Work by Murata Sayaka has helped usher in a new era of Japanese literature in translation
, Ms Murata questions what it means to be “normal” and writes sceptically about family life. Her work has struck a chord in Japan, her conservative home country. Her semi-autobiographical novel, “Convenience Store Woman”, won the prestigious Akutagawa literary prize in 2016. It has since been translated into more than 30 languages and sold over 1.5m copies.
Ms Murata’s work has helped usher in a new era of Japanese literature in translation. “Convenience Store Woman” came out in English in 2018 and its feminist undertones may have resonated amid the #MeToo movement, thinks Ginny Tapley Takemori, its translator. In 2020 “Breasts and Eggs”, a novel about pregnancy and beauty standards by, another female Japanese author, also became an international bestseller.
Though the settings may be unfamiliar to Western readers, these books examine universal themes, such as the. In “Weasels in the Attic” , a novella made up of interlinking stories, Oyamada Hiroko portrays an unhappily married couple who seek fulfilment by having a baby. “In Japan, it seems as if women are seen as incomplete unless they have a child,” says Ms Oyamada. Her short story “Spider Lilies” explores the related obsession with breastfeeding.
Ms Murata’s view of motherhood is even more caustic. The women in her fiction are often “monstrous”. In “Nothingness”, a short story, the female protagonist is incapable of maternal affection. Ms Murata once hoped her own mother would shower her with unconditional love. She now says the mother-daughter relationship usually involves “beautified abuse”..
These books may be by and about women, but a man’s perspective can be useful, Ms Oyamada suggests. “When I depict men’s behaviour through the eyes of a woman, many people see it as an attack,” she says. “I can avoid that by speaking as a man.” She stages chauvinistic discussions between male characters in “Weasels in the Attic”, demonstrating their obliviousness to the demands of child-rearing. “Most men aren’t even aware of the pain they inflict on women,” she says.
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