Tokyo: The life of a literary giant begins with home self-defense!

Chapter 298: The Dancer (Part )
When a boy wearing a mask touched the front row, the novel "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was also projected onto the screen.

Yasunari Kawabata.

A very unfamiliar name.
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The mountain road became winding.
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We are almost at the top of Mount Amagi.
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At this time.
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The heavy rain covered the dense fir trees in white and quickly approached me from the foot of the mountain.

The opening sets the tone with a very familiar scene, but my wife's attention is not on it.

"How did you come?"

Although the man who spoke coldly was wrapped tightly, the lady immediately recognized him as Ryukawa Toru, who was supposed to be in Kyoto to participate in the Group Portrait Award selection.

It only takes two hours to get from Kyoto to Tokyo by Shinkansen. My wife is not curious about why Ryukawa Toru was in Kyoto in the morning and arrived in Tokyo in the afternoon, but...
"Who told you to sneak out? Now you can't explain yourself if someone takes a picture of you."

The lady pushed the somewhat conspicuous Longchuan Che to sit down. The group portrait award was a closed selection. If he broke the rules and ran out, his already bad reputation would be even worse.

"Hiss, hair, hair."

The woman sat down almost by pressing her head, sitting in the same position as the wife. Longchuan Che adjusted his messy hair with some dissatisfaction.

The actions of the two made Kujo Fujitaka frown and Takeda Akane was surprised.

In the eyes of others, the two of them were being too intimate.

"Mom, please sit here with me."

Although Ryukawa Toru suddenly showed up for some reason, the sight of the two of them sitting together made Takeda Akane feel uncomfortable.

The girl bent down to give up her seat, looked at Longchuan Che deeply and then left.

"Why are you back in Tokyo?"

The girl's expression was seen by Kujo Fujitaka. He, like everyone else, was watching the story of the high school student and the little dancer at the Yasuda Auditorium, and then asked his grandson who had just spoken rudely.

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" mainly tells the story of Kawashima, a 20-year-old high school student in Tokyo, who travels to Izu alone during the summer vacation. On the sunny and rainy mountain road, he accidentally encounters a group of touring dancers.

Longchuan Che read two sentences and then said.

“It’s more reassuring to come and see it in person.”

This sentence sounds like I'm going to mess it up.

The wife blushed and then pinched Longchuan Che's waist.

It's very strange that Ryukawa Toru and Kujo Fujitaka are somewhat similar, but my wife is afraid of the old man but not Ryukawa Toru.

There was no introduction to "The Dancing Girl of Izu" by Ryukawa Toru, who was catching the mischievous little hand of a woman, but the people present were fascinated by it.

This novel is very strange. It is not as shocking as "Tattoo", but it has a strange magic that can calm people down.
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I was young that year.
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She was wearing a high school uniform, a navy blue kimono with white floral patterns, and a skirt.
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With a school bag on my shoulder, I traveled to Izu alone.

"Tattoo" is a short story, and "The Dancing Girl of Izu" is also a short story.

Appearing on the same screen makes people involuntarily compare.

"Like watching a movie?"

Someone whispered that the manuscript of "The Dancer" brought a strong sense of picture even without anyone introducing the text.

The sound of panting as you run along a steep path in a forest that had just rained.

There is a passage in the description that is particularly interesting.
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We will be in Shuzenji that day, come to Yushima tonight, and probably go south over Mt. Amagi to Yuno Onsen tomorrow.

There is almost no indication in the article that the high school student fell in love with the young dancer, but the words are filled with a sense of youthful immaturity.

"It doesn't seem to fit the theme of this essay contest?"

The font is very expressive, but some people have raised questions. The construction method of the novel "Tattoo" is classical, and many parts are almost in the form of ancient Chinese.

Utagawa Kunisada's Ukiyo-e style, with numerous quotations from classical literature.

However, this is not the case with "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

It tells a simple story about a high school student on an island country, who meets a dancer on Izu Island and falls in love with her.

"Did you write the wrong question?"

Few people present noticed the sudden appearance of Longchuan Che. Everyone simply turned the pages and looked at the story in the picture.

Kujo Fujitaka looked at his grandson beside him and asked curiously.

He had met Longchuan Che several times and knew that this young man would hardly make such a mistake.

"Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote The Tale of Genji, once said this."

Ryukawa Toru knocked on the armrest. He was almost an authority on classical literature and traditional Japanese culture.

"Everyone must always base themselves on learning, and if they also possess a harmonious soul and are useful to the world, they will become strong."

"The Dancer" tells an ordinary story, but it has attracted a lot of literary scholars to watch it out of curiosity.

“Tattoo only borrowed the techniques of classical literature, but the connotation of the aesthetic of mono no aware was not expressed at all.”

Probably no one can really explain what the essence of the Japanese people's mono no aware is.

Some people interpret the "sorrow" and "mono no aware" that run through the lines of "The Tale of Genji" as a true expression of emotion, but Ryukawa Toru prefers to interpret it as a kind of emotional resonance.

People born in this country have been hit by earthquake disasters, which makes them particularly sensitive to certain delicate words.

The little dancer poured tea for me.

When I accidentally broke into the guest room where the artists were sleeping, the little dancer lying on the mat was blushing.

Even if no one introduces it above, those delicate words seem to come alive and penetrate into people's hearts.

"The Dancing Girl" has almost no story, but it gradually pushes the aesthetic experience of "mono no aware" to a higher level.

“The Tattoo is a study of ancient Chinese writing techniques, and The Dancer is a continuation of emotional techniques.”

"To borrow the words of a translator of The Tale of Genji, when I was young, I felt that classical Chinese was cumbersome and I never read it through. When I reread it at the age of 30, because I was used to classical grammar, I felt that it was a masterpiece describing the diverse love of all living beings. When I was 40, I saw that they were unhappy because of Genji's never-satisfied. After the age of 50, I could feel the joy, anger, sorrow and happiness of the characters in the text just by looking at the text."

Ryukawa Tetsu spoke very slowly, as if he was afraid of disturbing the quiet readers behind him.

A nation's aesthetic concepts are the result of long-term cultivation.

Whether it was the reporter who just felt that the topic was off topic, or the wife who was asking questions in a low voice, they were all reading quietly.

"Japanese literature has a long history. Since ancient times, oral literature such as myths, legends, and primitive ballads were born. Later, they were passed down through historical and strange works such as "Kojiki", "Nihonshoki", and "Nihon Mysterious Records", providing a reference for subsequent literary creation.

In the field of ballads, the transition was from primitive ballads to early ballads and tanka such as the Manyoshu; in the field of myths and legends, the fictional novel The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was created, thus creating a precedent for tale literature, and Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji reached the pinnacle of Japanese classical literature.

In the quiet lecture hall, Ryukawa Toru expressed his disdain for Kaga Yufu's work.

"If you use some classical techniques, it will become a traditional story novel?"

“Emotional resonance and harmony in subtle details are the application of the traditional aesthetic concept of mono no aware.”

(End of this chapter)