Translating Tokyo with Bill Sibley: ���Encountering Scarlet Gangs in Wieboldt Hall

Alisa Freedman (alisaf@uoregon.edu) Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature and Film

University of Oregon

•  Most of the images on these Power Points come from my personal collection. The sources have been cited for the others that are not fair use.

•  These Power Points are based on my following works: –  “The Significant Modernism of Kawabata Yausnari,” Sophia

International Review, April 2007. –  “Street Nonsense: Ryûtanji Yû and the Fascination for Interwar

Tokyo Absurdity,” Japan Forum, special issue on “Urban Nonsense,” March 2009.

–  “Translator’s Preface,” in Kawabata Yasunari, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, trans. Alisa Freedman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

•  The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa is hereafter referred to as The Scarlet Gang.

•  Bill inspired my interest in Tokyo literature and my desire to translate it.

•  I took a full-year independent reading class on Tokyo modernism with Bill. Once a week in Bill’s office, we poured over Kawabata’s prewar fiction. It was a highlight of my University of Chicago education.

•  Bill was one of the best on-site translators I have ever encountered. He also had a wonderful way with words.

As I was leaving to research my dissertation at Waseda, Bill Sibley gave me Kawabata Yasunari’s The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (Asakusa kurenaidan) as a present. This well-worn

book is one of my prized possessions.

After my Hyde Park studio was robbed, Bill held a party at his apartment to cheer me up. He and other EALC faculty and grads gave me a check for

the amount needed to replace my Japanese electronic dictionary, which had been stolen. I will never forget this kindness.

Unsure of what kind of remarks to give, I will discuss the experience of translating modernism through the example of The Scarlet Gang. I will

briefly explain this modernist story and why Bill introduced it to me. Then I will share a few stylistic decisions I faced and how I sought solutions.

•  I will not advance a unified theory of translation but hope that my experiences will be helpful for both translators and readers of Japanese modernism. (In the spirit of Bill Sibley’s advanced Japanese readings classes and our independent study!)

���Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972)���

Background information, although not needed for such an elite group gathered here!

(Photo from Nobelprize.org - http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1968/kawabata-bio.html)

•  Born in Osaka •  Studied English at Tokyo Imperial University but

spent more time wandering Asakusa than in class. •  Entered the Tokyo literary scene in the early

1920s. •  With author Yokomitsu Riichi, Kawabata founded

the journal Bungei jidai and formed the New Perceptionist movement (Shinkankaku-ha) in 1924. Group dissolved in 1928.

•  Kawabata became an active member of other literary movements concerned with depicting modern Tokyo. The Scarlet Gang was deemed the representative work of the New Art School (Shinkôgeijutsu-ha). –  “Nonsense literature” (nansensu bungaku)

Kawabata in the 1920s

Interested in film in the 1920s and wrote the screenplay for A Page of Madness (Kurutta ippeji, 1926). Produced by the

New Perceptionist School Motion Picture Federation.

Like other young, aspiring authors in the 1920s, Kawabata wrote commercial stories in popular genres, including The

Corpse Introducer (serialized in Bungei shunjû, 1929). Translated in Tokyo in Transit: Japanese Culture on the Rails and Road (Stanford

University Press, December 2010).

•  Kawabata also engaged with the Japanese literary tradition and incorporated elements of Heian and Edo period aesthetics into his work. This is true of The Scarlet Gang.

Kawabata is well known for his portrayals of classical Japanese aesthetics.Themes of loneliness and beauty. (Nobel

Prize speech “Japan the Beautiful and Myself.”)���

Kawabata considered Master of Go (Meijin, 1951) to be his best work.

•  Winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature

•  Committed suicide in 1972

General Characteristics of Kawabata’s Literary Style

• Stories are vague and information is omitted. Subjects and objects are often omitted in Japanese sentences, but Kawabata does this excessively.

• Fragmented style influenced by both Western and Edo period literature, including haiku

• Strange combinations of words (There are even visual puns in The Scarlet Gang, which I will discuss in a minute.)

• Contrasting images, pairings of female characters

• Analogies to create visual images and to cause emotional or intellectual reactions

• Leaves stories unfinished or rewrites them in different forms.

– The Scarlet Gang was left unfinished. Snow Country was rewritten.

Snow Country (Yukiguni) - begun in 1935 and completed in 1947. 1972 condensed version (palm-of-the-hand story). First

translated into English in 1947.

Manuscript of Snow Country, last version Kawabata was writing at the time of his death

Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (Tenohira no shôsetsu) - 146 written between the 1920s and 1960s. Distilled miniature worlds that can fit in the palms of

your hands. At least 3 correspond with The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa. (I remember discussing with Bill how the palm-of-the-hand story “Rainy

Station” (Jigure eki) captured the experience of mood of 1928 urban life.)

Asakusa before the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake

Asakusa’s Theater and Cinema District

Twelve Stories (1893-1923) - Japan’s tallest building. Housed the nation’s first passenger elevator, until it was shut

down by the police for safety reasons.

Twelve Stories right after the 1923 earthquake

Asakusa’s subway station building and tower

•  Asakusa as also a place where the increasing number of homeless sought shelter

•  Problem of boat children and other groups of juvenile delinquents

•  Made visible the advances and contradictions of early Showa modernity in different ways than Ginza, Shinjuku, and other sakariba

•  Kawabata created unorthodox techniques predicated on both the Japanese literary tradition and current popular culture to capture Asakusa’s raw energy.

•  As a result, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa was perceived by 1930s authors and critics as a new form of realism that conveys the sensory perceptions of the dynamic city and exposes, in a forceful but lighthearted way, the darker aspects of urban modernity. –  Depicted but glamourized poverty and crime. Made

these urban images palatable, even seductive.

•  Time of cataloguing the material culture of Tokyo daily life

Kawabata was also influenced by the popular journalism that flourished at the time. The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa was serialized in the evening

edition of the Asahi newspaper (Illustration by Ôta Saburô )from December 20, 1929-February 16, 1930.

Long fiction was first serialized in newspapers and magazines. If popular, these works were then published as books.

•  The remaining sections were published concurrently by Kaizô and Shinchô, rival magazines at the time.

•  The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa was left unfinished after Chapter Sixty-One.

•  As mentioned in the novel, that same year, a no longer extant film version was produced, while the story was still being serialized and the fates of the characters were yet unknown to readers.

Casino Folies poster for the June 9, 1930 premier of a performance based on The Scarlet Gang. Starred one of the

dancers mentioned in the novel. Further shows the reciprocal influence between literature and popular culture.

The fact that this is the first English translation of The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa is due to a confluence of factors, in addition the work’s

complexity and need for annotation. Kawabata gave Donald Richie the rights to translate the story in 1948.

•  The belated translation of The Scarlet Gang also reflects the creation of the American cannon of Japanese literature in the postwar years.

•  How this is different from who chooses now and what this says about Japan’s global image and “literature” in general

In the 1950, American professors worked with large publishers in the US to translate Japanese literature because of growing interest in Japan after the war. Pictured here is

Edward Seidensticker, who worked with Knopf.

Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, Some Prefer Nettles (Tade ku mushi) - First modern Japanese novel to be translated into English

after the war

Edward Seidensticker’s translation of Snow Country - Second Japanese modern novel to be translated after the war

Kawabata receiving the Nobel Prize in 1968. Kawabata said half of the prize belonged to Seidensticker.

Murakami Haruki is a translator and translation theorist.

•  It would be wonderful if Bill Sibley’s unpublished translations could be collected.

•  Hopes for the translation award in Bill’s honor.

•  Kawabata wanted to forget The Scarlet Gang. Does this give us the right to remember it through translation?

•  Although Kawabata said that The Scarlet Gang made him feel nauseous, he wrote a sequel - Asakusa matsuri (Asakusa Festival), serialized in the monthly journal Bungei from September 1934 to February 1935. Like its precursor, it was left unfinished.

A few words on the agency of the translator, and you all can add more!

•  Need to constantly make choices and negotiate between accuracy and readability

•  Compromises need to be made. –  For example, does the translator have the right to delete

passages s/he views unnecessary, as Seidensticker advocates?

–  Should the translator supply missing information? For example, some of Kawabata’s early works are easier to understand in English translation because subjects have been added, strange juxtapositions explained, and erratic syntax corrected.

•  While translators are often blamed for author’s poor writing, sometimes a translation is better received than the original.

Particular difficulties in translating Kawabata’s works

•  As discussed, he leaves works unfinished and rewrites them after they have been published.

•  He makes verbal and visual puns. –  For example “井” to indicate a hatching pattern on a kimono

•  Omits information, changes point of view, and does not always say who is speaking

•  He quotes from his own stories and those by other authors without giving the titles.

•  Things seen as familiar or foreign to readers in the prewar period are different from today (Western/Japanese foods, etc.)

Some ways I sought solutions

•  Read other Japanese translations and Western modernism to find a literary voice

•  Inspired by translations in the Maeda Ai Text and the City collection. (Bill introduced me to Maeda’s work.)

•  Needed to learn more about Tokyo culture (Famous mistranslations based on cultural mistakes)

•  Did archival research. Kawabata only used 1/100 of his copious notes for The Scarlet Gang.

•  Decisions about extra-textual materials •  No footnotes!

Ôta Saburô line drawing from the 1930 book. Ôta’s name was published after Kawabata’s in the Asahi newspaper

episodes.

Front and back covers of the 1930 book edition of The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa

Front cover Back cover

Koga Harue, Make-up Out-of-Doors ���(Sogai no keshô, 1930)

Revue Program (Page from The Scarlet Gang)

Edo Culture and Asakusa Slang

•  Examples of Asakusa slang: – Gure, zuke, daigara - terms for the strata of

vagrants in Asakusa Park –  “enko” instead of “koen” for park

Example of a book Kawabata may have read to learn about the Asakusa poor - Ishizumi Harunosuke’s 1927 Little

Known Asakusa Stories (Asakusa ritan)

Thanks, Professor Sibley!