city or a rural area is debated, when there are new plans that will change the land- or city scape, plans with a great impact on the people living, visiting or using such areas, there are mostly two opposing visions, one pointing at needed improvements and gains in the future, the other referring to the past and what will be lost. There are some times happy marriages between these two elements, but more often the debate leads to a kind of divorce, with a widening gap between opposing views, and a tendency in both ‘camps’ to take a more extreme position. Which past? Whose past? In such debates the past is often mentioned, not only the spacial properties of buildings, roads and other urban elements, but also the atmosphere of a certain area, underlaying elements of local history and culture. This is what led to the idea of ‘literary psycho-geography’. These public debates made me wonder and I started to ask questions: which past? whose past? One can remember one’s own history, also talk with older people, but then, when one wants to go back further in time, one will need to read, because that is about the only way to know how previous generations experienced their living environment. What to read to get to know the past of a city, or a certain part of the city? There are the official books of a town’s history that attempt objectivying experiences from the past. Such texts are often too general and often convey a single truth, a uniform way of looking at things, while, on the contrary, a town or city is a place of many different phenomena with many different people all having their own way of seeing things, their own interpretations. I started to wonder how people over many different generations, living in the same part of town, in the same area, had been experiencing their living environment in their time. Not to lament things lost, or to generate a feeling of nostalgia, but as basic material for understanding the present, as a prerequisite to develop a vision for the future.
1
Understanding the past to shape the future I started reading, mostly novels and short stories, but also poetry and theater plays, in which in any way, however brief or vague, the part of the inner city affected by the proposed plans, was mentioned or described. My search was especially for quotations in which a unity of time, space and mood had been put to words in an expressive language. At first I limited myself to the part of the inner city where I was living, later my interest expanded to the whole of Amsterdam and other (mainly) European cities. In that process of reading into the past and trying to recognize something left over in the present, I started to systemize my notes and developed a first system to make those quotations function as separate elements, make them comparable, arranging them in different orders, discovering similarities, making new associations. At first this was a big card file system with cut out photocopied texts, handwritten classifications and little photographs. Many years later, in the middle of the eighties, it became a computer database system, which, at first, could only carry textual information. That system gave a glimpse of further reaching possibilities and the idea was triggered to develop a system that would allow to wander through time, space and mood, to encounter all those different experiences of the town, over years, decades, centuries. Inspiration from situationist movement As an artist in the mid sixties, I had been in contact with a political and artistic movement called ‘situationist international’, a loose grouping of artists and intellectuals from different countries that had developed a criticism of what they labeled ‘the society of the spectacle’. Their criticism was also directed at the rationalization of the modern city, the utilitarian plans with their division of functions of the city into separate areas for work, sleep and recreation: the city as a living and working machine. The ‘situationists’ were sensitive to the diversity of atmospheres that still existed in many parts of the city of Paris and rejected the coldness and the isolated and atomized way of life in the new sleeping towns, the new suburbs. They were looking for methods to re-introduce poetry in the daily living environment, they advocated the ‘creation of situations’ (that’s where their name derives from), temporal creative events where daily life, art and politics would fuse. From that critical position the situationists developed a method to discover the attractions and diversity of neighborhoods, that had not yet fell victim to the utilitarian modernization process. One of these areas were ‘Les Halles’ in Paris, a most complex and attractive area in the fifties and sixties, with a big lively food market right in the old center (demolished to make place for deep underground shopping centers and the Centre George Pompidou in the seventies). Other town areas explored by members of this radical art movement were located in Venice, London and Amsterdam. The ‘situationists’ would wander through such attractive quarters and neighborhoods, let themselves drift by impulse and tried to describe their experiences in experimental forms of mapping, that would, instead of objectivying space, visualize personal experience of space and mark the different atmospheres encountered. These driftings and mappings were to be used as playful tools for developing strategies to re-introduce poetry in the citylandscape. The ‘situationists’ baptized their method ‘psycho-geography’. It was an experimental method of surveying and ‘reading’ the urban landscape, based on an older tradition of preceding artistic movements like the French and Belgian ‘surrealists’ and ‘lettrists’ with absurdistic pilgrimages and writers from the 19th century like Baudelaire, De Quincy and Dickens with their explorations and depictions of the city atmospheres of London and Paris. I adapted the situationist idea of ‘psycho-geography’ to the circumstances of the urban debates in Amsterdam and the need to better understand the past, to be able to formulate plans for the future in which the new would adapt itself to the old, and the old would accommodate the new, wandering and drifting not only through the actual city-space but also through its multi layered past, I called it ‘Literary Psycho-Geography’.
1
Definition of literary psycho-geography Psycho-geography is the art that tries to record and understand the influence of the outer environment on the human mind and vice versa. Literary psycho-geography is the expression of this phenomena in literature, whereby literature is taken in its widest possible sense: any writing that manages to capture the influence of a particular part of a city or landscape on the human mind, or a person's projection of inner feelings or moods onto the outer environment. Well versed literary texts, poetry, novels or theater plays, but also popular fiction, comic books, journalistic writing, songs, films, official reports and advertisement slogans, all these can have fragments or passages that capture 'psycho-geographic moments' in descriptive text. All these scattered text fragments, when put together, will make it possible to 'read' the life story of the (city) landscape, to 'map' it's changes of atmosphere and mood. Books make this liaison with the past possible, they are an interface to learn about a town. This relation can also be reversed: learning about books and their authors by drifting through the city landscape. The city writing itself In 1977 I made the first exhibition on the subject in which a selections of quotations from a wide variety of books on one particular area (the former Jewish Ghetto of Amsterdam) was displayed together with contemporary images and indications of locations. In that year the first theoretical article was published ‘Een aanzet tot een literaire psycho-geografie van de Amsterdamse Jodenbuurt’ (an attempt at making a literary psycho-geography of the Jewish Quarters of Amsterdam). By comparing the writings of several different writers on the same area, the conclusion was that certain cityscapes were exerting such a strong influence that they were almost ‘writing themselves’ in the minds of people and would surface in comparable ways in the writings of authors with different styles, from different periods and different backgrounds. New possibilities using computers In the mid-eighties, with the advent of the personal computer, new possibilities came into sight to combine text and image and sound in one digital format, allowing for the first time the multiple and fast combination of series of dramatized ‘psycho-geographic’ quotations taken from a wide variety of sources. In that period I started to work again with the Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw, with whom I worked together in the sixties, and we started to discuss the possibilities of making an interactive computer-based system for the literary-psycho geography. In 1986 a first series of computer graphics with collages that would be inspired by literary quotations was produced in the context of a big exhibition on urban plans for a big part of the inner city of Amsterdam and the revitalization of old harbor areas (in collaboration with Jeffrey Shaw). In this stage the element of sound was added to the project, whereby the literary text fragments (quotations) were dramatized, read by actors with added related sound environments (‘soundscapes’ made in collaboration with the sonologist and ethno-musicologist Fred Gales). A series of psycho-geographic boat tours with readings of literary texts accompanied by soundscapes was also organized in this period, reviving memories of the city and linking them to the actual debate on how to formulate the guiding concepts for the actual urban renewal process in that area. In a later stage this boat tour was adapted for a non-Dutch speaking audience, with the text translated and narrated life in English for an international audience of urban historians who could in this way get an intimate and personalized view of two centuries of the Amsterdam inner town within a two hour boat fare.
1
Studies of other cities In the beginning of the nineties two studies were made together with Jeffrey Shaw for a possible adaption of the idea of literary psycho-geography of the German town Karlsruhe and the French town Marseille. In the end there were not enough financial resources to realize these plans, but it helped to widen the scope of the research. In 1991, together with Jeffrey Shaw, a second essay on literary psycho-geography was published, which carried several references to more universal aspects of the relation between cities and literature: Cities are not only scenes for plots of novels. The diversity in rooms, houses, streets, buildings, areas, the multiplicity of atmospheres and impressions, the simultaneity of individual lives, make cities at the same time models for the structure of novels. In various novels cities, from backgrounds become protagonists. People and their lives become mere decor.The revolutionary growth of the printing press pushes the number of writers, books and readers up. At the same time cities grow and change. Novels relate the changes cities go through, revive what can no longer be lived. Their descriptions are often only fragments of the composite wholes cities are with their many different parts. The narrative component tries to offer a view of the whole by connecting the fragments among them. But no novel can ever present all possible visions. There are ever more separate descriptions. Cities no longer are single books but multiplicities of books. Who is able to read all of them? Cities initially purporting to be unities dissolve into multiplicities. They are like trunks of trees disappearing under their foliages. As seasons rotate leaves wither, fall, are swept away by the winds, become compost in libraries. Conditionally existing images of time and space, scattered over innumerable book case. Every book a unity consisting of a multiplicity of relatively independent parts. Pages, like wrongly addressed letters, wait for brazen readers of their contents. Quotations squirming like earthworms cut to pieces. Guided by passages in books describing cities readers create their own spaces. Prescriptions on how to understand novels flutter in the wind. Imposed interpretations do not hold. Every core of understanding is a shell for further interpretations. As long as cities live and grow writers and readers continue to polish their facets.
1995 first visit to Japan Four years later I visited Japan for the first time in my life, being invited to give a lecture at a symposium at Keio University with the theme ‘The Future of the Book of the Future’. It was during that visit that I was first emerged into the vast city-scape of Tokyo and it made me wonder... As many people have experienced, at first sight this town seems to have no history at all, but one soon learns that this a biased viewpoint. Certainly there a re very few buildings from past epochs, but with sometraining stgructures of the past can clearly be recognized.
1
1998 concept for actual research project I immediately got interested to see if the idea of ‘literary psycho-geography’ could also be adapted to this huge and complex city. In 1998 the first concept, basis for the later proposal to the Japan Foundation was written in which the idea was developed of comparing two cities at the opposite sides of the globe , cities that are also each other opposite in size and character:
Tokyo and Amsterdam. Contrasting cities, the one a macro-polis, possibly the largest city of the world, the other a mini-polis, a world village. There are some similarities: both cities are a little over half millennium in age, both are harbour cities at the seaside with a history linked to rivers, waterways and reclaiming of land, but that is a feature that, logically, many big cities in the world have in common. The differences are much more obvious: the contrast between the vast amount of remainders of different periods of the past in Amsterdam and the apparent lack of it in Tokyo. Though that is nothing more than a strong first impression, as each landscape, each city have hidden layers of their past and one needs time to learn to read them in the present. There is the famous half moon shaped girdle of the 17th and 18th century canals in Amsterdam as it's most prominent feature. Tokyo has retained it's basic structure of spiralling out quarters from the central shogunate castle of early Edo times in its modern city layout. Amsterdam is full of tangible objects of the past, in Tokyo the past is often only there in the names of quarters and neighbourhoods, bridges, covered waterways, railway stations, bus stops and modern buildings. There is no way to compare the level of destruction of natural and man made disasters that befell Tokyo and Amsterdam. Floods, earthquakes, fire storms and aerial bombardments have erased big parts of the city of Tokyo repeatedly. Amsterdam has experiences only in its early times some fires and only a few floods with any impact and has been spared a bombardment during the second world war. There have been what is called a 'bombardment from within ' during the so called Hunger Winter of 1945 when there was not sufficient fuel left during a cold winter and the emptied houses of the deported Jewish inhabitants have been ravaged for fire wood and many were demolished in this process, but this does compare in no way to the hardships experienced by the plagued population of Tokyo. A milder climate, repeated destruction and the constant fear of another major earthquake, have also led to a tradition of a more temporary kind of buildings and road structures than the ones we see in a town like Amsterdam. Changes in the cityscape are much more dynamic in Tokyo than in Amsterdam. It will be interesting to see if and how, over a long period of time, these differences are expressed in local literature and other depictions of these two cities.
1
Short overview of activities: October 2000 - March 2001 1- discovering the morphology and many city-scapes of Tokyo 2- searching and selecting quotations about Edo/Tokyo These two activities were very much interwoven. Riding the city on my bicycle and reading the city sitting on a chair or mostly on the tatami mat of my ryokan. The selection of quotations has been one of my main activities in the period of my stay in Japan, as these short expressive texts are at the core of the project. One could say, as it concerns translated Japanese literature only and literary and other expressive writings in European languages accessible to me (French, German, English, Italian and Dutch), that this reading could well have been done outside of Japan. This is only partly true, as there are far more texts translated from the Japanese in language as accessible to me in private collections and academic libraries in the Netherlands. Also my reading of these texts was limited by my still superficial knowledge of the city-scape of Tokyo (having been there, in total, only three months over a period of four years, in the period 1995-1999. So in the beginning my ability to localize places mentioned or indirectly indicated was very limited. Intense reading on the one hand and frequent driftings and purposely getting lost, through and in all parts of the city made me slowly a bit more aware. These two processes of reading, reading the city in texts and reading the texts back into the actual experiences structure of the city were mutual supportive. I did start my research in the Netherlands using the libraries of the Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden (the last one being specialized in Japanese language and culture). Before writing my application to the Japan Foundation, I had done bibliographical research to find references to literary texts that might have ‘psycho-geographic’ descriptions of time, place and mood of Edo>Tokyo. By using mainly secondary sources: anthologies and overviews of Japanese literature, specific studies of certain groups of writers, styles, historical periods, a first database with references to specific authors and titles was made. Of course the reader writes the text, not just the writer, how else can the text be read? It must be reproduced again and again, only in the process of reading it is alive... and a text can have many lives, lives far beyond the control of the writer, the critiques, the translators, the educators, and others who , often with the best intentions, try to fix what can not be fixed... Searching for psycho-geographic descriptions within a text, is a special experience, a special way of handling text... The agile eye will look over a sea of words, focus here and there, at the watch out for any occurrence where the topos, the land or city scape will surface, often as a swimmer between the waves... there are certain words, and thus images of words which will halt the eye for a moment, that little tip could be just the beginning or the end of a passage that might be worthwhile quoting... There are certain crude methods to navigate a text... the opening of a novel, a chapter, or a closing of such a separate sector of a book, that is to say for a certain type of text, which will have a structure not just unique of its own, but much more as yet another example of a certain genre.. So there are actors and actions and they need to be set in some space, the most conventual being that the space is nothing more than the backdrop for the actors performing their subsequent activities and interactions. This report is not the place to give a full description of the method and rules for quoting, it will need several different examples to explain the method. This formalization of the process of literary psychogeography will be ready at the end of April and will be published on the website of Tokyo-Geidai. A great help was the nice collection of the International House of Japan library in Roppongi, which has its books directly available to the user from the shelves, and also has a very liberal lending policy for its members. The main part of my choices were made in this library and through this library that supplied me with books from other japanese libraries through the Inter Library Loan System. Appendix 2 gives a list of titles and authors signaled, but for which I could not yet find the time to check them for possible quotations (almost 200 references).
1
3- developing mapping principles for navigation From early on Tokyo fascinated me because of the importance of the use of maps and the wide variety of maps used for all kind of specific purposes. This is not only the case for the actual way of using the town, with its shifting functions and locations, but can also be observed in Edo times. Already in the beginning of my research I decided to try to develop a mapping system that could use and display this cartographic richness. The following illustration shows the main principles:
Circular photographs (often using a fisheye lense) are made of sport, areas, places mentioned in literature and these elements can shrink and grow, from mere dots (pinballs) to crystal glass baals that reflect part of the surroundings. These ‘pinpoints’ are connecting time-layers of different maps.
1
Completely different kind of maps, some with, others without scale, can be combined by pointing to the same location on both maps and connecting them visualy as if a large and long pinpoint was pushed through them.
2
Again the same map principle in a more schematic representation. These are only conceptual designs, and much more time and investment is needed to actualy to be able to realize it.
3
This is another example of the same principle whereby circular slices of different maps, all representing the same area (in this case Ueono Station) are cut out of the original maps and form touchable ‘button’s that will call up a map of a related place and time.
1
4- developing visualisation to relate the present to the past
As there is often the direct visual relation between the townscape of the present and the past has disappeared, I did choose for a form of enstrangement to make photographic pictures in the present that will be a guide to the same spot in the past. The distorting effect of a fish eye lense and also the use of tele-lense pictures has been tested in a collection of over a thousand digital pictures. These are just a few examples. The visual effect relates to an old Western tradition of looking in a so called ‘Claude Glass’ to a landscape, a concenser mirror with optical glasses that would color the view (over one’s back) of the landscape. The name of that device point back to the 17th century landscape painter Claude Loraine who was very popular in Europe for his soft tones and ability to depict the complexity of light. I choose to call these pictures and their function in the navigation process, ‘emblematic’ pointers.
1
Two examples of emblematic pictures with the text they refer to. The left one is a text by Dazai of Shinbazu Pond, the right one the famous text of Soseki on the pond at Tokyo University.
2
5- making contacts for future development of the project Website for public participation in the searching and selection of quotations, finding further research opportunities and facilities. I have spoken with a group of people that have set up a cultural information website called ‘real.tokyo’ and we did speak about possible later particiaption of this group in my work. My affiliated institute Tokyo Geidai, by way of professor FUJIHATA Masaki has expressed interest to see if the continuation of my reserach might be in the future in some way be accomodated by them. I did speak several timesw with one of the references for my project professor JINNAI Hidenobu of Hosei University on possible relations with academic and art institutions in Japan. Finding potential collaborators who could make and continue the Japanese version of the project. Of course I did meet and did speak with many people on my project during my stay which has helped to develop a circuit of possible collaborators and people interested to advice and help also in the future. These are not only Japanese people but also people from other nationalities who have specialized in Japanese language and culture. One of my enthusiastic supporters in this respect has been the Dutch japanologist Maaike Ono Boots. There have been contacts with the cultural attache of the Dutch embassy who has expressed an interest to support possible future activities which would involve a comparison between Amsterdam and Tokyo. In the Netherlands I have had several times contacts with the Stimulation Fund for Architectural and Urban Research, a semi-government body. They are very positive about this project and I will present them in the coming monthes the result of my studies in Japan and will apply for support for the Amsterdam part of the study. Als the Municipal Amsterdam Historical Museum, is one of the institutions who have expressed interest. 6- exchange ideas with people in related fields The project has a multi-disciplinary character and is based on the collaboration with specialists from different fields: social geography, urban.anthropology, historical cartography, inter-action design, sonology/soundscapes, bibliography, literature, visual arts, database technology, digital mapping. During my stay in Japan I have had regular contact in the first place with FUJIHATA Masaki, professor of the multi-media department of Tokyo Geidai, that was my host during these monthes. I have had technical support and the pleasure of exchanging ideas and debating concepts. Also there have been a close relation with JINNAI Hidenobu, as his vision and analysis of Edo/Tokyo is very close to my own observations. On the bibliographical level I have had great support from KOIDE Izumi librarian of the International House of Japan and her staff. I have been a heavy user of all their facilities. On the issue of mapping I have had a few meetings with the geographer MORITA Takashi of Hosei university, who has been willing to listen to me, testing my ideas. Another map specialist HAGA Hiraku, editor of Kashiwashibo Publishing house that specializes in historical maps, has been most helpful. He brought me in contact with one prominent map collector of the Edo period YAMASHITA Kazumasa, who will be supporting the porject in the next stages by supplying photographic material of his collection for digitazation. Last to mention is TORIGOE Keiko a specialist in the history and use of sound, who has expressed great interest in my project and with who I hope to collaborate on the issue of historical ‘soundscapes’ later on. Tokyo 30/3/2001 = Tjebbe van Tijen
1
Appendix I list of 200 titles still to be checked for quotations, several hundred quotations more could be found
1
Appendix II 389 quotations on Edo/Tokyo in chronological orderfrom pre-Edo to post-Tokyo = 1000 years
The main source for my research, the shelves with translated Japanese literature in the library of the International House of Japan in Roppongi This is still a version in a production stage and needs to be corrected and checked, that work will take one or two extra weeks. In some cases the author names and titles of Japanese texts are given in Kanji and Kana, this information is taken from the NACSIS database and ‘parsed’ form that date automatiucaly. However the NACSIS data is in many cases irregular, so the resulted ‘calculation’ can be sometimes wrong or irregular. When next year the Japanese MARC system will be brought on-line for the general public, it will be much easier to solve this technical problem. Also the data supplied in translated works from the Japanese is ofetn not there or incomplete. These are problems that are beyond the scope of this project.
1
1
0938 Sumida river (opinions differ: could be another river/or location of river)
This is the capital-bird!”
When they still went along further and further, there was a very big river between the provinces of Musashi and Shimosa. That river is called Sumidagawa. When they stood in a group on the bank of that river and reflected upon their long journey, they were all worrying, thinking: “How endless far we have come!” But then the ferryman called: “Come quickly on board, it is already getting dark!” When they had gone aboard and were about to cross the river, all were very sad, for each of them had someone they loved in the capital. At that very moment a white bird with red beak and legs and of a size of a snipe was eating fish while sporting on the water. As it was a bird which is not seen in the capital, none of them knew it. When they asked the ferryman, he said: “This is the capital-bird!” Upon hearing this one of them recited: If you are true to your name Well, let me ask you something, Captal-bird: Is the one I love Alive or dead? - so that all in the boat burst into tears.
[adventures of Ariwara no Narihira (?)] 0825-0880 The tales of Ise/Ise monogatari 0938/1957 p.173
1464 Musashino Plain (statue of OTA Dokan in Tokyo International Forum - Marunouchi Chiyoda-ku)
from its simple eaves
This house of mine Is in a grove of pine Along a blue sea, And from its simple eaves One sees high Fuji.
OTA Dokan 1432-1486 {source unknown} 1464 p.
186? Gotenyama (Gate of Dutch Embassy, Shiba-koen - Minato-ku)
once a favourite pleasure resort of the people of Yedo
Other sites in the immediate vicinity had been given to the French, Dutch and Americans for the same purpose. All these were carved out of what had been once a favourite pleasure resort of the people of Yedo, whither in spring all the classes flocked to picnic under the blossoms of the cherry-trees in sight of the blue waters of the bay. Gotenyama was indeed a famous spot in the history of the Shogunate. In its early days the head of the State was wont to go forth thither to meet the great daimios on their annual entry into Yedo, until Iyemitsu, the third of the line, to mark more strongly the supremacy to which he felt he could safely lay claim, resolved that henceforeward he would receive them in his castle, just like the rest of hbis vassals. From that time the gardens had been dedicated to the public use.
Satow, Ernest 1843-193? A diplomat in Japan, the inner history ... 1921, 1968 p.65
1870-1880 Ikenohata next to Shinobazu Pond
one could see, through the branches of the Chinese black pine
Two or three houses away, an inn where geishas entertained had opened recently and it was sometimes noisy in the evening. But the houses on either side of her father’s place had their lattice doors still shut, and in the early monring the ssurroundings seemed unusally quiet. From the bay window of her father’s house one could see, through the branches of the Chinese black pine, the willow limbs swaying slightly in the fresh breeze, and beyond, the lotus leaves that covered the surface of the pond. here and there among their green shone the pink dots of blossoms newly opened in the morning sun. The house, which faced north, would perhaps be rather cold in winter, but in summer it was ideal.
MORI Ogai 1862-1922 The wild goose/Gan 1911-1913/1995 p.62
1870-1880 Shinbazu Pond looking in the direction of Nezu - Taito-ku
gliding over the black, faintly glimmering surface of the pond.
“What are you looking at?” I asked. Ishihara silently pointed toward the pond. Okada and I peered through the gray-tinged evening air in the direction he indicated. At the time of the story the whole surface of the pond from the little ditch that runs down from Nezu to the shore where the three of us were standing was overgrown with reeds. The dead leaves of the reeds gradually thinned out toward the center of the pond, where ragged dried-up lotus leaves and sponge-shaped seed pods dotted the surface, their stems, broken at varying heights, slanting down into the water at sharp angles and giving the scene a desolate air. Ten or twelve wild geese moved to and fro among the soot-colored stems of the lotuses, gliding over the black, faintly glimmering surface of the pond. A few of them sat motionless where they were. “Do you think you could throw a stone that far?” asked Ishihara, looking at Okada.
MORI Ogai 1862-1922 The wild goose/Gan 1911-1913/1995 p.151-152
189? Tokyo the concentration of many people
a battlefield of more than a million souls
Tokyo! How the two characters of the city’s name set my heart throbbing! Tokyo nowadays is a battlefield of more than a million souls, jostling each other, trampling each other down, straining to raise themselves above their fellows; for the ten in every hundred who grow fat on blood and sweat of their ninety fellow-citizens, a mirage inspiring fugitive dreams of glory - ask yourself what our capital is today, and you find yourself cursing the place. But in those days Tokyo was our Promised Land.
KENJIRO Tokutomi 1868-1927 Footprints in the snow/Omoide no ki 1901/1970 p.107
189? Ueno Park - Taito-ku
their branches interlaced, their needles thick and luxuriant
Fall in Ueno Park. Ancient pine trees stood row upon row, their branches interlaced, their needles thick and luxuriant, of a green so deep as to saturate the heart of an onlooker. The fruit trees were desolate in contrast; old and young alike covered with withered leaves. The lonely camellia bushes, their branches laden with flowers, seemed to yearn for companionship. Several of the delicate maple trees had turned a blazing red. The cries of the few remaining birds mirrored the sadness of the season. All at once, the wind blew sharply. The branches of the cherry trees shivered and trembled, shaking free their dead leaves. Fallen leaves strewn on the ground rose as if moved by a spirit and danced about in happy pursuit of one another. Then as if by unanimous accord they lay down again.
FUTABATEI Shimei 1864-1909)The drifting clouds/Ukigumo 1891/19?? p.267
190? bridge Rokugo River (Tama-gawa) - Kawasaki
spreading down like monstrous spider’s legs on either side
“Simpleton!” Yoko murmured to herself. Putting him out of her mind as easily as one tosses rubbish on a fire, she rested her elbows on the rail and let her mind go blank, to feel on her cheeks the crisp air in which the late summer landscape was bathed. Green, indigo, yellow -her eyes registred the colours of the scene around her, but no clear outline of its forms; she was pleasantly conscious, though, of the cool breeze, gently lifting her sidelocks as it passed. The speed of the train was dizzying. Restlessly, Yoko’s mind travelled around the dark, nebulous mass at its centre. A good while later, as it seemed to her, with a sudden head-splittering clatter the train ran on to the iron suspension bridge over the Rokugo River, startling Yoko out of her dream. At the sight of the great cables spreading down like monstrous spider’s legs on either side, she stepped back insticntively under the awning, hiding her head with her sleeves as if praying.
ARISHIMA Takeo 1878-1923 A certain woman/Aru onna 1919/1978 p.39
190? Sanshiro Pond - Tokyo University - Hongo - Bunkyo-ku
...loneliness began to spread across its surface...
He stared at the surface of the pond. The reflection of many trees seemed to reach the bottom, and down deeper than the trees, the blue sky. No longer was he thinking of streetcars, or Tokyo, or Japan; a sense of something far-off and remote had come to take their place. The feeling had lasted but a moment, when loneliness began to spread across its surface like a veil of clouds.
NATSUME Soseki (1867-1916); Sanshiro, a novel/Sanshiro 1907/1977 - p.22
1905-1906 Yoshiwara (Senzoku) Taito-ku
the din of the crowds around the O’Tori Shrine
The O’Tori-sama Festival was held three times in November this year, and except for the middle one, the wheather was very fine. Therefore, the din of the crowds around the O’Tori Shrine on the first and the last fete rose to the highest pitch of the season. Availing themselves of this occasion, swarms of young people crept into the licensed quarters trhough the gate of the examination office. The noise they made with their laughter was so great that the people might be unable to identify its direction without difficulty. Thick groups were seen straining their way through the crowd by accompanying their footsteps with threatening shouts. These spirited groups apeared one after another from all directions, say Sumicho, Kyomachi and the draw-bridges here and there.It was a peculiar congruity that all noises from the rippling hubbub at small riverside stores toi the convivial uproar at the skyscraping edifice of O’Magaki seemed to unite to sound like a grand orchestra. This writer would remind a few happy readers of this spectatcular enchantment of the festivals in those days.
HIGUCHI Ichiyo (1872-1896) Child’s Play, also translated as “Growing up”/Takekurabe
1923-193? Ginza - Chuo-ku
just a street of wretched stores
I took a stroll along the Ginza, some time after the Great Earthquake. Hastily-built stores stood side by side, ready for the year-end bargain sale. Many stalls lined both sides of the street, just as they had prior to the earthquake. The stalls on the west side, sheltered with red screens, were selling bonsai pots for the New Year. Window shopping gave me the same impression it had before the earthquake, and so did the people coming and going along the street. To put it bluntly, the “substance” of the famous Ginza was nothing more than the people there and the commodities on display. In other words, the Ginza itself, before the earthquake, was just a street of wretched stores.
TERADA Torahiko 1878-1935 Persimmon seeds 1917/1933/1988
1926 Tokyo metropolis
Ah, Tokyo, you are a murderous machine
The prefectures in the vicinity of the metropolis called Tokyo are being sucked dry of their economic resources and human talents by the city... Ah, Tokyo, you are a murderous machine that sucks out the blood of the peasants in the name of capitalistic, urban civilization.
SHIBUYA Teisuke 18??-19?? Diary quoted in “Peasants, rebels, & outcastes, the underside of
1927 Yoshiwara (Senzoku) Taito-ku
The gay quarters exposes its pale belly
A somber, doleful compound girt by a high wooden fence. A black gutter runs still by those open spaces. Trees grow and the place reeks with the stench of pallid carbolic acid. Yoshiwara! The gay quarters exposes its pale belly, a dead frog by the dike.
HAGIWARA Sakutaro 1886-1942 Anthology 1927/1993 p.184
193? Shinobazu Pond
A stagnant wind, reeking of sewage, raked the surface of Shinobazu Pond...
What was to become of me? just to think about that was enough to leave me shuddering and too distraught to sit still, so I left my Hongo apartment dragging a walking stick and headed for Ueno Park. It was an evening in mid-September. My white yukata was already out of season, and I felt horribly conspicuous, as I glowed in the dark, and so full of sorrow I no longer wanted to live. A stagnant wind, reeking of sewage, raked the surface of Shinobazu Pond. The lotuses growing there had begun to decay, their grisly carcasses entrapped between bent, elongated stalks, and the idiot faces of people streaming by in the evening cool wer etched with such total exhaustion that one might have thought the end of the world was at hand.
DAZAI Osamu (1909-1948) No kidding 1937/1998 p.59-61
193? Ueno Station - Taito-ku
these are the Gates of Hell
I walked all the way to Ueno Station. Through the portals of this “Wonder of the Orient” swarmed a dark, whrithing, numberless throng. Vanquished souls, one and all. I couldn’t help seeing them that way. For the farming villages in the North east, these are the Gates of Hell. You pass through them to enter the big city, and again to return home, broken and defeated, with nothing but the rags that cling to your ravaged body.
DAZAI Osamu 1909-1948 No kidding1937/1998 p.61
195?-196? edge of the moat at Marunouchi - Chiyoda-ku
watching the swans skim gracefully
Released for the noon break after three hours of work, the office employees of the Marunouchi area flocked onto the spacious lawns in front of the Imperial Palace for a few minutes of relaxation. One group, stretched out on the grass, which had just begun to turn green, were flickering through magazines. Some of the girls were playing volleyball, thier cheerful voices accompanying the ball at each throw, while others watched them. At the edge of the moat, beneath the budding willow trees, a young man and his girl were looking down at the water and watching the swans skim gracefully over its surface.
ENDO Shusaku 1923- Wonderful fool /Obaka san 1966/1974 p.26
195?-196? Maranouchi - Chiyoda-ku
The windows of the buildings too were sparkling
After parting from her brother, Tomoe crossed the Hibiya road junction and headed in the direction of the Nikkatsu Building. Though it had been raining that morning, the skies were now perfectly clear and the wet pavements reflected the brilliant rays of the sun. The windows of the buildings too were sparkling. Foreigners and japanese with briefcases poured out of the doors, intent on their business. A taxi pulled up and discharged its passenger, onlt to pick up another. Another busy day had begun.
ENDO Shusaku 1923- Wonderful fool /Obaka san 1966/1974 p.135
196? Tokyo, underground streets and facilities (year 2000 map of underground below Shinjuku-Station)
to travel from the top of Japan to the bottom,
To cross the city (or to penetrate its depth, for underground there are whole networks of bars, shops to which you sometimes gain access by a simple entryway, so that, once through this narrow door, you discover, dense and sumptuous, the black India of commerce and pleasure) is to travel from the top of Japan to the bottom, to superimpose on its topography the writing of its faces.
Barthes, Roland 1915-1980 Empire of signs/L'empire des signes 1970/1982 p41-42
197? Tokyo in general, people sleeping in boxes.. (homeless waiting for food Ueno Park Taito-ku)
only to persons who are no one
Here is a town for box men. Anonymity is the obligation of the inhabitants and the right to live there is accorded only to persons who are no one. All those who are registred are sentenced by the very fact of being registred.
ABE Kobo 1924-1993 The box man 19../1975 p.130
198?-199? Sanya, Iroha Arcade (Nihonzutsumi Taito-ku/Minami-senju Arakawa-ku)
Other lie down on the street,
I proceeded east through the dilapidated arcade, known as the Iroha, which bustled with evening shoppers. San’ya is home to entrepeneurs, office workers, shopkeepers, and housewives as well as to day laborers, and the teeming arcade serves the entire community. The farther east you walk, however, the drearier the surroundings become. Disheveled men sit in lazy circles drinking and chatting. Other lie down on the street, sleeping off their liquor. More line up in front of two or three tiny take-out-stalls, waiting to buy dinner. Still others imbibe at a stand-up bar opening onto the street.
Fowler, Edward San'Ya Blues : Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo 1997 p.2
198? Rikugien Garden - Bunkyo-ku
Multistoreyed flats were going up around the wood
I began to take the children there occasionally. Several times, too, we released pet turtles or goldfish into the pond. many nearby families who’d run out of room for aquarium creatures in their overcrowed flats would slip them into the pond to spend the rest of their lives at liberty. Rocks rose from the water here and there, and each was studded with turtles sunning themselves. They couldn;t have bred naturally in such numbers. They must have been the tiny turtles sold at fairground stalls and pet shops, grown up without a care in the world. More of them lined the water’s edge at one’s feet. No doubt there were other animals on the increase -goldfish, loaches, and the like. Multistoreyed flats were going up around the wood in quick succession, and more living things were brought down from their rooms each year. Cats were one animal I’d overlooked though. If tipping out turtles was common practice, there was no reason why cats shouldn’t be dumped here and dogs too.
TSUSHIMA Yuko 1947- The silent traders/Danmari no ichi 1982/1988 p.40
198? Shibuya-station pedestrian crossing
a sea of different-colored umbrellas
The plaza in front of Shibuya Station is a lake at the bottom of a valley where several rivers meet. When the sluice gates fly open, hordes of people flood into the intersection from all directions and whirlpools start to swirl. So on rainy days like today it’s a sea of different-colored umbrellas bouncing and knocking around for space. Made me imagine some bizarre machine with a lot of gears going round and round for no good reason.
SHIMADA Masahiko 1961- Dream messenger, a novel/Yumetsukai 1989/1992 p.79
198? the meachism of Tokyo in general
the punctiliously correct performance of ritual
This city is a piece of machinery unrivaled in history for size, complexity, precision; unrivaled for productivity, too, if we measure that in man-miles, sheets of paper, computer printouts, and radio and TV waves. It’s of a scale that beggars analogy: far more stupendous than any beehive or termite’s colony, any factory. The ideas and tools which produced the first archaic prototype of thsi machine came from the other end of the world, from a culture as unlike Japan’s as any the world has seen. Yet somehow the Japanese have made it their own. Charmed throughout their history by the punctiliously correct performance of ritual, they have made of the whole city and its operation a fantastic diurnal ceremony.
Popham, Peter 19??- Tokyo, the city at the end of the world 1985 p.15
1983 Harajuku bridge over Yamanote-line,Yoyogi Park - Shibuya-ku
watch the young members of the 'bamboo-shoot’ generation.
On Sundays, one corner of Yoyogi Park and the road that runs alongside it are packed with onlookers who have come to watch the young members of the 'bamboo-shoot’ generation. The spectators watch enthusiastically as the young men and women form circles here and there and begin a peculiar dance to music from cassette-players. I’m one of the observers. The bamboo-shoot teenagers sport long, Korean-style robes of white or pink, and both male and female participants wear rouge on their cheeks. The groups vary one circle to the next, and each circle has its own leader who sets the pace for the dancing. Off to the side, a foreigner was zealously cranking away at his 8-milimetre camera. As I watch the dances, sadly enough I remember the years during the war. When I was the same age as these young men and women, Japan was already involved in a massive war.
ENDO Shusaku 1923- A sixty-year-old man/Rokujussai no otoko 1983/1993 p.137
2000 Express-way no.6 (elevated and underground)
short embrace of towering light
a girdle drive a river dive a twinkling serpentine a city dance up ... down and ... up again then ... slide and ride a folding road into a wall down, fall rise up wigwagging ways in short embrace of towering light
Tjebbe van Tijen (1944-) Circling the Express-way (2000)
L author
title
published
period
2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2
New Roads in Edo/Edo shimmichi (1678)
1678
167?
Edo snake sushi/Edo ja no sushi (1679)
1679
167?
Arakawa no minwa (1989) [Arakawa-ku Ky¯oiku Iinkai
1989
19??
1999
199?
The Broken Bridge : Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Riding the Black Ship : Japan and Tokyo Disneyland Chikusai monogatari/{L’histoir de Chikusai}
16??
Fiction of desire Year of the wild boar, an American woman in Japan
1942/1973
193?-194?
AGATA Hikari (1943-)
A family party
AKUTAGAWA, Ryunosuke (1892-1927):
The early life of Daidoji/
Alletzhauser, Albert J.
Quake (1997) [Bloomsbury; London]
1997
anonymous
Travels round the east/Azuma meguri (16??)
16??
AOYAMA, Kunizo (1874-1940)
Taish¯o no T¯oky¯o to Edo (1916) [Gakugeisha :
1916
ARIYOSHI Sawako (1931-1984)
The twilight years/Kokotsu no hito {The enraptured man}
1972/1983 & 19??
ASAI Ryoi (16??-16??)
Tokaido meishoki/{Lieux ceelbres di Tokaido}
Barrell, Tony
Tokyo's Burning (1995) (radio play)
1995
1945
Bauer, Gabrielle
Tokyo, My Everest : A Canadian Woman in Japan (1995)
1995
199?
Blankenship, William D.
Time of the Cricket; A Novel of Classic Mayhem in
1995
19??
Boggs, Thomas
Tokyo Vanilla (1998) [Gay Mens Pr; ISBN: 0854492550 [ 1998
199?
Brackett, D.W.
Holy Terror : Armageddon in Tokyo (1996) [Weatherhill;
199?
Cameron, Carol
The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and Fire
1923
Collins, Robert J.
More Max Danger : the continuing adventures of an expat 1988
198?
Collins, Robert J.
Max Danger : the adventures of an expat in Tokyo (1987) 1987
198?
Crockett, Lucy Herndon
Popcorn on the Ginza, an informal portrait of postwar
1949
1945-1949
Davidson, Augbusta M. Campbell
Present-day Japan (1904) [T.Fisher Unwin; London]
1904
Davy, Ross
Kenzo : A Tokyo Story
DAZAI, Osamu (1909-1948):
The Setting Sun/Shayo (1947/1956) [src01 p.224/src05
1947/1956
19 4?-195?
DAZAI, Shundai (1680-1747)
Collected works/Nankaku-sensei bunshu (17??)
17??
17??
EDOIN, Hoto
The Night Tokyo Burned
EIJI, Yoshikawa
Fragments of a past
EMORI, Harumitsu
Shinjuku Kabuki-cho (1983) [Chobunsha]
ENCHI Fumiko (1905-)
The waiting years
ENCHI Fumiko (1905-1986)
Masks/Onnamen
ENDO Shusaku (1923-)
Scandal [Peter Owen; London]
Fitsimmons, Thomas (1926-)
Water ground stone (1994)
FUJI, Keiko
Yume wa yoru hiraku/{La reve s’epanouit la nuit}
FUJIMOTO Kizan (1624-1704)
The great mirror of love/Shikido Okagami/{Le grand miroir 1678
1656-167?
FURUI, Yoshikichi (1937-):
The dwelling place/Sumika (1979) [src05 p.182]
19??
Guillain, Robert
I Saw Tokyo Burning : An Eyewitness Narrative from
Hadfield, Peter
Sixty Seconds That Will Change the World : The Coming
HARUE Shirane
Traces of dreams, landscape, cultural memory, and the
HATTORI Busho (1842-1908)
Tokyo shin-hanjo-ki (1874) [src08 p.34]
189?-192? 2001-
16??-19??
16??
1996
1945
1983
198? 1994
1979
1939-1945 1995
1999-2???
1874
18??
L author
title
published
period
2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2
HAYASHI Fumiko (1904-1951)
Drifting clouds/Ukigumo [src01 p.308]
HAYASHI Fumiko (1904-1951)
Bones/Hone (1949/1966) [in: “The Shadow of Sunrise” ;
1949/1966
1945-1948
HAYASHI Razan (1583-1657)
A journey of 1616/Heishin Kiko (1616)
1616
1616
Hearn, Lafcadio (1850-1904)
Kokoro : hints and echoes of Japanese inner life (1896)
1896
HIRABAYASHI, Taiko (1905-1972)
Self-mockery/Azakeru (1927) [src010 p.39]
1927
HIRAGA, Gennai (1728-1779)
Nenashigusa
IBUSE Masuji (1898-)
Ogikubo chronicles/Ogikubo fudoki (1982) [src010 p.51]
1982
IBUSE Masuji (1898-)
Hikkoshi-yatsure/Always moving (1947)
1947
IHARA Saikaku (1642-1693)
Ukiyo monotogari/{L’histoire du monde flottant} (1661)
1661
IHARA Saikaku (1642-1693)
Tales of samurai honour/Buke giri monogatari (16??/1981) 16??/1981
IHARA Saikaku (1642-1693)
Vie d’une amie de la volupte/Koshoku ichidai onna
16??/1975
INNOUE, Yuiichi (1916-1985)
T¯oky¯o daik¯ush¯u (1995) [Iwanami Shoten; Tokyo; LC
1995
1939-1945
INOUYE, Charles Shiro
Three tales of mystery and imagination, Japanese Gothic 1992
1873-1939
INOUYE Jukichi (1862-1929)
Home life in Tokyo (1910)
1910
1910
ISHIHARA, Shintaro
Season of violence
ITSUKI, Hiroyuki
Sishun no mon/{La porte de la jeunesse} (196?) [Shukan
196?
196?
JIPPENSHA Ikku (1765-1831)
Shank's mare/Tokaidochu hiza kurige (1809) [src006
1809
1802-1822
JIPPENSHA Ikku (1765-1831)
Travels on foot on the Tokaido/Tkaido dochu hizakurige
1802/1822
1802-1822
KAMI, Ryosuke
Tokyo Sights and Insights : Exploring the City's Back
1992
19??
KATO, Ikuya (1929-)
Edo haikai saijiki (1983) [Heibonsha; Tokyo; LC Call No.:
1983
19??
KATO, Takeo (1888-1956)
Leaving the earth/Tsuchi o hanarate (1920) [src007 p.2]
1920
19 2?
KATSU Kokichi (1802-1850)
Musui's story, the autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
18??/1988
KAWABATA Yasunari (1899-1972)
Chronique d'Asakusa/Asakusa kurenaidan{Scarlet gang
1929-1935/1 1920-1930
KAWAKAMI, Hajime (1879-1946)
Tales of poverty/Binbo monogatari (1917)
1917
191?
KAWAKAMI, Hajime (1879-1946)
Autobiography/Jijoden (1947)
1947
189?-1946
Kenrick, Miranda/Kenrick, Yivienne
Too far east too long : our Tokyo : three dotty decades
1977
1945-1977
KINOSHITA Junji (1914-)
Hong¯o (1983) [Kodansha; Tokyo; LC Call No.:
1983
191?-19??
KIRITANI, Elizabeth
Vanishing Japan
Kirkup, James
Tokyo (1966) [Phoenix House; London/etc.]
1966
1964
Kirkup, James
Japan behind the fan (1970) [J.M. Dent & Sons; London]
1970
196?-1970
KITA Morito
The house of Nire /Nireke no hitobito) (1964)
1918-1946
KITA Morito
The fall of the house of Nire /Nireke no hitobito) (1964)
1918-1946
KITAHARA Hakushu (18??-):
Tsukiji [src02 p.41]
18??-19??
KOMATSO, Michi (1924-)
Yakenai de kureta sench¯u nikki : kush¯u to kinr¯o d¯oin
1994
1945
KUBOTA, Mantaro (1889-1963):
Asakusa fudoki (1957) [Kadokawa Shoten ; Tokyo; LC
1957
19??
KUKUZAWA Yukichi (1835-1901)
The autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa (18??/1966)
18??/1966
1835-1901
KUNIKIDA, Doppo (1871-1908)
Diary of a drunken man/Shuchu nikki (1902) [src007 p.1]
1902
190?
KUROSAWA
Ikuru/{Vivre}
KUROSAWA
Dodeskaden
Lawson, Ted W. (1917-)
Thirty seconds over Toky (1953) [Random House; New
1953
1945
Maraini, Fosco
Meeting with Japan (1959) [Viking Press; New York]
1959
1945-195?
MATSUDAIRA, Makoto (1930-)
Yamiichi : T¯oky¯o Ikebukuro (1985) [Domesu Shuppan;
1985
194?
19??
192? 1763 19??
16??
L author
title
published
period
2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2
Meigs, Henry
Gate of the tigers (1992) [Viking; New York; LC Call No.:
1992
199?
MISHIMA Yukio (1925-1970)
The green years/Ao no jidai (1940) [src01 p.209]
1940
194?
MISHIMA Yukio (1925-1970)
The faltering of the virtues/Bitokuno yoromeiki [src01
MITAMURA, Engyo (1870-1952)
Mitamura Engyo zensh¯u. (1975-1983) [Chuo Koronsha’;
MIYAMOTO, Teru
The people of dream street
MORI Ogai (1862-1922)
The bank of the big river [src02 p.151]
MORI Ogai (1862-1922)
Vita sexualis (1909/1972) [Charles E. Tuttle; Rutland,
1909/1972
MORI Ogai (1862-1922)
Youth and other stories (?/1994) [University of Hawaii
?/1994
MORI Ogai (1862-1922)
The vendetta at Gojingahara/Gojingahara no kataiuchi
1???/1991
MORI Ogai (1862-1922)
Shibue Chusai (19??/1985) [in “Woman in the crested
19??/1985
1816-1884
MORITA, Masaharu (1925-)
Saraba, Kinshi-ch¯o! : T¯oky¯o daik¯ush¯u honoo no
1985
1945
MORIYAMA, Tae
Tokyo Adventures : Glimpses of the City in Bygone Eras
1993
18??-19??
Morley, John David
Pictures from the water trade, an Englishman in Japan
1985
197?-197?
Morris, John (1895-19??)
Traveller from Tokyo (1943/1944) [Sheridan House
1943/1944
1938-1943
Morris, John (1895-19??)
The phoenix cup: some notes on Japan in 1946
MURAKAMI, Haruki (1949-)
Norwegian wood
MURATA, Minejiro (1857-1945)
T¯oky¯o chiri enkakushi (1890) [nagaki Tsunesabur¯o :
1890
188?
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
The woman in the rented room (1927) [src01 p.53]
1927
19??
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
Katsushika romance [src01 p.132]
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
Asong in Fukagawa/Fukagawa no uta [src02 p.45/46]
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
The fox/Korshikawa [src02 p.137...]
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
Diary of one recently returned (1911)
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
Walking shoes/Hiyori geta
NAGAI, Kafu (1879-1959):
Kaf¯u to T¯oky¯o : "Danch¯otei nichij¯o" shich¯u (1996)
1996
18??-19??
NAKAGAMI, Kenji (1946-died)
Map of a nineteen-year-old/Jukyu-sai no chizu (1974)
1974
19 ??
NAKAGAMI, Kenjji (1946-)
Contempt/Keibetsu (1992) [src05 p.152]
1992
19??
NAKAGAWA, Yoichi (1897-1994)
A moonflower in heaven/Ten no yugao (1938/1949)
1938/1949
NARUSHIMA, Ryuhoku (1837-1884):
New chronicle of Yanugibashi/Ryuko Shiushi (1859/1860) 1859/1860
1850 (?)
NATSUKI Shizuko (1938-)
Death from the clouds/Kumokara okura shi (1988/1991)
1988/1991
198?-
NATSUKI Shizuko (1938-)
Murder at Mt. Fuji/W no Higeki (1984/1987) [Ballantine
1984/1987
198?-
NATSUME, Soseki (1867-1916):
Little master (sonny)/Botchan (1907) [src010 p.153/src08 sonny
NATSUME, Soseki: (1867-1916)
Michikusa
Nilsen, Henning A. (1947-)
Pelles Harry (1979) [Gyldendal; Oslo; LC Call No.:
NIWA, Fumio (1904-):
Love letter/Koibumi [src01 p.308]
NOGAMI, Yaeko (1885-)
The maze/Meiro (1956)
1956
1936-1956
NOSAKA, Akiyuki (1930-):
The rioters/Sodoshitachi (1971)
1971
1969
NOSAKA, Akiyuki (1930-):
Shinjuku kaiko/{la fosse marine de Shinjuku} (1979)
1979
Nouet, Noel (1885-1968)
Tokyo fifty sketches/cinquante croquis [as seen by a
1935
1931-1935
Nouet, Noel (1885-1968)
The Shogun’s city, a history of Tokyo (1955/1990)
1955/1990
0737-1953
OGI, Hiroko
Shinjuku blues
OKAZAKI, Masao
Haha ga ko ni kataru Ry¯ogoku Kinshi-ch¯o
1983
19??
OSANAI, Kaoru (1881-1928)
The bank of the big river/Okawabata [src02 p.54/src02
19 ?? 1975-1983
1600-1868
18??
1946
1879-1959 1908
19?? 19??
1911
191? 18??-19??
1979
19??
1939-1945 19??
18??-19??
L author
title
published
period
2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2
OSARAGI, Jiro (1897-1973)
The century of the emperor/Tenno no seiki (1967/1973)
1967/1973
186?-19??
OSARAGI, Jiro (1897-1973)
The Journey/Tabiji (1960-1967)
1960-1967
186?-19??
OSHIMA, Nagisa
Diary of a Shinjuku thief [film]
1960
OSHIMA, Tatsui (1902-1986)
T¯oky¯o risai nikki (1992) [Nihon Tosho Senta; Tokyo; LC 1992
1939-1945
OTA, Masanosuke
Hinan kara kikan made : pengash¯u (1923) [Tenky¯o
1923
1923
Pons, Philippe [ed.]
Des villes nommes Tokyo (1984) [Autrement; Paris]
1984
Prindle, Tamae K.
Made in Japan and other Japanese ‘business' novels
1989
Reddick, Blondine Louise
A Month of Revelations in Modern Tokyo, Japan (1992)
1992
19??
Richie, Donald
Tokyo Nights : A Novel
Riordan, Lee
Jishin (1997) [Periplus Editions; Hong Kong]
1997
1923
Riordan, Lee / Riordan, Barbera
Jishin : Lives Shattered, Love Discovered Amid the Great 1997
19??
SACHI, Mizuno
Passion in Tokyo (1996) [Masquerade Books; ISBN:
1996
19??
SAIJO, Yaso (1892-1970)
Aa T¯oky¯o : sanbun, shish¯u (1923) [Koransha; Tokyo;
1923
1923
SAIJO, Yaso (1892-1970)
Aa T¯oky¯o : sanbun, shish¯u (1923) [Koransha; Tokyo;
1923
1923
SAITO, Choshu (1737-1799) /
Edo meisho zue (1917) [Yuhodo; Tokyo; LC Call No.:
1917
17??
SAKAGUCHI Ango (1906-1955)
The idiot/Hakuchi (1946/1961 and 1973) [in “Modern
1946/1961
Samson, Katharine
Living in Tokyo (1937) [Brace & Company; New York,
1937
SANTO, Kioden (1761-1816)
Tsugen Somagaki (1785/1787)
1785/1787
SAOTOME, Katsumoto (1932-)
Heiwa ni ikiru : watakushi no genten T¯oky¯o daik¯ush¯u
1982
1945
SATA Ineko (1904-)
My map of Tokyo/Watashi no Tokyo chizu (1949) [src010 1949
19 4?
SATA Ineko (1904-)
Scharlachrot/Kurenai/{Scarlet} (1936/1990) [Iudicim;
1936/1990
SATO, Haruo (1892-1964)
Beatiful town, stories and essays by Sato Haruo (1996)
1996
SATOMI, Ton (18??-19??)
Putting the old woman out to die/Abasute [src01 p.143]
SEKIGUCHI, Shoji (1930-)
Kodomotachi ni tsutaeru T¯oky¯o daik¯ush¯u (1985)
1985
SETOUCHI Harumi (1922-)
The end of summer/Natsu no owari (1962/1989)
1962/1989
SHIBAKI Yoshiko (1914-)
Snow flurry/Kazahana (1985/1986) [Japanese literature
1985/1986
SHIGA, Naoya (1883-1971)
The paper door and other stories (1987)
1987
SHIKITEI Sanba (1776-1822)
Forty-eight nasty habbits/Shijuhachikusa (1812-1818)
1812-1818
SHIMAZAKI Toson (1872-1943)
Before the dawn/Yoake mae (1929-1935) [src007 p.9]
1929-1935
SHIMAZAKI Toson (1872-1943)
The family/Ie{une famille} (1911/1976)[University of Tokyo 1911/1976
187-19??
SHISHI, Bunroken:
Free school/Jiyu Gakko [src01 p.308]
19??
SONO Ayako (1931-)
Age of fools/Baka no jidai (1976/1980) [Japan Echo
1976/1980
SUDO, Nansui ()
The ladies of new style (1887)
1887
TAKAMI, Jun (1907-1965):
Under what stars/Ikanara hishi no shita ni (1939/1940)
1939/1940
TAKEDA, Rintaro (1904-1946)
The eight Ginza blocks [src01 p.58]
TAMENAGA, Shunsui (1790-1843)
Colors of spring: The Plum calendar/Shunshoku
TAMURA, Taijiro;
Streetwalker [src01 p.308]
TAMURA, Taijiro (1911-?)
Flesh gate/Nikutai no mon (1947) [src01 p.187]
1947
TANABE, Moichi (-1981)
Waga machi Shinjuku/{Shinjuku my town} (1976)
1976
TANABE, Moichi (-1981)
Mayor of the night (1968) [Yohan Publications Inc.]
1968
TANABE, Moichi (-1981)
Shinjuku keieigaku/{La gestion de Shinjuku} (1978)
1978
TANAKA, Komimasa
Shinjuku fura fura zoku/{Ceux qui derivent dans Shinjuku} 1978
193?-193?
19?? 1939-1945
1929-1935
1940-197?
1939-1940 19??
1832-1833
1832-1833 19 -19
L author
title
published
period
2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au 2 au
TANAKA, Yukiko
This Kind of Woman : Ten Stories by Japanese Women
TANIZAKI Junichiro (1886-1965)
Diary of a mad old man (196?)
TAYAMA Katai (1871-1930)
T¯oky¯o shinsaiki (1924) [ Hakubunkan, Taish¯o ; Tokyo; 1924
1923
TERAKAO, Seiken (1796-1868)
Records of Edo/Edo hanjoki (1832-1835)
1832-1835
18??
TOKUDA Shusei (1871-1943)
Rough living/Arakure (1915)
1915
191?
TOKUDA Shusei (1871-1943)
Arajotai
TOKUNAGA, Naoshi:
Street without sun/straat zonder zon (1934) [collection
1934
19 3?
TOMITA, Hitoshi (1946-)
J¯usho to hizuke no aru T¯oky¯o f¯ukei (1989) [Shinjuko
1989
19??
TOMITA, Hitoshi (1946)
Watakushi o aishita T¯oky¯o : ichimei T¯oky¯o suikei kik¯o 1984
19??
Tracy, Honor
Kakemono, a sketchbook of postwar Japan (1950)
1950
1945-1950
TSUBOUCHI, Shoyo (1859-1935):
Dream of the future/Mirai no yume (19??) [src007 p.2]
19??
TSUBOUCHI, Shoyo (1859-1935):
Types of students/Shosei katagi (1887)
1887
TSUSHIMA, Yuko (1947-)
Child of fortune/Choji (1978/1983) [Kodansha; Tokyo]
1978/1983
UEDA Akinari (1734-1809)
Contes de pluie et de lune [Gallimard; traduction Rene
17??/1956
Wade, Tom Henling
Prisoner of the Japanese : From Changi to Tokyo (1994)
1994
1939-1945
Whiting, Robert
Tokyo Underworld : The Fast Times and Hard Life of an
1999
1945-19??
WHITNEY, Clara A.N. (1861-1???)
Clara's diary, an American girl in Meiji Japan (18??/1979)
18??/1979
Williams, Tennessee
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
YANAGISAWA, Shinko (1752-1792)
Sh¯okaku nikki (1981-1983) [Yumani Shobo; Tokyo; LC
1981-1983
YOKOYAMA, Gennosuke
Japan’s lower classes/Nihon no kaso shakai (1899)
1899
YOSHIE Hotta
Judgement/Shinpan (1963)
1963
YOSHIMOTO, Banana (1964-)
Lizard/Tokage (1993)
1993
YOSHIMOTO, Banana (1964-)
Kitchen (1987/1991) [in: “New Japanese voices ()”;
1987/1991
YOSHIMURA, Akira (1927-) / NAGATA,
T¯oky¯o no shitamachi (1985) [Bungei Shunju; Tokyo; LC
1985
YOSHIYUKI Rie (1939-)
The little lady/Chiisana Kifujin (1981/1982) [in: “Japanese 1981/1982
ZAKO, Jun (1929-)
Enko wa itsumo modan datta (1984) [Sahi Shunbunsha’
1960-1976 196?
1984
17??-17??
19??
19??