Japanese professor loves Faulkner's fiction

Japanese professor Takaki Hiraishi can't comprehend some American conversation. But he has no trouble identifying with American author William Faulkner's rich tapestry of characters in the one-time segregated South.

Faulkner's writings are popular in Japan even though the Oxford, Miss., author died in 1962.

Hiraishi has spent this month researching Faulkner manuscripts in the Center for Faulkner Studies collection at Southeast Missouri State University. Late this week, he traveled to Oxford to get a first-hand look at Faulkner's hometown.

The author's depiction of Southern family life -- with its extended relatives, reverence for community and appreciation of nature -- resonates with Japanese readers.

"The social structure and lifestyle of Japan is close to the South," said the University of Tokyo literature professor who is a member of the Faulkner Society of Japan.

"Faulkner's people are settled. They stick to the land," Hiraishi said of the Mississippi landscape that populates imaginary Yoknapatawpha County and his colorful, fated characters.

Hiraishi has published two books on Faulkner, as well as studies of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and other American writers.

Faulkner and his fiction may seem like ancient history to many Americans. But Hiraishi said the South of the 1940s and 1950s doesn't seem so ancient to the Japanese.

"Passage of time is no problem in Japan," he said, adding that the Asian nation's literary history dates back a thousand years.

Faulkner visited Japan in 1955. The Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author identified with Japan, Hiraishi said. Faulkner had commented that like the South, Japan lost a war.

Dr. Robert Hamblin, director of the Faulkner center at Southeast and a tireless fan of the Mississippi author, said the writer liked Japanese society.

"Faulkner was something of an aristocrat. He admired Japanese tradition and their politeness," Hamblin said.

Getting through his novels, however, takes a strong commitment not found with the casual reader. "He is a tough read," Hamblin said.

Faulkner tackled racism in his writings. Hamblin said Faulkner would have been pleased by the progress that's been made in civil rights over the past four decades.

"We're not black or white. We're mulatto," Hamblin said.

Faulkner's vision of a racial melting pot is relevant today, he said. "Faulkner got there before the rest of us."

Faulkner also displayed a Southerner's dislike of the federal government. In Faulkner's day, Democrats controlled the political offices in the South.

Today, the South has become heavily Republican in presidential races. "I suspect he would be a Republican," said Hamblin.

As for Hiraishi, he's found time in his visit to Cape Girardeau for more than Faulkner research.

His first few days in Cape Girardeau were spent catching up on his driving skills. He drove a rented car around the city over the Labor Day weekend.

"I had to practice driving a car," said Hiraishi who travels by commuter train in Tokyo.

He also attended the St. Louis Rams football game against Arizona as a guest of BioKyowa president Kohta Fujiwara. It was a new experience for the Japanese professor.

"It was very exciting with the audience yelling and booing," he said. Japanese crowds would never have been so outspoken even at a sporting event, Hiraishi said.

BioKyowa, the Japanese company which manufactures livestock feed supplements at its Cape Girardeau plant, sponsored Hiraishi's visit.

The company has been sponsoring such scholarly visits to the Faulkner Center for the past six years.

Hamblin said the Faulkner center, housed in an upstairs corner office at Kent Library, has reached out to international scholars largely through the Internet, which makes it easy to receive and respond to research requests.

"Most of what we do here is sort of invisible," he said.

But what's not invisible is the Mississippi River. Hiraishi found time to view the majestic waterway during his visit to Cape Girardeau.

He said he'd seen the river before, on a previous trip to Hannibal, Mo., to research Mark Twain.

"The sight of the river makes me always sentimental," he said.

It's a sentiment that Faulkner, no doubt, would understand.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123