Note | Title by Author (& Translator), Publisher, Year (Originally Published in 19XX)
Information of the Book
Form, Style & Structure
51 chaptered long novel originally published in 2002, Japan by two volumes. This novel contains two plots. One is the plot of a 15 years old boy Kafka Tamura and, another is a around fifties old man Satoru Nakata and mid twenties man Hoshino. The two plots progresses in parallel.
Background of the Work & Author
Summary Synopsis
At the fifteenth birthday, a junior-high student boy, Kafka Tamura left his home and headed for the East. He reached Takamatsu by a long-distance bus, went to the Komura Memorial Library and only read Arabian Nights and Complete Works of Soseki Natsume everyday. The eighth day, he suddenly woke up at a Shito shrine and his white T-shirt soaked with deep blood…
The same time, a strange old man, Satoru Nakata, he was forced to do away with the cat killer, Johnnie Walker. Then he left from Tokyo…
Summaries of Each Chapter
Kafka Tamura
Kafka Tamura talked about his course of action with his alter ego, “The Boy Named Crow” at the room or studio of Kafka’s father. (The Boy Named Crow)
At his fifteenth birthday, in his home, Kafka prepared for travel, he packed belongings in a luggage and washed himself to keeping his body clean. And he built up his body and read many books to live alone. (§ 1)
On the way to Takamatsu station, the bus stopped in a roadside rest area. Kafka came across a hair dresser young girl, Sakura and chatted with her. The rest of the way, she sat next to Kafka and fell asleep, and her head leaned against Kafka’s shoulder. Kafka thought maybe she would be a sister. (§ 3)
The bus got to Takamatsu Station. Sakura gave her mobile-phone number to Kafka. Kafka went to the Komura Memorial Library, he had known by a magazine. Oshima explained the rule and history of the library to Kafka. Kafka read The Arabian Nights at the elegant reading room. At 14 o’clock, Miss Saeki held the tour of the building. (§ 5)
Kafka went to a public gym for working out. He worked out by brand-new training machines. Then he went to the Library and read The Arabian Nights. The next seven days, he spent the same way. (§ 7)
Kafka became conscious in a wood of a Shito shrine, and got into a panic. The time was 23:26. May 28. He suddenly suffered a blackout and lost the memory after taking dinner, during 4 hours. And he noticed his white T-shirt was stained with a fresh and wet darkish blood. He phoned Sakura and asked her for help. Then he met with Sakura at the Lawson’s convenience store on the corner of Sakura’s apartment. And he stayed at her apartment. (§ 9)
Kafka explained for Sakura the situation of himself in her room. Then Sakura went to the bed and Kafka tried to sleep in his sleeping bag, but he can’t sleep. They hugged and fondled in the bed. When Kafka woke up, Sakura had gone for work already. He read a messaged left by Sakura, cleaned and cleared up the room, left a message of thanks for Sakura, then he left the room, and went the Komura Memorial Library. (§ 11)
Oshima took Kafka to his brother's log cabin in thick woods on a mountain of Kochi, to conceal from police, by his green Mazda Miata. (§ 13)
Oshima left from the cabin. Kafka stayed alone in the cabin, experienced a solitary and the nature in wood. (§ 15)
Kafka had stayed in a cabin and the nature of the wood for three days, and he reflected himself and sensed the fertility of the nature. Oshima took Kafka to Komura Memorial Library and Kafka would be a member of the library. (§ 17)
(…) (§ 19)
(…) (§ 21)
(…) (§ 23)
Nakata and Hoshino
A document of interview with Setsuko Okamochi, an elementary school teacher, about a mysterious occurrence on a mountain in Yamanashi, occurred at around ten o’clock, 7 November 1944. (§ 2)
The report of the interview with Dr. Juichi Nakazawa who investigated the incident in which the children all lost conscious in a mountain in Yamanashi, and pupils suffered the phenomenon. He said only a boy, Satoru Nakata had been continued unconscious and lost his intelligence. (§ 4)
Nakata talked with a cat, Otsuka to ask the whereabouts of a cat, Goma (§ 6)
The report of the interview with Dr Shigenori Tsukayama. He said the state of the boy, Nakata suffered like a “spiritual projection” or a “vengeful spirit”. Two weeks later, the boy woke up and his boy was medially fine but he lost his memory. (§ 8)
Nakata talked with two cats, Kawamura and Mimi to hear the whereabouts of Goma. Nakata was told that a mysterious very tall man wore a strange tall hat and long leather boots mistreated cats. (§ 10)
A letter to Shigenori Tsukayama from Setsuko Okamochi. On the letter, she confessed she hit the boy, Nakata carelessly then she embraced him, after a while the incident of lost conscious happend. (§ 12)
A dog take Nakata to Johnnie Walker’s house. Johnnie Walker said to Nakata, he knew Goma’s whereabouts and said prepared a couple of theories need several pieces of counter-evidence as a mental game. (§ 14)
Johnnie Walker confessed to Nakata that he was “the infamous cat-killer” and he collected cats’ souls to create a special kind of flute, then he requested Nakata to do away with him. Five cats were in Walker’s bag, and he pulled out three cats and slashed and passed away them one by one. And, when he tried to slash a Siamese Mimi, Nakata plunged the blade into Johnnie Walker’s stomach by a steak knife, and he passed away. Nakata helped Goma and Mimi, and then his mind sank into the darkness. (§ 16)
(…) (§ 18)
(…) (§ 20)
(…) (§ 22)
Timeline
At his thirteen’s birthday, Kafka left his home and rode a bus for Shikoku. (§ 1)
At May 28, Kafka became conscious in a wood of a Shito shrine. . He suddenly suffered a blackout and lost the memory after taking dinner. And he noticed his white T-shirt was stained with a fresh and wet darkish blood. (§ 9)
On afternoon of May 30, Koichi Tamura was found passed away by someone at his home, Nakano Ward. The police estimated he was terminated at the evening of 28. (§ 21)
On the evening of May 29, some 2,000 sardines rained down from the sky in Nogata, Nakano Ward. (§ 21)
Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)
Characters
Kafka Tamura – A 15 years old tall and built-up a third grade junior-high school student lived in Nogata, Nakano Ward, Tokyo.
Satoru Nakata (from § 6) – Another main character of this novel. An old man over 60 years old, lived in Nogata, Nakano Ward, Tokyo. A mentally retarded man was suffered by a mystical incident in a mountain of Yamanashi when he was 9 years old. He. can speak to cats, and he did temporary job finding cats. He graduated from elementary school, attended agriculture school. When 15, he began to work at a furniture company for 37 years. When he was 52, the company was closed, then he lived by a subsidy to handicap from the Tokyo Metropolitan government.
Hoshino (from § 20, p. 208) – A very tall mid-twenties track driver with a ponytail, a pair of pierced earrings, a Chunichi Dragons baseball cap, a gaudy aloha shirt and oversized Nike shoes. His name implies Senichi Hoshino, a famous and excellent manager of Chunichi Dragons.
Miss Saeki (from § 5) – A mid-forties woman, her face very refined and intelligent looking with beautiful eyes. Oshima said she was a little different person just isn’t bound by conventional ways of doing things. She was from a conservative old-fashioned style family, and went to a local collage to study piano. When she was 19, in 1970, wrote a song named “Kafka on the Shore”, she recorded the song at a studio in Tokyo (when she went to Tokyo, she met the boyfriend), the recored released and was hit. After the passing away of her boyfriend, he disappeared for 25 years. Then she reappeared Takamatsu for the funeral of her mother, she talked with the master of the Komura family, and she became a head of the library.
Oshima (from § 5) – A handsome young man with longish hair worked in the Komura Memorial Library.
the boy named Crow (from Prologue) – A conversation partner in the mind of Kafka.
Koichi Tamura – A fifties, world-renowned sculptor, the father of Kafka.
mother of Kafka
older sister of Kafka – 21 years old. An adopted child, but Kafka’s mother took her when she left, not Kafka.
Robert O’Connor (§ 2)
Setsuko Okamochi (§ 2, 12) – A teacher of an elementary school in Yamanashi.
Sakura (§ 3, 5, 9, 11) – A kind of funny-looking, out of balance face and slim hairdresser young girl in Tokyo, from Ichikawa, Chiba.
Dr Juichi Nakazawa (§ 4) – A doctor who examined and investigated pupils suffered the mysterious phenomenon including Satoru Nakata, in a mountain in Yamanashi.
Otsuka (§ 6) – A elderly black tomcat.
Goma (§ 6) – A one-year-old tortoiseshell cat, Nakata searched for.
a clerk girl of the business hotel (§ 7)
Shigenori Tsukayama (§ 8)
Kawamura (§ 10) – A striped black cat.
Mimi (§ 10) – A female, lovely, slim Siamese was named by Puccini’s La Bohème.
Okawa (§ 14)
A dog (§ 14)
Johnnie Walker (§ 14, 16) – A middle-aged tall and thin mysterious man wore a black silk hat, a form-fitting red coat with long tails, a black waistcoat, white trousers fitted perfectly and long black boots, who resembles the character of the logo of Johnnie Walker.
Boyfriend of Saeki (§ 17) – The eldest son of the Komura family. He went to an University in Tokyo, when he was 18. He passed away when he was 20, because he was mistaken as a spy of a hostile sect of the student mouvement and was smashed by a steel pipe or baton.
Two feminist women (§ 19, pp. 187 – 194) – A tall and small couple of a feminist group women observed and claimed inequalities of women in public facilities.
Two young office ladies (§ 20, pp. 199 – 201)
Tougeguchi (§ 20, pp. 201 – 203)
Hagita (§ 20, pp. 203 – 206)
Nakata’s second younger brother (§ 22) – A office worker of Itochu company.
Nakata’s third younger brother (§ 22) – A bureaucrat of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Ghost of a girl (§ 23) – A ghost of a girl who seemed to be 15 or 16 years old, Kafka saw her every night in the guest room of the Komura Memorial Library. She might be a ghost 15 years old Miss Saeki.
Locations
Tokyo
Shikoku
Takamatsu – One of four prefecture in Shikoku island
Yamanashi
Nakano Ward
Kochi – A cottage of Oshima’s older brother was in.
Kobe
Places
Business hotel in Takamatsu – Kafka was introduced by the YMCA in Tokyo, so he can stay there at discount price for three days.
the Komura Memorial Library – A small private library, a large Japanese-style house we can’t comprehend it is a library at a glance, with a elegant reading room. A Japanese verse poetry haiku and tanka specialized library. The Komuras cared for poets and writers who visited Shikoku such as Bokusui Wakayama, Takuboku Ishikawa and Naoya Shiga, and they stayed at the house. So the house had became a library. Still there was the trace of Miss Saeki’s boyfriend. The library had a staff only area, there were a simple guest room with bed, bathroom and wardrobe, and a kitchen area.
A vacant room of the Library
A log cabin in thick woods in a mountain of Kochi (§ 13) –
Koichi Tamura’s office and studio in Musashino City (§ 23)
Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases
the world’s toughest 15-year-old (The Boy Named Crow)
father’s belongings (§ 1, p. 5) – These belongings of Kafka’s father are tools and necessities for the adventure, also they signify Kafka knew and owned cultural value different to Nakata.
a photo of older sister of Kafka (§ 1, p. 5) – The shape of the sister on the photo is the half of her face in shadow like Greek tragedy masks.
memory (§ 1, p. 6 ; § 23, p. 234)
work out (§ 1, p. 7 ; § 7 p. 58)
omen (§ 1, p. 8 – 9)
reading (§ 1, p. 8 ; § 5, p. 34)
library (§ 5, pp. 34 – 35) – Library is an ideal and familiar place and an second home, more like real home for Kafka. He spent much of time in a library, read many books from children’s books to novels, biographies and histories, and knew any kinds of music form Jazz, Pop to Rock.
original sin (§ 5, p. 41)
free ; freedom (§ 6, p. 46)
a purely explanation of the complex machine of In the Penal Colont by Franz Kafka (§ 7, pp. 60 – 61) – This episode implied the theme and the structure of this novel. This novel is and indirect metaphor or allegory of a meaning.
metapher (§ 7, p. 61 ; § 13, p. 114 ; § 21, p. 216, p. 220 ; § 23, p. 242)
allegory (§ 7, p. 61 ; § 21, p. 220)
darkish blood on Kafka’s T-shirt (§ 9, p. 74) – The “metaphor” of his father’s passing away (?).
"as individuals each of us is extremely isolated, while s=at the same time we are all linked by a prototypical memory.“ (§ 12, p. 103) – This phrase implies the theme and key of this novel.
(Soseki Natsume’s Sanshiro is a) typical modern Bildungsroman (§ 13, p. 114) – Kafka on the Shore is not typical modern Bildungsroman, but it’s a kind of Bildungsroman or a contemporary Bildungsroman.
Goethe said: everything’s a metaphor. (§ 13, p. 114)
the silence and the dark (§ 15, p. 139)
solitude comes in different varieties (§ 15, p. 139)
Ohima’s books (§ 15, p. 140) – In the cabin on a mountain in Takamatsu, there are many books of which Oshima had read there. The books are chiefly classics, a huge number of subjects of books on philosophy, sociology, history, geography, natural science and so on. To read the books for Kafka is to touch Oshima’s mind and personality.
It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine. (§ 15, p. 141)
wash himself by hard rain & sunbathe (§ 15, p. 147 ; § 17, p. 162)
contradiction (§ 17, p. 164)
khoros (§ 17, p. 165)
Tolstoy’s aphorism “happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story” (§ 17, p. 169)
The song, Kafka on the Shore (§ 17, pp. 168 – 169 ; § 23, pp. 239 – 240, pp. 244 – 247) – A song sang and composed by Miss Saeki when she was 19, realised in 1969. The lyrics is the metaphor of this novel. This novel is the representation or the expression of this lyrics.
small oil painting in a guest room of the library, the tableau Kafka on the Shore (§ 19, pp. 185 – 186) – A realistic portrait of a young boy by the shore. An about twelve boy sat on a deckchair, and a black German shepherd sat next to the boy, and the background is a summer sea. The boy might be the son of the Komura family, the boy Miss Saeki loved, and the tableau was painted 40 years ago.
red herring (§ 19, pp. 190 – 191)
analogy (§ 19, p. 191)
classical identity crisis (§ 19, p. 194)
Labyrinth (§ 21, p. 194) – Koichi Tamura’s best sculpture work.
irony (§ 21, pp. 214 – 215)
everything in life is a metaphor (§ 21, p. 215) I think this notion by Oshima, signifies the theme and the structure of this novel.
prophecy (§ 21, pp. 216 -217)
Yeats’ poem “in dreams begin responsibility”. (§ 21, p. 219)
dream ; dream circuit (§ 21, p. 219)
analogy (§ 21, p. 220)
Freud and Jung, subconscious (§ 23, p. 242)
living spirits (§ 23, p. 241, pp. 243 – 244) – Oshima said one can become a living spirit by positive feeling of love.
Sphinx ; Oedipus (§ 23, p. 247)
Cultural Things on This Novel
The Arabian Nights (§ 5, p. 40) – Kafka read the book in the Komura Memorial Library.
Aristophanes in Plato’s The Banquet (§ 5, p. 40) – Oshima talked about
Prince (§ 7, p. 58)
The Castle, The Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (§ 7, p. 60)
In the Penal Colont (§ 7, pp. 60 – 61)
complete works of Soseki Natsume (§ 7, p. 63)
Radiohead (§ 7, p. 63)
La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini (§ 10, p. 82)
Natumes Soseki’s Complete Works ; The Miner, Poppies (§ 13, p. 113)
Sanshiro (§ 13, p. 114)
Green Mazda Miata (§ 13, p. 116)
Piano sonatas of Schubert (§ 13, p. 119)
Adolf Eichmann (§ 15, pp. 140 – 142)
Cassandra (§ 17, p. 165)
Volkswagen Golf (§ 19, p. 186)
Electra by Sophocles (§ 19, p. 192)
Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder (§ 23, p. 237)
The Tale of Genji (§ 23, pp. 241 – 242)
"The “Chrysanthemum Pledge” in Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Akinari Ueda (§ 23, p. 243)
Music
Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions
Reflection on things after hundred years.
Lyrics of the song Kafka on the Shore
Riddles (Mysteries) & Questions
What is the flute Johnnie Walker tried to create ?
What’s the relation among Johnnie Walker, Koichi Tamura and the blood was stuck on Kafka’s T-shirt ?
Thought & Philosophy
Interpretations, Remarks & Analysis
See the note of Book 2.
Details of the Book
Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 6 October 2005
624 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099494096
Contents:
Details of the Book
Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 6 October 2005
624 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099494096
Contents: