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220913: this is not a novel. this is not an essay. this is somewhere in between, and possibly requires certain knowledge of history and society and aesthetics, all from 1906 japan, depending on what your ideas are, about art, about literature, about how these are changing through contacts with europeans. this can be frustrating, or boring, when the author follows tangents, describes moments b.ut not plot, moments of other encounters with nature or emblematic others, priest, barber, innkeeper, young woman...

this is noted as significant in development of the 'i' novel, and though well-read in european or western art and literature, this is definitely japanese... the 'i-novel' (autobiographical) and the 'true novel' (invented characters, plot etc). i have read a lot of japanese authors but only translations so it is only much later- after reading this book
A True Novel
by Minae Mizumura
i learn prevalence of the i-novel form in Japanese is because in this language "personal pronouns are elusive, constantly shifting, often absent"...

do not expect to like or admire the narrator, whose sense of art suffuses everything, judging, dismissing, or even rarely taken out of his critical appraisal, every moment. which he does not paint, but perhaps obsessively ventures haiku at inspired moments. do not expect to agree with his voice. read at your peril. read with a receptive mind...