Temple of Wild Geese and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen

By Tsutomu Minakami,

Book cover of Temple of Wild Geese and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen

Book description

The Temple of the Wild Geese, a semi-autobiographical account of Mizukami's childhood, tells the tale of Jinen, a Buddhist monk raised by villagers after his mother, a beggar, abandoned him. Sent to live at a temple at the age of ten, his resentment smolders for years until it explodes in…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Temple of Wild Geese and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Perhaps it's because I’ve lived in Fukui and have been to Echizen where the famous bamboo dolls are made that I found this novel so compelling. The novel’s uniqueness comes partly from its focus on a character who makes traditional bamboo dolls produced close to where I now live in Kanazawa, an hour north of Echizen, and part from the style of storytelling, which might be described as sparse but richly imagistic, and evocative of an all-but-lost past. The novel can easily be viewed as a modern folk tale, and moments unfold in the rural setting of 1920s Fukui that…

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