I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 211 Anti-war literature? Pah, it's obviously fake anti-war literature! (Two in one)

Although Jabami Rei was signed by Toei before she graduated thanks to her performances in "No Longer Human" and "Akudama".

Moreover, unlike other actresses who have just debuted, she does not need to go through the circuitous path of shooting photo albums to enter the entertainment industry. It is obvious that she has the support of bigwigs within the company.

However, such disregard for the company still made the agent specially assigned to her by Toei very dissatisfied.

You are just a fledgling who got to power by luck thanks to connections and resources, and you really take yourself seriously?!
Don’t you know that even the company’s top actress wouldn’t dare to talk to the company’s specially assigned agent like that?
After the agent received the reply that said "I quit! Whoever wants can act!", he immediately called the executive director who had asked him to take good care of Jabami Rei and told him the whole story with exaggeration.

At the end, he even complained about his grievances, thinking that Jabami Rei had a strong personality. Even if this incident was over, the next time she caused trouble, it would definitely implicate the company and himself.

This kind of actress doesn't even have big-name status, but she's already acting like one. She's absolutely useless!

The executive director on the other end of the phone was named Tezuka Osamu, who was very famous in Toei and the entire television industry.

His fame comes from two sources.

First, he is only 36 years old this year, comes from a relatively ordinary family, and graduated from the Faculty of Literature of Seigaku University, an ordinary university that is not even ranked high in Japan.

Despite his background, since joining Toei in 1983, he has produced one nationally popular drama after another, and was noticed by the president, Kenji Tada, who trained him to become a direct descendant. At this age, he entered the core layer of the company and became a powerful director.

What’s even more interesting is that before joining Toei in 1983, the impoverished Tezuka Osamu was asked by his childhood sweetheart to break off the engagement, leaving his family humiliated and devastated.

But he was not overly hit by this incident. Instead, he acted out a scene of "Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west. Don't bully the young and poor."

After becoming the executive director of Toei, the first thing Tezuka Osamu did was to take advantage of his ex-girlfriend, who had always been a marginal supporting role in Toei and had been married to him for many years.

This is actually a very immoral and unethical thing to do, but in the cesspool of the Japanese entertainment industry, which is a cesspool, it has been praised by countless people as a good story.

Because of this incident, the president thought he was a patient and ruthless person, and he was given more attention.

Second, his name differs from that of the famous cartoonist Osamu Tezuka by only one character. In order to ride on the popularity and quickly climb up the TV station's ladder, he has never officially clarified the rumor that he is "suspected to be a relative of Osamu Tezuka."

As time goes by, the rumors become true.

After he came to power, he immediately came forward to clarify this "misunderstanding".

Jabami Rei is a newcomer placed under him by the president. When he heard that she was a student in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo and had never been a print model or had any photo albums shot before, Tezuka Osamu immediately realized that she was a super connected person!

as predicted.

When he asked around, he found out that Jabami Rei was the best friend of Kitagawa's girlfriend. The two were inseparable during school. The only two works that Jabami Rei starred in were both adapted from Kitagawa's novels!
Especially in this year's "No Longer Human" which grossed 55 billion yen, it is said that many well-known actors were trying their best to get a minor role, but Jabami Rei, who had only appeared in "Akudama", got an important female supporting role.
These issues cannot be explored in detail.

Therefore, Osamu Tezuka decisively allocated his best resources to Jabami Rei.

After hearing the whole story, Osamu Tezuka didn't care at all about the "political issues" and "social impact" that his agent mentioned.

Not to mention that Jabami Rei is just a small new actress, it is difficult for a company as big as Toei to have any real connection with politics.

His first reaction was, how come the agent whom he had high hopes for turned out to be a big idiot?

Kitagawa's girlfriend, Yumeko Agatsuma, sold the film and television rights of "Border" and "I Am a Cat" to Toho, and also held the more popular "Lost Paradise" and "Confessions".

With the relationship with Jabami Rei, if Toei can get the film and television adaptation rights of these two books through her, perhaps it will be able to stand out from the quagmire like "Wen Yi"!

He can also rely on this achievement to go one step further and become a general manager of the company.

Osamu Tezuka now wishes he could hold Jabami Rei in his hands, and is preparing to give her several big-budget TV dramas, letting her play the second or third female lead to make herself familiar on the screen, and then give her the resources to play the female lead next year.

it's good now.

This idiot is holding me back?
Doesn't he know that behind Jabami Rei is Mr. Kitagawa?
The man who had just won the Goncourt Prize and was about to be hailed as the new "best writer in the world" by the literary world!

"I understand. Then don't do it." Tezuka Osamu replied coldly.

The agent was overjoyed and immediately thanked with a smile: "Thank you, Director Tezuka. I..."

"Pack up your things tomorrow and go to the HR department to hand in your resignation."

"Eh?"

"Beep beep."

Osamu Tezuka hung up the phone impatiently, decisively blocked the other party, then quickly looked through the address book, first sent a message to Jabami Rei to comfort and apologize, and then went to find a more reliable agent.

While at home, Jaburi Rei, who was using both her hands and feet to fight with netizens online, saw her cell phone screen light up and discovered that it was a message from Director Tezuka Osamu, so she curiously clicked on it.

After angrily arguing with her agent, Jabami Rei was ready to quit Toei, but she didn't expect that Director Tezuka Osamu not only apologized to her, but also replaced the annoying agent!

"Has the energy sent to him become so great?" Jaburi Rei stopped typing on the keyboard, and suddenly a complex emotion she had never felt before surged in her heart.

None of these little incidents affected Kitagawa Hide and my wife Yumeko's trip to Izu.

8 month 15 day.

Kitagawa Hide and his companion drove to Tokyo Railway Station early in the morning, preparing to take the famous "Dancing Girl" train directly to the Izu Peninsula more than 100 kilometers away.

Today, Yumeko changed out of her sailor school uniform for the first time and wore a plain white furisode kimono instead.

This kimono is woven from a mixture of brocade, silk and cotton. It looks luxurious and beautiful, and it highlights the gentle temperament of Yamato Nadeshiko. By the way, this is a traditional women's formal dress that she had ordered at Kobayashi Clothing Store not long ago.

Today, after experiencing the baptism of working at Kawaide Shobo, Yumeko has gradually become adept at socializing and has also developed a sense of self that is independent of Kitagawa Hidegai.

Yumeko held Kitagawa Hide's arm and wore white tabi - a kind of special socks native to Japan, which is a must when wearing wooden clogs and straw sandals.

If you look closely, you can see the difference between tabi and socks.

Its big toe is separated from the other toes. It is said that this design has the same origin as the large waist bag (a pillow-like thing) on ​​the back of this type of formal kimono. In ancient times, it was made to make it easier for women and their admired men to discuss the upper and lower structures of the word "kun" in the wild.

This has actually been mentioned in some old film and television dramas.

The dignified and gentle kimono woman took off her waist bag and unfolded the blanket under her buttocks. The special design of the tabi allows the big toe to cooperate better with other toes, whether it is pinching or rubbing, it can be handy, and the cotton silk material is also very comfortable
But the big downside of dressing like this is that it’s hot, very hot!
Yumeko's kimono is double-layered, with a white silk inner garment inside. She must be sweating by now.

No wonder girls at major fireworks shows in summer basically all use round fans to fan themselves. After 00, round fans were replaced by small hair dryers.

Indeed, if it is hot and windless at night, don't blow hard, otherwise it will be embarrassing if you get heatstroke.

But even so, in order to let the boys they like see their most beautiful and gentle side at the fireworks display in the evening, countless girls will choose to bite the bullet and wear beautiful kimonos.

Just like they would rather endure the cold and wear short skirts with bare legs in the middle of winter.

Japanese women's obsession with beauty and their desire to leave a good impression on the opposite sex is somewhat morbid and excessive.

Kitagawa Hide, wearing sunglasses and a straw hat, led Yumeko to the ticket office to pay the ticket fee of 10344 yen, and then followed the crowd into the train.

After they sat down, the radio on the train began to broadcast the latest hot news in a loop. The walls and seat backs of the train were also covered with advertisements of various companies, as well as promotional posters for Kitagawa Hide's two hot new books.

In terms of promotion and marketing, Kawaide Shobo has done its best to ensure that Kitagawa Hide's books can be distributed in every corner of Japan.

In this regard, Kodansha cannot even catch up with Kawaide Shobo, which also shows the care the big boss has for him.

After all, Kitagawa Hide is working with Kawaide Shobo as a freelance writer. As long as he wants, he can always jump out and look for cooperation with other publishing houses.

In this case, all the costs that Shizuko Kawaide spent on him might suddenly become sunk costs.

This was also the reason why the board of directors initially strongly disapproved of Shizuko Kawaide's all-in on Kitagawa Hide.

If he runs away, all the money will be wasted.

But she dared to spend, was willing to spend! She even dared to give shares to Beichuan Xiu!

In addition to the popularity of the two books "Paradise Lost" and "Confessions", the biggest hot news recently is that Hide Kitagawa won the Goncourt Prize and Ryutaro Hashimoto visited the Yasukuni Shrine with a group of cabinet members and members of parliament.

The former is a cliché, but Kitagawa Hide's influence is so great, and the literary criticism and publishing circles have created a lot of hype for him, so he is mentioned repeatedly, almost establishing his status as the new "best in the world" in the minds of the people.

The latter is the top priority today.

It’s a pity that there is no TV on the train, otherwise this disgusting scene would have been broadcast.

The female host of the radio station described the worship process vividly, but the passengers in the car were drowsy and didn't pay any attention.

That's what politics is.

It is a game for those in power and has little to do with the people at the bottom. Compared with this, ordinary citizens care more about what to eat for dinner and when the long-awaited medical and education security system will be officially implemented.

".Speaking of shrines, there seems to be a heated discussion on the Internet recently? Some people question whether the 'protector gods' are war criminals or gods. Nakamura-kun, what do you think?"

"Ah, about this matter, I actually hold the same view as the netizen who said 'I just want to make money'"

The male host, who rarely spoke, suddenly took over the conversation and began to talk about several past events that ordinary people didn't know about.
"In fact, as early as 1959 and 1966, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare provided the Yasukuni Shrine with a list of 14 Class A war criminals including Hideki Tojo and Class B and C war criminals, and requested that the Yasukuni Shrine enshrine these war criminals together."

Speaking of the hot discussions online, the passengers opened their sleepy eyes and listened curiously.

The spectators always like to join in the fun.

Nakamura deliberately used the word "war criminal", which greatly increased Kitagawa Hide's favorability.

"Unexpectedly, the chief priest of the shrine at that time, Tsukuba Fujima, explicitly rejected the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's request. He believed that Class A war criminals were responsible for the war and firmly opposed bringing them into the shrine.

As early as 1948, when Hideki Tojo was executed, he said that as long as he was still alive, this guy would never be able to enter the shrine!
When asked about this again in 1966, Tsukuba Miyaji replied, "My attitude remains unchanged today!"

"What a stubborn old man." The female host sighed.

"The right-wing parties were furious and wanted to force him to submit, but because the shrine was an independent religious corporation at the time, the government had no right to interfere, so they were unable to convince the Tsukuba Shrine.

In 1978, the chief priest of Tsukuba Shrine died and was succeeded by Matsudaira Nagayoshi, a right-wing activist. In that year, war criminals were enshrined in the shrine one after another.

Political leaders also began to visit the shrine for various reasons.

Regardless of the reason, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's behavior is not worthy of promotion or encouragement.

By the way, Nana-chan, have you read any pure literary novels?"

Nakamura turned the topic back to novels.

The passengers' interest grew.

They want to hear about literature rather than politics.

Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko also pricked up their ears curiously.

"I read it occasionally. I'm currently reading Confessions by Kitagawa-sensei. I heard that the prototype of the juvenile delinquent in the novel has been sentenced and sent to prison?
Mr. Kitagawa is such an amazing person!"

“Haha, I agree with that statement! But today I don’t want to talk about Mr. Kitagawa’s book, but Mr. Arima Yoshiyoshi’s new book “The Burmese Harp” which will be serialized in “Literary World” tomorrow.

Arima Yoshiyoshi is recognized as a "world-class writer" in the literary world. It is said that he published a 2000-word manuscript through his personal online account today, in which he not only mentioned today's shrine visit, but also deeply described the battle and his views.

The following is an excerpt from the manuscript.”

Nakamura began to recite Arima Yoshiyoshi's manuscript with great emotion.

Kitagawa Hide listened more seriously.

It has to be said that "Tianxia Yipin" is completely different from the previous random people such as Oshima Hikaru, Ishihara Shintaro, etc. He does have certain writing skills and strength.

Arima Yoshiyoshi's manuscript did not shy away from talking about the war, and some of the bloody words in it made Mengzi frightened and her mood dropped sharply.

After experiencing several subversions and twists and turns, few writers in the Japanese literary world dare to say these words to the right-wing government.

After reading the manuscript, Nakamura excitedly told Nana-chan that "The Harp of Burma" will face the war head-on and use heavy themes to awaken the silence in the soul of the nation.

He also believes that Arima Yoshiyoshi is a right-wing "unichi" and Bungeishunju is the stronghold of right-wing elements in the publishing industry. Under such circumstances, the fact that he dared to write this and Bungeishunju dared to publish this is already a great progress in the literary world!
He is looking forward to this new work.

But as he listened, Kitagawa Hide felt something was not right.

indeed.

Arima Yoshiyoshi mentioned that war repeatedly in his manuscripts, and the name of "The Harp of Burma" suggests that it is going to be about something directly related to the war.

But if Arima Laiyi is really firm in his attitude, he will sneer at these things just like Kitagawa Hide.

Why didn't he openly criticize Ryutaro Hashimoto's shitty behavior in his manuscript?

Kitagawa Hide is just direct in his criticism and won't play any tricks with you.

The entire manuscript seems to be eloquent, but there is no substantive rebuttal, nor is there any mention of the issue of today's visit.

Instead, he wrote extensively about the pain and suffering brought about by the war, focusing primarily on the economic impact of the war on the country, and the emotional impact on the people and future generations.

This immediately sounded the alarm in Kitagawa Hide's heart.

There are many novels involving war themes in Japan's postwar literature, but most of them try to express personal victim awareness through descriptions of personal experiences, and do not deeply reflect on the aggressive nature of the war.

Although this type of war literature criticizes militarism and the launching of aggressive wars, it also contains the ideology of deliberately blurring the aggressive nature of the war and shirking the responsibility for Japan's launching of the aggressive war.

Such as "Grave of the Fireflies" written by Akiru Nosaka and "A Study of Uso Riyama" written by female writer Kazuko Saegusa.

The former was adapted into a well-known anime movie, but was soon banned in South Korea.

Because these works seem to be reflecting on war and aggression.

But in fact, this type of work hardly talks about national policies, but only focuses on the tragic effects of war. The war victims in the novels are always Japanese soldiers and their relatives who are the actual perpetrators.

This way of thinking about war is quite representative in post-war Japan and even in today's Japan.

To put it more simply and bluntly, this type of war literature deliberately obscures the aggressive nature of war and is typical pseudo-anti-war literature, rather than true anti-war literature!
It might seem intimidating at first to hear that Bungeishunju and Arima Yoshiyoshi, two staunch right-wingers, are going against their norm and engaging in thankless anti-war literature.

Kitagawa Hide, who was originally not impressed by the marketing gimmicks of the publishing and literary circles such as "Arima Yoshiyoshi VS Kitagawa Hide, the ultimate showdown between the old and new 'Tianxia No. 1'", suddenly had the idea of ​​writing a book to fight back!

You like to create pseudo-anti-war literature, like to deliberately guide people's thinking, like to suppress newcomers, and then stick together to live off your old capital and engage in class solidification, right?
Kitagawa Hide's eyes gradually became sharper.

Seeing the subtle changes in Xiujun's mood beside him, Mengzi leaned against him and asked gently, "Xiujun, what's the matter?"

"Ah, it's actually nothing serious." Beichuan Xiu squeezed her little hand and smiled faintly, "I just suddenly had the motivation to write a new book, and I also had a clear idea of ​​the subject matter."

"Really?! That's great. I'm looking forward to it." Mengzi smiled sweetly. She liked the way Xiujun worked so hard for her career.

When I think about it this way, it seems like this trip to Izu might bring some unexpected surprises!
Recommend a new book to your next friend.

He used to be a well-known author on a certain website, and he was good at writing about Sese.



(End of this chapter)