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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.