Summary
A day of the early age of showa 30’s (1955 – 1965), Murakami and his father went to abandon a big female cat at the beach of Koroen. But she went home ahead somehow, and continued to live together. For Murakami, why he agreed with abandoning, why the cat went home ahead are remain as a mystery. (pp. 9-15)
Murakami’s father, Chiaki Murakami every morning prayed to a statue of bodhisattva in a small grass case for dead people by the war. (pp. 15-17)
Chiaki Murakami was born in Kyoto, on 1917, as the second son of a buddhist temple family. And he was in the misfortune age involved in the WW II. When grand father died, he was expected to take over the temple, but he denied, his older brother Shimei took over the temple. (pp.17-30)
His father served in the war from 1938, by a working-level mistake of a document. He fought fiercely against the China army, as a logistics officer. And he told that he watched, at the battlefield, the unit he belonged was forced to kill Chinese prisoners. (pp. 37-52)
Chiaki Murakami was an intelligent person, so, after the conscription, he entered the Kyoto Imperial University from a buddhist professional school. (pp. 56-58)
In September 1941, he be recruited again. But in 30 November, 8 days before the opening of the Pacific War, some show he was exempt from military service. The 16th division, he was supposed to belong, fought in fought a severe battle in the Southeast and pacific especially Bataan, and destroyed at the Battle of Layte. (pp. 64-76)
Murakami’s father became a teacher of Japanese for a means of living. He was a excellence teacher and adored by many students. (pp. 76-81)
Sometimes, Murakami felt strange if his father wasn’t exempt from military service,,, fiance of mother wasn’t died at the war,,, he doesn’t exist in the world. He thinks an activity to live as a novelist is an unreal transient fantasy. (pp. 90-91)
(…)
Characters
Haruki Murakami
Chiaki Murakami – Murakami’s father was born in Kyoto, on 1917, as the second son of a buddhist temple family. A teacher of Japanese at a junior high school and a high school. He died in August 2008 at the age 90.
A big female tabby cat – Murakami and his father went to abandon at the beach of Koroen, Nishinomiya. But she went home ahead, and continued to live together.
Benshiki Murakami – Murakami’s grand father. The abbot of a big Jodo-shu temple Anyouji.
Shimei Murakami – Murakami’s uncle, the oldest son, resigned from a tax office and took over the buddhist temple.
Murakami’s mother – Was a teacher of Japanese too. A daughter of a wealthy merchant family of Osaka.
A cute small white kitten – At an evening, a cat Murakami’s family keeps, climbed up to the upper part of at a pine tree in the yard, and can’t come down.
Keywords & Key Elements
a statue of bodhisattva in a small grass case
haiku
trauma
history
taking over
Hanshin-kan (between Osaka-Kobe)
cinema
mysterious common experience
story
Details of the Book
Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father
Haruki Murakami
Bungeishunju, Tokyo, Japan, 23 April 2020
104 pages, JPY 1320
ISBN 978-4163911939
Contents
- Abandoning a Cat
- Afterword: A Fragment of History
Related Posts and Pages
Book Review | Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father
commentaire | Abandonner une chatte: Quand je parle de mon père
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