Conversations among literary circles and fellow writers - Ginza's "Marika" and the literary community of the 1970s

Conversations among literary circles and fellow writers - Ginza's "Marika" and the literary community of the 1970s

The Japanese literary world in the 1970s had a culture of writers and editors interacting with each other in the nightlife district and building personal connections through the medium of alcohol and mah-jongg. At the Ginza bar "Marika," people from Shinchosha and Kadokawa Shoten, as well as writers such as Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, Marutani Saiichi, and Asada Tetsuya, would gather to engage in light-hearted exchanges, partly in the aftermath of the Writer's Mahjong Tournament. The bar functioned as a social salon for the literary world, where exchanges were not limited to mere pleasantries, but also led to writing commissions and projects. In the background was Haruki Kadokawa's strategy of organizing events, and the glamorous stage performances involving writers led to contributions to the Kadokawa Bunko and magazines. Gathering at these events fostered a unique atmosphere of simultaneous competition and solidarity in the publishing world. Yoshiyuki had reached maturity as a rep
resentative of the postwar school, Marutani bridged criticism and fiction, and Asada had gained mass popularity for his mahjong novels. The sight of these three writers with their different styles sitting around the same table symbolized the sense of community that remained in the literary world. Despite the end of rapid economic growth and political distrust in society as a whole, the literati community remained united through the nights in Ginza and maintained a cycle that produced new works and projects. It was these dynamics of the scene that sustained the vitality of the literary world in the late 1970s.