{"product_id":"twelve-views-from-the-distance-1","title":"Twelve Views from the Distance","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom one of the foremost poets in contemporary Japan comes this entrancing memoir that traces a boy’s childhood and its intersection with the rise of the Japanese empire and World War II. Originally published in 1970, this translation is the first available in English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn twelve chapters that visit and revisit critical points in his boyhood, T\u003ci\u003ewelve Views from the Distance\u003c\/i\u003e presents a vanished time and place through the eyes of an accomplished poet. Recounting memories from his youth, Mutsuo Takahashi captures the full range of his internal life as a boy, shifting between his experiences and descriptions of childhood friendships, games, songs, and school. With great candor, he also discusses the budding awareness of his sexual preference for men, providing a rich exploration of one man’s early queer life in a place where modern, Western-influenced models of gay identity were still unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing up poor in rural southwestern Japan, far from the urban life that many of his contemporaries have written about, Takahashi experienced a reality rarely portrayed in literature. In addition to his personal remembrances, the book paints a vivid portrait of rural Japan, full of oral tradition, superstition, and remnants of customs that have quickly disappeared in postwar Japan. With profuse local color and detail, he re-creates the lost world that was the setting for his beginnings as a gay man and poet. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mutsuo Takahashi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53615086567804,"sku":"9780816679362","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9780816679362_9503ebab-aad9-46bb-8cec-7a63ee344ef8.jpg?v=1726474784","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/twelve-views-from-the-distance-1","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}