Short stories with cats set in mainly in TOKYO
A story of an architect, a broken marriage, and a prestige building shrouded in mystery – JAPAN
21st December 2023
The North Light by Hideo Yokoyama – a story of an architect, a broken marriage, and a prestige building shrouded in mystery. JAPAN.
Translated by Louise Heal Kawai.
Minoro Aose was a successful architecht in the Japanese bubble economy, working for a very large and very major firm. He lost his job when the bubble economy collapsed and became a jobbing building designer. At the same time his marriage fell apart. He was drinking a great deal, and he was not a happy person. Aose was then approached by the head of a small architectural firm and he joined them. Shortly after that a couple, whom he had never before met, approached the firm and asked him to build the house of their (or rather, his) dreams on a site in the countryside. He was given carte blanche to design as he would wish. During the project he rediscovered his self worth and love of architecture. The house was finished and handed over to the couple and their family. It was very well received by the architectural community. A few months later, having not been in contact with them, he decided to visit. He found an empty house, clearly never having been lived in, with just one piece of furniture – a beautiful hand carved wooden chair – positioned in front of a window bathed the the soft north light (of the title).
He was determined to find why his masterpiece had been rejected, and set out – without very limited success – to find the current location of the couple. Given they appeared to have vanished, he feared for their safety. A major clue appeared to be the chair, but Aose had trouble tracing its provenance.
At the same time the firm for which he was now working had, by not entirely ethical means, got onto the short list to design a memorial to a Japanese painter who had spent much of her life living in Paris. He inevitably became as much absorbed in this major project as in tracking down the mystery couple.
The plot of the book is quite complex and, to my mind, very ‘Japanese’. Issues following the break up of a marriage, the surprise commissioning of a dream house, the disappearance of the commissioning couple, the provenance of the chair, and the designing of the memorial all come together with themes of loyalty, the repaying of perceived historical debts, and the political infighting of the Japanese local government system. Aose is at times swimming in a sea he does not fully understand. People are looking out for him but, perhaps inadvertently, getting it wrong in the process.
The North Light is a thoughtful and well constructed work. We empathise with Aose and the issues he faces.
A recommended read – partly as a good mystery, and partly as an excellent insight into Japan.
Tony for the TripFiction team
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