Category: Text

Information of the Book

The thirteenth long novel by Haruki Murakami originally published in 2013. The Japanese hardcover original edition is 376 paged book, and contains 19 chapters.

Form, Style & Structure

The storyline is not chronological. Many plots such as the present time on this novel, Tsukuru’s high school days, his university days, Tsukuru’s childhood and Haida’s father with Midorikawa are arranged in a not chronological order.

Background of the Work & Author

A middle scale long novel published after a voluminous and grand work by Murakami, 1Q84. In Japan, at first, the puslisher thought this book might not be sold well, it might be sold less than 500,000 copies. But because of the effects of the hit of 1Q84 and the attractive also mysterious title. it sold more than 1,000,000 copies in Japan, had been sold out for a while.

Characters

Tsukuru Tazaki (Making / Builder Many-capes) – The narrator of this novel. He is only person has no colour in his name among the circle of five. Like his name, he was a common and mediocre man has no special skill, talent, interest and characteristics, also he can get average grades in his schools. His only interest is train stations, they deeply moved him, neither trains nor railways. He attended a university of Tokyo, because a professor, expert on railroad station construction was in. In the university student period, he had no friend and found his genius to learn foreign languages. Then, he became an engineer at a railway company, and his work was designing railway stations in the western part of the Kanto region around Tokyo. He likes to make things just as his name means to make or build we can actually see from childhood. He didn’t like read novels. The Chinese character of Tsukuru means to make not to create. During about ten years before Tsukuru met Sara, he had gone out with three or four women, but he couldn’t seriously attracted them by his emotional issue had caused by the “incident”.

Kei Akamatsu (Red-pine ; Aka = Red) – A smart and small man of delicate sensibilities, studied hard. His father was a professor of economics at Nagoya University. He studied in the economic department of Nagoya University. And he worked for a major bank and a finance firm of Nagoya for few years both. Then he founded a “creative business seminar”, Beyond not much different from a personal development seminar.

Etsuo Oumi (Blue-sea ; Ao = Blue) – A good build and hearty man was a forward on the rugby team and extremely athletic, and a great leadership and courage. He got into a business school of a private university on the recommendation of his rugby ability. He became an excellent salesman at a Lexus dealership in Nagoya.

Yuzuki Shirane (White-root ; Shiro = White ; Yuzu) A tall, slim and usually quiet girl had a silky long black hair, like a traditional Japanese doll. She had a natural talent for music and was a skilled pianist, and her dream was becoming a veterinarian. His father ran an ob-gyn clinic in Nagoya. He gave up to become a veterinarian and studied piano in a music college. When she was twenty she told a lie that she was violated by Tsukuru, and she miscarried a baby of someone. Then she moved to Hamamatsu, Shizuoka and taught piano in a small music class. She passed away by murder at her apartment when she was thirty.

Eri Kurono (Black-field ; Kuro = Black ; Eri) A not beautiful but clever, charming and curious girl. She was good at humanities subjects. His father ran an accounting firm. Shiro and Kuro had been class mates, they look an odd but captivating combination. She attended the well-known English department of a women’s collage in Nagoya, but she left the collage and attended the industrial arts department of the Aichi Prefectural Arts Collage. She emigrated and lived in Helsinki with her Finnish husband and two little daughters.

Sara Kimoto (1, 2, 6, 9, 12, 13, 18) – Tsukuru’s girlfriend in the current time. She was two years older than Tsukuru. Her work is planning package tours at a large travel agency, took many business trips to overseas. She wasn’t typically beautiful but Tsukuru loved the vital atmosphere.

Toshio Tazaki (Man who profits) (4) – The father of Tsukuru. A real estate agent and a prominent practical businessman.

Mother of Tsukuru (3, 4)

Fumiaki Haida (Grey-field ; Hai = Grey ; Mr. Grey) (4, 5, 7, 8) – A small and handsome student from Akita, with a small and narrow face and a short and slightly curly hair, was majoring in physics of the university, was two years younger than Tsukuru. He just want to deeply think about things to contemplate ideas in a pure, free sort of way, but it’s like constructing vacuum. (4, p. 44) He didn’t like read novels, but he likes read books of philosophy, classics, Greek tragedies and Shakespeare, and he can distinguish between the music of Mendelssohn and Schumann. He has a pure and theoretical intelligence. (7, p. 92) The end of February of the next year to the time Tsukuru had met Haida, finally Haida left and Tsukuru didn’t met him again, then Haida left the university. (8, p. 103)

Father of Haida (4, 5) – A professor of philosophy in a public university in Akita. His favourite thing is to reflect abstract ideas and to listen to classical music. (4, p. 50) When the time the Japanese student movement had ended, he wandered around Japan while doing temporary jobs.

Midorikawa (Green-river) (5) – A tall and bold mid-forties odd and mysterious man with lanky arms, legs and short hair, wore gold-framed grasses, a leather jacket, jeans, work boots and a wool cap. He said he was jazz pianist and lived in Koganei, Tokyo.

Woman did clerical work at an architecture firm (8) – The May In this third grade of the university, Tsukuru had the first love relationship with her. They had been going out for tight months. But they split up because she would marry with a man.

Sakamoto (12) – A young co-worker of Tsukuru, just graduated from the science and engineering department at Waseda University.

the stationmaster (12)

the man walked with Sara (13)

Olga (14) – A clerk of a small office of Sara’s travel agent in Helsinki. A later twenties blond woman of good breeding.

Edvard Haatainen (15, 16) – A Finnish man, husband of Kuro. A ceramist lived in Finland, when he taught at an art college Kuro entered, he got to know Kuro then they married.

Yuzu Kurono Haatainen – A daughter of Kuro. She name one of her daughter Yuzu, the name of Shiro as a dedication to Shiro’s memory.

Groups

The circle of five – It consists of three boys and two girls of classmates, from suburban, upper-middle-class families of Nagoya. By some summer volunteer work they became friends, besides they played tennis, swam, went hiking and study together. A unique sense of harmony and a chemical fusion developed between them, each of them needed the other four like a perfect equilateral pentagon (1, p. 12) and orderly, harmonious community (1, p. 16). And to keep the community itself became one of their aims. (1, pp. 16 – 17) But the chemistry or harmony was vanished, because Tsukuru went to Tokyo and attend a university. (1, p. 20 ; 12, pp. 176 – 177)

Locations

Nagoya – The biggest city and the capital of Aichi Prefecture. The chief urban city of third largest metropolitan Chukyo (the central capital) region in Japan, the place between Tokyo and Osaka, or Kanto (the eastern capital) region and Kansai (the western capital) region. The city prospers economically, but still exists closeness, conservatism and local color.

Tokyo – The huge metropolitan city and the capital of Japan in Kanto region.

Oita (5) – In the end of 1960s, by the defeat of the student movement, the father of Haida wandered around Japan, and he stayed at a springs resort on a mountain in Oita for two months. He came across Midorikawa there.

Helsinki (14, 15, 17, 18) – The capital city of Finland.

Hämeenlinna (15 – 17) – A town is northwest to Helsinki.

Places

Tsukuru’s apartment – An expensive condo in Juyugaoka was owned by his father. Haida visited and stayed there frequently every weekend, cooked, talked with Tsukuru and listen to LPs of classical music. (4)

Tokyo station (9)

Shinjuku station (19)

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

this world, present world (1, p. 1)

cleanliness (1, p. 2)

dreamlike images (1, p. 3)

alienation and loneliness (1, p. 3)

Train station – The symbol of Tsukuru’s personality, and station is a necessary thing in the modern society. From his childhood, Tsukuru was fond of all kinds of train station. And his personality has no striking personality, he always aimed for the average middle of road, and it resembles train stations. (1, p. 10) For Tsukuru, the Tokyo station is an “orderly harmonious intimate place”. It’s a comparison to the group of five also an equal element to the group. (4, pp. 43 – 44 ; 9, pp 121 – 122) And train station in this novel is the place of nowhere or the destination of nowhere man. Tsukuru was a nowhere man, so his favourite thing is to see stations and it settles Tsukuru’s mind. (9, pp. 120 – 122 ; 19, pp. 279 – 284)

extremely sensitive, somewhere along his back (1, p. 14)

learning languages (1, p. 21)

mojito (2, p. 30)

strange dream (3, 7, 19) – Dreams in novel are the thing opens the entrance to alter world, it triggers off indirect contact(s). Also dreams are image of metaphors as a mixture of desire and memories.

an interesting in one specific thing (4, p. 44) ; your one set interest (4, p. 47)

constructing vacuum (4, pp. 44 – 45) – Haida want to constructing vacuum by studying physics.

meditation (4, p. 45)

thinking about things freely ; the real freedom of thought (4, p. 55)

a small cloth bag of Midorikawa (5, pp. 64 – 65 ; 7, p. 93 ; 14, p. 175) – By his habit when he played piano, Midorikawa gingerly placed a bag made by expensive cloth on top on the piano. And Haida’s father thought it was somebody’s funeral ashes. Midorikawa answered it was a good-luck charm and like his alter-ego. Tsukuru imagined Midorikawa carried his sixth finger was cut off as a talisman.

death token (5, pp. 70 – 72)

own unique colour (5, pp. 71 – 74)

kind of a miracle (6, p. 83)

some kind of unresolved emotional issues (6, p. 85)

Google or Facebook (6, p. 86 ; 9, p. 112) Twitter (9, p. 112)

Tokyo station (9) – The grand central Tokyo station is a favourite place of Tsukuru. The station is a huge ordered system actually carries people have places to go, places to return to. He was attracted to see it and his heart was healed.

well-mannered handsome boy (10, p. 137)

empty vessel, colorless background (10, p. 137)

two fingers preserved in formaldehyde (12, p. 171 – 175) – The stationmaster and colleagues of Tsukuru talked about two fingers in formaldehyde as a lost-and-found items. And he replied having six fingers and moving them equally and freely might be too much for human beings, and five is just the right number. Then Tsukuru imagined the items were put in Midorikawa’s bag might be a his amputated sixth fingers, and he bring them as a talisman. The number five implies Tsukuru’s ideal harmonious group of five.

the decimal system (12, p. 174)

pottery (15) – Pottery is an essential thing for daily life equal to train station, and a small vessel or vehicle is necessary for our life contrast with train station as a big object.

natural talent (15, p. 221)

gift (15, p. 225)

empty vessel (17, p. 260)

strange dream (18, pp. 272 – 274)

Shinjuku station (19) – The largest train terminal of Japan. Tsukuru’s favourite pastime is having a view of Shinjuku station as a well-ordered huge system and accurate and tested practices, not riding a train and going to Yamanashi or Nagano. It matches Tsukuru’s personality and history, the terminal is a place of nowhere to a refugee from his own life.

Music

Mendelssohn (4, p. 47)

Schumann (4, p. 47)

Barry Manilow (4, p. 51)

Pet Shop Boys (4, p. 51)

“Le mal du pays” from Year 1: Switerland of Years of Pilgrimage suite by Franz Liszt (4, pp. 51 -52 ; 11 ; 13 ; 16) – The title means “a groundless sadness called forth in a person’s heart by a pastoral landscape”, homesickness or melancholy. (It signifies a theme of this novel.) And Shiro always played the piece. Haida listened the three-record boxed set played by Lazar Berman in Tsukuru’s room and he left it there. Kuro and Tsukuru listen the Alfred Brendel version in Kuro’s house in Hämeenlinna.

Lazar Berman (4, p. 52)

Claudio Arrau (4, p. 52)

Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk (5, pp. 64 – 65)

Viva Las Vegas! by Elvis Presley (10, p. 135)

Finnish version of Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel (14, p. 210)

Cultural Things on This Novel

Brooks Brothers and Polo (3, p. 41)

Voltaire (4, p. 45)

Greek tragedies (4, p. 47)

Shakespeare (4, p. 47)

The Kitchen by Arnold Wesker (4, p. 53)

George Bataille (5, p. 62)

Sibelius, Aki Kaurismaki films, Marimekko, Nokia, Moomin (13, p. 190)

Volkswagen Golf (14, p. 214)

Die Hard 12 (14, p. 216)

Disney’s Snow White, the Seven Dwarves (16, p. 238)

Riddles & Questions

Haida’s whereabouts.

What is the death token Midorikawa owned ?

What is the meaning of sixth fingers ?

Why Shiro told a lie that she was violated by Tsukuru.

Who murdered Shiro ?

What is the meaning of the strange dream in the chapter 18, the dream signified what ?

Synopsis

In his high school years in Nagoya, Tsukuru Tazaki, two boys Aka and Ao and two girls Kuro and Shiro made a perfect harmonious group. Tsukuru had no outstanding characteristics and ability but he consisted an inevitable part of the five. And only Tsukuru went to a university in Tokyo, the rest four stayed in Nagoya.

In the summer vacation of Tsukuru’s sophomore year, he was refused to see by four anyhow. And he had been thought about passing away and had an odd sensation for half a year.

When he was thirty six years old, his girlfriend Sara Kimoto suggested to see other four and to solve his emotional problem.

Timeline

At the end of the 1960s, Haida’s father came across a mysterious jazz pianist, Midorikawa at a small springs resort in the mountain of Oita. (5)
↓
One morning, Haida’s father and Midorikawa were soaking in an open-air hot spring and talked about their circumstances, then Midorikawa asked him that there was anyplace he could play a piano. (5)
↓
Midorikawa played Thelonious Monk’s composition Round Midnight in a music room of a junior high school in a mountain. Haida felt his performance went straight to the heart of the piece, he has a genuine genius of music and all that was unclean inside Haida washed away. (5)
↓
A night, Haida’s father and Midorikawa had a conversation in a guest room of Midorikawa. They talked about devil, logic, genius, the token of death, personal color, and Audous Huxley’s “the doors of perception” and its true sight and leaping. (5)
↓
Two days after that conversation, Midorikawa suddenly left the inn when Haida’s father was going out. (5)
↓
The encounter with Midorikawa and the experience of the performance by him might be a trigger, Haida’s father returned to Tokyo, and concentrated on his study. (5)

Tsukuru Tazaki was born in the mid 1970s.

Th five had been classmates at a public high school in Nagoya, and formed a perfect harmonious group. (1)
↓
The summer vacation of Tsukuru’s sophomore year, his closest friends announced they didn’t want to see him ever again with no explanation. (1, 2)
↓
Ao told “I have to ask you not to call any of us anymore” by telephone. But he didn’t told the reason somehow. Then Tsukuru never met other four agin. (2)
↓
After Tsukuru returned to Tokyo, he was transfixed by the physically odd sensation, and colours was seen completely different like covered by a special filter.(2)
↓
At age 20, from July of his sophomore year in university until the next January, Tsukuru only thought about passing away. (1)
↓
After Tsukuru returned to Tokyo, he felt odd sensations like his vision was colourless and his body was damaged by darkness. (2)
↓
Tsukuru saw a strange dream was smeared with jealousy, in the dream Tsukuru desired a woman. (3)
↓
There’s something change in composition of Tsukuru’s body, he lost fifteen pounds and was reborn. His mother bought new clothes of Brooks Brothers and Polo for him. (3)
↓
In June of Tsukuru’s third grade, he came across Fumiaki Haida at the pool of the university. (4)
↓
Haida became a close friend of Tsukuru. At weekends, he would stayed at Tsukuru’s apartment, cooked, listened to music of LPs he brought and talked about many topics. (4)
↓
A late at night, Haida talked about his father’s encounter with Midorikawa. Tsukuru felt shapes of Haida and his father were overlapped, and Haida talked his real experiences. (4, 5)
↓
The night Tsukuru heard the episode about Midorikawa, he had strange two dreams. The former, Haida was standing in a corner and watching for Tsukuru. The latter, Tsukuru made love with Shiro and Kuro, then emitted to the mouth of Haida. (7)
↓
After the day Tsukuru and Haida left, between 10 days Tsukuru was absent from Haida. (7)
↓
The next end of February, finally Haida was absent from the university and didn’t met Tsukuru again. (8)
↓
That may, Tsukuru had his first love relationship with woman. He begun an internship job as drafting at an architecture firm, the woman did clerical work there. (8)

When Tsukuru was thirty, his father was dead. And Tsukuru succeeded the apartment in Jiyugaoka. The other four didn’t appeared on the funeral ceremony. (4)

Tsukuru and Sara came across at a home party of his boss. (1)
↓
Tsukuru and Sara talked about Tsukuru’s high school days with the circle of five persons and his life at a bar in Ebisu. (1) Tsukuru and Sara talked about “the incident” happened to Tsukuru. (2)
↓
Eight days later, Tsukuru and Sara met and had a dinner at Minami Aoyama. They talked about the circle of the five. Then Sara suggested Tsukuru should meet the other four again and solve his emotional issues, and she would research their whereabouts. (6)
↓
After he got back home, Tsukuru typed the four names, addresses and phone numbers, and sent the list to Sara by email. (6)
↓
Tsukuru and Sara met at a café in Ginza, and she told the information about the four persons. (9)
↓
At the end of May, Tsukuru returned to Nagoya. He suddenly visited the Lexus showroom in which Ao worked. They talked about the past. Ao said Shiro had said that she was violated by Tsukuru, the Ao and the other two might obey Shiro’s appeal. And Tsukuru was not an empty vessel with colourless ground, but he was a well-mannered handsome boy they thought. (10)
↓
The next day, Tsukuru visited the office Aka owned. They talked about the incident of Shiro. Aka said the saying by Shiro was a historical fact, now he or they knew it was not true. And Aka thought Shiro had some mental issues, so she told a lie in spite of herself. (11)
↓
The night of the day Tsukuru met Aka, he returned to Tokyo. (12)
↓
The next day, at lunchtime, Tsukuru and colleagues chatted with the station master. heard of two of sixth fingers as a lost-and-found items. (12)
↓
The next day Tsukuru met Sara. They talked about Tsukuru’s perfect group of five and Sara’s beautiful classmate who lost her own color. Then Tsukuru told he would go to Finland and met Kuro, and requested Sara to the preparation for travelling. (12)
↓
The next day, Tsukuru went to a swimming pool. When he was swimming he reflected on his life. (13)
↓
Few days before Tsukuru left Japan, he saw Sara was walking with a middle-aged powerfully built man at Omotesando, Aoyama, Omotesando. (13)
↓
Tsukuru arrived at Helsinki by airplane and he went to a hotel by taxi. (14)
↓
Then Tsukuru phoned Olga’s office and they met at the hotel. Olga phoned Kuro’s house and she talked with Kuro’s husband and got information about Kuro and her family. (14)
↓
Tsukuru took a walk in the town of Helsinki and eat a pizza at a casual pizzeria. (14)
↓
Tsukuru drove to Hämeenlinna by a rental car. He visited Haateinen’s house and talked with Eri’s husband Edvard. (15)
↓
(…) (16, 17)
↓
(…) (17)
↓
(…) (18)
↓
(…) (19)
↓
(…) (19)

Plots & Episodes

A. Tsukuru’s age 36 (the current time of the novel)

Tsukuru and Sara came across at a home party of his boss. (1)
↓
Tsukuru and Sara talked about Tsukuru’s high school days with the circle of five persons and his life at a bar in Ebisu. (1) Tsukuru and Sara talked about “the incident” happened to Tsukuru. (2)
↓
Eight days later, Tsukuru and Sara met and had a dinner at Minami Aoyama. They talked about the circle of the five. Then Sara suggested Tsukuru sould meet the other four again and solve his emotional issues, and she would research their whereabouts. (6)
↓
When he got back home, Tsukuru typed the four names, addresses and phone numbers, and sent the list to Sara by email. (6)
↓
Tsukuru and Sara met at a café in Ginza, and she told the information about the four persons. (9)
↓
At the end of May, Tsukuru returned to Nagoya. He suddenly visited the Lexus showroom in which Ao worked. They talked about the past. (→ c) (10)
↓
The next day, Tsukuru visited the office Aka owned. They talked about the incident of Shiro. (→ d) (11)
↓
The night of the day Tsukuru met Aka, he returned to Tokyo. (12)
↓
The next day, at lunchtime, Tsukuru and colleagues chatted with the station master. heard of two of sixth fingers as a lost-and-found items. (12)
↓
The next day Tsukuru met Sara. They talked about Tsukuru’s perfect group of five and Sara’s beautiful classmate who lost her own color. Then Tsukuru told he would go to Finland and met Kuro, and requested Sara to the preparation for travelling. (12)
↓
The next day, Tsukuru went to a swimming pool. When he was swimming he reflected on his life. (13)
↓
Few days before Tsukuru left Japan, he saw Sara was walking with a middle-aged powerfully built man at Omotesando, Aoyama, Omotesando. (13)
↓
Tsukuru arrived at Helsinki by airplane and he went to a hotel by taxi. (14)
↓
Then Tsukuru phoned Olga’s office and they met at the hotel. Olga phoned Kuro’s house and she talked with Kuro’s husband and got information about Kuro and her family. (14)
↓
Tsukuru took a walk in the town of Helsinki and eat a pizza at a casual pizzeria. (14)
↓
Tsukuru drove to Hämeenlinna by a rental car. He visited Haateinen’s house and talked with Eri’s husband Edvard. (15)
↓
(…) (16, 17)
↓
(…) (17)
↓
(…) (18)
↓
(…) (19)
↓
(…) (19)

B. Tsukuru’s student era (High-school to University)

Th five had been classmates at a public high school in Nagoya, and formed a perfect harmonious group. (1)
↓
The summer vacation of Tsukuru’s sophomore year, his closest friends announced they didn’t want to see him ever again with no explanation. (1, 2)
↓
Ao told “I have to ask you not to call any of us anymore” by telephone. But he didn’t told the reason somehow. Then Tsukuru never met other four agin. (2)
↓
After Tsukuru returned to Tokyo, he was transfixed by the physically odd sensation, and colours was seen completely different like covered by a special filter.(2)
↓

One day, Tsukuru’s closest friends announced they didn’t want to see him ever again with no explanation. (1)
↓
At age 20, from July of his sophomore year in university until the next January, Tsukuru only thought about passing away. (1)
↓
After Tsukuru returned to Tokyo, he felt odd sensations like his vision was colourless and his body was damaged by darkness. (2)
↓
Tsukuru saw a strange dream was smeared with jealousy, in the dream Tsukuru desired a woman. (3)
↓
There’s something change in composition of Tsukuru’s body, he lost fifteen pounds and was reborn. His mother bought new clothes of Brooks Brothers and Polo for him. (3)
↓
In June of Tsukuru’s third grade, he came across Fumiaki Haida at the pool of the university. (4)
↓
The next end of February, finally Haida was absent from the university and didn’t met Tsukuru again. (8)
↓
That may, Tsukuru had his first love relationship with woman. He begun an internship job as drafting at an architecture firm, the woman did clerical work there. (8)

a. Fumiaki Haida and Tsukuru (4, 5, 7, 8)

In June of Tsukuru’s third grade, he came across Fumiaki Haida at the pool of the university. (4)
↓
Haida became a close friend of Tsukuru. At weekends, he would stayed at Tsukuru’s apartment, cooked, listened to music of LPs he brought and talked about many topics. (4)
↓
A late at night, Haida talked about his father’s encounter with Midorikawa. (4, 5)
↓
The night Tsukuru heard the episode about Midorikawa, he had strange two dreams. The former, Haida was standing in a corner and watching for Tsukuru. The latter, Tsukuru made love with Shiro and Kuro, then emitted to the mouth of Haida. (7)
↓
After the day Tsukuru and Haida left, between 10 days Tsukuru was absent from Haida. (7)
↓
The next end of February, finally Haida was absent from the university, left the dormitory and didn’t met Tsukuru again. (8)

b. Haida’s Father and Midorikawa (5)

At the end of the 1960s, Haida’s father came across a mysterious jazz pianist, Midorikawa at a small springs resort in the mountain of Oita. (5)
↓
One morning, Haida’s father and Midorikawa were soaking in an open-air hot spring and talked about their circumstances, then Midorikawa asked him that there was anyplace he could play a piano. (5)
↓
Midorikawa played Thelonious Monk’s composition Round Midnight in a music room of a junior high school in a mountain. Haida felt his performance went straight to the heart of the piece, he has a genuine genius of music and all that was unclean inside Haida washed away. (5)
↓
A night, Haida’s father and Midorikawa had a conversation in a guest room of Midorikawa. They talked about devil, logic, genius, the token of death, personal color, and Audous Huxley’s “the doors of perception” and its true sight and leaping. (5)
↓
Two days after that conversation, Midorikawa suddenly left the inn when Haida’s father was going out. (5)
↓
The encounter with Midorikawa and the experience of the performance by him might be a trigger, Haida’s father returned to Tokyo, and concentrated on his study. (5)

c. Ao and Tsukuru (10)

At the end of May, Tsukuru returned to Nagoya. He suddenly visited the Lexus showroom in which Ao worked. They talked about the past. Ao said Shiro had said that she was violated by Tsukuru, the Ao and the other two might obey Shiro’s appeal. And Tsukuru was not an empty vessel with colourless ground, but he was a well-mannered handsome boy they thought. (10)

d. Aka and Tsukuru (11)

The next day, Tsukuru visited the office Aka owned. They talked about the incident of Shiro. Aka said the saying by Shiro was a historical fact, now he or they knew it was not true. And Aka thought Shiro had some mental issues, so she told a lie in spite of herself. (11)

e. Kuro and Tsukuru at Helsinki (16 – 17)

(…) (16, 17)
↓
(…) (17)

Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions

Midorikawa played the piano in a music room of a junior high school in a mountain (5, pp 63 – 65)

Haida’s father and Midorikawa had a conversation in a guest room (5, pp 67 – 77) – They talked about devil, logic, genius, the token of death, personal color and Audous Huxley’s “the doors of perception” and its true sight and leaping.

Olga’s saying “Some things in life are too complicated to explain.” (14, p. 207, p. 210) – This phrase signifies a theme of this novel. This novel expresses the state or thing can’t be explained or expressed by words.

Interpretations & Analysis

• This novel is a story of metaphor. In this story, colors, characteristics, professions, majors and cars of each character are match. Also the being of Haida, Kuro’s passing away, Nagoya and Finland are metaphor as half. And reality and unreal things are not separated in this novel.
• A main theme of this novel is a communication failure and its tragedy, and people’s lost of passionate love.
• I read this novel as a story of today people who can only communicate and connect by structure(s) of relationship and each attribute, role and belonging, and who can’t find and understand a true shape of own personalities. The structure and elements in the structure and its totality and relationshop made this story, and Murakami intentionally built the structure, so I think this novel is a novel of Structuralism.
• There’s symmetrical structures in the story and the relationship. This novel is 19 chapter novel, to the chapter 9 the content is description of past mainly and Tsukuru’s seeking begun from the chapter 10. The structure of the group of five was symmetrical. The two girl are white and black, beautiful and plain, sensitive and lively. The two boys are blue and red, sportsmanlike and intelligent, muscular and slight. Tsukuru balanced the structure of five on the center and his role was like a train station.
• Five is the ideal and harmonious number in this novel. Midorikawa cut his sixth finger, and he can play piano excellently. Midorikawa had passed away (green vanished), and the harmonious circle of five colors was organized. Tsukuru moved to Tokyo, the harmonious and magical circle of five was broken, each member was separated, and Shiro lost his beauty and talent. And “The doors of perception” Midorikawa mentioned opened, so Tsukuru was in a depression state and felt abnormality of perceptions. Then Haida, Mr Grey (medium color) brought back Tsukuru to the real world. His role had finished, then he disappeared from Tsukuru. Colorless (blank) and black are match, so Kuro loved Tsukuru in fact, and Kuro became a ceramist made small vessels. In the end, Tsukuru tried to marry with Sara, was being supported by the Kuro’s saying and the memory of the circle. I think this is an act commit the real love, go beyond the structure and the metaphor.
• This novel describes today’s people who can’t understand how they are seen and estimated by others, and they are liked or loved by the opposite sex or others. One theme of this novel should be a person who can’t comprehend he or she is liked or loved by others, tried to understand and love a person seriously. Murakami drew the state as it is, he did neither affirm nor deny. One of themes of Murakami’s other works is the detachment as today’s people can’t love a person seriously.
• Tsukuru is an existence like a station. He is colorless and has no his conspicuous characteristics, so he was a medium of the five and for others. But, also, he wasn't a usual person, because he loves train stations like greek (Usual children don’t be attracted by train stations. Stations only play supporting roles. They are attracted by trains.), he became a station constructer in a large train company, his four friends were excellent persons and he spent a certain well-off life. But Tsukuru comprehend charm, good nature and ability of himself and he thought he was an empty vessel. But in fact, his true personality or ability is building a huge vessel or a thing mediate vessels.
• Dream in this novel is an image or a view of metaphor as a mixture of lost things and desire. The dream Tsukuru saw in chapter 7 is a shape or an output of the mixture of his complex and complicated desire, love and friendship for Kuro, Shiro and Haida. The dream in chapter 18 is mixture of lost things as Midorikwa, Shiro, piano music and sixth finger.
• The current time of this novel may be he end of 2000s. There are the internet, Google, Facebook, Twitter and iPod.
• This novel is an ambiguous and slippery one in aspects of the story, the characters and the whole. Though I think Murakami tried to express a nonlinguistic state or expression can’t be explained and expressed by language. The totality of structure(s) made by elements and the story made a metaphor or something beautiful and comfortable. I think readers should read the thing is expressed by the totality and the total metaphor of the structure(s) and the story.

Details of the Book

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Haruki Murakami (Author), Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 02 Jul 2015
304 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099590378

Related Posts and Pages

Works of Haruki Murakami

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