Information of the Book
A Wild Sheep Chase is the third novel by Haruki Murakami, the last volume of the ‘Trilogy of the Rat’ and the first full-length novel of Murakami. The narrator and some characters are also appeared ‘Hear the Wind Sing’, ‘Pinball, 1973’ and ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’. To write this novel, Murakami quit the owner and bartender of his Jazz bar. Former his two novels are anti-novel and anti-literature attempts. But, by this novel, Murakami’s full-scale modern urban adventure, his grand narrative and his real literal career began.
Outline and Style
Fragments of 43 chapters and an epilogue. In Japan, this novel was released by books. The book 1 contains mainly episodes in Tokyo, besides it includes ‘my’ memories in 1970 and 1978, episodes of the girl with perfect ears, ‘my’ business partner and the right-wing Boss, and letters from the Rat. And the book 2 contains episodes in Hokkaido include the history of Junitaki-cho and the life of the Sheep Professor.
Book 1
- Part 1: Memories in 1970 and Naoko
- Part 2, 3: Memories in 1978 (divorce from the wife, about the girl with perfect ears)
- Part 4: Meet the ‘matter’ of a sheep
- Part 5: Letters from the Rat, ‘my’ home coming and about ex-girlfriend of the Rat
- Part 6: The request by the secretary of the Boss, a departure to Hokkaido
Book 2
- Part 7: Arrival at Hokkaido, staying at the Dolphin Hotel
- Part 8: History of Junitaki-cho, an adventure to the highland of the villa of the Rat’s father, staying at the villa, the encounter with the Sheep Man and a separation and death of the Rat
- epilogue: Return to the ordinary world
Characters
‘I’
: The narrator of this novel. A freelance translator runs a small translation company with a friend. 29 years old.
the Rat
: A rich university dropout made the daily commute to J’s Bar. He had spent ruined idle life in his home town, then wandered around Japan and finally reached his destination, Hokkaido.
the girl with a pair of the most bewitching, perfectly formed ears
: The girl had three occupation, they are a part-time proofreader of a small publishing house, a call girl in a discreet intimate friends-only club and a commercial model specializing in ear shot. Her ears are too beautiful for words, have a ‘special power’ can ‘unblock’ and can foresee the future.
Mrs X (4)
: A grey-haired Englishwoman run a call girl club that the girl of perfect ears registered.
wife of ‘mine’ (2, 3)
: The same character as ‘the girl with long legs’ in Murakami’s former novel, Pinball, 1973. After 4 year marriage, she divorced with ‘me’.
Friend (7, 8, 9, 23)
: A friend of ‘mine’, runs a small translation company together with ‘me’. ‘My’ classmate at the University. The company was successful in business of translations and advertisements.
The girl who’d sleep with anyone (old girlfriend of ‘me’, Naoko) (1)
: The same person to ‘the third girl I slept with’ in Hear the Wind Sing and Naoko in Pinball, 1973. She met ‘me’ in autumn, 1969 at a small coffee shop near the university when she was 19. She died at 26 years old.
the Boss (9, 18)
: A major right-wing figure ruled the centres of political authority and the core sectors of the public relations industry from behind the scene. But his face, name and substance are never publicized. In 1936, he had been possessed by the sheep with the star mark as a blood cyst in his brain, then he had charisma, a solid ideology and the ability to steer society by using weakness of the people.
the secretary of the Boos (8, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 43)
: A black-suited, strange but superior secretary of the Boss. He plotted the whole happenings to gain the power of…
the driver of Limousine (chauffeur) (11, 19, 24, 43)
: A mysterious but religious and polite middle-aged Christian. He knew the phone number of God and called Him every night. He named ‘my’ cat ‘kipper’.
ex-girlfriend of the Rat (16)
Desk Clerk of the Dolphin Hotel (25, 26, 27, 28, Epilogue)
: The son of the Sheep Professor, and the owner and desk clerk of the Dolphin Hotel.
The Sheep Professor (27, Epilogue)
: A eccentric scholar knows all of things about sheep. He was a agricultural researcher and elite public servant. In the researching in China, the spring of 1935, he made a ‘special relationship’, mental relationship or spiritual communion with sheep. He was possessed by the sheep with star mark. So he was discharged by the government office, backed to Japan and became a shepherd in Junitaki-cho. After end of the war, he assumed directorship of Hokkaido Ovine Association. In 1978, he was still researching sheep in the gloomy and dusty room on the second floor of the Dolphin Hotel.
Ainu youth (Ainu shepherd) (29)
: A man contributed to the development of Junitaki-cho and its sheep pasture, was from the Ainu race (a minority race in Hokkaido). His oldest son was killed on the front-line of the Russo-Japanese War in Chine.
the Livestock Section in Town Hall (30)
sheep caretaker (30, 32)
The Sheep Man (35, 36, 37)
: A strange man in a costume of sheep speaks fast. The true character is the Rat in disguise of full sheep skin with two horns, and black leather mask, gloves and socks.
J (15, Epilogue)
: A Chinese bartender and owner of J’s Bar.
Places
Tokyo
: The capital, most populous city and central part of mainland Japan. The scene of the former part of this novel (book 1 in Japanese edition).
Office of the Translation Company
The Boss’s bass (12, 17, 18)
: A two-story cream-colored and a Meiji-era Western-style manor main house and many buildings in a ninety-six thousand six-hundred seventy-one square feet field on a high hill in the suburbs of Tokyo.
Hokkaido
: The northernmost island and prefecture, and the second largest island of Japan. The scene of the later part of this novel (book 2 in Japanese edition). Hokkaido was rapidly developed by the modernization in Meiji-era to Showa-era, and the people were trifled.
The Dolphin Hotel (25, 26, 27, 28, epilogue)
: A small hotel in Sapporo. ‘Its undistinguishedness was metaphysical.’ (p.163) It is five stories tall and not particularly old. The former building of. On the corner of second floor, there’s the Sheep Professor’s room.
Junitaki Township (30-43)
Villa of the Rat’s father (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
: The villa and the estate was the pasture of the Sheep Professor before. Then the father of the Rat purchased as a villa. The villa and the field around there separated by the bend should be a world of the mind of the Rat. So the girl with perfect ears disappeared on the next day ‘I’ and she had reached there.
J’s Bar (15, epilogue)
: A favourite bar of the Rat and ’mine’ in the hometown. The symbol of ordinary world.
Key Elements
sheep (17, 30)
: Sheep in this novel are the metaphor of refugees, outsiders and persons oppressed by a society, a political and economical system, including Japanese people, the Boss and ‘me’. And they are the metaphor of collective unconscious power and authority of a nation or a mass.
a sheep with the star-shaped birth mark on its back
: I think that the sheep with the star mark is a evil spirit of a ruler, a dictator or a fixer. They had been oppressed and controlled by a government and a society, then they rule a society, politics, economics and people on the behind scene from negative and evil motives.
the will (18), a concept that governs time, governs space, and governs possibility (18), a dynamo manifesting the vial force at the root of all life in one solitary point of the universe (40), a realm of total conceptual anarchy (40)
: The true character of the sheep with the star mark, or the purpose and the object it makes.
weakness (18, 40)
: Because of his real weakness of everything as a hereditary disease, the Rat was possessed by the sheep with the star mark. The sheep likes weakness and darkness of men, fascinates the men own them, and he makes use of them to rule the world by malice.
name (24, 43)
: The chauffeur said acts of naming is having emotional bond and sharing feelings between creatures. So he named ‘my’ cat kipper, because the cat moves by his own will and share feelings with ‘me’. Anywhy, in the end of the story, the cat lost the name, because the chauffeur said ’I’ can’t remember ‘my’ own name.
cigarette (35)
: In ‘my’ staying in the villa of the Rat’s father, anyhow ’I’ gave three packs of Lark to the Sheep Man, gave up smoking and started jogging. I think that is ‘my’ own settlement or solution to ‘my’ own situation and weakness by becoming healthier and stronger.
Keywords, Summary and Memoir
Part One: A Prelude
1 Wednesday Afternoon Picnic
investigation of possible negligence, old quarter of Tokyo, Waseda, pack of cigarettes
‘I’ went to the funeral of an old girl friend in old quarter of Tokyo.
autumn nine years ago, small coffee shop near the university, hard rock and bad coffee, her ashtray full of cigarette butts, Mickey Spillane, Kenzaburo Oe, Allen Ginsberg, the Doors, the Stones, the Byrds, Deep Purple, the Moody Blues, whiskey
Encounter to the old girl at a small coffee shop near the university in 1969.
some rock-music café, cup of coffee, chain-smoke, leaf through book, Mitaka, radio, full blast, FEN rock program, woods, the ICU campus (the International Christian Universtiy), student lounge
most curiously depressing circumstances, any new directions, twenty-fifth of November, Gingko leaves, heavy rains, dry riverbed of gold, bad dreams, two birds, having sex, the ICU campus, hot dogs, Yukio Mishima, lounge TV, kettle, teabag, plain hot tea
In 1970, the student movement had ended, by she still daily commute to the rock-music café. ‘I’ and her still had relation.
2 Sixteen Steps
elevator, whiskey, cigarettes, sixteen steps, icy iron door, red pumps, my mud-caked tennis shoes, cheap beach sandals
After the funeral I got drunked and backed home.
straight black hair, unmanned white neckline, brassiere strap, coffee, transistor radio, succession of innocuous pop songs,perfect morning sound track, air conditioner, radio traffic report, salad, tomatoes and string beans, cucumbers, blue Okinawa glass salad bowl, crackers, lavender smoke, Shinjuku, cat,light rock, winter coat, hats, things I left behind
At that time ‘my’ wife was gone from the apartment by their divorce.
3 The Slip
cola, coffee, cigarette, swimming, aquatic organism, American novel, geranium
Ex-wife disappeared and left not a single trace.
scraped zero
After ‘my’ ex-wife’s disappearance, I spent bored ordinary life nothing changed from day to day.
Part Three: September, Tow Months Later
4 The Whale’s Penis and the Women with Three Occupations
therapy, aquarium, boyhood, whale’s penis, high-ceiling stillness of the exhibition room
The memory of the whale’s penis of the aquarium in ‘my’ hometown.
natural gifts, ‘earholder’, Akasaka, Mrs. X, English-language tutorial school, callgirl, Hilton, Okura, Prince, Kanda, three photos, giant close-ups of an ear, quintessence, paragon, fanciest French restaurant, Aoyama Boulevard
‘I’ slept with the girl with a pair of the most bewitching, perfectly formed ears.
potage tortue, salads verte, mousse de sole, patage d’oursin, roti de beau avec garnie persil, salade de tomate, omelettes and sandwiches, slender clove cigarette, wine, Farrah Fawcett’s nose, the good variety and the bad variety, ordinary story, 1948, December twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve, Capricorn, blood type A, old tomcat, forty cigarettes, three suits, six neckties, collection of five hundred records, Ellery Queen, À la recherche du temps perdus, sole mousse, Nietzsche, blueberry sorbet, espresso, noiseless ventilation system, Mozart concerto, black hairband, fragments of the sensations
‘I’ and the girl went to a French restaurant at the Aoyama Beulevard. They talked about ‘my’ boring life and her ears have special power.
5 Unblocked Ears
beauty, beauty of a variety, extraordinary, unblocked state, agape
‘My’ thinking about her ears. Their beauty of a variety expand as the entire universe, and ‘it transcended all concepts within the boundaries of my awareness.’ ‘I’ and the girl slept together.
6 The Further Adventures of Unblocked Ears
smell of the rain, birds, whale’s penis,
A September afternoon toward summer’s end, ‘I’ met the girl with perfect ears, and slept with her. After the affair there’s phone call by ‘my’ business partner.
Part Four: A Wild Sheep Chase 1
7 Before the Strange Man
alcoholism, one shot of whiskey, a cool glass of barley tea, linoleum, deep-blue shirt, black tie, cologne, T-shirt with Snoopy carrying a surfboard, old Levi’s that had been washed colorless, dirty tennis shoes, plush skyblue Swedish sofa, filter-tip Pall Mall, special visitors’ cigarette case, heavy tabletop lighter, new lithograph, the Salvation Army trumpets, margarine ad, innocent butcher, innocent ham, air conditioner thermostat
About my business partner’s alcoholism. ‘I’ and he discussed and quarreled about their life and occupation.
8 Now the Strange Man
white-gloved hand, white shirt cuffs, well-tailored black suit, subtly toned tie, name card, foreign-born Japanese, white envelope, ordinary photograph of an idyllic Hokkaido landscape, undistinguished pastoral verse
A strange man came to ‘my’ office and told the matter about the photo of a sheep in Hokkaido.
9 The Boss
a major right-wing figure, prewar background, Manchuria, the Kanto Army, the Chinese mainland, Soviet troops, MacArthur, Sugamo Prison, advertising industry, black mail, stock market, Sixth Sense, Stanford graduate
‘My’ partner talked about the Boss, a major right-wing figure, his background, career and character.
10 Counting Sheep
serendipitous spring breeze, “everything”, “zero”, two different names, metaphor, coincidence, innocent world, doughnut holes, purely metaphysical question, whisky, air conditioner, electric wall clock, cognitive means of confirmation, bright blue summer sky, billowing white clouds, not bad Scotch, flock of sheep, grassy meadow, cigarette, ballpoint pen, thirty-three, deep two-whiskey-afternoon sleep
In ‘my’ room, ’I’ thought about the incident about ‘the Sheep’. Why is there the problem? Does the photo mean what?
11 The Limo and Its Driver
cuckoo clock, limousine, spotless white shirt, orange tie, my fifteen-year-old Volkswagen Beetle, push-button telephone, peaceful cello sonata, specially made plain-cut cigarette without a brand, Russian tobacco, sheep emblem, the quiet strain of Bach, waning light of summer afternoon, cicadas, some kind of symbolism to the dream
A limousine arrived at ‘my’ office, and ‘I’ sit on the sheet to go to the place of the boss. The driver of limousine played a cassette tape of a peaceful cello sonata of Bach. ‘I’ found the cigarettes with the sheep emblem.
12 Wherefore the Worn Universe
symbolic dreams, reality, symbolic realities, the worn universe, universe of alternative considerations, high hill, all-too-picturesque course, Japanese garden, small golf course, two-story cream-colorer house, Roman aqueduct, a large Western-style room, elderly maid in kimono, glass of grape juice, sheep emblem, tall man in a black suit
‘I’ arrived the house of the boss. Descriptions of the house and gardens of the boss. ‘I’ entered the large room of the Western-style house.
Part Five: Letters from the Rat and Assorted Reminiscences
13 The Rat’s First Letter (Postmarked December 21st, One Year Ago)
snow, snowing, chickens, eggs, nineteenth-century Russia, Siberia, Dostoyevsky, a small town, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Aomori
The content of the first letter of the Rat. His letter told ‘me’ his apathetic ruined life in a distant small town on northern tip of mainand, and his mentally awkward situation. And the Rat enclosed his own novel. The letter and the novel shipped to the ‘my’ birthday and Christmas, 24 December.
14 The Rat’s Second Letter (Postmarked May, This Year)
final destination, books, FM music, records, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, sherbet, snowfall, the end of the world, jeep, Olivier, Othello, beer, the Black Sea, a picture of sheep, check for one hundred thousand yen, Sapporo, Hokkaido
In the Rat’s second letter, he told his ruined situation and mind which nowhere to go in his final destination.
15 The Song Is Over
Bullet Train, white short-sleeved shirt, green cotton pants worn through at the knees, white tennis shoes, canned beer, dried-out ham sandwiches, no hometown, rain-gray, the nature of boredom, navy-bleu summer suit, starched white shirt, shiny black shoes, the Beatles, Paul McCartney
Descriptions of ‘my’ homecoming in this June and ‘my’ reflection of the present state.
dank place, unpronounceable Chinese polysyllable, GIs, the Vietnam War, Boz Scaggs, jukebox, university student couples, highballs, fancy cocktail, Caesar salad, Scandinavian puzzle, bulldozed, vodka lime
Then ’I’ remembered the J Bar from ‘my’ first visit in seventeen and, histories of the Rat and J. A chat with J in this June.
unexpectedly warm, mercury-vapour street lamp, rainy season, motorbikes, your typical early summer evening, liquor store, cans of beer, spray-paint graffiti, gasoline station, gray shirt, gray trouser, gray cap, security guard for the area
‘I’ strolled the riverside of ‘my’ hometown and drunk two cans of beer. When ‘I’ hurled the cans to the sea, ‘I’ was warned by a security guard.
16 She Drinks Her Salty Dog, Talking about the Sound of the Waves
stick-with-it type, white sports shirt, green cotton slacks, Russian writer, aphorisms, old American submarine movie, television, claustrophobia, everything-works-out-in-the-end-so-maybe-war’s-not-so-bad-after-all, nuclear war
‘I’ phoned the Rat’s ex-girlfriend and told the letters of the Rat arrived.
green hill, june rain, coffee lounge, bright pink dress, cerulean blue grand piano, quintessential hotel-coffee lounge numbers, sharpen pencils, tortoise, elephants, ample white cotton slacks, orange-and-yellow checkered blouse, leather shoulder bag, drafting work, architectural office, orange juice, coldest time, draft plans, supermarket, FM radio, stockings, sound of the surf, vodka with grapefruit juice, salty dog, Cutty Sark on the rock, lips, napkin, old film scores, wrong background music, second whisky
‘I’ had arranged to meet her at the coffee lounge of a hotel. She talked me about the sound of surfs on the coast near the her apartment and about the Rat.
Part Six: A Wild Sheep Chase, Ⅱ
17 The Strange Man’s Strange Tale
plain-cut cigarette, pupils, homosexual, dark brown with the faintest though of blue, silence, terminal patient, real loss, five million yen, goodwill, mediocre realists, mediocre dreamers, watered-down grape juice
The black-suited secretary of the Boss told the matter of the photo in a roundabout way and mythically.
a large black-and-white photograph, Nikon SLR, definitive silence, cuckoo, scenario, delightfully pathetic, magnifying glass, biology, herbivorous social animal, Meiji-era, source of wool and meat, China, twelve zodiacal animals, H. G. Wells, Martians, no historical connection, modern Japan, rigorous government checks, rhetorical, ordinal Suffolks, faint stain of the back, star-shaped birthmark, solid silver Dupont, the same sheep emblem
The secretary told me to the history of sheep in modern Japan , and implied the issue of the star-shaped birth mark and the same sheep emblem of his Dupont.
- The sheep are symbol of oppressed people by the governmental system?
18 The Strange Man’s Strange Tale Goes On
mediocrity, mediocre, chaos, Karl Marx, proletariat, Stalinism, Dostoyevsky, Marxism, neurology, blood cyst, U.S. Army, Class A war criminal, the Tokyo War Criminal Tribunal, narcotics, Chinese mainland, Chiang Kai-shek, brainwashing, insomnia, born again, Hokkaido, Korea, right-wing group, Hitler, lebensraum, shadow path, miraculous self-transformation, powerful underground kingdom, Valhalla, world of uniformity and certainty, the Will, a concept that governs time, governs space, and governs possibility,, negation of language, Western humanism, individual cognition, evolutionary continuity, existence, chestnut-colored sheep with the star on its back, cicadas, near-dusk breeze, sixth sense, the most ridiculous story, empty pool
The secretary told ‘me’ about the occur brain symptom of the Boss, his past and the philosophical and metaphysical aim of his underground kingdom. Then the secretary demanded ‘me’ to find the sheep with the star on its back.
- Suddenly, the world of ‘mine’ and this story connects the history, the political and economic system of Japan, and opened up the view to the world.
19 The Limo and Its Driver, Again
Shinjuku Station, west exit,, Spinning Teacup, And Quiet Flows the Don, The Brother Karamazov, Ideologie Germanica, value of pi, Chopin ballade, Christian, godly person, your simultaneously presence, my Bic
After the meeting, ‘I’ rode again the limousine drove by the driver, to go to the Shinjuku station. ‘I’ chatted with the driver, and he said that he is a Christian and telephone the God every night.
20 Summer’s End, Autumn’s Beginning
pale lavender dusk, summer’s end, the top of high-rise hotel, spacious bar, Heineken, whole dish of peanuts, a million people, early autumn darkness, my Levi’s, stack of ten-thousand-yen, one hundred and fifty bills, cheese and cucumber sandwich, French-Japanese dictionary, cordless transceiver-phone, time limit
‘I’ went to a bar of the high-rise hotel in Shinjuku, drank Heinekens and ate peanuts and cheese and cucumber sandwich. At the time a phone call from the secretary to this bar. He told ‘me’ the Boss’s condition sudden made worse and they set the time limit of one month to find that sheep.
21 One in Five Thousand
digital clock, jogging shorts, T-shirt, three scrub brushes, one box of paperclips, well-chilled six-pack of canned beer, sausages, cotton swab, five thousand sheep, one lone sheep in that vas landscape, Johnny Rivers, Midnight Special, Roll Over Beethoven, Secret Agent Man, Johnny B. Goode, coffee, cracker, so damn stupid
In ‘my’ apartment, ‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears talked about the stupid occur order by the Boss. Hokkaido is the vast landscape and the sheep of the sheep in Hokkaido is five thousand.
22 Sunday Afternoon Picnic
her handkerchief and underwear, orange juice, three-day-old bread, oleander, pigeons, orchid, ineffable aura of fatalism, great divide, eight papers, national and local,, my own pace, nameless people, mediocre person, midway point between their desires and their pride, center of gravity, Sunday-morning feeling, my near-scrap Volkswagen, supermarket, cat food, kitty litter, travel razor, doughnut shop, cinnamon doughnut shop, travel agency, Sapporo, canvas shoulder bag, families, young couple, rain hat, bookstore,paperbacks,checkered shirt, mustard-colored slacks, intensely dark sunglasses,large canvas bag, clove cigarette, the first Sunday of autumn, soft afternoon glow
‘I’ dialed the number of the man in black to talk with a photo of a horse jumping a hedge on the Sunday paper. But he denied to do small talk and said the sheep is the only matter. Then I went to the town to buy travel tickets, outdoor clothes and articles for travel.
- The group involved ‘me’ in the world of the strange incident. But ‘I’ protested and kept in the ordinary life.
- Doughnut is the important sign of Murakami’s works. It is the entrance to the underworld or .
23 Limited but Tenacious Thinking
eau de cologne, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, not a bad lead-in sentence, rundown of giraffes and elephants and pandas, responsibility, Brother Johnson, Maynard Ferguson, Star Wars, pre-industrial-revelation translation business, making things simpler
‘I’ phoned the secretary to ask looking after ‘my’ cat during ‘my’ searching. At ‘my’ neighbourhood dive, ‘I’ phoned ‘my’ business partner to say ‘good-bye’ and maybe ‘I’ will never come back to Tokyo, but he purshaded ‘me’ to stay.
24 One for the Kipper
ridiculous submarine, gigantic cookie, appallingly clear, prewar expressionist, refrigerator, gas cock, medicinal items, washbasin, tennis shoes, potato, cars produced in America for export to Saudi Arabia, kitty-kitty, name, Kipper, being witness to the creation heaven and earth, airport, salmon shooting upstream to spawn, Shinjuku to Sendagaya, Antelope, Mule, Names of Ships, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Enola Gay, full-fledged conscious identification, purpose, secondary element, conscious identification with living things, chaos, The Magnificent Seven, non-interchangeability, not mass-produced, name of a physical object, name of a function, fixed, Sleeping Beauty
‘I’ made ready to take a trip and ride the limousine drove by the religious chauffeur to go to the airport. During the driving, the chauffeur named ‘my’ cat ‘Kripper’ and they talked about act of naming. By the chauffeur said naming is the act of identification with living things.
a real character, Home on Pampas, gratin, spaghetti, 747s, Tristars, a fat, ugly old lady,, DC-7, Friendship-7
Part Seven: The Dolphin Hotel Affair
25 Transit Completed at Movie Theater; On the Dolphin Hotel
Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, not a single cloud, orange juice, Ice Age, Chitose Airport, denim shirt, knit vest, endless procession of deep forest, coffee shop, very pragmatic, major former ranches of Hokkaido, library
‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears reached Hokkaido, but the time was three-thirty. So they go to see movies.
deathly quiet, not a common occurrence
They saw two movies in a movie theatre.
twilit street, fake polestar, draft beer, salmon and potatoes, the yellow pages, Dolphin Hotel, bigger lobby than expected, large color TV, parlor set, early days of Technicolor, registration card, fake name, fake address, thick celluloid-rimmed glasses, One-month, twenty ten-thousand-yen notes, corner room away from elevator, room 406, your small, basic hotel,, cockroach, hard-as-asphalt starched sheets, A not very well-known mass guitarists, Kenny Burrell, B.B. King, Larry Cordell, Jim Hall, absolutely realistic grasp, biology
They searched the yellow pages and decided to stay the hotel named ‘the Dolphin Hotel’. They arrived this ‘my’ small, basic, not particularly old hotel, reserved one month and visit a cheap corner room in which a cockroach creeping along the window frame.
26 Enter the Sheep Professor
nearby coffee shop, sheep photo, the mountain in the background, sunglasses
Mountaineering Association, The Mountain of Hokkaido, Hokkaido atlas, café, two ginger ales, impossible task, five o’clock bell, corn, modest dinner, Japan’s agricultural policies, simmered fish and miso soup, intercourse
They went around government offices and associations to the clue to the sheep’s whereabout.
my old tennis shoes, new sneakers, government offices, library, southern Sakhalin, compass, cardboard cutouts, thin cotton windbreaker, three-line notice, morning editions of hour newspapers, made-up story, mentally disturbed man, Siberian camp, like in a basketball game, big-breasted secretary, the office activities, brassiere with cables from the Golden Gate Bridge, red dress, Bugs Bunny
‘I’ placed a three-line notice to the Rat in newspapers.
business, habit, vile orange sofa in the Dolphin Hotel lobby, mummies kept out of the light of day, inheritance, inheritor’s disappeared, Moby Dick, the Whale Hotel, white wine, the Hokkaido Ovine Hall
When ’I’ and the girl were chatting with the desk clerk of the Dolphin Hotel, accidentally he told them the building of the hotel had been the Hokkaido Ovine Hall.
the Hokkaido Ovine Association, sheep resources, sheep reference room, resource materials, old and useless, some recollection
The desk clerk of the Dolphin Hotel told me that this Hotel is the property of the Hokkaido Ovine Association and here’s a sheep reference room on the second floor.
- It’s accidental, they funded and stayed the Dolphin Hotel. It’s convenient for ‘me’, author and story.
27 The Sheep Professor Eats All, Tells All
child wonder, Sendai, violin, Beethoven sonata, Emperor, gold watch, Agriculture Faculty of Tokyo Imperial University, nutshell, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, a unified scheme of large-scale agriculturalization for Japan, Korea and Taiwan,, A Study on Rice Cropping on the Korean Pennisula, big, imminent North China campaign, self-sufficiency program based on sheep, ‘special relationship’ with sheep, interrogation, mental relationship, spiritual communion, simply livestock, the Ministry Reference Collection, Japan-Manchuria Sheep Scheme, shepherd, deep down
The life history of the Sheep Professor. He was a agricultural researcher and elite public servant. In the researching in China, the spring of 1935, he disappeared whereabout. During disappearing, he made a ‘special relationship’, mental relationship or spiritual communion with sheep. He said ‘there is a sheep inside me’. Then he retired, back to Japan and became a shepherd. After end of the war, he assumed directorship of Hokkaido Ovine Association.
chilly and damp, dim, dust, old papers and old body odors, ancient door at the end, DIRECTORS OFFICE
‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears went to the room of the Sheep Professor.
long hair, white as snow,, a self-possessed figure, sturdy boned, body odor, so packed with old books and papers, stains, mahogany desk,, gray shirt, black cardigan, herringbone trousers that had all but lost their shape,, maze of a subterranean hell, unmitigated, monumental significance of that sheep,, soup, salad, a roll and meatball,, Manchuria-Mongolia border, nothing special, a perfectly natural feeling, not uncommon, blessing from the gods, Yuan dynasty, star-bearing white sheep, Genghis Khan ’sheepless’, Pusan, a monumental plan to transform humanity and the human world
In the Sheep Professor’s room, he talked about the ‘incident’ in the summer of 1935. He told that the unique sheep has clear eye, pure white fleece and a brownish star on its back entered his body. The feeling is nothing special and it’s a perfectly natural feeling for him. After his resignation of the public servant, the sheep came with him to Japan to do a ‘monumental plan to transform humanity and the human world’. One morning the sheep gone from his body, then it entered the body of the young Boss.
homestead, some rich man, vacation home with pasture, moustache
The Sheep Professor told the place in the photo is the homestead he lived for nine years. He sold the homestead to some rich man. And he answered the Rat visited his room, asked about the homestead and went there.
Asahikawa, branch line
The Sheep Professor drew a detailed map and told how to reach the homestead.
28 Farewell to the Dolphin Hotel
mountaineering supplies, portable rations, sporting-goods store, heavy fishermen’s knit sweaters, wooden socks, department store, bookstore, 1:50,000 -scale map of the area, tome on the local history, rugged spiked boots, padded thermal underwear, heavy snows, end of October, large backpack, extra, dress, high-heels, search of something, an ongoing search
On their departure, the desk clerk (son of the Sheep Professor) said his father’s life is an ongoing search and his life has no purpose.
Part Eight: A Wild Sheep Chase, Ⅲ
29 The Birth, Rise, and Fall of Junitaki Township
early morning train, beer, Authoritative History of Junitaki Township, literature department of Hokkaido University, local historian
‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears went to Junitaki township by train.
1881, all poor dirt farmers, Tsugaru, dark-eyed Ainu youth, ‘Full Moon on the Wane’, Ishikari River, beautiful flowers
Brief history of Junitaki Township.
lam, far away from civilization, Shiogari Pass, falls, Twelve Falls Settlemnet
About colonization and name origine of Junitaki Township.
sixty-degree arc between two mountains, deep river gorge, bamboo, huge evergreens, wolves, elk, bears, musktats
Japanese name, daughter of one of the settler, especially cold winter, inbred poverty, corn, potatoes, fruit, giant black cloud
The severe and troublesome history about settling of the township and, a Ainu youth took Japanese name and married a Japanese woman.
another beer, box lunch of salmon roe, autumn morning sun
sawed-board houses, log cabins, dried fish and elk antlers,, charcoal, census, tearful reunion, millet, real white rice, communal sheep pasture, flocks of sheep, the Territorial Government, the Russo-Japanese War, front line in China, army-issue wool overcoat, chorus of castanets
The development of the township. After the basically development, the township set up a communal sheep pasture. The Ainu man was interested in raising sheep, became a able shepherd and took on the responsibility. When the Russo-Japanese War launched, the eldest of the Ainu man was sent to the front line and died. After the dead, the Ainu man stayed out at pasture with sheep, became wake and died at age sixty-two.
rice field, silo
boring fare, Taisho era, settling of Hokkaido, new world of Manchuria and Sakhalin, 1937, period of rapid industrial growth, abandoned farmlands, the Pioneer Museum, ‘Bountiful Humanity in Bountiful Nature’
Junitaki cho had developed and prospered till 1950s or 1960s. But after the period of rapid industrial growth of Japan in 1960s to 1970s, the town and its farmlands are abandoned.
30 The Further Decline of Junitaki and Its Sheep
last vestiges of virgin forest, blazing red leaves of the rowan ash, chocolate bar, tranquil light, Johnny B. Goode
The look in the train in Asahikawa.
row of old brick warehouse, typical small-scale regional city, our destination, our transit point, our connecting train
‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears arrived Junitaki-cho.
chronology, simplified timeline, developments in the history of Junitaki-cho, major events in the history of Japan Port Arther, war to war, poor, poverty, cold country
‘I’ made a simplified timeline of the Junitaki-cho with the major events in Japan. ‘I’ and the girl with perfect ears concerned the history and its hardship.
- A chart divided by a line, same as in Hear the Wind Song, appeared again.
Coke
‘I’ waited the next train in a waiting room, and the girl strolled the town during it.
bag of apples, better days, air of doom, toilet and kerosene smells, some fresh air, common bonds of disinterest and ennui, old man, camel-hair sweater, heavy middle-aged lady, Scriabin sonata, conductor, muddy brown, autumn sun, spillway of café au lait, huge track, roadside billboard, boredom, two hour and forty minutes, final stop, dark shadows of the hills, fatal stains, two cupped hands, fresh start in morning
‘I’ and the girl reached Junitaki-cho. The town was an ominous place and covered by the dark shadow of hills.
small rotary, bird-shaped fountain with no water in it, half dozen warehouses, old-fashioned brick construction, huge cows, thicket of weeds, NORTHERN LIMIT OF LARGE SCALE RICE FARMING, small street, human fortune, cream-colored Honda Fairlady, a red Toyota Celica, deadbeat town, small one-story wood-frame houses, inn, only one lumber mill
‘I’ searched a inn in Junitaki-cho.
old inn, café-au-lait river, Town Hall, Livestock Section, magazine namecard, free-lance writer, Suffolks, meat sheep, a total picture of sheep, U.S. Army, rich man, ghost town, melancholy-hued sun, JUNITAKI-CHO MUNICIPAL SHEEP FARM, dense autumn foliage, sheep house, two hundred sheep, unnatural blue, completely black, yet their fleece is white,, luminous blue eyes, pale violet gloom, two helpers, caretaker of sheep, drill sergeant at a military school, the Self-Defense Forces, fenced in with wire, jeep, owner of the villa
‘I’ visited the sheep house near the town and asked a caretaker of sheep about the sheep of the photograph. He didn’t know about the sheep and told me that a guy has moustache (the Rat) stays the villa on the mountain.
31 Night in Junitaki
hard-line realist, the Rat’s father, vacation villa in Hokkaido, large diesel trucks loaded down with lumber, pitch black, jeans, my crew-neck sweater, computer game, pinball tables, old Spanish cheapies, one hundred thirty-two pounds
‘I’ remembered the Rat’s father has a villa in Hokkaido. ‘I’ and the girl stayed at the inn in Junitaki-cho.
- The Boss, the Sheep with star mark, the Rat,,, the factors of story began to connect.
- It’s unnatural and convenient for the author that ‘I’ suddenly recalled the the Rat’s father has a vacation villa in Hokkaido.
32 An Unlucky Bend in the Road
hazy and cool, Hokkaido’s short autumn season, gray clouds, none of the heart of autumn, rice fields, tractor, golden birch woods
‘My’ reflection in the inn. Hokkaido’s short autumn was nearly over.
old jeep, box-shaped roof, surplus job, Self-Defense Forces, good-natured creatures, nervous sweat, sheer walls of dark primal forest, flatlands, lemon drop, stud ram, sheep harems
‘I’ and the girl ride the old jeep driven by the sheep caretaker. During the drive they talked about attitude of sheep and sheep harems.
paved surface, dark primal forests rushed in like giant waves, ominous sounds, menacing breath, conical mountain, blue-tinged patches of light-gray sky, uneven sooty black, frozen silence, nasty chill, one hell of a curve, heavy mountaineering parka, the edge of the world, slender ribbon of silver river, valley, dense green forest, thin columns of smoke, breathtaking panorama, uniform gray, the Asian continent, the Japan Sea, utter precariousness, bottom of abyss, “dead man’s curve”, midst of a peaceful highland scene, the grand expanse of forest, blackbird, viscous fluid, sturdy birch-trunk bridge with handrails, the best-tasting water, not a very big waterfall, Seven Stars
Because of a hard rain, the Jeep stopped before the unlucky curve. ‘I’ and the girl left from the Jeep and went beyond the curve into the plateau of the Rat’s place.
- The landscape of this scene is like ones in computer roll playing game (RPG) or like diorama. So it is effective and sets off this story.
vast lake of pasture
wire, grass was soft, soil dark and moist, black clouds, old American-style two-story wood-frame house, painting white, foreboding grey, rust-colored gabled roof, evergreens, protected it from the elements, smell of rain, flock of birds, The Swiss Family Robinson, dark room at the Dolphin Hotel
‘I’ and the girl reached the gloomy site of the house of the Rat, built by the Sheep Professor.
unnaturally dim, gloom, smelling like an old barn, sense of vertigo, darkness, plain gray space, old prewar sofa, clove cigarette, whole winter’s worth fuel and food, different atmosphere layer, TIme was dead in the air., pair of blue pajamas, old-model lamp, heavy oak chest of drawers,, men’s sweaters, shirts, slacks, socks, and underwear,, good clothes, the Rat’s, desk drawer, cheap fountain pen, three boxes of ink cartridge, cough drops
‘I’ and the girl entered the villa. Inside of the villa is unnaturally dim and no man. Descriptions of inside the villa and the things seems the Rat’s.
chime performance, kerosene heater, built-in glass-paneled bookcase completely filled with old books, prewar editions, geography and science and history and philosophy and politics, Plutarch’s Lives, Selected Greek Tragedies, erosion of years, stereo hi-fi, two hundred old records, worthless, Nat King Cole’s South of the Border, gray rain, fair-sized trunk room, carpets, dishes, a set of golf clubs, guitar, mattress,overcoats, mountaineering boots, old magazines, junior high school exam reference books, radio-controlled airplane, the fifties and sixties, old screen magazines, The Alamo, John Wayne, John Ford
‘I’ and the girl decided to wait for the Rat’s return. ‘I’ looked through a bookcase, record library and trunk room on the second floor.
33 She Leaves the Mountain; Hunger Strikes
dense evening gloom, a pot of stew, still warm,, not an ordinary hunger, bottle of red wine, a few slices of bread, apple, the Percy Faith Orchestra, Perfidia, solitaire, Götterdämmerung, time flowing slowly, gentle stream
Next morning, the girl with perfect ears was gone from the Mountain.
old-fashioned, strong and functional, Sherlock Holmes
I made a bed in a small room that the Rat hadn’t been using.
34 A Find in the Garage; Thoughts in the Middle of the Pature
birds, morning light, primitive toaster, frying pan, butter, sunnyside-up, two glasses of grape juice, loneliness, an almost new can of shaving cream, Gillette razor, true to methodical Rat-form, gleaming white, gin-with-lime, three packs of Larks, lose all sense of time, spectacular weather, a few white brushstroke clouds, songs of birds, Seven Stars, smell of dirt and gasoline, old Toyota Land Cruiser, road maps, towel, half a bar of chocolate, roll of wire, large pair of pliers, no reasonable explanation possible from such unreasonable circumstances, mist, smell of grass
In the villa, there are a lot of remains by the Rat. In the garage, there’s an old Toyota Land Cruiser and the key of which in the dashboard like the Rat always hid it.
35 The Sheep Man Cometh
mountaineering boots, full sheepskin pulled over his head, costume, leather mask, gloves, socks, zipper from neck to crotch, half-bottle of Four Roses, two glasses with ice, in total disinterest, everything all frozen, illusion
The Sheep man visited the villa, drunk whiskey and talked with ‘me’ about the girl with perfect ears, the Rat and the Sheep. He vaguely answered my questions then left the villa and vanished in the snow field.
- The Sheep man said the Rat ‘was living here. Up to a week ago.’ in total disinterest. So the Sheep man isn’t the Rat? Who is the Sheep man?
Salisbury steak, chunk of beek, scrambling eggs with wooden spatula
After the vanish of the Sheep man, ‘I’ cooked in the kitchen. During ‘my’ cooking, ‘I’ thought about ‘I’, the Rat and the Sheep man would open a nice restaurant here.
36 The Winds’ Own Private Thouroughfare
three days passed, morning air, steadily cooler, brief autumn, jog, without smoking, free time, roast beef, salmon, bonito flakes, soy sauce, cabbage pickles, unusually calm, dense lead-gray clouds, an honest-to-goodness north-country snow, silence, all alone
‘I’ had stayed the villa for a week, the first snow fallen, the winter went to dense, so ‘I’ became all alone in the silence.
Bread Baking, Conrad novel, four-inch-square newspaper clipping the Rat had been using for a bookmark
When ‘I’ read the book of the Rat, ‘I’ came across news paper clipping of my advertise . The Rat knew ‘my’ arriving the villa.
jeans, sweater, jacket, tennis shoes, no sign of human life, plump birds, azaleas, lost all sense of direction, waterfall, toofullofsoldiers, hearaboutthewar,
A morning, ‘I’ saw the Sheep Man in the woods and chased him. ‘I’ asked him some questions about the Rat and the Sheep. But he didn’t reply. He said he is from Junitaki-cho, and there is too full of soldiers, and ‘Hear about the war?’.
- The Sheep man is the ghost of a son of Ainu shepherd which possesses the corps of the Rat?
bake bread, plenty of flour and yeast, salad, ham, eggs, canned peaches for dessert, pilau of canned salmon and seafood and mushrooms, cheesecake, strong milk tea, hazelnut ice cream topped with Cointreau, broiled chicken, can of Cambell’s soup
In the villa, ‘I’ ate affluent stocks of foods. Despite ‘I’ in the edge of the world, ‘I’ gained weight.
ninth day, The Heritage of Pan-Asianism, wartime edition, a sheet of white notepaper
When ‘I’ read a list of the Pan-Asianists on a book in the bookcase of the villa, ‘I’ came across the name of the Boss and he is from Junitaki-cho. I realised the secretary, the Boss or the Rat know the truth and things and event are plotted from the beginning by anyone.
37 Things the Mirror Shows, Things the Mirror Doesn’t
opaque, damp chill, cheap pulp paper, hot tea with brandy, intermittent chill, White Christmas
The tenth day on the mountain, a nasty snow fallen, and real chilly winter arrived.
bright and clear, patch work of snow, sunlight, iceberg, housecleaning, cold grape juice, smell of the wax, spaghetti, the full-length of mirror, ’free will’
‘I’ still stayed the villa and cleaned there. I found a dirty antique full-length of mirror and, then wiped and scrubbed it.
old guitar, Benny Goodman’s Air Mail Special, sandwich of thick slices of ham, can of beer, brandy, angry, Groucho and Harpo, Duck Soup, blue Löwenbrau, terror shot
The twelfth day, when I played an old guitar, the Sheep man visited. The Sheep said he couldn’t pass on my message. ‘I’ said ‘I’m very, a very angry’ about the the whole situation. When ‘I’ bring another beer, ‘I’ realized the Sheep Man wasn’t be reflected by the mirror.
‘I’ said to the Sheep Man, ’I’ was going to wait for the Rat and pack the luggages in the night and would be leave the villa the next day.
- I can’t understand ‘I’ could know the Rat would be there that night.
- I guess, ’I’ thought the Sheep Man is the Rat, and ‘I’ told ‘I’ would leave the next day, the Rat would visit the villa without the costume of Sheep.
terrifying dream
38 And So Time Passes
darkness, total darkness, madman, names, sensations, places, bottom of a deep well, particles of darkness, mercury in motionless space
‘I’ woke up at eight at night. Derailed descriptions of darkness. Then the Rat visited the villa.
- Well is the important symbol in Murakami’s novels. It is the entrance to different-dimension worlds.
39 Dwellers in Darkness
absolute lacquer-black darkness, back-to-back, friend to kill time, friend sublime, sixth sense, number of hints, real pain, another soul
The Rat talked about history of the villa, his family and the Sheep Professor. And he said he met the sheep with the star on its back in here.
long silence
Finally, ‘I’ asked the Rat that he is already dead. After the long silence, the Rat said ‘That’s right’.
40 The Rat Who Wound the Clock
wind a clock, kind of hardship, self-acquittal, controlled
The Rat said he died with the sheep in him, and the sent ‘me’ the photograph of the sheep with the star mark as the kind of code.
weakness, very individual thing, hereditary disease, moral weakness, weakness of consciousness, weakness of existence itself, real strength,, whole lock, stock and barrel,, one last thing, supreme power base, a realm of total conceptual anarchy, kingdom of generalities, sheeplessly, no meaning, green cord, red cord
The Rat said that because of his weakness he lost everything by the sheep with the star mark except a being in a realm of total conceptual anarchy by the sheep. Then he told me to leave here as soon as possible, he took the form of the Sheep Man.
41 Green Cords and Red Cords; Frozen Seagulls
(…)
42 Return Visit to the Unlucky Bend
(…)
43 The Twelve-O’ckick Rendezvous
(…)
Epilogue
(…)
Analysis and Remarks
- By this novel, Murakami’s story became true surrealistic one. And the world of it partially connected with and mentioned the nationwide political and economical system, and the Asian history.
- But, I think, this Murakami’s first real surrealistic novel is unbalanced with former two novel of trilogy of the Rat.
- Some points of the plot of this novel are conventional for the author and ‘me’. For example, they found the Dolphin Hotel accidentally, ‘I’ remembered the Rat’s father owned the villa in Hokkaido, the sheep caretaker of Junitaki-cho was an acquaintance of the Rat, and in the villa, ’I’ realized the Boss was from Junitaki-cho.
- ‘I’ achieved almost nothing by himself. ‘I’ only passively got involved in the matter and the situation which caused by some persons and groups. Instead ‘I’ lost his job, house, wife, girlfriend, business partner and friend. His achievement is only to quit cigarettes and to start jogging.
- But landscapes of Hokkaido and the Rat’s mind, and memories of the chase are painful also precious and beautiful. This chase and the death of the Rat are a kind of initiation to grown-up for him.
Details of the Book
A Wild Sheep Chase (Vintage International)
Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum
Vintage Books, London, 20 April 2000
304 pages, pounds 8.99
ISBN 978-099448778
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