- Convenor:
-
Saeko Kimura
(Tsuda University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Anne Bayard-Sakai
(Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Modern Literature
Short Abstract
The year 2026 marks the tenth memorial of passing of Tsushima Yūko (1947–2016). This panel focuses on Tsushima’s novles—with a particular emphasis on her later works—to re-examine her legacy through the lenses of post-war literature, Fukushima literature, and world literature.
Long Abstract
The year 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of Tsushima Yūko (1947–2016). This panel focuses on Tsushima’s novels—with a particular emphasis on her later works—to re-examine her legacy through the lenses of post-war, Fukushima, and world literature.
Tsushima debuted in 1969, emerging alongside Nakagami Kenji. Initially categorized as an "I-novel" (shishōsetsu) writer, her early work featured motifs rooted in personal trauma: the death of her father, Dazai Osamu; her brother’s disability; and the loss of her eight-year-old son. However, her 1996 masterpiece, Mountain of Fire: Account of a Wild Monkey, marked a significant departure. From this point, her style evolved into "grand narratives" that integrated archival research-fiction with indigenous myths, such as those of the Ainu.
While politically active since the Gulf War, Tsushima’s response to the 2011 Fukushima disaster was notably swift; in Wildcat Dome, she confronted radioactive catastrophe through the power of literature. Amidst current global conflicts and a domestic return to pre-war sensibilities, rereading her work in a contemporary context is imperative.
This panel features three specific analyses. Saeko Kimura examines the driving forces behind Tsushima’s later works, focusing on the turning point of Mountain of Fire. By analyzing the memoir of Tsushima’s maternal uncle, Kimura elucidates how Tsushima developed the research-fiction methods that forged her distinctive late narrative style. Shigemi Nakagawa analyzes Tsushima’s final novel, Celebrating the Half-Life of Cesium (2016), from the perspective of world literature. Nakagawa explores how Tsushima confronted the fear of war, disaster, the nuclear age, and ethnic division to examine fundamental issues of humanity. Finally, Peichen Wu expands this discussion by situating Tsushima’s trajectory within a transcultural framework, further illuminating her global relevance. Together, these papers redefine Tsushima’s fiction as a pivotal contribution to the global literary landscape.
Keywords: Tsushima Yūko, Research-fiction, World literature, Fukushima literature
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This paper will examine the driving forces behind Tsushima’s later works, focusing on the turning point of Mountain of Fire. By analyzing the notes of Tsushima’s maternal uncle, this paper seeks to redefine Tsushima’s fiction as a pivotal contribution to post-war literature.
Paper long abstract
During her year-long residency in Paris from 1991 to 1992, Tsushima Yūko connected with her maternal cousin and rediscovered that her uncle, living in the United States, was the only surviving relative with direct memories of her parents. Intending to interview him about her family history, Tsushima visited her uncle in the U.S. on her way back from Paris. Instead of a verbal interview, however, her uncle presented her with a handwritten memoir. This very memoir became the foundational material for her 1996 masterpiece, Mountain of Fire: Account of a Wild Monkey (Hi no Yama：Yamazaru-ki).
In this novel, Tsushima established her "research-fiction" methodology by investigating historical facts and the topography of her maternal family's home in Yamanashi Prefecture, while incorporating citations from the writings of her maternal grandfather, who was a geologist. Simultaneously, her work in Paris—the French translation of the Ainu Shin'yōshū (Collection of Ainu people’s Chants)—allowed her to engage deeply with indigenous myths and epics. Through this process, Tsushima created a distinctive new narrative style that blends rigorous archival research with the oral tradition of epic poetry.
At the core of this stylistic evolution lies the handwritten memoir handed to her by her uncle. By focusing on this memoir, now held at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Literature following the author's passing, this paper explores the new novel that Tsushima Yūko constructed and its significance in contemporary literature.
Paper short abstract
This paper will examine Tsushima Yuko's Wild Cat Dome and how Tsushima portrays the near future of Japan and traces back the post-war history of Japan in Wild Cat Dome which provides a thought-provoking exploration of the relation between the Fukushima nuclear accident and modern Japan.
Paper long abstract
As a member of the generation who came of age with the Japanese women’s liberation movement in the 1970s, Tsushima Yuko is full of humanism and sincere concern about society. After the Great Japan East Earthquake of 2011, she wrote articles to bring attention to the threat of nuclear disaster in Japanese society and participated in the movement to pressure the Japanese government to address the reality of nuclear disaster. Her novel Wild Cat Dome, published in 2013, combines post-World War II Japanese history with the issue of nuclear disaster in a critical reflection on Japanese modernity. This work focuses on the Japanese-American children who were born in Japan during the American occupation, covering the post-war period, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and extending into an imagined near future. The term Wild Cat, used in the title of this work, implies these Japanese-American children, who were excluded from Japanese society. This paper will examine how Tsushima portrays the near future of Japan and traces back the post-war history of Japan in Wild Cat Dome which provides a thought-provoking exploration of the relation between the Fukushima nuclear accident and modern Japan.
Paper short abstract
Shigemi Nakagawa will analyze Tsushima Yuko's final novel, “Celebrating the Half-Life of cesium” (2016), from the perspective of world literature. Tsushima confronted with the deeply fear of war, disaster, the nuclear age, and ethnic division while repeatedly examining the issues of humanity
Paper long abstract
Tsushima Yuko is a writer who has boldly challenged her times, as evidenced by her nomination for the Nobel Prize. Emerging from the I-novel genre, she began publishing monumental works touching on grand human history in the 1990s. After publishing Mountain of Fire: Account of a Wild Monkey (Hi no Yama—Yamazaru-ki) (1998) and Too Savage (Amarini yaban’na)(2008), the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 profoundly impacted her, resulting in Wildcat Dome (Yamaneko dōmu)(2013) and Jakka Duxu-ni: A Tale of the Sea's Memory (Jakka dofuni: umino kiokuno monogatari)(2016). Her last publication was the short story Celebrating the Half-Life of Cesium (Hangenki o iwatte)(2016). There is, however, a novella called Time of hunting (Kari no jidai) subsequently published by her daughter in 2016.
This presentation will focus on Celebrating the Half-Life of Cesium to explore the connection between historical memory and nuclear issues. Set in near-future Japan, the novel begins with the state holding a celebratory event to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War II. The government’s optimistic propaganda claims that the radioactive cesium-137 damage from the nuclear power plant accident during the Great East Japan Earthquake has entered its half-life. Japan has become an internationally isolated military dictatorship. The elderly female protagonist, who was affected by the disaster in Tohoku and evacuated to Tokyo, returns to her hometown after an extended absence. However, she finds a desolate place where the Tohoku, Ainu, and Okinawan people—marginalized by the Yamato ethnic group—have been abandoned.
While depicting a near-future dystopia, the novel denounces the contemporary situation spreading worldwide: how a state degenerates and oppresses its people. In her final novel, Tsushima depicts the global disasters and nuclear terror, as well as the decay of the humanities. I wish to analyze this novel from the perspective of world literature.