Kirino Natsuo and the Hardboiled Method：The Quotation and Transformation of Modern Japanese Literature in <i>Gyokuran</i>

SAKAMOTO, Saori

doi:2025.20.1.149

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 20(1); 2025 > Article

Article

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2025;20(1): 149-171.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2025.20.1.149

Kirino Natsuo and the Hardboiled Method：The Quotation and Transformation of Modern Japanese Literature in Gyokuran

Saori SAKAMOTO

Associate Professor of Fu-Jen Catholic University

桐野夏生とハードボイルドという方法 ―― 『玉蘭』における｢日本近代文学｣引用とその｢変容｣

坂元さおり

輔仁大学副教授

Correspondence Saori SAKAMOTO ,Email: 049296@mail.fju.edu.tw

Published online: 30 June 2025.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Kirino Natsuo (1951-) is a prominent Japanese novelist whose work blends hardboiled mystery techniques and references to modern Japanese literature, on this basis exploring memories of war and colonization. My previous paper (2024) focused on Kirino’s “The Sleep of Water, the Dream of Ash” (1995), and examined how that novel incorporates Kawabata Yasunari’s concept of the “magical realm” and 1960s Japanese hardboiled mystery elements in order to highlight Japan’s historical trauma. This paper extends that analysis to Gyokuran(2001), and investigates Kirino’s quotation practices. The novel explicitly references Yokomitsu Riichi’s Shanghai (1932) and Tokutomi Roka’s The Cuckoo (1902), while implicitly drawing from hardboiled writers like Tani Jouji and Ikushima Jiro. It also quotes her great-uncle Hagyu Tadashi’s Trouble (1930), thereby including her own family history. I argue that Kirino deconstructivity quotes these texts in order to create her unique perspective on hardboiled literature.

Keywords: Kirino Natsuo, Hard-boiled Detective Fiction, Modern Japanese Literature, Citations, Gyokuran

キ―ワ―ド: 桐野夏生, ハードボイルド･ミステリー, 日本近代文学, 引用, 『玉蘭』