#muro saisei

[mournfulroses]

Murō Saisei, from Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry; "An Unfinished Poem,"

[paleunhappydog]

朔太郎オナニスト by 稲垣足穂

大和書房. (1974). 朔太郎オナニスト. In タルホフラグメント (First Edition, pp. 55–59).

In TnH Chapter 4, the conversation between Sai and Saku--the one about Sai having sex every night--caught my attention. I was dying to know what actually happened, so I went ahead and bought Inagaki Taruho's Taruho Fragment. So here is the short four-page chapter on Hagiwara Sakutaro and that particular incident according to Inagaki.

Oh dear, I was not ready for this.

Page 57 was omitted because it was an illustration page (some sort of abstract art of space.)

[lollipopicecreamcake]

JPN Movie Quick Review

12 SUICIDAL TEENS (2019) |  RATING: 8/10

Stellar cast, interesting characters, and a story that leaves you with a reminder in life. Check out my twitter thread here for more shenanigans and a quick thought on some of my favorite characters in the movie.

MITSU NO AWARE (2016) |  RATING: 7.5/10

Based on a 1959 novel of the same title by Saisei Muro. An old writer with his days limited gets consumed by his fantasies. The flow of the story bends your mind and makes you wonder which is real & which is fantasy. 

It’s always a pleasure to watch Fumi Nikaido no matter what the plot is. I wont deny it that I watched this all because of her. I made a mini thread for this movie here.

RIVER’S EDGE (2018) |  RATING: 8/10

Original story (manga) is written by the same writer behind Helter Skelter (2012). River’s Edge takes you down the unsightly path of young souls trying to live the way they want in a restless world. I made a thread where I compiled excerpts from the original work (manga) which may help to immerse yourself more in the story as the movie tend to be more vague while the manga is more direct.

KASANE (2018) |  RATING: 10/10 LOVE THIS!

Based on a manga of the same title. Kasane is a suspense fantasy which intertwines beauty, talent, and ambition in one beautiful dark story. My favorite performance from Tsuchiya Tao as of date (Nov 2022). I say read the manga after watching because it definitely has more in store. I hope they also make a live action of the remaining story in the manga as it will answer a lot of questions that were left by the movie. Likewise, I have a mini thread here for this gem.

>>>Check this tag for the jp movies and this one for the jp dramas.

[yue-muffin]

this is one of the only times i’ve really seen kiseki meant to be read as ‘wonder’ and not ‘miracle’. hagiwara’s poem 最後の奇蹟 (saigo no kiseki) describes a dead body that is slowly decaying, from the prospective of that dead individual. the “final wonder” is death. it uses a different, uncommon (nowadays) kanji for kiseki, 奇蹟 instead of the more common 奇跡.

but i’m actually amazed that i actually found the poem to be gripping, and i’d like to understand it better in japanese. i’m normally someone who doesn’t like poetry, and there is a very small pool of poems in enjoy reading in english. but the more i read this poem, the more the images stuck in my mind. they’re gross images, but haunting. dreadful, as the last line says (おそろしい最後の奇蹟を祈つてゐるのだ)

anyways, i’ve gotten 27 pages into the first chapter, and i’ve passed the crutch point! (someone with much better skills than myself has translated the first 15 pages, beyond that, i’ve got to rely on my own brain)

this is definitely a terrible manga to read as study practice, by the way. i’m loving it but there are so many weird and nonsensical things and mysteries. something more grounded would probably be best suited for studying from, but as usual, my brain likes to torture itself.

and i haven’t even gotten to the truly weird, fucked up parts yet. so far all we’ve done is see a weird corpse that maybe isn’t a corpse (it hasn’t decayed in 5 days, and hasn’t changed form at all...unless you paint a picture of it. each time someone paints it, a different face emerges...), read a poem, and discovered Sai (from muro saisei’s works) has gone on a journey.

[the-old-book-town]

Poetry is serious business! 

Saku: The first time I read your poems in Haku-san’s literary journal, I shed tears from how strongly I felt that I’d discovered a piece of my soul.

^A super bad translation by yours truly. I’m suddenly very glad that I watched the Bungo to Alchemist anime and have browsed the wiki articles for these writers. It helps to have context for this story, such as identifying references to the real authors’ works or pieces of their real history like this (apparently, Hagiwara Sakutaro and Muro Saisei met and became friends through Kitahara Hakushu’s literary journal, in which they both published some poems of theirs).

I went with a loose translation to 1) give context to the nature of the journal and 2) make the part of the sentence with 感慨 sound halfway normal in English.

The furigana gives me inner satisfaction, ever since I discovered how to add it using ms word. It makes reading a manga like Tsukihoe much less of a chore, despite the initial effort it takes to transcribe and add the readings. The reason being the sheer volume of kanji I have to look up. I couldn’t possibly remember them all on a reread. This is definitely more kanji-heavy than the average manga.

One thing I have to keep in mind, when I go back over to read more closely, is the type of pronoun and overall language patterns each character uses. Since it can be difficult for me to pick out who is speaking, keeping track of who uses what helps.

For Saku, he uses pronouns without kanji, so おれ, おまえ, あなた. Saku also tends to repeat himself when he gets excited or frenzied. His speech bubbles get all...spikey, for lack of a better word, too.

Haku uses pronouns with kanji: 僕, 君. His speech is always very calm and controlled, it seems his speech bubbles reflect this, as the lines are always smooth.

Sai has a speech pattern where he uses phrases (expressions?) like そりゃ. And he also has kanji for any pronouns he uses.

And so on.

Progress: 31 pages on the initial read, 14 pages on the more intensive re-read

[nebyura]

[nolahthestranger]

Saisei Muro's Inside a Deep Isolation

Japanese poetry is so different. And I like it very much.

[yourcatwasdelicious]

muro saisei

[terracemuse]

And what you sadly sing of.  (Saisei Muro  1889-1962)

[representshinjuku]

Trap of “Fling”

[Ramuda]

YOYOYO! Everybody good? Okay! Okay! 

So-So-So fresh, don’t you vibe with our sound?

[Gentaro]

Foreshadowing strung through Fling Posse’s Trap

[Dice]

To all of us our own; float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

[Ramuda]

Stealing all the GIRLS&BOYS’ hearts

[Fling Posse]

HOOCHIE COOCHIE　LALALA

BOOGIE WOOGIE　SHALALA

Dozing in a dreamy state of mind

Shake it shake it shake it out!

A beam of light just to your taste

Beats and blares, just feel it now

Welcome to our kaleidoscopic show!

We don’t stop!

Shake it shake it shake it out!

[Fling Posse]

TRAP OF “FLING”

F. L. I. N. G. The hand sign’s an f-shaped peace!

TRAP OF “FLING”

Put your hands up in the air 

Wave them ‘round

Shake it shake it shake it out!

TRAP OF “FLING”

TRAP OF “FLING” [Gentaro] a teasing win

TRAP OF “FLING”

TRAP OF “FLING” [Dice] Shibuya’s King

TRAP OF “FLING”

[Ramuda]

So easy to read--like the back of my hand Ahaha

But I don’t hate that about you! You’re cute so welcome, says easy-R

Loving my allies and the ladies, sending the crude guys running back home

Every shot’s gonna turn out instaperfect so take all the pics you please

[Gentaro] 

The smell of sweet osmanthus leads you lost down the alleys

The goldfish drowns in pleasure as if in one of Saisei’s* stories

A double-sided scenario gives the obedient hallucinations through flowery words

Loneliness might be just another brief amusement, no?

[Dice]

No hangups, just choose to gamble. Ain’t you gettin’ tricked? Be sus

The second you realize it a bankruptcy notice gets thrust at you 

Only the gods can roll the dice; you wanna try divin’ in anyway?

Goin’ all-in on this ring-side brawl and helping myself to a giant killing

[Ramuda] A gorgeously glittery sound

[Gentaro]  Nonsense overrules reality 

[Dice] Plain old POPS--if you’re tired of it lock on

[Ramuda] Stealing all the GIRLS&BOYS’ hearts

[Fling Posse] Shake it shake it shake it out!

[Fling Posse]

TRAP OF “FLING”

F. L. I. N. G. The hand sign’s an f-shaped peace!

TRAP OF “FLING”

Put your hands up in the air 

Wave them ‘round

Shake it shake it shake it out!

TRAP OF “FLING”

TRAP OF “FLING” [Gentaro] a teasing win

TRAP OF “FLING”

TRAP OF “FLING” [Dice] Shibuya’s King

TRAP OF “FLING”

HOOCHIE COOCHIE　LALALA

BOOGIE WOOGIE　SHALALA

Dozing in a dreamy state of mind

Shake it shake it shake it out!

A beam of light just to your taste

Beats and blares, just feel it now

Welcome to our kaleidoscopic show!

We don’t stop!

Shake it shake it shake it out!

[Ramuda]  NOW your memories get blown away

[Ramuda]  YOU feeling Shibuya’s chaotic style?

[Gentaro]  ARE you caught up in our lies?

[Gentaro]  Faintly laying out a saint

[Dice]       Pump up the volume; hop on this beat

[Dice]       ‘S a rhyming give and take

[Ramuda] CAPTIVE at the top

[Gentaro]  FOR lyrics bitter

[Dice]       EVER attacking

[Fling Posse] 

TRAP OF “FLING”

Shake it shake it shake it out!

*Muro Saisei, a Japanese poet and novelist. 

[sandflow]

Sugimoto and Ogata’s rivalmance. PART III

Hello yet again.

Since more Golden Kamuy chapters have been piling up, and with them more Sugimoto and Ogata angst, I’m going to pinpoint what other new scenes popped up ever since chapter 200 happened.

Here’s Part I: http://daewonhoff.tumblr.com/post/182743868378/sugimoto-and-ogatas-rivalmance

And Part II: https://sandflow.tumblr.com/post/185315377728/sugimoto-and-ogatas-rivalmance-part-ii

Chapter 200: Sugimoto monologues the line “get well and come back to me, so I can kill you.” to Ogata. 

I’ll come back to this scene because the volume version came out some time ago and Noda changed a small detail in the last page.

This is the magazine version of the page:

Notice that Sugimoto’s eyes look blank (which happen when a character is in danger, fights someone or is threatening someone).

This is the volume version of the page:

Notice that Sugimoto’s eyes don’t look blank anymore and are now full of life with a little spark added to them.

Because of this change, Sugimoto doesn’t seem as threatening as he is in the initial version of the chapter. You could say that his line now sounds as a “Get well soon you shit” rather than a threat.

Chapter 201: Sugimoto’s group tries to travel through Karafuto. They get ambushed by a sniper. Everyone thinks it’s Ogata. 

Sugimoto is going straight to the sniper to kill him.

A very devoted man trying to chase after his supposed nemesis.

Chapter 202: Sugimoto is thinking about how he will kill Ogata.

And Sugimoto being shocked it wasn’t Ogata.

So, after terrorizing Vasily by chasing him around the building, he finally catches him.

Notice his blank stare in the last panel. He’s ready to kill.

And then he notices the Ogata drawing that was coming out of Vasily’s pocket.

He suddently stops attacking and his eyes seem to have a glimmer of light in them now.

Chapter 203: Sugimoto thinks Vasily is in cahoots with Ogata so he starts to interrogate him.

Sugimoto tries to ask him questions but there is a clear language barrier going on. He tries to explain that Ogata is the biggest baddie of them all.

So he starts drawing Ogata and how he escaped the hospital.

And as the image shows, we have a centaur Ogata with his dick out.

Sugimoto felt like he wanted to explain how he saved Ogata and also added that he did to save Asirpa from becoming a killer, followed by some suspension lines. What are the dots for Noda? HM? Did Sugimoto have any other reason so as to save Ogata?

And this is how the Ogata fanclub was born.

From these chapters it’s clear that Sugimoto considers Ogata a threat, and that also thinks of him as a bad person, yet he spared Vasily’s life (who shot Shiraishi in the leg) and indulged in drawing his version of the story.

After this fanclub encounter, the Sugimoto gang is now advancing further to Hokkaido.

Shiraishi questions why Vasily is following them. It’s then concluded that he is after Ogata. Sugimoto then says this line:

Which is interesting because, we are now hearing Sugimoto’s point of view about what Vasily thinks. How does Sugimoto know what he thinks? Is he projecting? Does Sugimoto think that maybe Ogata is after him until he kills him?

Hell if I know. 

Moving on. 

Asirpa then wonders if Ogata will come back to them, but is unsure why he would considering that he doesn’t give a damn about the gold.

And Sugimoto says he’s doing it for the yolo.

Sugimoto’s expression looks as if he really doesn’t know what Ogata is after.

tbh Sugimoto the whole fandom wonders what he wants so you’re not alone

And even if he doesn’t know what he’s after, he still has the imminent urge of thinking that Ogata is their enemy.

Chapter 222: Ogata came back in the plot and is now in Hijikata’s group again. He tells them what happened in Karafuto. 

Of course, he’s lying to his teeth by not telling them he was the one who shot Wilk and Sugimoto.

But in the page where he says that Sugimoto was the one who killed Kiroranke because he teamed up with Tsurumi’s men, Noda changed the dialogue in the volume version. The line was translated by someone from one of the GK discord servers I’m part of.

This is the magazine version:

And this is the volume version.

He says that the one who killed Kiroranke were Tsurumi’s men and not Sugimoto.

Did Noda change the line because Ogata is intending for the Hijikata group to ally with Sugimoto’s group? It’s possible. 

Did he change it so that it looks like Ogata feels no grudge towards Sugimoto, and tries to not picture him as the bad person in the whole ordeal? Also possible.

Chapter 228: Sugimoto gets lost in the forest and finds a bird that keeps him company.

He asks the bird if it would’ve been better if they left their spot ever since they ran out of food. The bird chirps and he starts scolding/threatening the bird saying “YOU LOVED THAT FOOD TOO” while making Ogata-styled eyes.

This chapter was was stupidly random and pointless, but what I can point out here (which might sound far-fetched) is that maybe this was a foreshadow to what Sugimoto feels about Ogata betraying their group. 

But Sugimoto seems super nuts in this chapter so I can’t bet on that at all.

Chapter 236: Sugimoto is touched by Boutarou’s harem story and he now has his own flashback with his father.

His dad is dying of tuberculosis and apparently there’s this saying about black cats that cure tuberculosis.

So we have this black cat that comes out of nowhere to comfort Sugimoto for a few seconds and then leaves. 

Who was the character who was always being portrayed as a cat?

(Noda liked Muro Saisei’s cat so he said why not)

In a way it’s funny if Sugimoto actually views Ogata as a black cat that gives luck considering what good deeds Ogata did to him.

Chapter 246: Sugimoto’s group meets up with HIjikata’s and they start battling eachother. Sugimoto gets immobilized by Ushiyama. And Kadokura says Ogata is nearby.

Sugimoto is shocked for a bit and wants to be sure that Ogata really is there.

I-is my supposed arch nemesis here?? R-really??? 

He then takes out a picture of Ogata from his pocket so that he can explain to Vasily that Ogata is nearby.

To which all I can ask is: Sugimoto why do you keep a picture of Ogata in your pocket constantly?

The logical explanation is that he can ask townsfolk about Ogata’s whereabouts.  But...do we ever see Sugimoto asking anyone about Ogata’s whereabouts and thus using that picture? No.

Something similar happened with Tanigaki’s almost nude pictures too. He had at least 2 different pictures with Tanigaki in different sexy poses.

Moving on from this rather curious and shippy scene.

He then accuses Hijikata that it was his fault as to why he got separated from Asirpa, and thus Ogata being able to shoot him.

Really Sugimoto? Are you going to blame Hijikata that Ogata shot you?

do not defend you arch-nemesis like this

Chapter 247: Sugimoto’s group together with Hijikata’s are now united and as such they go and start drinking. But before that, Sugimoto needs to be sure that Ogata won’t come near them.

It’s curious that while reading these chapters, it looks like Sugimoto is constantly trying to protect Asirpa from Ogata, even though Ogata isn’t aiming for the gold, and was also unable to shoot Asirpa on the ice floe. Why is Sugimoto using Asirpa as an excuse to keep Ogata away from them so much?

And what I also noticed is that he uses Vasily to confront Ogata. Sure, Ogata is  way too far away for Sugimoto to reach, so using another sniper against him might solve that problem. But hasn’t he noticed that Ogata had enough time to shoot them since they were way out in the open just now? With Vasily struggling to equip himself with a rifle and climbing somewhere up to look out for Ogata?

Seems to me like Sugimoto is trying to avoid confronting Ogata because that would mean killing him, and since he doesn’t know what Ogata’s true motives are, he might hesitate in doing so.

Chapter 250: Sugimoto being really careful so as to not move around open areas for Ogata to snipe them.

Asirpa then tells him that Ogata is still interested in the gold. And thus has no reason to kill her.

This page is the pinnacle of what Sugimoto thinks of Ogata. 

He thinks of him as a lone wolf who wishes to screw up everyone’s chances in getting the gold, thus dissappointing everyone. 

Which is funny to me because that is literally what Ueji does in chapter 257. 

And with the whole “he is alone thing”, it’s interesting to note that Sugimoto is sort of in the same situation as Ogata. He was, in a way, a loner up until he met Asirpa. He has nowhere to go after the whole gold hunt. 

Yes, he’ll go back to Umeko but she has remarried already with someone who is rich and so her eye problem will probably be solved by him. Besides, Sugimoto doesn’t seem like the type to marry a woman who has been married to his best friend.

It’s more likely that if Sugimoto gets his share of the gold and finishes his job with getting Umeko to fix her eyes, he will go back to being a loner in the woods. 

And he can’t go back to his home village either, since the last time he went there, Umeko could’ve easily smelled the stench of slaughtered soldiers that was coming from Sugimoto’s direction. He feels like he doesn’t belong in that village. 

Ogata doesn’t seem to have a home for himself either. Other than his grandparents.(who we don’t know if they still live).

And now it is time for me to go to sleep for the next 30-40 chapters.

[ouranswer]

Inside A Deep Isolation

When a musician steps down off the stage,

when he steps down, sent off with the clapping of a fine crowd of people,

what an intense and deserted isolation he must feel.

In spite of that thunder of admiration

how deeply a fine musician, outside the bounds of the crowd of people,

must love with a passion the height of isolation that is his.

[love-midnight-sunshine]

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, History

Language: Japanese (Eng-Sub)

IMDb Ratings: 5.8/10

Quality: BluRay

Movie Size: 720p (0.97GB)

Director: Gakuryû Ishii

Movie Cast: Fumi Nikaidô, Ren Osugi, Seiko Iwaidô

Download Here -     

Sypnosis: Based on novelist Muro Saisei's 1959 book, Bitter Honey narrates the story of a poet who informed by his physician of his impending death finds renewed flights of fantasy. He is visited by a thin and attractive girl in red who becomes a catalyst for romance. The girl has to vie with competition for the artist's attention, however, as other women work in the wings. Bitter Honey's story is coloured by gorgeous photography as it explores sex, love, life and immortality.

Watch Trailer

Screenshot

[yue-muffin]

tsukihoe updates: sai really exposing the life of the suffering artist here. i do like the nod to reality.

all his life, hagiwara sakutaro was able to depend on his family’s money. his father was a doctor. he basically just used the money he earned himself to pay for alcohol and his mother remarked that he neither depleted nor added to the family’s wealth. he was actually quite lucky and privileged.

not really sure where kitahara hakushu falls, but he comes from a family of sake brewers and he had a very successful literary career.

in comparison, muro saisei (whom sai is based on), was an illegitimate child who never met his parents and was raised in a temple. while i’d say he became successful (he eventually transitioned to novels which...i expect to play some part in this manga), his path was certainly not quite as easy.

little language notes: in this part he calls haku and saku 生粋の詩人, 生粋 is pure/genuine. and also “son of a wealthy family” is actually お坊ちゃん or “young master” it just didn’t carry over as well into english.

[chromemuffin]

Hm, I am inordinately happy and satisfied with this translation I did of a manga I bought a few months ago:

Shikaku (□) Town1. A fictional town in modern Japan where poets live. It is here that the characters styled after the works of Hagiwara Sakutaro, Kitahara Hakushu, Miyoshi Tatsuji, Muro Saisei, and Takamura Kotaro, among others, struggle to compose poetry as their lives are torn up by their karma as writers and happiness as humans. This is not an autobiography, but a story of the karma*, sins, and madness of modern Japan and its poets as created based off impressions of real poets such as Hagiwara Sakutaro and Kitahara Hakushu.

1 In-text, the town is written □ to be pronounced 'shikaku', which means square, but is also written as 詩歌句, meaning 'poetry and verse'.

There is a translated summary floating around out there, but it confused me so I retranslated it (I think there is a longer version somewhere, but this is the one I found first). This is a very interesting series for sure.

* Also, perhaps this is not meant to be ‘karma’ but that is one of the meanings of 業 aside from ‘a deed, work, act’.