Football in the first year of the Man'en era

A full-length novel by Oe Kenzaburo. It was serialized in the January to July 1967 issue of Gunzo. It was later expanded and published by Kodansha in September of the same year. Mitsusaburo, a university professor in Tokyo, his younger brother Takashi, who has returned from America, and their friends return to a village deep in the forest valley of Shikoku. In search of their own identity, the brothers, the inactive older brother and the riot-loving younger brother, each use their imaginations differently when it comes to the legend of a peasant uprising at the end of the Edo period in which their grandfather was involved, and through this conflict and antagonism, a multifaceted view of historical awareness is presented. In the end, the younger brother dies in a riot aiming for his own liberation and that of the oppressed villagers, while the older brother achieves awareness and becomes aware of himself as an artist. This is a popular work that shows the way of life of a literary person while incorporating the passion of the 1960 Security Treaty protests.

[Kamei Hideo]

"'Football in the Year 1 of Man'en' (Kodansha Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

大江健三郎の長編小説。『群像』1967年（昭和42）1～7月号に連載。のち、加筆して同年9月講談社刊。東京の大学教師の蜜三郎(みつさぶろう)と、アメリカから帰った弟の鷹四(たかし)とその仲間たちが、四国の森深い谷間の村へ帰ってゆく。兄弟のアイデンティティを求めるためであるが、彼らの祖父がかかわった幕末の農民一揆(いっき)の伝承について、非行動的な兄と暴動願望者の弟とはそれぞれ別様な想像力を働かせ、その対立拮抗(きっこう)を通して歴史認識の複眼を呈示している。結局弟は自己と被抑圧村民の解放を目ざして暴動を起こして死に、兄は認識＝表現者の自覚に達する。60年安保闘争の情念を含みつつ、文学者のあり方を示した話題作。

［亀井秀雄］

『『万延元年のフットボール』（講談社文庫）』

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