その本は (Sonohonwa) by ヨシタケシンスケ (Shinsuke Yoshitaka) and 又吉直樹 (Naoki Matayoshi) (ポプラ社）

Sonohonwa is a delightful and magical fairytale that would appear to book lovers all over the world. Unfortunately, it is only available in Japanese. The title translates into English as About that Book… It was written by popular children’s book writer and illustrator Shunsuke Yoshitake and Akutagawa prize recipient and one half of the comedy duo Peace, Naoki Matayoshi. 

It is the story of a kingdom whose elderly king loves to read books. However, in his old age, his vision is no longer what it used to be and he is nearly blind. The king summoned two of his subjects to the castle and said to them, “I love books. I’ve read many books in my lifetime. I’ve read almost every book there is to read. But now my eyesight is bad and I can no longer read books. Still, I love books. So I want to listen to more books. Therefore, I command you to go out into the world, find and talk to people about the world’s most fascinating books. Then, come back and tell me about all those books.”

So the men were given money and provisions and set out on their journey. They wander the world collecting stories of the most fascinating books. The men would return to the castle a year later. The king could no longer get out of bed but he could hear well, so the two men would take turns each night, telling the king about the books they heard about. 

On the first night, one of the men tells the king about the fastest book in the world. It’s so fast that nobody could catch up and read it. The people got a cheetah to run after just to read the cover. But the people were wondering how to get the cheetah to tell them what the book title was. Fortunately, that particular book had a twin. The shape and the contents were nearly the same. The book was being chased by the police and was finally arrested at the house of Volume 8. They had known that the book only had seven volumes.

But what was the name of the book? The storyteller gave the king a hint. He said the book stretches from north to south, many people live in it, and it’s located in the middle of an ocean. He also told the king, you can see cherry blossoms in the spring, a Star Festival is celebrated in the summer, the leaves change colors in the autumn, and in the winter, people sit under a kotatsu while eating oranges. In the end, the storyteller told the king, “about that book”, it is Ni-Hon (hon being the Japanese word for book). Nihon → Nippon → Japan!

The other storyteller told the king about a book related to music. This story also uses a play on words. He tells the king sonohonwa (so no hon wa), which translates to, “The so book” can be found between the fa book and la books, which of course are part of the Do-Re-Mi solfege.

After the two men took turns telling the king all the stories, the king assembled them into one book. He told the two men, “Yahari hon wa omoshiroi!” which roughly translates to, “It’s just as I thought, books are interesting.” The following day, the king passed away with a satisfied look on his face. 

However, six months after their stories were assembled and published into one book, a surprising fact came to light. The two men never left their homes. They used the money the king gave them for their own living expenses and made up all the stories they told the king. They were taken to court and found guilty of two charges - not using the king’s money properly and lying to the king. The judge asks the two men if they had any final words they wanted to say. The two thought about it and at the same time said, “About that book…”

You would be hard put to enjoy the story unless you have a firm grasp of the Japanese language. Many of the stories use puns and wordplay which would get lost in translation.  It reminded me of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. In a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, Khan asks Polo to tell him about one city he has never mentioned directly - his hometown. Polo responds by saying, “Everytime I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.” 

Of course Polo did travel all over the world so Khan would find it difficult to doubt Polo’s experience. In the same way, the King believed that the two men traveled the world and collected all those stories. The King died a happy man which just goes to show you how strong the power of words are. ~Ernie Hoyt