My reasonable translation of a great review about Life In The Mountains: Mountain Literature

Credited to someone else. 

NHK TV "Kokoro no Jidai" "Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature"

Toshikatsu Ue's "Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature", which aired on January 27 and February 2 2019, was rebroadcast on October 13 and 19, and once again received a great response. The January and February broadcasts are introduced in this column (10). The rebroadcast of this time was announced at the beginning of October, just before. It happened to coincide with the publication of Ushioni no Taki, the 9th volume of Ue-san's new collection of folklore novels (distributed on October 21st), so we were really happy with the rebroadcast.

In Kokoro no Jidai and Life in the Mountains: Mountain Literature, Ue talks about his journey from non-fiction to novel. 

"I wrote about my own experience working in charcoal making and forestry, and at the same time, I heard stories from older people about things I didn’t experience, and recorded them in my notebook. That's why I wrote a book about it, but when I started writing novels, I was able to use what I had heard and recorded in my novels. Now, when you introduce a person with a unique personality, create the people around you, or write a love story. My grandfather, my grandmother, my father and my mother, and myself, the world after the Meiji era, or rather the events and circumstances of the world, are all related to me by blood. I've been thinking about the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras."

And in the last scene, Mr. Ue declares: "In about two years (note: the program was recorded in the fall of 2018), I will finish writing this 10th volume (collection of folklore novels), and if I still have the energy and strength left, I will write more, this time about charcoal burning. I've been a charcoal burner for generations, so I'd like to write a full-length novel about the life of a charcoal burner from my ancestors to the present, intertwined with the changes in society. Yes, I will write a story about charcoal burning. No one has written it. It will also be the history of the mountains of Kishu, Kumano."

Next year, in 2020, the 10th volume, the final of the collection of folklore novels, and in 2021, a long novel is planned. Now, we escort runners must do our best not to fall behind. Lastly, I would like to talk about German literary scholar Osamu Ikeuchi. Mr. Ikeuchi, who loved hot springs in mountain villages, passed away on August 30th. Previously, Mr. Ikeuchi reviewed Nagare Segaki in the October 9, 2016 issue of Sunday Mainichi in his column "I want to read it now." Rest in peace.