Theatre
The Face of Jizo
父と暮せば
Hisashi Inoue · 1994
Synopsis
In Hiroshima, three years after the bomb according to Roger Pulvers, Mitsue, who works at the library, finds her father Takezō hidden in a cupboard one stormy evening: killed in the explosion, he has come back to push her to live and to marry. A shy young man, Kinoshita, is in love with her. Eaten up by guilt at having survived, and at having fled instead of helping her father according to the Asian Pacific Post, she believes herself unworthy of being happy, and the ghost encourages her to love life.
Context
The play was first staged in 1994, according to two press articles, one Canadian, the other Japanese, and was published the same year by Shinchōsha. Its title means roughly living with father. Shinchōsha, which regards it as a masterpiece of the author, reissued it in 2001 and as an audiobook in 2003. Roger Pulvers translated it into English under the title The Face of Jizo, and his version served for the subtitles of the film that Kuroki Kazuo made from it, released in 2004 according to the BnF catalogue.
Who it is for
A short play centred on a father and his daughter, in simple language. No French version; there is one in English.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for the screen in 2004, the play has been translated into English and performed outside Japan, as far as Canada.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.