A Gift from Editor-in-Chief Shusaku Endo

2020/08/13

"Mita Bungaku" Summer 2020 Issue

The Summer Issue of "Mita Bungaku", featuring the full text of Shusaku Endo's unpublished novel "Against the Shadows" (Kage ni Taishite), sold out during the pre-order stage, and we immediately began a reprint. This rush of pre-orders before publication is, of course, a first for me since becoming Editor-in-Chief. The impact of discovering a complete, unpublished work by Endo is immense, and it can undoubtedly be called a landmark event in literary history.

Shusaku Endo was a brilliant graduate of this Juku's Faculty of Letters. He began writing criticism while a student and appeared in "Mita Bungaku" shortly after the war. After graduation, he became the first post-war Japanese student to study in France. Upon returning, he published his debut work "To Aden" (Aden made) in "Mita Bungaku," and the following year, in 1955, he received the Akutagawa Prize for "White Man" (Shiroi Hito). Since then, he was remarkably active as a writer, producing many masterpieces such as "The Sea and Poison" and "Silence." His body of work, which earnestly explores the gaze of God and the way humans live, represents an important pinnacle reached by modern Japanese literature. On the other hand, his lighthearted and witty essays published under the pen name Korian-sensei are also widely beloved and continue to be read by many enthusiastic fans. Endo was also long involved in the editing of our magazine; in 1968, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief, leading the fifth post-war series of "Mita Bungaku" and leaving behind great achievements.

"Against the Shadows" is a work of pure literature into which the author poured his soul. Set against the backdrop of Shusaku Endo's childhood in Dalian, former Manchuria, due to his father's work, it depicts the conflict with his father and deep affection for his mother while observing the actual life of the protagonist living in the present day. Born in 1923, Shusaku Endo moved to Dalian at the age of three and lived there during his formative years until age ten, experiencing his parents' divorce around the time he returned to Japan. Based on his actual experiences, this work intersects his current self with memories of his father, a professional who protected their real-life existence, and his mother, who always questioned the quality of life through music. The protagonist's name is "Suguro," a name used for protagonists in a series of works starting with "The Sea and Poison," which evokes Endo's own strong sentiments. The "Shadow" in the title is undoubtedly his own shadow from which one cannot separate as long as one lives, and one can read the author's resolve to face head-on the figures of his parents deeply etched there. It is a masterpiece in which the father symbolizing "daily life" and the mother symbolizing the quality of "life" are expressed through the rigorous introspection characteristic of Endo's literature.

There was a mysterious coincidence regarding the discovery of this work (see the contribution in this issue by Yuriko Kawasaki, curator at the Shusaku Endo Literary Museum). The museum was established in 2000, at which time over 30,000 items, including Shusaku Endo's original manuscripts and letters, were entrusted by the Endo family. While the investigation and organization of the materials were likely proceeding steadily, further investigation of unorganized materials for the 20th-anniversary special exhibition starting this summer led to the discovery of two pages of original drafts and 104 pages of a clean copy manuscript by Shusaku Endo's secretary. It was exactly Shusaku Endo's style when writing pure literature—writing minutely in pencil on the back of manuscript paper—and the secretary's clean copy clearly bore the marks of Shusaku Endo's revisions. Curator Kawasaki conducted a detailed investigation amidst shock and excitement and reportedly became convinced that it was undoubtedly an unpublished work. The estimated time of writing is after 1963, possibly around the period he served as Editor-in-Chief. This means the work had been sleeping for half a century. Future research is awaited, including the reasons why it was never published. Incidentally, the title of this special exhibition was "Shusaku Endo's Gem Essays Exhibition: The Difference Between 'Daily Life' and 'Life'," which unexpectedly coincided with the theme of this work. Shusaku Endo's thoughts reached the museum on its 20th anniversary as a great gift.

The news of the discovery of the unpublished work was immediately conveyed to Muneya Kato (former Editor-in-Chief of this magazine, who wrote the commentary for this issue), a favorite disciple of Shusaku Endo. With the consent of Endo's son, Ryunosuke Endo, Mr. Kato inquired about publishing and announcing it in our magazine. I cannot well express the incredible heat of the excitement that erupted in the editorial department. It was late May, after the deadline for the summer issue manuscripts had passed—a time when changes are normally impossible—but we immediately and fundamentally changed the structure of the summer issue just before going to press and placed this work at the core of the magazine. One can imagine that any major literary magazine would have jumped at the chance to publish an unpublished work by Shusaku Endo. However, our "Mita Bungaku" was chosen as the medium. This is simply because all parties involved agreed that the magazine into which Shusaku Endo poured his passion was the most appropriate place for the announcement. All of us in the editorial department feel extremely honored to have been present at such an occasion.

Finally, one more mysterious connection. I also spent three years of my junior high school days in Dalian, where the young Shusaku lived. Thirty years after Shusaku, my father moved the whole family to China, with which there were not yet diplomatic relations, as a Japanese language teacher. We were forced to return due to the start of the Cultural Revolution, but if we had stayed as we were, I would not be who I am today. My father was quite reckless. Dalian is an unforgettable city for me as well. I lived in a Western-style house about a 10-minute walk from Shusaku Endo's former residence, and the former residence of Daisaku Komoto was also nearby. The streetscapes and place names depicted in "Against the Shadows" overlapped with my own memories, and my heart became full. A gift from the Editor-in-Chief delivered after 50 years—I cannot help but think of it that way.