Lake of Heaven: An Original Translation of the Japanese Novel by Ishimure Michiko

by Bruce Allen

Overview

Lake of Heaven is the story of a traditional mountain village in Japan that is destroyed in the process of constructing a dam. It tells of the lives of the displaced villagers as they struggle to retain their traditional culture—including their stories, dances, music, mythology, and dreams—in the face of displacement, environmental destruction, and rapid modernization. Although fictional, the work is rooted in the events of actual villages in the mountains of Kyushu and Ishimure's imaginative reconstructions of their people's tales. Lake of Heaven considerably stretches the familiar Western conceptions of the novel form. Its interweaving of local stories, dreams, and myths lends it a deep sense of the Noh Drama. Gary Snyder writes that Lake of Heaven is "a remarkable text of mythopoetic quality—with a Noh flavor—that presents much of the ancient lore of Japan and the lore of the spirit world." The story becomes a parable for the larger world, "in which all of our old cultures and all of our old villages are becoming buried, sunken, and lost under the rising waters of the dams of industrialization and globalization."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739124628
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/26/2008
Series:	AsiaWorld
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Bruce Allen is an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Japan.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Translator's Introduction
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 1. Birds Leaving
Chapter 4 2. Oki No Miya
Chapter 5 3. Moonshadow Bridge
Chapter 6 4. Water Mirror
Chapter 7 5. Secret Song
Chapter 8 6. Delicate Flowers

What People are Saying About This

Gary Snyder

A remarkable text of mythopoetic quality—with a noh flavor—that presents much of the ancient lore of Japan and the lore of the spirit world—and is in a way a kind of myth-drama, not a novel.

Editorial Reviews

With the advent of these translations of Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and <Lake of Heaven, one of the great literary figures of contemporary Japan, who is also one of the heroes of local resistance to corporate pollution becomes available to Anglophone readers?.Students come away with another history of industrial development and environmental damage that parallels and diverges from that of other First World countries. At the same time, the great emotional power of Ishimure's writing gives thema sense of connection to individuals and cultures that might otherwise alienate them. Through her combination of research, protest, and empathy, Ishimure provides a fine model of the writer as activist and the artist as defender...

Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy

Ishimure's storytelling is spellbinding.. . .A profoundly mythic story offering 'the real meaning of existence' to a broken world, this novel unfolds as a contemporary masterwork. Highly recommended.

Choice Reviews

A remarkable text of mythopoetic quality—with a noh flavor—that presents much of the ancient lore of Japan and the lore of the spirit world—and is in a way a kind of myth-drama, not a novel.

Gary Snyder

Not for nothing is Ishimure Michiko seen in Japan as a prophet. In Lake of Heaven, she speaks to the contemporary maelstrom from the country's neglected and sacrificed up-country. The world she creates in the surrounds of a flooded Kyushu village is one where the community of ancestors, residents, and spirits is celebrated and harmony restored between human, natural, and supernatural orders. Readers are left to ponder what lessons today's alienated and anguished humanity may learn from the primeval Japanese experience.

Gavan McCormack

With the advent of these translations of Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and <Lake of Heaven, one of the great literary figures of contemporary Japan, who is also one of the heroes of local resistance to corporate pollution becomes available to Anglophone readers?.Students come away with another history of industrial development and environmental damage that parallels and diverges from that of other First World countries. At the same time, the great emotional power of Ishimure's writing gives thema sense of connection to individuals and cultures that might otherwise alienate them. Through her combination of research, protest, and empathy, Ishimure provides a fine model of the writer as activist and the artist as defender...

Spring/Summer 2010 Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy

Not for nothing is Ishimure Michiko seen in Japan as a prophet. In Lake of Heaven, she speaks to the contemporary maelstrom from the country's neglected and sacrificed up-country. The world she creates in the surrounds of a flooded Kyushu village is one where the community of ancestors, residents, and spirits is celebrated and harmony restored between human, natural, and supernatural orders. Readers are left to ponder what lessons today's alienated and anguished humanity may learn from the primeval Japanese experience.--Gavan McCormack, The Australian National University

A remarkable text of mythopoetic quality--with a noh flavor--that presents much of the ancient lore of Japan and the lore of the spirit world--and is in a way a kind of myth-drama, not a novel.--Gary Snyder

Ishimure's storytelling is spellbinding. . . .A profoundly mythic story offering 'the real meaning of existence' to a broken world, this novel unfolds as a contemporary masterwork. Highly recommended.--CHOICE, May 2009

From the Publisher

Ishimure's storytelling is spellbinding. . . .A profoundly mythic story offering 'the real meaning of existence' to a broken world, this novel unfolds as a contemporary masterwork. Highly recommended.

May 2009 CHOICE

With the advent of these translations of Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and , one of the great literary figures of contemporary Japan, who is also one of the heroes of local resistance to corporate pollution becomes available to Anglophone readers….Students come away with another history of industrial development and environmental damage that parallels and diverges from that of other First World countries. At the same time, the great emotional power of Ishimure's writing gives them a sense of connection to individuals and cultures that might otherwise alienate them. Through her combination of research, protest, and empathy, Ishimure provides a fine model of the writer as activist and the artist as defender.

Spring/Summer 2010 Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy

With the advent of these translations of Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and , one of the great literary figures of contemporary Japan, who is also one of the heroes of local resistance to corporate pollution becomes available to Anglophone readers….Students come away with another history of industrial development and environmental damage that parallels and diverges from that of other First World countries. At the same time, the great emotional power of Ishimure's writing gives them a sense of connection to individuals and cultures that might otherwise alienate them. Through her combination of research, protest, and empathy, Ishimure provides a fine model of the writer as activist and the artist as defender.

Spring/Summer 2010 Transformations

Ishimure's storytelling is spellbinding.. . .A profoundly mythic story offering 'the real meaning of existence' to a broken world, this novel unfolds as a contemporary masterwork. Highly recommended.

May 2009 Choice Reviews

Ishimure's storytelling is spellbinding.. . .A profoundly mythic story offering 'the real meaning of existence' to a broken world, this novel unfolds as a contemporary masterwork. Highly recommended.

May 2009 Choice