Arrowroot (novel)

Arrowroot (吉野葛, Yoshino Kuzu, "Yoshino Arrowroot") is a novella written by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It consists of six chapters: The Heavenly King; Iimoseyama; The Drum Hatsune; The Cry of the Fox; Kuzu; Shionoha. The narrator, who had been planning a to write a historical novel about the Nanboku-chō (Northern and Southern Courts) period, is drawn instead to the personal story of a mother's love which is revealed by his friend Tsumura who guides him in Yoshino in autumn.

This article is about the 1931 novella by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. For other uses, see Arrowroot (disambiguation).

Arrowroot
AuthorJun'ichirō Tanizaki
IllustratorLithographic illustrations by
Kentaro Senoo
Original drawings by
Tomomaro Higuchi
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
GenreNovella
PublisherSerialized in magazine Chūō Kōron January-February 1931.
Included in a volume with "A Blind Man’s Tale" and two folk tales, Chuokoronsha , February 1932.
Book published by Sogensha, December 1937.
Published in English
1983, Alfred A. Knopf

In 1931, it was serialized in the January and February issues of the magazine Chūō Kōron.[1] The first publication in book form was in the collection A Blind Man’s Tale published by Chuokoronsha in February 1932. It was published as a book in December 1937 by Sogensha as one volume of the six-part collection Jun'ichirō Rokubushu.[2]

Background

Arrowroot was one of several of Tanizaki’s works in “essay-fiction” between 1930 and 1950, combining experimentation and tradition, including Mōmoku Monogatari (A Blind Man’s Tale, 1931), Bushukō hiwa (The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi, 1932), Ashikari (The Reed Cutter, 1932), Shunkinsho (A Portrait of Shunkin, 1933), and Shōshō Shigemoto no haha (Captain Shigemoto's Mother, 1949–1950).

The narrative technique of Arrowroot may have been inspired by Stendhal’s The Abbess of Castro, which Tanizaki translated into Japanese in 1928. In both works, the narrator of the story travels to a remote part of the country to investigate the truth of a story which has been concealed by historians. The narrator of Arrowroot is not Tanizaki himself.[3]

In 1948 Tanizaki wrote that Arrowroot was one of his favorite works.[3]

At the time of writing, Tanizaki was living in Kobe, Keihanshin and was studying the Kuzunoha sekkyō-bushi Buddhist "sermon ballad" poems and visited Yoshino frequently, writing a work Kuzunoha set in Yoshino. He conceived Arrowroot around the character Tsumura, who is modeled after Kentaro Senoo, who loves his mother.[4] Tanizaki stayed at the ryokan Sakura Kadan on Mount Yoshino, travelled to Okuyoshino by car, conducted research, and wrote Arrowroot.

The fictional work is written in the style of an essay and, modeled on the novelist Kyokutei Bakin's Kaimaki Kyoukikyakuden, he had wanted to write the story of the historical Southern Court. His writing progressed haphazardly and when first published it was a failure, or it was regarded as just an essay, although the novelist and literary critic Takitarō Minakami gave it a high evaluation.

After World War II it came to be regarded as one of Tanizaki's masterpieces, and as a metafictional work depicting the circumstances of “I tried to write a historical novel but failed.” Since the 1980s authors Kenji Nakagami, Naomi Watabe, Joji Hirayama, literary criticYōichi Komori and others have regarded it highly. In the 1970s, the author Akio Goto wrote Yoshino-dayu (吉野大夫, The Courtesan Yoshino) as a homage to Arrowroot, for which he won the 1981 Tanizaki Prize.

Further reading
  • Chambers, Anthony H. (1985), "Introduction to Arrowroot", Some Prefer Nettles / The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi / Arrowroot (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki), translated by Chambers, Anthony H., London: Picador / Pan Books, pp. 139–142, ISBN 978-0330-28825-5
  • Chiba, Shunji (June 1994). 谷崎潤一郎――狐とマゾヒズム [Jun'ichirō Tanizaki: Fox and Masochism] (in Japanese). Ozawa Shoten. NCID BN10971533.
  • Hirayama, Joji (May 1983). 考証「吉野葛」――谷崎潤一郎の虚と実を求めて [”Arrowroot”: In Search of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's Fiction and Reality] (in Japanese). Kenbun Publishing. NCID BN00332436.
  • Komori, Yōichi (December 1992). 縁の物語―「吉野葛」のレトリック [A Tale of Encounters: The Rhetoric of "Arrowroot" (Soukan, Japanese Literature 22)] (in Japanese). Shintensha. ISBN 978-4787975225.
  • Mook, Yume (February 2015). 谷崎潤一郎――没後五十年、文学の奇蹟 [Bungei supplement: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki – A Literary Miracle, 50 Years After His Death] (in Japanese). Kawade Shobō Shinsha. ISBN 978-4309978550.
  • Nomura, Keisuke (October 1982). 『吉野葛』論 [”Arrowroot” Theory]. Waseda University 100th Anniversary Commemorative Papers – 4: Culture Feature (in Japanese). Waseda Shogaku (298): 105–138. NAID 120000790146.
  • Sakanishi, Norimi (30 September 1998). 谷崎潤一郎研究 : 『吉野葛』という〈歴史小説〉 [A Study of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki: "Arrowroot"]. Nihon Bungaku (in Japanese). Tokyo Women's Christian University (90): 53–66. NAID 110007184601.
  • Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō (January 1985). Kasahara, Nobuo (ed.). 新潮日本文学アルバム7 谷崎潤一郎 [Shincho Japanese Literature Album 7: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki] (in Japanese). Shinchosha. ISBN 978-4-10-620607-8.
  • Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō (May 2002). 吉野葛・盲目物語 [Arrowroot; A Blind Man's Tale] (in Japanese) (Revised edition. First edition August 1951 ed.). Shincho Bunko. ISBN 978-4-10-100506-5.
  • Watanabe, Naoki (June 1992). 谷崎潤一郎――擬態の誘惑 [Jun'ichirō Tanizaki: Temptation of Mimicry] (in Japanese). Shinchosha. ISBN 978-4103860013.

References
  1. Mook, Yume (2015). Jun'ichirō Tanizaki – A Literary Miracle, 50 Years After His Death: Guide to Works. pp. 245–261.
  2. Mook, Yume (2015). Jun'ichirō Tanizaki – A Literary Miracle, 50 Years After His Death: Chronology. pp. 262–271.
  3. "Introduction to Arrowroot" (Chambers 1985, pp. 139–142)
  4. Nomura, Keisuke (1982). "Arrowroot" Theory. Waseda University.
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