Cross-cultural communication （168）　

168) Babagaya’s Night
Following the news of “Butter” winning three British literary awards in this blog's 167th entry, now another Japanese female author, OHTANI Akira, has won the “British Crime Writers' Association Award; Dagger Award” for “Baba yaga's Night”. The protagonist of this novel is SHINDO Yoko, who was taught every martial art imaginable by her grandfather since childhood and finds winning fights using these skills the greatest joy. By chance, Yoko becomes the bodyguard for the daughter of a yakuza boss who dotes on her. The story then twists and turns, making it a truly thrilling novel.

I, a self-proclaimed “cross-cultural researcher,” examined why this novel became the first Japanese work to win the Dagger Award (the dagger symbolizing assassination).
First, the source of Yoko's strength-being drilled by her grandfather, who mastered all martial arts from judo to karate-is a classic narrative structure found in Japanese novels, dramas, and sports manga. In my reading experience, I've never encountered a Western novel equivalent to Japanese sports-spirit stories. Next, there's the violence of Japanese yakuza and their seemingly contradictory, peculiar obsession with appearances and face (men-tsu,面子)-qualities often baffling to Westerners. I believe the portrayal of this aspect particularly stirred British exoticism. Sam Bett's skillful translation of this work undoubtedly played a significant role as well.

I apologize if this dampens the celebration somewhat, but regarding strong women in the yakuza or old-school chivalrous underworld, there's the character Hibotan Oryu, portrayed in her youth by FUJI Junko. Thus, strong women involved with the yakuza are not an uncommon subject in Japanese fiction. Moreover, in contemporary fiction, there's the series of works by OHSAWA Arimasa, where violent scenes and narrative depth are masterfully intertwined. For example, “The Heiress Tomoko,” reissued in paperback in 2025 after 30 years, tells the story of Tomoko, a stateless woman and former CIA agent, who finds her life threatened by her old agency for certain reasons-a story, again, packed with violent scenes. This proves that this kind of novel is well-received in the English-speaking world. Sam Bett must be reading tons of Japanese novels, so perhaps we'll soon see more translations of Japanese hardboiled novels, on par with the Dagger Award-winning ones, gaining traction in English-speaking countries.

| BACK |