Chapter 268: The Literary Heart

Minato Ward, Akiwara Yuto's home.

Akiwara Yuto sat on the sofa, listening to Asano Aiko's report on recent work.

"Akiwara, regarding the book reviews for *Snow Country*, following Ms. Akiyama Emiko, another 35 publications have successively published similar evaluations, the vast majority of which are primarily positive."

Hearing this number, Akiwara Yuto hesitated for a moment.

One had to know that the publications he had deliberately cultivated previously only numbered around 20; where did those other 10-plus come from?

Seemingly seeing through Akiwara Yuto's confusion, Asano Aiko continued: "Those extra book reviews were published spontaneously by the critics themselves."

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a moment, still somewhat puzzled, suspecting that the critics from these publications were trying to take advantage of the situation, so he pressed: "Did they ask the foundation for any sponsorship?"

Asano Aiko laughed, then waved her hand, "They did not, you can rest assured."

She turned around, took a stack of publications from the bag behind her, and placed them on the desk; Akiwara Yuto took the publications and began to look through them carefully.

After finishing, he discovered that these 10-plus publications were all affiliated with universities.

Among them were long-standing literary powerhouses such as "Kyoto University," "Tsukuba University," "Kobe University," and "Osaka University."

This meant that these journals had the financial support of universities and were not lacking in funds at all.

However, this situation made Akiwara Yuto somewhat surprised.

Why would these university journals want to write book reviews for his work?

"Akiwara, regarding this situation, I spoke on the phone with Professor Toyama Shuichi this morning."

Asano Aiko continued, "Because you previously published an academic paper on literary thought, the academic circles are still somewhat interested in you."

"According to Professor Toyama, this *Snow Country* of yours is indeed a bit different from tradition in the direction of aestheticist literature, so they might write a few related papers."

Akiwara Yuto heard this, and then suddenly realized.

Good grief, so they just want to pad their publication counts...

Now that *Snow Country* has a certain level of heat in the traditional literary world, they can hitch a ride on this express train.

The higher the heat, the higher the value of the papers analyzing the work.

His own special background can also become one of the research directions for related papers.

Akiwara Yuto didn't know what thoughts to use to describe his mood for a moment.

Although he gained certain benefits from this matter, all in all, he still felt a bit like he was being "used."

He thought for a moment, collected his thoughts, looked at the names of the journals again, and asked a question.

"Do the University of Tokyo and related journals or school newspapers have any relevant evaluations?"

In the Japanese literary world, the University of Tokyo is a behemoth that cannot be bypassed.

In his past life, in terms of the difficulty of entering literature departments at national and public universities across Japan, the University of Tokyo had the highest deviation value.

Besides that, it also has many famous writer alumni, such as Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Natsume Soseki, Mori Ogai, and Mishima Yukio.

In fact, this world is much the same.

Asano Aiko shook her head, "There are none."

Hearing this answer, Akiwara Yuto began to ponder.

There isn't a single evaluation, not even a negative one; could it be that the writer named Yoshikawa Yuichiro didn't deliberately "make things difficult" for him?

One must know that because of his seniority, he has great influence in the University of Tokyo circle.

And although this *Snow Country* is the work for which Kawabata Yasunari won the Nobel Prize in Literature, as a work, there are always places that can be criticized.

Like in his past life, there was no lack of people evaluating it as "the story is like a running account," "the characters are not full," and so on.

But never mind, him "turning a blind eye" to himself now might not be a bad thing.

If the voices "praising himself" in the traditional literary world become more and more numerous, the other party, as a giant of the literary world, has to consider the voices of the book review circle, right?

On the other side, Yoshikawa Yuichiro, who was being worried about by Akiwara Yuto, was holding a copy of *Snow Country* and letting out "tsk-tsk" sounds of admiration.

He is already over 70 years old this year, and one can even see age spots on his face; there is a sense of being old and decrepit.

In fact, his hand holding the book was trembling slightly.

Watching Yoshikawa Yuichiro's focused expression, his disciple Tokuda Takashi knelt on the tatami in the tea room, holding tea without saying a word.

It wasn't until his teacher finished the whole book that he put down the tea in his hand and tentatively asked: "Teacher, what do you think of this work?"

Yoshikawa Yuichiro looked at him with a meaningful gaze, then said: "Since you brought this book for me to see, shouldn't you already have thoughts in your heart?"

Tokuda Takashi opened his mouth but didn't say anything.

And Yoshikawa Yuichiro sighed, then continued: "That child Akiwara Yuto has already walked his own path."

From the perspective of aestheticist literature, this *Snow Country*, in its phrasing and story construction, can be seen to have ultimate "beauty."

And this sense of beauty of his follows the path of "beauty of nothingness" or "beauty of loneliness."

Undoubtedly, this is another kind of breakthrough for his own path of "pure beauty."

It seems that his idea of wanting to take him as a disciple was a bit too abrupt...

Before this, he had seen Akiwara Yuto's *Rashomon* and thought he was still an uncut jade with great value for carving, which is why he wanted to take him as a disciple.

But he didn't expect that this uncut jade actually had another side he didn't know about.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just at this moment, a sound of footsteps came over, and a middle-aged man wearing a men's kimono pushed open the shoji door, bowed, and walked into the tea room.

His name is Kanno Takuo; he is Yoshikawa Yuichiro's eldest disciple and also a professor and director of the University of Tokyo's Literature Department.

In fact, the book review that previously criticized Akiwara Yuto's *Rashomon* was also issued under his instruction.

After showing respect to his teacher, he handed over an article and said: "Master, regarding Akiwara Yuto's *Snow Country*, I have written a book review; please take a look."

This time, he intended to continue his previous actions and criticize Akiwara Yuto, this "outlier."

Yoshikawa Yuichiro took the book review and began to read it carefully. But as he read, his expression became more and more serious.

*Rip!

With his wrinkled hands, he tore the manuscript directly into two halves.

"Teacher, what are you doing?" Kanno Takuo revealed a shocked expression.

Yoshikawa Yuichiro glanced at him and said bluntly: "Kanno, where has your literary heart gone?"

Hearing his teacher's reprimand, Kanno Takuo was "at a loss," and could only lower his head deeply, listening to his teacher's scolding.

Watching his disciple's actions, Yoshikawa Yuichiro was silent for a while before saying.

"I won't concern myself with your previous actions using my name, but for truly excellent authors, you should have reverence."

Kanno Takuo continued to lower his head, but his heart was stirred with stormy waves.

Akiwara Yuto could actually be called an excellent author by his own teacher; this is a very high evaluation...