top of page

"I want to go on a trip"

I will introduce the titles omitted and some excerpts.

・ August-September 2020 Living Notebook 5th Century No. 7 Reviewer: Yuka Kumagai [Maruzen Nagoya Main Store]

 

From here and there, I can feel that new folk tales are born from wars, disasters, social situations, and daily life. The power to draw out the story, the power to listen. It's not about who he is talking about, but he's quietly waiting for an openness to talk about. Kazuko appeared there destinedly and transcribed it with a sense of mission that this should not be extinguished, and the passion of that 50 years became one book.

July 2020 issue Gunzo essay "Her book goes on a journey" Chinatsu Shimizu [PUMPQUAKES]

Disasters uncover political and social problems, and resentment and anxiety grow every day. But it's not just the bright motives that drive people. The world is in the midst of a pandemic, but her journey through the war is far from giving up and sneering.

June 2020 issue Recommended by the editorial department of the art notebook "New Ecology"

I am overwhelmed by the sincere attitude of the 18 stories that have been spelled out and the determination to inherit the story.

June 18, 2020 Shukan Shincho Reviewer: Kyoichi Tsuzuki [Editor]

A collection of folk tales from the bottom, collected by just a housewife-When it comes to collecting folk tales, landlords such as Kunio Yanagita and Tsuneichi Miyamoto immediately come to mind, but Kazuko Ono is not confident. (...) I would like to express my deep gratitude to the author who told me that there are still such beautiful things in Japan, which has become like this.

・ May 26, 2020 Yomiuri Shimbun Tohoku edition

50 Years of Folktale Visits-Tohoku's Old Stories and Experiences

May 17, 2020  Kahoku Shimpo

This book looks back on the trip of the visit and vividly depicts the narrators. (…) When I follow the author's journey, I am amazed at the closeness between folk tales and the real world. "It's a real story." I wanted to listen to the voices of the narrators whispering softly.

・ May 2020 Hokkaido Shimbun Reviewer: Kumiko Maeno [book cafe Mars Garden Shopkeeper]


This book will be lined up with "Tono Monogatari" and "Bitter Sea Jodo". Good books aren't written by the author alone. I felt that the living and the dead, the wind and the mountains were writing together.

・ May 2, 2020 Mainichi Shimbun Reviewer: Toshiyuki Horie [Writer]

Now that it is impossible to visit people freely and talk to their heart's content, or to listen "hard", we must secure a new seed to grow. Don't just think about protecting yourself and put out the fire of the narrative that doesn't lose your eyes on the weak. This book, which makes you feel like that, has already reached the level of a folk tale.

・ April 9, 2020 D Morning "Dokuyan!" No.19 Yoichiro Sakon [ Renoir Brothers ] / Shinsaku Kamimura

A story that does not remain in the history of the winner is handed down at the individual level ... I thought this was the dynamism of "folk tales"! Travel distance and means ... A trip that makes a two-dimensional map not only three-dimensional but also four-dimensional, which cannot be measured by the presence or absence of famous places. It's a masterpiece that made me realize that there is such a "journey"!

April 5, 2020 Asahi Shimbun "Occasional Words" Reviewer: Kiyokazu Washida [Philosopher]

"I don't want to lose, I think I don't have the power to lose."
Ono, who has been visiting Tohoku folk tales for 50 years, has friends who can talk to each other. One day she said she would dry the radish, but when I asked her to pay me, the watery guy refused to do it. However, I decided that I wouldn't be able to listen to it unless I created a "self that matches the narrator" in a place that wasn't "indigenous."

March 22, 2020 Yomiuri Shimbun Reviewer: Tomofumi Hashimoto [Nonfiction Writer]

It is said that the reason for the publication of this book was the Great East Japan Earthquake. In this country where disasters are repeated-no, no disasters-the world is full of terrible hell. I want to listen to the truth of "another world" spun there.

March 12, 2020 Newsweek Japanese Edition Reviewer: Akihiko Reizei [Writer / Journalist]

When carrying tragedy such as disaster, illness, poverty, separation, and bereavement, one can be overwhelmed by the weight of the facts when facing individual tragedy. I think folk tales are wisdom to abstract tragedy by developing it as a kind of parable, that is, a story using metaphors.

March 12, 2020 Shukan Shincho Reviewer: Akiko Otake [Writer]

It was noticed that the depth of folk tales is the depth that human beings have, and when they descend there, the flat world is colored by the shadow of "blood blows up when cut." It's a book you rarely encounter in your life.

March 7, 2020 Nihon Keizai Shimbun Reviewer: Hazuki Saisho [Nonfiction Writer]

A glimpse of human sadness and sturdiness can be seen in the knot of mystery and reality, which is full of folk tales. People's breathing can be felt even in small fragments, probably because the voices of people who have entered the demon register now penetrate the author's body and are presented as living words.

・ March 5, 2020 Kyoto Shimbun

A folk tale that disappeared and remained in my heart

・ March 3, 2020 Shinano Mainichi

"Talking" is the power to survive-interact with folktale narrators in various parts of Tohoku

bottom of page