Haruki Murakami was born in Koyoto, Japan, in 1949.
Most of his novels have been fantasy based, and as such represent a different genre from his knock-out debut novel – and the only one I have read – Norwegian Wood. The book is a literary triumph, a tale of love and loss, a coming of age against the background of 1960s student life in Japan. It takes its title from the Beatle’s influential album and single of the same name.
In a rare departure from his comfort zone, Murakami wrote a short story for Granta – The Magazine of New Writing (Edition 124 – ‘Travel’, 2013), the following of which is a short extract. His tale begs the question of whether revisiting one’s roots is a good idea, especially when so much environmental tragedy has gone down on the home front.
A Walk to Kobe (213)
“For years my parents lived in Ashiya, but when the Hanshin earthquake hit in January 1995, their house was too damaged to stay and they soon moved to Kyoto. So, apart from all the memories I’d stored up for myself (my valuable property), there was no longer any actual connection between me and the Hanshin-kan area. Strictly spcaking, it’s not my home town any more. I feel a deep sense of loss at this fact, as if the axis of my memories is faintly, but audibly, creaking within me. It’s a physical sensation.
Maybe it’s exactly because of that that I wanted to take a walk there, alert and attentive to what I might discover. Perhaps I wanted to see for myself how this home town I’d lost all obvious connections would appear to me now. How much of a shadow (or a shadow of a shadow) of myself I would discover there?
I also wanted to see what effect the Hanshin Earthquake had had on the town I grew up in. I visited Kobe several times after the quake, and was frankly shocked by the extent of damage. But now, some two years later, when the town seemed finally to have righted itself, I wanted to see with my own eyes what transformations had taken place – what this awful violence had stolen from the town, and what it had left behind. There had to be at least some connection, I felt with who I am now.”
Featured image: Pixels.com
