Latest news with #Akutagawa
Asahi Shimbun
26-04-2025
- General
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: A trip down memory lane: When milk came in glass bottles
Writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa was born in 1892. In his 1925 autobiographical novella 'Daidoji Shinsuke no Hansei' (Shinsuke Daidoji: The Early Years), he wrote that he was raised on cow's milk from the moment of his birth. After all, his father was the manager of a dairy product company that raised cows for milk in Tokyo's Tsukiji and Shinjuku districts. Milk was delivered daily to the Akutagawa household. As the author recalled seeing glass milk bottles for the first time when he was a toddler, he may well have awakened some mornings to the comforting sound of glass bottles clinking. Even items that are cutting-edge cool will eventually disappear. Last month, food giant Meiji Co. discontinued the sale of bottled milk and coffee drinks after nearly a century of history. With demand for these products declining, the company determined that securing a steady supply of glass bottles would become difficult in the days ahead. I have not had milk in a glass bottle for years, but am really missing it now. It's never easy to break free from nostalgia, I suppose. The house I grew up in was next to a tofu shop. In the predawn hours when stars were still shining, I would hear the roar of the shop's soybean boiler being ignited. And before long, it would be joined by the rattle of the newspaper delivery motorcycle, followed shortly, as if in competition, by the clinking of milk bottles. Feeling the heft of the bottle on my fingertips, I would touch my lips to the cool, thick and rounded mouth of the bottle. And while chugging my milk down, I would try to gauge, with my eyes, how much was left. There is no way I can adequately describe how utterly wonderful milk tasted, straight out of a bottle. What made it so? Milk is milk, whatever container it comes in. Still, the bottled milk definitely tasted different. A poem by Sasara Kura goes to the effect, 'Swigging milk, I infuse my body with new, pure white hours.' I fondly recall summer holidays in my childhood when, walking home from school after a club activity and gazing around through a transparent milk bottle, the pure white hours ahead of me felt like they would go on forever. --The Asahi Shimbun, April 6 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Japan Times
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Japanese writer Ayako Sono dies at 93
Renowned Japanese writer Ayako Sono, known for many best-selling novels and essays, died of natural causes at a Tokyo hospital on Friday. She was 93. A graduate of the University of the Sacred Heart, Sono married fellow author Shumon Miura in 1953 after they met through self-published literary magazine Shinshicho (New Trend of Thoughts). She was among the group of writers collectively called "the third generation," along with Shusaku Endo and Hiroyuki Agawa. Her novel "Enrai no Kyakutachi" ("Visitors from Afar") was shortlisted for Japan's prestigious Akutagawa literary award in 1954. Sono, a Tokyo native whose real name was Chizuko Miura, then wrote novels including "Tenjo no Ao" ("No Reason for Murder"). Also known for her self-help books, Sono penned best-sellers such as "Dare no Tame ni Aisuruka" ("For Whom Do You Love?"). Ayako Sono | jiji Other works of Sono include "Kami no Yogoreta Te" ("Tainted Hands of God"), a novel, and "Oi no Saikaku" ("Wisdom to Grow Old"), an essay. Sono, known as a conservative, also published several works including "Ikenie no Shima" ("Island of Sacrifice"), which depicts female student corps in the Battle of Okinawa in the final phase of World War II. She headed an organization now called the Japan Overseas Missionary Activity Sponsorship for 40 years from 1972. She received an honor from the Vatican in 1979. Sono also served as head of the Nippon Foundation for some 10 years from 1995. She hosted the late former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in her home when he fled to Japan from the South American country in 2000. In 2003, Sono was named a Person of Cultural Merit.
