In the 60s and 70s, the Soviet reader suddenly fell in love with Japanese literature - books by Yasunari Kawabata, Kobo Abe, Kenzoburo Oe were published regularly, although it was very difficult to get them. Then there was a slight decline in the translation of Japanese literature into Russian (although it was during this period that we mastered the work of Yukio Mishima), but in the last two years there has been a new wave of interest - first of all, of course, thanks to the fashion writer Haruki Murakami, whose novel "Hunting Sheep" translated by Dmitry Kovalenin has already passed two editions. In October, the Russian State University for the Humanities hosted a "round table" devoted to the comparison of Russian and Japanese cultures in their history and current state; naturally, the topic of entering the Western culture of two initially non-Japanese countries was also discussed. One of the leaders of the round table was a prominent Japanese Slavist, Professor Mitsuyoshi Numano of the University of Tokyo, who made a report on the images of Russians in current Japanese prose. By the way, Mr. Numano's article on contemporary Russian literature will be published in one of the next issues of EL-NG.

- You are in a unique position: both a philologist-Slavist who writes about Russian literature, and an active literary critic in Japan. If you look from Japan, what is the current Russian literature like?

- Recently, I have been interested in the most modern processes - both in poetry and in prose. You are currently going through a very interesting literary period in Russia. At first it was called postmodernism, but some people now say that postmodernism is already over and post-postmodernism or something like that is beginning. But such concepts are generally too capacious. People just don't know where Russian literature is headed right now. And this is typical not only for Russia, but also for the whole fate of the literature of one particular country. Now it is impossible to consider the literature of one country as self-sufficient - rather, it is already part of the world process, and one of its subjects is this: literature changes its status in society. In Japan, we are also experiencing changes in literature. For example, now the traditional line between mass and serious fiction is being blurred, and new stars are emerging that connect the features of" high " and mass culture. Such intermediate figures include Haruki Murakami and the poet Tawara Machi. It seems that something similar is also happening in Russia, albeit more slowly. More specifically? I've been following what's happening in Russian literature for twenty years. At first, I studied for four years in America, in graduate school at Harvard, and communicated with Russian emigrants. Have you seen Brodsky, Aksenov, Korzhavin? It was very interesting for me, but at that time we were convinced that these people and their books would never be able to return to their homeland. But suddenly everything changed. Did everything change so quickly during perestroika? I followed the logs closely at the time. And now the picture of Russian literature has become uncertain. But still, I think there is a process going on that the Russians have never experienced before. And so, I hope that young talents will emerge from this soil, or are already emerging, who will redo the entire literary picture in this country. There are already some symptoms of this change. For example, I recently saw Viktor Yerofeyev, who compiled an anthology of young writers - some of them I have already read, but many of the names are still unfamiliar to me.

- Then let's talk about specific authors.

- I was very fond of Dovlatov. I translated his book "Nashi" into Japanese. Now one of my students in Japan is translating his book "Suitcase". I have long been interested in Brodsky's work. Of the living-Tatiana Tolstoy. My wife and I translated her first collection of short stories, Sat on the Golden Porch? But all this is already a modern classic. On the other hand, I am interested in such well-known figures of avant-garde literature as Dmitry Prigov and Gennady Aigi. I was lucky enough to invite these people to Japan - last year Prigov and I organized a conference on Russian conceptualism in Tokyo, and the artist Ilya Kabakov also took part in it. When we had Aigi the year before last, he was in Japan at the same time as the composer Sofia Gubaidulina, they have been friends for many years: Gubaidulina has music for Aigi's poems, Aigi has a poem dedicated to Gubaidulina? I was pleased that they met in Tokyo.

Pay attention to this. Aigi is Chuvash, Gubaidulina is Tatar. Now you still have a popular singer Zemfira, she is from Bashkiria. This is a great advantage of modern Russian culture - its multiethnic nature.

- Now many cities of the world, such as Berlin or Paris, are becoming very multinational. Is Tokyo becoming such a city?

- Yes, it is also gradually getting better, but still not to the same extent as New York or even Moscow. Japan is still quite a closed country. There are barriers - both linguistic and psychological. Although there are more and more immigrants from East and Southeast Asia in Japan - the Philippines, Thailand? this is not so much the intelligentsia as people who just come to work - so, there are conflicts between them and the native Japanese. Of course, traditions, language, and culture differ. Moreover, it is not so easy to learn Japanese writing. But in general, such problems, in my opinion, are typical not only for Japan.

- What names and trends in recent Japanese literature do you think are most significant after Murakami?

- In short, I will say this: Grigory Chkhartishvili and I are currently working on a translated anthology of the latest Japanese prose. I am responsible for selecting writers and texts. It will be published in two volumes, including texts by 24 more or less young authors, most of whom have never been translated into Russian. The first volume is called "He" with 12 male authors, and the second volume is called " She " with 12 female authors. Its publication is scheduled for spring 2001 in the publishing house of the magazine "Foreign Literature". Japanese literature, of course, is a big canvas, and you can't show everything in one anthology, but at least a partial idea of it can be made.

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