Spring Castle

“Michiko Ishimure is one of the greatest writers of modern Japanese literature. […] Her work is a wonderful fusion of orthodox written literature and the oral literary tradition that has been largely pushed aside. Spring Castle is her most powerful work, bringing to the forefront the voices of the people and the ways in which they lived.” —Hiromi Ito, feminist author & poet
“Spring Castle is ambitious and unforgettable. Ishimure devoted half a century to it; Allen has carried her devotion across languages. Together, they have given readers a requiem for the 37,000 nameless—and a reminder that even in silence, the flower clock continues to tick.” —Asian Review of Books
“Bruce Allen’s masterful translation—fluid and engaging—reads as if Spring Castle were written in English. He succeeds in presenting the historical novel as a classic of contemporary relevance.” —Sajed Kamal, EdD, poet, artist, literary translator, renewable energy and sustainable development educator

Michiko Ishimure (1927-2018) is regarded as one of Japan’s most important modern writers. She published over 50 works ranging from novels, non-fiction, Noh drama and poetry to essays, memoirs and children’s stories. She received numerous international and Japanese literary awards including the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines (1973) and the Asahi Prize for literature in Japan (2001). Her best-known work, Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow; Our Minamata Disease (1969), was reprinted over 30 times in Japan and has been translated into English and several other languages. This work, along with several other books focusing on the Minamata Disease incident, led to her being known as the ‘mother of the Japanese environmental movement’ and the ‘Rachel Carson of Japan’.

Bruce Allen is retired Professor of translation and global environmental literature at Seisen University in Tokyo. His translations include Michiko Ishimure’s novel Lake of Heaven, Japanese Tales of Fantasy and Folklore, and Toward the Paradise of Flowers, a documentary film on Ishimure. He is editor of Ishimure Michiko’s Writing in Ecological Perspective: Between Sea and Sky. His translation of several chapters of Spring Castle was recognised by the Kyoko Iriye Selden Memorial Translation Prize of Cornell University.

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