Novel
蒼氓
Not translated into English
Ishikawa Tatsuzō · 1935
Synopsis
Kobe, 8 March 1930, in the rain: at the end of a road backing onto the hill, a large yellow building without ornament, the national emigration centre, receives candidates for departure to Brazil, according to the National Diet Library. According to a study by Hosei University, they are numbered and examined there, trachoma meaning exclusion, while waiting for the ship that is to carry them away; among them is the family of Satō Natsu.
Context
A first version, written in 1932 and then revised, received an honourable mention in 1933 in the competition of the magazine Kaizō; the magazine that was later to publish it ceased to appear. The text appeared in April 1935 in the first issue of the magazine Seiza, without its author's consent, and he thus became the first winner of the Akutagawa Prize, which had just been created. Kaizōsha published it in volume form the same year, and two sequels, on the crossing and the arrival in Brazil, appeared in 1939.
Who it is for
A short narrative, the first part of a work in three parts, for those interested in Japanese emigration to South America.
Prizes and reception
The novel durably fixed the image of Japanese emigrants in Brazil as poor peasants sent to the interior, according to the study by Hosei.
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