日本人のモルモン文学 Literature by Japanese Mormons

Here are some notes about Japanese Mormon-authored works. Please see my earlier post, モルモン文学の歴史と現在, about a the general history of Mormon literature, and Mormon-authored works translated into Japanese.

早稲田大学生高木冨五郎 (1894-1973)は１９１５年にバプテスマを受けた。その夏にアイビンス伝道部長の指導の下に第二次の讃美歌を翻訳した。ロイド・O・アイビー長老と共に70曲を選んだ。その讃美歌の言葉をアイビー長老が意訳して、山根藤七氏が楽譜に合わせた。それで、その讃美歌集は合計220曲が載せられていた。会員はその讃美歌書を１９６０年までに使った。

Takagi Tomigoro (1894-1973) was baptized in 1915, following the example of his older brother. The year he was baptized, he spent a summer translating English LDS hymns into Japanese, which became the second edition of the LDS hymnal in Japanese. Takagi attended the prestigious Waseda University, and was one of the few Japanese members who remained faithful through the period from 1924 when the mission was closed until it was reopened in 1948. His daughter, Yanagida Toshiko (1919-), was baptized in August 1949.  She would serve as the Mission Relief Society President for much of the 1960s, the first Japanese woman to hold that position.  She (together with her father) was the translator of the next hymnal the church used from 1960 to 1989, a revision and enlargement of her father’s 1915 edition.  Toshiko and her husband also later served as temple missionaries in Taiwan. Sister Yanagida is still alive, but suffering from dementia.

高木冨五郎の娘柳田聰子(1919-)は1948年主人と一緒にバプテスマを受けた。１９６０年代に日本伝道部の扶助協会会長の責任に仕えた。１９６０年にお父さんと一緒に新しい讃美歌（第三次）を翻訳、編集した。協会員は１９８９年までその讃美歌は使った。

Yanagida has written two self-published books for Mormons, Ashiato (1988), her life-story (updated in 2007 as 旅路), and Yuzora: Song of Life (2001), a collection of poems. Also, the author Kishino Misao and the illustrator Takara Akiko took some of stories from her life and the life of her father to produce a picture book, Waga Musume Toshiko: Chichi kara no messeeji (2013, My Daughter Toshiko: Messages from Heavenly Father), published by Crossroad.

 

柳田姉妹が書いた本は：古希の自伝『足跡』(1988) が２００７年 米寿を記念して『旅路』として出版された。また歌集『夕空』（２００１、ながらみ書房）がある.

絵本『わが娘 聰子へ―天父(ちち)からのメッセージ』 柳田 聰子 (著), 岸野 みさを (著), 高良 明子 (イラスト)　　クロスロード出版、2013.「末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会の賛美歌を、日本語に翻訳した柳田聰子の自書「あしあと」から抜粋し、岸野みさをが「天父の視点」で柳田聰子に語りかけ、生涯の労をねぎらう内容。 1901年に、日本における伝道活動がその第一歩を踏み出した。その草創期に、柳田聰子の父・髙木冨五郎が改宗し、やがて聰子もバプテスマを受けた。当時、日本語の文献は何もなく、最初は父の髙木冨五郎が、宣教師が歌う歌詞を翻訳した。やがて、英語の讃美歌をもとに、柳田聰子が本格的に翻訳をすることとなった。 「わが娘 聰子へ〜天父からのメッセージ」は、わずか二十数頁の分量だが、共著者の一人である岸野みさをが、柳田聰子の自伝「あしあと」を丹念に読み、歌人でもあった柳田の作品を多数引用しつつ、柳田の「開拓者」としての偉業を、天父の視点から作品化したもの。本文の絵は、岸野自身が選定した高良明子による。柳田聰子の生涯を、岸野の文章、柳田の作品、高良の絵で再現した絵本が、小さな世界を形成している。クロスロードが刊行中のグリーティング絵本「大切なわが子へ」をプラットフォームにした、完全オリジナル・バージョンの絵本であり、希少性が高い作品である。」

 

若桜木　虔（1947年 – ）（本名：稲村直彦）

1977年『小説　沖田総司』でデビュー。SF、アニメなどのノベライゼーション、ゲームブック、ミステリー、時代小説、漫画原作、実用書、小説創作指南、英単語記憶術など.

『少年検事白鳥暁シリーズ』「 コバルトブルー誘拐事件」1977、「ダークブラウン強奪事件」1977、「 スカイブルー失踪事件」1978、「グリーン予告殺人事件」1978. 秋元文庫 。主人公はモルモン教青年天才刑事。日本人であるが、子供としてユタ州にすんで、BYUに入学して、１２歳で卒業して、大学院生も卒業して、日本の刑事になった。熱心なモルモンとして、信仰について自由に話す。

The next four authors are published by major Japanese publishers. Wakasaki Ken is a writing pro, who has been producing several books a year since 1977. He has done detective novels, science fiction, novelization of animated series and video games, historical fiction, manga texts, books on writing, etc. In 1977, soon after his debut, he produced the first of a four-part series about a Japanese Mormon boy detective, called the Shonen Keiji Shiratori Akira Shiriizu (Boy Detective Shiratori Akira Series). The hero of the series is a boy who left Japan with his mother as a small child, and lived in Utah. A boy genius, he entered BYU and graduated by age 12 (entering a university in Japan at a abnormally young age was not allowed at the time in Japan). He went on to graduate school, and then returned to Japan and passed the public detective test, and was hired by a Tokyo prosecutor’s office (where his estranged father works) as a detective, all by his 16^th birthday. He is portrayed as a diligent Mormon, often speaking about the rules he lives by, and praying about his problems. The books are short, fast-moving “light novels.” I do not know if any of his later novels included any Mormon content.

 

あすか　あきお (飛鳥 昭雄)。『邪馬台国の大真実』講談社, 1992, 等。漫画家

Asuka Akio is a fairly popular and prolific manga author. He does not often include Mormon themes in his work, but he does include a fair amount of material about religion and mysticism.

 

Echimoto Yoshinobu (越本善信) (1929-2013) was an interesting author who was in the Church for a relatively short period. He was born at a Jodo Buddhist Temple in Kyoto, where his father was presumably a Buddhist priest. His father died when he was only five years old. In his youth he lived in Manchuria for two years, as part of a Japanese government program to send young Japanese people there to colonize the region. After the war he returned to Japan, and lived a somewhat rootless life, moving from place to place. While living in Osaka in 1975 he joined the Church. He was a fervent believer, but in 1981 he was excommunicated for propagating a theory that Church leaders in Japan were implicated in a famous 1968 bank robbery, known as the 300 Million Yen Robbery Case. After being excommunicated, he wrote several novels under the pen name Asuma Ryu (東竜). He had a theory that Jesus and the Amida Buddha were the same person, and he wrote a novel about the Buddha based on that idea, 「異邦の予言者」(“Heathen Prophet”), 1994. Numano Jiro says that it is a great work of Mormon literature, and is preparing an English translation.

斉藤 由貴 Saito Yuki (1966-). Saito is an extremely famous Japanese pop singer and actress. She was especially famous as a teenage “idol singer” in the 1980s. She married in 1994, and after a period of slightly lower profile as a young mother, she has returned to being a popular television actress.
Besides her work on TV, Saito is also an author, writing a series of books published between 1993 and 2000. Most of her books are collections of essays written for magazines, poetry, or diaries about her experiences as a mother. She has written one novel, Noisy, about a woman recovering from a failed relationship.

Here are pictures of Saito during her 1980s “idol” days and closer to the present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saito’s books: 一つの小説、また随筆と日記の本。

『双頭の月 (運命の女)』 角川書店 (1993). 「月刊カドカワ」90年3月号〜92年12月号。

『Noisy』 角川書店 1994. 小説.

『いつでもわたし流』 読売新聞社 (1998)）

『赤ちゃんあいしてる―斉藤由貴の妊娠・出産はじめて日記』 小学館文庫. 2000.

『私の好きなあの人のコト』 新潮社 (2000).

An aside: as a missionary in Japan in the late 1980s, when approaching Japanese people about the Church, there were three Mormon “celebrities” that we could mention which they would have heard of. Saito Yuki was one, the others were Kent Derricott and Kent Gilbert, two American returned missionaries who were television “talents” on Japanese talk and variety shows in the 1980s and early 1990s. Derricott, who was more of a comedian, has largely retired and returned to America, but the more serious Gilbert, a lawyer and businessman, remains in Japan, and is currently very active in writing about Japanese politics and foreign affairs, in particular supporting Japanese conservative positions against the claims of anti-Japanese in Korea, China, and elsewhere. Gilbert attended and gave a presentation at the same Tokyo conference that I gave this paper.

川満 ダグラス 哀行. 『Heart Prints ~命の花~』.文芸社 (2010)

１７歳の川満兄弟が書いた本。「亡くなった「心友（しんゆう）」の想いを伝えるため、そして、麻薬の恐ろしさをもっと多くの人に知ってもらうために、この小説を書きました。」

Douglas Aiki Kawamitsu is also somewhat of a celebrity, one of four siblings who formed the singing group “Bless 4”. Kawamitsu is currently serving a mission. When he was only 17 years old he wrote the novel “Heart Prints”, based on the experiences of a middle school friend who died from drug use.

 

徳沢愛子 Tokuzawa Aiko (1939-) is a prolific and award-winning poet. She has had several books of poetry published in recent years, including many of which are written in her native Kazazawa dialect, and two books of essays. She served as the Fukuoka Temple Matron in 2003-2006, and her collection of Mormon-themed poems Shion no Asa (Zion’s Morning) was published in 2007. Her many collections are listed below.

徳沢愛子姉妹は，詩人として知られ，数多くの詩集を出版している。1939年金沢市生まれ。詩と詩論「笛」同人。俳誌「WA」会員。童詩「こだま」会員。個人詩誌「日々草」発行人。石川詩人会会員。石川県文芸家協会会員。日本現代詩人会会員。日本ペンクラブ会員。日本現代詩歌文学館評議会評議委員。2003-2006年は福岡神殿メイトロン。

既刊詩集 『なりふりかまわぬ詩』（１９７４年　橋本確文堂）

『空知ろしめす』（１９７８年　北国出版社）

『子宝』（１９８０年　北国出版社）

『徳沢愛子詩集』（１９８３年　芸風書院）

『みんみん日日』（２００３年　書肆青樹社）

『シオンの朝』（２００７年　サンワ印刷）

金沢方言詩集 『ほんなら　おゆるっしゅ』（１９９２年　北国出版社）

『いちくれどき』（１９９４年　サンワ印刷）

『花いちもんめ』方言あそび歌とエッセイ（１９９８年　サンワ印刷）

『加賀友禅流し』（2010年、 コールサック社）

『徳沢愛子金沢方言詩集―もってくれかいてくれ』　（２０１４年、能登印刷出版部)

エッセイ集　『水曜日記』（１９９８年　北国新聞社）

『愛は絶えることなし』（１９９５年　サンワ印刷）

穀粒フォーラム. In 2013 Kishino Misano created the website Kokutsubu Forum, where Mormons can post their creative works. Among the work posted are poems, essays, personal histories, songs, visual art, etc. There are several postings every week.

川崎市の小野和俊と小野明美は出版社クロスロードの所有者である。１９８１年に津田政廣と一緒に設立した。最近数冊のモルモン関係の本を出版している。

There have been a few books published in limited runs by and for Mormons over the years. They have been self-published or published by tiny publishers who have not lasted long. Recently the publisher Crossroads クロスロード , which specializes in picture books, has published several Mormon-authored books. It has existed since 1981, and it is currently run by the couple Ono Kazutoshi and Ono Akemi. Those involved in Crossroads are also involved in the Kokutsubu Forum as well. As far as I can tell, it has been publishing LDS-related books only since 2013.

岸野みさを　Kishino Misao (1940-)　町田市。舞台用脚本『ヨセフの若木』2014, クロスロード。モルモン書第一ニッファイの場面を再現. 1988東京西ステーク文化祭公演。
Josefu no wakagi (Sapling of Joseph). Crossroads, 2014. A stage play script based on 1^st Nephi, performed at the 1988 Tokyo West Stake Arts Festival, and published by Crossroads in 2014.

I assume Kishino was also one of the creators of the historical musical play「時を越えて－神童の詩（カムラビノウタ）－」（The Way I Knew Joseph), which was performed in 2005 by the Machida Stake as part of the Joseph Smith bicentennial celebration.

Speaking of plays, I remember seeing what I think was an original Japanese-written missionary-themed play at the Osaka North Stake in 1988 called “Box B”. Box B was the Church’s missionary office that sent out missionary calls in the early 20^th century, so the name referred to being called on a mission. I do not know who wrote the play.

Kashikura Tomoko (1939-). Kansha Hyakushu. Crossroads, 2014.　Poetry collection. Sister Kashikura is another veteran member, baptized in 1959.

柏倉朝子。短歌集『感謝　百首」クロスロード、２０１４。「末日聖徒イエス・キリスト教会の会員として人生を送ってきた著者が、これまでの生涯を振り返り、折々の感謝の気持ちを短歌百首で詠んだもの。沼野治郎兄弟の書評。

For the last four years that has been a Deseret Book branch open in Tokyo, close to the temple. Besides some of the titles mentioned above, there are a few non-fiction books for sale written by LDS authors, including self-help books and three books on religion, and 9 music CDs made by LDS artists.