“The thirty-odd voices here are among our last surviving links with Japan’s long feudal period that ended with the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868.” —Juliet Winters Carpenter
From the Translator’s Preface (abbreviated):
Years ago, as a hospital intern in Honolulu, Dr. Saga decided to visit the local library to see what information was available on Japan. He found plenty of works detailing the finer points of the tea ceremony, haiku, ukiyo-e, and Noh drama, but nothing that remotely suggested the everyday lives of men and women like those he grew up with in his birthplace, Tsuchiura. Dissatisfied with this lopsided portrayal of Japan, Saga conceived a need for other kinds of books to remedy the imbalance. Fortunately for us, he took the situation into his own hands. Memories of Wind and Waves, first published in 1995 under the title Kasumigaura Fudoki (A Topographical Record of Kasumigaura) is a set of colorful reminiscences that evokes the joys and hardships of life for fishermen and others on the shores of Lake Kasumigaura in early 20th century Ibaraki Prefecture.
Dr. Saga used a tape recorder to first record the words of these hearty men and women—all of them his own patients and friends—after work at the local clinic, and then he painstakingly transcribed, re-wrote, and re-organized them for clarity and cohesion. The process took years. The result, like his earlier, prize-winning Memories of Silk and Straw is an intimate self portrait of a Japan fast vanishing from living memory.
It cannot be stressed enough how valuable and important service Dr. Saga has done us. The thirty-odd voices here are, as he points out, among our last surviving links with Japan’s long feudal period that ended with the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868.
Juliet Winters Carpenter
About the Author: Dr. Jun’ichi Saga is a medical doctor with a general practice in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Lake Kasumigaura. He began taping his elderly patients’ reminiscences about forty years ago when he realized what a wealth of detail and information they contained. He has published numerous works of local history and ecology, three of which are available in English: Memories of Silk and Straw, “Susumu’s Saga” and “Confessions of a Yakuza.” In his spare time he does ink painting.
Note: Memories of Wind and Waves is a companion book to Memories of Silk and Straw, also by Jun’ichi Saga (translated by Gary Evans). Illustrations in both books were drawn by Jun’ichi Saga’s father, Susumu.
About the Translator: Juliet Winters Carpenter is a professor of English literature at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts and one of the foremost translators of Japanese literature working today. Her translations include Kobo Abe’s “Beyond the Curve,” Fumiko Enchi’s “Masks,” Ryotaro Shiba’s “The Last Shogun,” Jun’ichi Watanabe’s “A Lost Paradise,” and Machi Tawara’s “Salad Anniversary.” See Hon Podcast 03: Juliet Winters Carpenter Talks About Translating Japanese Literature.