Chapter 267: Mono no Aware Thought

After persuading Akiyama Emiko, Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko returned to Tokyo and started to arrange the promotion work for the book *Snow Country*.

However, compared to the promotion of *The Tokyo Zodiac Murders* before, this promotion was much stingier.

Not only were there no promotional posters posted at various train stations, but even large-scale newspaper promotion wasn't done.

Only recommendations related to this book were made in some school newspapers and professional journals.

However, in the circle of the traditional literary world, these contents caused a "huge stir".

University of Tokyo, Faculty of Letters office.

Tokuda Takashi, as an associate professor of literature, held a journal with a book review about *Snow Country* on it.

Looking at the author column of the book review, he frowned deeply.

Isn't this Akiwara Yuto's work?

Why does Ms. Akiyama Emiko want to write a book review for him?

He hesitated for a while, but still continued to read.

"In Japanese traditional culture, 'mono no aware' has a very profound influence."

"'Mono' is the object of perception, and 'aware' is the subject of perception, the subject of emotion, with a sense of exclamation; it not only refers to the feeling of 'sorrow', but also contains 'joy', 'sympathy', 'praise', 'love', etc."

"It can be said that, to some extent, mono no aware represents us Japanese ourselves."

"In this *Snow Country* by Akiwara Yuto, I saw a profound depiction of this thought: the relationship between people, the relationship between people and the outside, and the relationship between people and fate are all 'futile'."

"The endurance and struggle in 'futility' are the source of the sense of sorrow, just like the fruitless feelings between three people, making people fall into sorrow..."

"This *Snow Country* by Akiwara Yuto undoubtedly wrote mono no aware to the extreme..."

After reading all the content, Tokuda Takashi fell into a long silence.

At this moment, he was a bit confused.

As a member of the traditional literary circle, he had dealt with the Kyoto Literature Research Association where Akiyama Emiko was many times and knew that the other party was a literary critic who looked very deeply at the two words "tradition".

But Akiwara Yuto came from detective fiction, and his literary level was only high school graduation.

Not only that, he even refused Yoshikawa Yuichiro-sensei.

Such an author who couldn't be linked to the two words "tradition" at all, why did he want to help him write a book review?

Is that *Snow Country* really that good? Or are there other hidden feelings.

Knock knock knock!

Just at this time, the office door was knocked, and after Tokuda Takashi said "please come in", a girl walked in.

She was Tokuda Takashi's graduate student, Liu Ai.

After seeing the teacher, Liu Ai took out 3 journals and placed them on the table, and pointed to the title on the cover of one of them and asked: "Tokuda-sensei, have you read Akiwara Yuto-sensei's *Snow Country*?"

Tokuda Takashi looked in the direction she pointed and saw the title on the cover written: "*Snow Country*, a new representative work of aesthetic literature!"

After seeing this sentence, Tokuda Takashi was stunned, and then immediately exploded with anger!

The word "representative work" is not used casually; this often means a top-notch work of a school.

But this journal actually shamelessly boasted that Akiwara Yuto's work was a representative work of aesthetic literature.

Where is this going to put Yoshikawa Yuichiro-sensei!

As a loyal follower of Yoshikawa Yuichiro, he didn't even have the mood to answer his student now, directly waved his hand and slammed the door and left.

Next, he was going to buy a copy of Akiwara Yuto's *Snow Country* to see if he really had such great ability!

If not, he was determined to criticize Akiwara Yuto severely in the school newspaper and journals under the University of Tokyo, making him tuck his tail and roll back to his detective fiction circle!

Running all the way, he soon arrived at a bookstore and found that *Snow Country* in the literary area.

After paying, he walked out of the store, directly tore open the packaging, and started reading it standing like this, and prepared to "pick faults".

Time passed bit by bit, and soon an hour passed; just when he felt his feet were a bit numb, he also finished reading this medium-length story of about 80,000 words.

And after reading it, only one sentence remained in his mind.

Amazing!

This *Snow Country* was impeccable in its wording, especially the descriptions of scenery and characters inside, which seemed to bring people back to that world of heavy snow flying.

Besides that, the description of the feelings of the three people inside was also very appropriate!

Especially the character Yoko, although she didn't have many words, she was depicted vividly! Forming a sharp contrast with Komako!

But why write Yoko "dying" in the end?

Tokuda Takashi frowned and fell into confusion again.

As a traditional literature writer, he naturally had the will to get to the bottom of this aspect.

After recalling a series of clues in his mind, he suddenly realized a possibility.

That is, Yoko might not be real; she might be Komako's "second personality", or "former personality".

Because when Yoko appeared, Komako was often together.

And Yoko's dream was exactly Komako's dream before.

When the protagonist refused to take Yoko to Tokyo, it also meant the destruction of Komako's dream of going to Tokyo, so this personality of hers, that is, Yoko, "died"!

Thinking of this, Tokuda Takashi suddenly realized.

In this case, the actions of the three characters could be completely explained!

But could such a work really be thought of by Akiwara Yuto, who was a detective fiction writer and hadn't even gone to college!?

Could it be that he found a ghostwriter?

Tokuda Takashi was a bit suspicious for a moment.

But after thinking for half a day, he helplessly found that the other party really didn't have the possibility of finding a ghostwriter.

Not to mention whether he could find a ghostwriter with such a high level, even if he could really write such a work, what reason would he have to hand this work to others, and wouldn't it be better to publish it himself?

Maybe Akiwara Yuto had been pondering traditional literature outside of the detective fiction field!

It seemed that he might have misunderstood him before; the other party was not just a newcomer who rushed into this field in a hurry!

Perhaps Akiwara Yuto had been studying traditional literature since he was young!

As for detective fiction, it was just written casually!

By this time, he had completely forgotten his "look down" on Akiwara Yuto at the beginning, and started to accept the other party from his heart.

Not only that, he also forgot his questioning of the claim of "representative work of aesthetic literature" before! Started to agree that this work had such strength!

He put down the book, walked back and forth twice, and then made a decision.

He was going to recommend this book to his teacher, that is, Yoshikawa Yuichiro-sensei! ===== CHAPTER 268 =====