The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa / Edition 1

by Yasunari Kawabata, Alisa Freedman, Donald Richie, Ota Saburô

Overview

In the 1920s, Asakusa was to Tokyo what Montmartre had been to 1890s Paris and Times Square was to be to 1940s New York. Available in English for the first time, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa, by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata, captures the decadent allure of this entertainment district, where beggars and teenage prostitutes mixed with revue dancers and famous authors. Originally serialized in a Tokyo daily newspaper in 1929 and 1930, this vibrant novel uses unorthodox, kinetic literary techniques to reflect the raw energy of Asakusa, seen through the eyes of a wandering narrator and the cast of mostly female juvenile delinquents who show him their way of life. Markedly different from Kawabata's later work, The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa shows this important writer in a new light. The annotated edition of this little-known literary gem includes the original illustrations by Ota Saburo. The annotations illuminate Tokyo society and Japanese literature, bringing this fascinating piece of Japanese modernism at last to a wide audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520241824
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	04/18/2005
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	279
Sales rank:	921,199
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968. His 1937 novel Snow Country secured his position as one of Japan's leading authors. Alisa Freedman is a visiting assistant professor of Japanese literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Donald Richie—novelist, critic, essayist, travel writer, and former director of the Japanese cinema collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York—is author of The Films of Akira Kurosawa.

Table of Contents

Foreword—Donald Richie
Translator’s Preface

The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (Asakusa kurenaidan), 1929–1930

Afterword—Donald Richie
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits

Editorial Reviews

Nobel laureate Kawabata wrote this work in 1930, when Japanese literature was heavily influenced by European fiction's great modernists, among them Joyce, Proust, and Rilke. For 80 years it has been unavailable to Westerners because it was considered untranslatable. Finally, owing to Freedman's remarkable rendering, readers are able to walk with Kawabata through the back alleys of Tokyo's seedy Asakusa district as he befriends prostitutes, petty criminals, and performers in this tale of a female gang surviving amid the rubble of the 1923 earthquake and the growing economic depression of 1929-30. Originally published serially, the saga features a tough heroine named Yumiko determined to avenge her older sister's mistreatment at the hands of a caddish villain. The narrative is profusely illustrated with the original line drawings by O- ta Saburo- depicting a Tokyo unknown to most readers. The girls could be flappers in Greenwich Village or Montmartre, and an aura of jazz syncopation punctuates the whole. Japanese scholar Donald Ritchie provides both a foreword and an afterword, which along with an extensive glossary and translator's notes make the novel both accessible and relevant. Essential for Asian studies libraries and highly recommended for all collections of fine fiction.-Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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