"For those who have no place to live" A story spun by Miri Yu December 17, 15:33

"Writing for those who have nowhere to go. I want to create a story that can be a refuge for the soul." Miri Yu,

who won the translation literature category of the most prestigious literary award in the United States, the National Book Award. is.

Mr. Yanagi has been writing stories that are close to people.

What are the thoughts you can put into the story that you can see from those words?

(Ryo Tomita, Reporter, Department of Science and Culture)

"I want to hear your story"

"The word" interview "is a violent word, isn't it?"

Shortly after starting "interview," Miri Yu said when asked, "What kind of thought did you have when writing your work?" is.

Mr. Yanagi:

"The word" interview "is written as taking material. If you come in contact with it like you want to take such material, it will be transmitted. So, instead of taking material, you are I think it's all about listening with the desire to know and listen to your story. "

Mr. Yanagi, a novelist who won the Akutagawa Prize in 1997 and has been releasing topical works one after another.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, I moved to Minamisoma City and continue to write while running a bookstore there.

"Listen with the desire to know you"

The work that embodies this

phrase

is the National Book Award-winning work, "JR Ueno Station Park Exit."

In the year before the Tokyo Olympics, he moved to Tokyo for a group job and continued to work for his family, but he was desperate for his life because he was preceded by his son and wife, and he decided to live as a street dweller, so-called homeless, in Ueno Park. A story about a man from Minami Soma who became the main character.

In drawing this work, Mr. Yanagi talked to the people living in Ueno Park.

"A person" does not know "a person who does not"

Mr. Yanagi went to Ueno Park 14 years ago.

I asked Mr. Yanagi, who visited again this month, about his impressions.

Mr. Yanagi

"The entrance to the station has changed, and the scenery when looking at it with the station behind has changed. I think it was cleaned up in time for the Olympic Games that were supposed to be held."

Mr. Yanagi said that the exterior and sidewalks of the station were paved cleanly, and the scenery was completely different from that at that time.

However, after walking in the park for a while, he mentioned the existence of "invisible things".

Mr. Yanagi

: I said "it's beautiful", but I don't think you can see it if you look only at the places you want to look beautiful. However, there are some that you can see if you walk a lot. Things and things you can't hear, because they are silent. "

Those people are the homeless people I drew in my work.

"I just listen to you with the desire to know and listen to you,"

said Mr. Yanagi, who listened to them with this thought.

Among them, I learned that there are many people from Tohoku who came to Tokyo for group employment or migrant work, and that became the foundation of the work of "JR Ueno Station Park Exit".

Mr. Yanagi says that he cannot forget the words of a man he heard at that time.

Mr. Yanagi:

"When I had a gap in the conversation, I showed this (drawing a triangle and a straight line with both hands) and said,'You have it, but we don't.' It has a roof and a wall. It's about the house. I was told, "I don't know who some people don't have." No one wants to sleep in a place where only the body is covered. But for some reason, I have to do so. I don't know the pain, pain, and sadness. But I think that I have no choice but to rely on the pain. Why did I get here? "JR Ueno Station Park Exit" is a novel that traces their childhood step by step. "

The book is "Soul Shelter"

"The story of a person without a place"

This is a theme common to Mr. Yanagi's work.

It is said that the background is his own background.

Mr. Yanagi, a Korean resident in Japan, had a bad relationship with his parents from an early age, was bullied at school, and had no place to stay at home or school.

It was the story of the book that supported me at that time.

Mr. Yanagi:

"When I had no escape, I opened the door of the book and evacuated my soul to another world. That's why I think the book is a shelter for the soul. So writing my own book is my job. When I choose, I write for those who have nowhere to go. I wanted to create a story that could be a haven for the soul. "

Mr. Yanagi recalls that what he was reading at that time was a story that was not a happy ending, such as Osamu Dazai, Akinari Ueda, and Dostoevsky.

He explained the reason in a unique way.

Mr. Yanagi:

"If you have sadness on your own, the water level of sadness will rise, and there may be a moment when you are drowning in your own sadness. At that time, read a sad story and others. I think that touching your sadness has the effect of touching and comforting your own sadness. You can shed sadness by reading a sad story. A song that is popular now. However, there are many lyrics that encourage you to do something bright, such as "Let's do our best" or "Don't worry", but I think sadness is important for living. Don't deny it, and live with it carefully. Story Is a vessel for that. "

From "My Story" to "Oraho's Story"

Furthermore, it was the people of Minamisoma, where Mr. Yanagi is currently living, that became indispensable for writing this work.

Approximately one month after the earthquake, the days of going to Fukushima from Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, where I lived at that time, began, and the following year, I became a personality at a temporary disaster broadcasting station in Minamisoma.

In 2015, I decided to move.

For Mr. Yanagi, who has continued to write "the story of a person without a place", he recalls that the actions at that time were inevitable.

Mr. Yanagi:

"The earthquake and the nuclear accident happened, and you were moving around with your luggage and household goods in your clothes. When you see it, it's time to act before you think about it. I thought I was there, so I went to the area around the nuclear power plant in Minamisoma. So I started in response to the request to do a temporary disaster radio, but if I didn't act there, it would be a contradiction, my writing. I thought I would betray what I said and what I said. "

Mr. Yanagi has heard the memory of "3/11" from about 600 people for 6 years.

The words I heard at that time changed the creation of my work.

Mr. Yanagi:

"When the people I met flowed into me, I felt that I was unraveling. The barriers of myself were removed, and various people flowed in, and I could re-knit myself there. I thought that in my previous works, I was thinking of going to others starting from myself, but I wanted to write a story about going to myself or going to others starting from others. So, "JR Ueno Station Park Exit" wrote the story of another person (the main character), just like writing his own story in a sense. "

Mr. Yanagi says that he often expressed his own experiences and events that happened around him before the earthquake.

After the earthquake, it took in the perspective of "others" and the "JR Ueno Station Park Exit" was born.

After receiving the National Book Award, the people of Minamisoma were delighted to say "Oraho's story" because Mr. Yanagi firmly accepted their words and thoughts. It was because it was spun as.

Spin words to help people

Mr. Yanagi's work may not be a happy ending, but a story that makes you feel cheerful to read.

However, it is close to people's sorrows and pains, and contains the message that "life is worth living in any miserable, painful and sad life."

From the end of the conversation with Mr. Yanagi, the strong belief as a novelist who still tries to spin words to help people while facing "the violence of words" has been conveyed.

It may be that Mr. Yanagi's work is being sought after in Japan and around the world as more and more people are placed in a difficult situation due to the corona sickness because that feeling is conveyed through the work.

Ryo Tomita,

Reporter, Department of Science and Culture