Ginny Tapley Takemori is a British translator residing in rural Japan. She has translated works by over a dozen Japanese authors including Izumi Kyoka, Okamoto Kido, Ryu Murakami and Miyuki Miyabe . Her translation of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman was named in “The New Yorker” as one of the best books of 2018. It also won the Foyles Book of the Year 2018. Ginny has also translated She and her Cat by Shinkai Makoto and Naruki Nagakawa, and she co-translated with Ian MacDonald Things Remembered, Things Forgotten by Kyoko Nakajima.
Takemori’s latest translation, Mornings Without Mii is a literary memoir by Mayumi Inaba, originally published in 1999. The book chronicles Inaba’s two-decade bond with her rescued cat—Mii—intertwining themes of solitude, creativity, and companionship.
Show Notes:
Takemori is also a founder of the collective “Strong Women, Soft Power.” You can read an article about the collective, written by Iain Maloney for The Japan Times. Ginny Tapley Takemori also talks about the collective in this episode of the BOA podcast.
Some of Takemori’s favorite books on Japan:
- Hitomachi, a photo book by Araki Noboyoshi
- Walking The Kiso Road by William Scott Wilson (See our podcast episode with the author)
- The Catalpa Bow by Carmen Blacker
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The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press. Podcast host Amy Chavez is author of Amy’s Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.