Days at the Morisaki Bookshop ~ Sathoshi Yagisawa

Thanks to Bindu Manoj's post in FB, could not resist buying Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Sathoshi Yagisawa. Satoshi Yagisawa won the Chiyoda Literature prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards, named after the the district, that is home to Tokyo's beloved Jimbocho neighborhood of bookshops for 'Days at the Morisaki Bookshop' debut novel of his. "A tale of families, love, new beginnings, and the comfort that can be found in books."; in two parts is what this optimistic and charming novel all about. Yagisawa's debut novel evokes nostalgia by placing the fictional Morisaki Bookshop in Tokyo's real-life book town “Jimbocho”. It is named after the samurai Jimbo Nagaharu who resided there in the 17th century. In the wake of the Meiji restoration of 1868, many universities opened in the vicinity of Jimbocho. This led to the proliferation of shops selling academic texts. Later with the mass production of “one yen books” that aimed at making books available to the Japanese public, several second-hand bookstores mushroomed in the area.

As the inside front cover say, Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a book-lover's paradise with coffee shops. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty five year old Takako has never liked reading, althought the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier. 

Takako had moved to Tokyo after graduating from a local college in the south, she hardly knew anyone other than some of the people she worked with, there was no one close enough in the city that she could talk to. has been going out with her colleague and boyfriend, Hideaki for more than a year. One day, he blurts out, “I’m getting married.” Not “let’s get married,” or “I want to get married.” To add to her misery, it is another colleague of theirs he is planning to get married to. He had been two-timing her all along. Unable to face anyone, she quits her job and shuts herself out to the world, literally. She spends the next month, sleeping in her rented room, untill her Uncle invites her to come and live with him in Jimbocho, upstairs in the spare room at Morisaki bookshop, where she move eventually to continue sleeping. She hadn’t met her uncle in ten years, she knew her mother would have asked him to check on her. She had two options, either to go back to her mother or her uncle. She choose the latter fearing that she would have to settle for an arranged marriage if she went back to her mother. 

The musty smell of old books hit her as she walks into the shop with Satoru. The rooms are filled with old books from roof to floor. She settles in slowly, and her uncle puts her in charge of the shop in the mornings. One night out to a coffee shop, her sleep is disrupted and she gets hold of 'Until the Death of the Girl, the book by Saisei Muro that sparks Takako's passion for reading. She befriends, the coffee shop girl Tomo, for whom the book Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai had played the magic. Then on there was no looking back. 

“And for all I read, I found book after book that I still wanted to read.”

Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.  As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. 

Satoru, had unexpectedly taken over the store from his father, when one day, in the midst of his drifting and travels, his father dropped dead. It was'nt something what he had dreamt of doing when young, now he go back and forth all the time on his decision, trying to figure out what he was trying to search for. He says:

"It's important to stand still sometimes. Think of it as a little rest in the long journey of your life. This is your harbor. And your boat is just dropping anchor here for a little while. And after you're well rested, you can set sail again."; 

having said that he complained when Takako was sleeping all the while. To that 

"He laughed. "Human beings are full of contradictions"."

To the question from Takako, If travelling around and reading has helped him learn a lot, he says:

"It's funny, No matter where you go, or how many books you read,you still know nothing, you haven't seen anything. And that's life. We live our lives trying to find our way. It's like that Santoka Taneda poem, the one that goes, 'On and on, in and in, and still the blue-green mountains."

For uncle his niece was 'epiphany', that she did not know. The moment of great realisation or revelation, to get moving, look around, learn. Leading him to visit places and read books. 

“I flew all over the world only to end up back at the place I’d known every bit of since I was a child. Hilarious, isn’t it? After all that time, I came back here. That’s when I realized it wasn’t just a question of where I was. It was about something inside me. No matter where I went, no matter who I was with, if I could be honest with myself, then that was where I belonged. By the time I realized that, half my life was over. So I went back to my favorite harbor, and decided to drop anchor. For me, this is a sacred place. It's where I feel most at ease.”

Like Sabu said, he was the shops Savior. He did that because it had his memories. 

Niece started seeing uncles worries and pains. 

'My boat travels lightly, drifting aimlessly at the mercy of the current.' ~ Naoe Kinoshita in Confessions of a Husband. 

When niece decided to move out, the parting advice was:

"Don't be afraid to love someone. When you fall in love, I want you to fall in love all the way. Even if it ends in heartache, please don't live a lonely life without love. .....Love is wonderful....Those memories of people you love, they never disappear. They go on warming you heart as long as you live. "

Bowing deeply - the culture that Japan still hold on to, is mentioned through out. 

Takako moved out of Morisaki Bookshop after recharging her batteries. She was like a butterfly waiting patiently to come out of its chrysalis. 

Part 2 is about aunt Momoko's return. 

The second part of the book deals with Momoko’s reappearance after five years. This subplot details the tenderness and fragility of human relationships. Takako’s maturity and sensitivity help the couple reunite. The novel manoeuvres through the unhappiness of life and the reader connects with universal human experiences in this immensely readable book. 

Takako meets Akira Wada. Who tells her "I don't think it really matters whether you know a lot about books or not. ......What matters far more with a book is how it affects you. "

Indeed, 'The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach',  all of us, 'about life, love, and the healing power of books.' Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is a bibliophile’s delight and reaffirms the reader’s faith in the life-changing power of books.