My favorite writer and activist is Yamashiro Tomoe who passed away in 2004. I discovered her when Hiroo recommended I read a novel by her entitled Okanesan. It is about a young woman who leaves her own village to go to another farming village as a second wife to a widowed man with a small daughter. She arrives to find the house in disarray, an idle husband and mean neighbors who do small unkind things to her for no reason.
In depicting life for women in rural areas of mid-twentieth century Japan, Yamashiro raised questions about the status of all women but especially in rural and agricultural areas.
I later discovered that she had been in a women’s prison for her political beliefs from 1940-1944. I am now reading the 10 volume biographical novel she wrote about those years and the women she encountered.（ 囚われの女たち）
Yesterday we went to Fukuyama City to hear a lecture on Yamashiro by Chiara Comastri, a scholar from Oxford University. I was amazed by her command of Japanese which put mine to shame!
She focused on Yamashiro’s postwar activities with women in the farming communities. The stories these women told her of the suffering and difficulties they had undergone became part of Tomoe’s fiction. But her main purpose was to raise the awareness of the women and have a positive impact on their lives.
We first visited the Center for Human Rights and Peace which is located next to the Literary Hall. We saw an exhibition of drawings and paintings done by a man from the Fuchu area of Fukuyama while he was in a Siberian labor camp. His name is Shikoku Goro, (四國五郎）
The staff member on duty, Haruko Ichikawa, gave us a lot of information. We were happy to meet her and she mentioned that she’ll have an exhibition of her paintings next month. She is a very accomplished artist!
We attended the lecture and met the wife of Yamashiro’s biographer Makihara Norio. (牧原憲夫) I hope to keep on reading Tomoe’s work. I learn so much from it. It may take me years to get through this 10 volume set, not to mention her other books!
We stayed over night at the Vessel Inn near Fukuyama Castle. The train station is literally a stone’s throw away and we ate dinner there at a great restaurant called Hitsuya because they serve all the rice dishes in wooden o-hitsu.
We also visited the History Museum next to the Castle. There is a very good recreation of a early Edo village、Kusado Sengen-cho, ( 草戸千軒町) that was excavated in the middle of the river nearby. It was destroyed by a flood in 1647 and only uncovered in 1930. Referred to as the Asian Pompeii, excavation began in 1961.
There are many interesting things to see in Fukuyama. The Literary Hall (福山文学館) includes a fine exhibition on Ibuse Masuji(pictured above). He is known for his book about the Atomic bomb in Hiroshima, “Black Rain”.「黒い雨」 The museum is very well organized and I recommend you visit there。
Baba's Kitchen 