Review of Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa

*Takaoka’s Travels* bt Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, translated by David Boyd (2024). Published by MONKEY.

If you’re new here and found this blog through the mysterious powers of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I’m a dedicated reader and movie watcher who thought to turn this website into a little digital archive of sorts.

I was watching and reading so much that I wanted to keep track of it all, so I began blogging as a way to keep these books as memories somewhat forever.

That said, I recently fell into a period of unemployment, and this blog was a solace for me. Not only was it a way to make a little bit of money when there was nothing else coming my way really, but I found, after getting my finances in order, that I enjoyed sitting down to write blog posts when I had nothing else to do in my day.

I’ve been dubbing this period as funemployment while I look for a job, but the job market isn’t looking too great right now. Regardless, I spend a lot of time in my local library, and because I am such a big fan of simple living, I enjoy the little moments where I can find a book for free here or there, while also supporting such a critical aspect of my community.

On this particular day, I was in the new fiction section looking for something new to read. Whenever I go to the library the new fiction section is where I end up going first, as it’s right in the front, and a good bulk of my books come from my section because of this.

It was in this section that I found a copy of Takoka’s Travels. I recognized it as a potentially Japanese novel in translation immediately because of the author’s name, and when I saw the translated by David Boyd on the cover, I knew it was from Japan. The synopsis was interesting, and Asian literature is my specialty, so I grabbed it.

This is a short novel, so I got through it in about hour and a half. It’s fairly digestible considering its historical background, which was pleasant to see.

Alright, I’m rambling in the introduction. Let’s get into the review before I get too deep into the context.

A Japanese prince, now a monk, travels the land in search of inner peace.

The main character in this novel is Takaoka, who is a Japanese prince that has decided to become a monk. He is in search of spiritual enlightenment, and when he makes the decision to go on a pilgrimage to India, the events of this novel begin.

With his entourage, he begins the journey to India, which, in the 800s, is quite the long journey from Japan. He might never actually make it there, as the rumors say he didn’t, but the novel tries to find a lot of humor as he ventures into completely new territory.

However, as they enter these strange and new lands to them, the rules of reality start bending. This becomes more of a fantasy novel as he exits Japan, as there are literally beasts who come to eat your dreams while you’re sleeping, as well as women that are part-bird. This is only a small sample of what we see, but my personal favorite of the monks who may or may not be alive and are covered in honey.

As you can tell from that paragraph alone, this is a novel that goes deep into the fantasy elements, which is an interesting contrast considering this is a novel that begins with spirituality. One can argue there is such a spiritual element to all of this, and I don’t disagree.

It’s quite the journey to the end, and I was surprised at how short the novel was because of this. Adventure stories tend to go on for a lot longer than this, so the fact it ended when it did as something that left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I wanted more, but I could see why the decision was made to end it where it is at.

This is also pretty self-aware considering the time period it is set in. The way I interpreted the novel is that it shows how an element of spirituality is coming to confront everything you think the world is and then having it radically challenged. That can shape who you are as a human being, while also making you so much more compassionate.

Overall Thoughts

While this wasn’t the book for me in the end, I have to seriously commend the translator. I have to imagine this took a while to translate because of the complexity of the novel’s fantasy world. As someone who dabbles in literary translation here and there for Bengali and Korean work, I find that seamless language like this is difficult to translate the most.

Although I said this wasn’t for me, I could see someone else loving this. It simply wasn’t in a genre that I usually care for, and I’m a reader who knows what I like, although I’m flexible with what I read. It doesn’t mean a book is bad—I think this is a decent novel, but it’s not within my taste.

If you think it is within yours, I recommend giving it a chance if you haven’t already. It’s a fun one, there’s humor tucked away within these pages, and it’s quite the adventure.

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