#sakutarou hagiwara

[yozora-bunko]

Bungō Seichi Junrei, Asagiri Kafka

On June 19, 2020 - Bungō Seichi Junrei (『文豪聖地巡礼』) was released.

• Bungō -> great writer

• Seichi Junrei -> pilgrimage

As you might know, in Bungō Stray Dogs the relationships between the characters are very different from the irl authors' relationships, while it stays accurate in Bungō to Alchemist.

I thought that it could be interesting to translate the correlation tables that were in Asagiri Kafka's book so here you go:

Chapter I « KŌRO JIDAI »’S GREAT WRITERS SEEN BY IZUMI KYŌKA

Chapter II NATSUME SŌSEKI AND THOSE GENES

Chapter III KAWABATA YASUNARI AND COMPANIONS OVERCOMING GENERATIONS

Chapter IV NAKAHARA CHŪYA AND « BURAI »’S GREAT WRITERS

Chapter V BIOGRAPHIES OF ECCENTRIC WRITERS

If you can read Japanese, please support Asagiri Kafka by buying his book! I might translate some more pages in the future but definitely not the whole book. Feel free to DM me or comment which chapter you would like to read, or about which author you would like to know more!

9/01/2023: updated the slide for chapter III -> @haganeproductio rightfully nitpicked about the "shinkan kakuha" which should be romanized shinkankakuha. (or shin kankaku-ha but this romanization is a lot less used)

[velvetbyrne]

Final book haul of the year, I am broke.

List (left to right):

Woodpecker Detective's Office by Ii Kei

Politicians of the Bakumatsu Era by Fukuchi Ōchi

Criticism of Theatre by Miki Takeji (Mori Ōgai's little brother)

Book of the Dead by Orikuchi Shinobu

Vita Sexualis by Mori Ōgai

Tsuboi Sakae's book of Fairy Tales by Tsuboi Sakae

Akai Tori Collection by Various Authors

A Day with Cats by Osaragi Jirō

Lemon by Kajii Motojirō

The Bird's Nest by Suzuki Miekichi

Higuchi Ichiyō Novel Collection by Higuchi Ichiyō

The Black Lizard by Hirotsu Ryūrō

Otōto by Kōda Aya

A Room of Sweet Honey by Mori Mari

The Golden Demon by Ozaki Kōyō

Saitō Mokichi's Poetry Collection by Saitō Mokichi

Takuboku's Poetry Collection by Ishikawa Takuboku

Wakayama Bokusui's Poetry Collection by Wakayama Bokusui

Kusano Shinpei's Poetry Collection by Kusano Shinpei

Miya Shūji's Poetry Collection by Miya Shūji

Hagiwara Sakutarō's Poetry Collection by Hagiwara Sakutarō

Tachihara Michizō's Poetry Collection by Tachihara Michizō

[the-babygirl-polls]

Hagiwara Sakutarou - Bungo to Alchemist

[paleunhappydog]

朔太郎オナニスト by 稲垣足穂

大和書房. (1974). 朔太郎オナニスト. In タルホフラグメント (First Edition, pp. 55–59).

In TnH Chapter 4, the conversation between Sai and Saku--the one about Sai having sex every night--caught my attention. I was dying to know what actually happened, so I went ahead and bought Inagaki Taruho's Taruho Fragment. So here is the short four-page chapter on Hagiwara Sakutaro and that particular incident according to Inagaki.

Oh dear, I was not ready for this.

Page 57 was omitted because it was an illustration page (some sort of abstract art of space.)

[creatorbiaze]

@hagiwara-sakutarou just realized your asks dont allow media sooo

badly edited cat ears for you :3

[bleachbleachbleach]

Helloooo love your meta posts esp wrt to language so much!! It really has elevated my appreciation for the series by A LOT lol so thank you!

I have a question regarding ch 98 that's been bugging me incessantly: in the official translatjon renji says "all i do is bark at the moon", however in fan translations (and anime) renji is seen to be referring to a star. I am unable to find the raws anywhere to ascertain the finality of this conundrum so I was wondering if you could clarify what exactly is the 'object' renji is referring to here and lend us your thoughts?

Thank you for reading! I started this reread because I knew that the potential to really revel in this kind of stuff was already there, but I am really enjoying jumping into it full-on and wondering about and learning about a lot of extremely random things as I go. I'm really enjoying it!

[Bleach 098]

The Short Version

In the Japanese, Renji says, 星に向かって吠えるばっか ― which could be translated as "I’m just barking at the stars." 

The word he uses is 星 (hoshi), star, not moon. My guess is that the Viz chose "moon" because it’s more idiomatic in English to howl at the moon, and the phrase conveys that sense of lone wolf yearning/misdirection--particularly given that he’s talking about Rukia, and Rukia already has some moon imagery associated with her.

The catch is, the concept of "howling at the moon" also exists in Japanese; for example, there’s a famous modern poet named Hagiwara Sakutarou who wrote a collection titled 月に吠える、or, well, "Howling at the Moon." (You’ll notice the same verb, but 月 (tsuki/moon) instead of 星 (hoshi/star). But that's not what Renji says. I’d argue that it’s worth considering the idea that Renji was making a choice in not using that idiom! 

The Very Long Version

Stars and Moons and Monkeys and Tigers and Snakes and Dogs and-- oh my!

Tomes have been written about celestial symbolism, in Bleach and otherwise. I’m not a big celestial symbolism person, because they’re such BIG symbols I feel like sometimes they can feel very locked in, if that makes sense? Like X = moon and moon = Y and therefore X = Y. And while I love an extended metaphor, my preference is for very unstable, borderline sloppy referents. Which isn’t to say that celestial symbolism can’t be unstable and sloppy, too, and that’s what I really like about this whole Renji section. Renji is the KING of "imagistically, there is a lot going on here, my man."

As far as folklore is concerned, reaching for the moon might call to mind the story of the monkey reaching for the moon’s reflection:

The branch the monkey’s hanging from breaks and he falls into the water. His folly lies in failing to distinguish between what is real and what is illusion.

One one hand, this is fitting for Renji, our resident howler monkey. I don’t know how much baboon we’ve actually seen at this point, but we’ll see Zabimaru’s nue form very shortly. But of course Zabimaru isn’t just a monkey—he also has the head of a snake. And we have this dog imagery, coming from both Renji’s affiliation with Inuzuri and other body parts in some versions of the nue. And later we’ll have TIGER in the mix, too!!

There’s SO much going on. If Renji were a Project Runway creation, Tim Gunn would probably invite his creator edit—maybe choose one motif, one metaphor, one guy who will scan well on the runway.

But Renji exists in excess, he IS all those things, both in terms of his chimerical zanpakutou spirit and in terms of everything we’ve seen of him thus far: tearing through Ishida and Ichigo; herding butterflies with Rikichi; stunting with Rukia in jail; delivering Rukia to prison; getting stunted on by Aizen in a supply closet; being friends with Hinamori; tearing through Ichigo a second time; and now, finally, giving it all up and begging Ichigo: Just save her.

Bone Metaphors

The reader hasn’t seen it yet, but Renji knows what form Zabimaru’s bankai takes. In addition to all those animals and their potential allegories, we also have bone. In Renji's earlier line, there’s an idiom that I wish were preserved:

In the Viz, he says, "I’ll always be a stray dog." In the Japanese, his line is 「骨の髄まで野良犬根性が染み付いてやがるんだ.」Which could be translated as "I am, indelibly, a stray dog to the marrow of my bones /contemptuously." Or, more succinctly:

"I’m a stray dog to the bone."

I love this line because it’s reaching toward Renji’s challenge to Byakuya, insinuating still more layers to Renji’s multitudes.

Different Flavors of Disgust

Still thinking about Renji’s second act in this arc, I am also interested in his subsequent line. He says 厭になるぜ (iya ni naruze), or, in the Viz, "It makes me sick." But I was curious about the kanji 厭 (iya), because it’s more commonly written 嫌 (iya), which can be used as a negative interjection, or, pronounced differently, as the same word you’d use if you hated snails, or homework, or something―嫌い (kirai). Using the kanji 厭 is a less common spelling, though the meaning is similar. So I was like, well, what is the difference? According to this article, the kanji Renji uses is a lot more common in Chinese. If 嫌 is an expression of digust or hatred, 厭 suggests that you’ve specifically gotten tired of something (and are now disgusted with it). It’s the kanji you’d use to create the word for a pessimistic worldview, 厭世観 (enseikan). That is all to say, Renji has become sick and tired of it, and he’s about to change tack.

Failing Poetry 101

Coming back around to the original line, I really like Renji’s "I’m just barking at the stars" specifically because it doesn’t really reference any existing idiom, as might howling at the moon. "Barking at the moon" is an interesting middle ground, in that "barking" definitely feels more dog-like and howling more wolf-like; barking is less majestic, which fits with Renji’s description being derogatory of himself. Renji is not a poet in his use of loaded idioms but in his negation of them. And if Rukia can be described by moon imagery, she too contains multitudes and I think it's well within her power to be the stars, too.

Kira, as Renji’s most poetic friend, probably rolls partway into his grave whenever Renji says stuff like this, because it breaks poetic form. But I think he’s probably also kind of envious that Renji thinks this stuff up, because it’s fresh, new, off-kilter imagery, it is its own kind of poetry, and let's be real, the moon imagery market is fairly saturated. *frames moon with giant rebar hole in body*

So I’d say, "howling at the moon" conjures a certain kind of poetry, steeped in all the macro-folkloric meanings of the moon and dogs/wolves. "Barking at the moon" is kind of half-half. "Barking at the stars" is not a pre-existing idiom (or poem, or expected language), and conjures a completely different referent(s), the immediate of which is, of course, the volume’s own poem. Renji is out here Renji-ing it.

[Bleach Vol. 11 poem]

[windyskiez]

Current BunAl rp blogs

Chuuya @/poems-and-wine

Akutagawa @/dual-dragons (old one was @/akutagawa-ryunosuke-i-guess but they deactivated)

Dazai @/memories-of-a-shadow (old one was @/alchemist-dazai-osamu but that acc isn't being used anymore.)

Hagiwara @/hagi-sakutarou (Inactive. Mod lost the acc.)

Tolstoy @/philanthropist-tolstoy (Somewhat inactive)

Dostoevsky @/thegamblingauthor (also inactive but they will probably answer)

Atsushi @/light-wind-dreams

Kyouka @/kyoukathecleanser

Kan @/bet-on-a-match

Ango @/great-delinquent

Oda @/curry-lover

Neko (Acting Director) @/acting-director-neko

Ig that's it.

@im-a-chunky-potato @currentlyeatingrocks @s0lace-1n-s0l1tude @cherubsaliaa @lukisoda

Aight for BunAl fans if you want to join the rp community, feel free to do so!

But here's one thing: Please do not tag your rp posts using the Bungo to Alchemist tag, bunAl tag or the author's full name to avoid spamming. (Except maybe the intro post minus the full name thing.)

Crossovers with other fandoms are alright though, in fact it helps the community by getting people to know facts about the author as well as getting people to join the fandom!

[poems-and-wine]

HII HIII OOC ASK BUT I LOVE BTA. BTA FAN. OIUHH MY GOODNESS

(ooc: HI TO WHOEVER THIS IS! Psst I'm the most active one here, well the second most being @alchemist-dazai-osamu and as for @hagiwara-sakutarou um......idk the mod is active on other blogs?)

[starswallowingsea]

OK SO. THE RI4 REFERENCES.

• The color of tainted sorrow — Upon The Tainted Sorrow, Chuuya Nakahara

• I shall be a cat — I Am a Cat, Natsume Souseki

• At night on the galactic railroad — Night on the Galactic Railroad, Miyazawa Kenji

• Petit prince — Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

• Magi's gift — The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry

• Pining for the moon — Tsuki ni Hoeru, Hagiwara Sakutarou

• Certified human!!!! — No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai

• Sleeping beauty — The fairytale

• Ten nights' dreams! — Ten Nights of Dreams, Natsume Souseki

• Happy Prince — The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde

• Journey to the west — same name, Wu Cheng'en

• The IF dancer — The Izu Dancer, Kawabata Yasunori

• The catcher in the rhyme — The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger

• Sen-Li Ichi-Li Monogatari — Arabian Nights

• Summer Break — The Summer Vacation, Nakamura Kou (who's also behind their songs btw!)

• Welcome to the Circus — Same name, Smily mom (it's a japanese picture book, so yeah)

• Maihime — The Dancing Girl, Mori Ougai

• Snow black — Snow White

• Spring and chocolat — Spring and Asura, Miyazawa Kenji

• Barkley and the chocolate factory — Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

• Adventure king is kind of a mystery and I have never found anyone who gets into an agreement of the origin, it can either come from a manga or from a magazine publisher

• I'm also not sure on White Margaret

sorry for the long list. anyways the tldr is they're silly and also who's letting these girls read fucking osamu dazai in their catholic school

Girls when they ask their book club for song ideas i guess.

[fuckyeahanimebirthdays]

Sakutarou Hagiwara (Bungou to Alchemist: Shinpan no Haguruma)  » November 1

[ydotome]

Chibi cute Sakutarou Hagiwara

[bianca-dark-wolf]

[poems-and-wine]

Cool.....

But it seems a bit depressing, like one of @hagiwara-sakutarou's poems.

' Havoc and discord are all you care for,

Shattering worlds and bringing war.

Not quite who you pretend to be,

Careless and lacking empathy.

Eventually your strength will be your fall,

the day you end will be a celebration for all... '

.. Hm. I could do better, honestly.

[bungaku-tenshi]

I absolutely adore these three fuckin dorks  look at em theyre so cute  god an egotistical sensei, an occult master and a chair-swinging disaster gotta love em

[honorableintentions]