Miyamoto, a prize-winning author in Japan, writes with an unfaltering, quiet authority… Kinshu is finally available to the English-speaking world. We’re fortunate to have it.
Teru Miyamoto (1947- ), born in Kobe, Japan, is among the country’s most widely read living authors. His novels have received prestigious literary prizes: Doro No Kawa won the Dazai Osamu Prize, and Hotarugawa was awarded the coveted Akutagawa Prize. Both novels were made into movies, the former receiving the Silver Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1981. Miyamoto has been widely translated into French, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.
Life, death, karma–these interwoven themes form the heart of this lyrical novel in letters, Kinshu: Autumn Brocade, the first work to be published in the U.S. by Teru Miyamoto, one of Japan’s most popular literary writers. The word kinshu has many connotations in Japanese–brocade, poetic writing, the brilliance of autumn leaves–and resonates here as a vibrant metaphor for the complex, intimate relationship between Aki and Yasuaki. Ten years after a dramatic divorce, they meet by chance at a mountain resort. Aki initiates a new correspondence, and letter by letter through the seasons, the secrets of the past unfold as they reflect on their present struggles. From a lover’s suicide to a father’s controlling demands, to Mozart’s Thirty-ninth Symphony (“a veritable marvel of sixteenth notes”), to the karmic consequences of their actions, the story glides through their deeply introspective and stirring exchanges. What begins as a series of accusations and apologies, questions and excuses, turns into a source of mutual support and healing.
Miyamoto, a prize-winning author in Japan, writes with an unfaltering, quiet authority… Kinshu is finally available to the English-speaking world. We’re fortunate to have it.
