Just a Man of Letters: About My Father, Yoshie Hotta

2019/01/22

"1982

Yasaburo Ikeda (67 years old)

Once, I was treated to a meal at a fine restaurant in Akasaka. (Omitted)

A long chat, consisting only of idle gossip, continued, and I felt completely bewildered. However, the conversation eventually got to the point: given the ongoing campus unrest, I was being asked to take an important position at a certain university. It must have been a desperate idea.

In short, I said I wanted to remain just a man of letters, and I disappointed him."

(Yoshie Hotta, "These Ten Years (Continued)," Nobody Thinks It's Strange, Chikuma Shobo)

A few years ago, an editor from Iwanami Shoten suggested that I write about my father, Yoshie Hotta. The gist was that it would be to pass on my father's works, which should be read for a long time, as well as his way of life, to future generations. Wondering what to do, I began reading my father's works little by little. By reading, I remembered my father deep within that era and time, thinking, 'Oh, I've heard these words before,' or 'Come to think of it, that happened too...' and I continued that process.

The tribute to Mr. Yasaburo Ikeda at the beginning is one of them. At that time, I was a Keio students in the Faculty of Letters. If my father had taken an important position at the university, I wonder what kind of face I would have had to show when going to school. The mere thought of it is terrifying; if that had happened, I might have dropped out. Because my father remained just a man of letters, I was able to graduate safely.

My father was a person who, if there was something on his mind or something that needed to be investigated, would first go, go anywhere, see, and then think. I thought that if I followed the places my father visited, I might be able to see a faint image of him. With that thought, I continued reading my father's works and wrote down what I saw. Perhaps the passage of time made it possible for me to write while looking at the figure of a man of letters named Yoshie Hotta somewhat objectively. The accumulation of those efforts became the book Just a Man of Letters: About My Father, Yoshie Hotta.

Just a Man of Letters: About My Father, Yoshie Hotta

Yuriko Hotta (Author)

Iwanami Shoten

224 pages, 1,900 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations, job titles, etc., are as of the time of publication.