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The sound of a trumpet across a Japanese mountain valley leads a young man to befriend a mysterious stranger. During repeated visits to the cave where the stranger has set up home, the young man learns about his past – in the mines, villages and ports of the region. The stranger’s hilarious, bawdy and touching narratives captivate the young man, but he begins to doubt their veracity. Finally, as the young man decides his own fate, the full truth about the stranger is revealed.
‘Tales from a Mountain Cave’ is a translation of Hisashi Inoue’s highly popular ‘Shinshaku Tono Monogatari’ (新釈遠野物語), set in the Kamaishi area of Iwate Prefecture, Northeast Japan. Kamaishi was devastated by the tsunami of March 2011, and royalties on sales of this book will be donated to post-tsunami community support projects.
Hisashi Inoue (1934–2010) was, in the words of Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, one of the towering figures of contemporary Japan. A novelist, playwright, producer and scriptwriter, his awards include the Naoki Prize (1972), the Yomiuri Literary Prize (1979, 1981, 2010), the Japan SF Grand Prize (1981), the Seiun Award (1986), the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Prize (1991), the Kikuchi Kan Literary Award (1999) and the Asahi Prize (2000).
Angus Turvill is an award-winning translator who currently teaches at Durham University, UK. His prize-winning translations include work by Kaori Ekuni and Natsuki Ikezawa (Shizuoka Grand Prize), Kuniko Mukoda (John Dryden), Osamu Dazai (J-Lit), and Nanami Kamon (Kurodahan). His other translations include work by Kiwao Nomura, Kiyoshi Shigematsu, Aoko Matsuda and Yasuhiro Yotsumoto.
Translator’s Introduction; In the Pot; House up the River; Pheasant Girl; Horse; Fox; Story Seller; Lake; Eel; Fox Hole; Glossary and Notes