Onda Riku "Night Picnic"
We all walked together at night. Why is something as simple as that so special?
It is a timeless masterpiece filled with many premonitions.
Onda Riku's "Night Picnic" was published in 2004 and won the 2nd Booksellers' Award and the 26th Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award.
Students participate in the traditional "Walking Festival" with their own thoughts. What do they feel and talk about as they walk 80 kilometers through the night?
When I was in elementary school, I lived near Lake Kawaguchi, and during the summer vacation, volunteers from nearby schools would gather together to walk 100 kilometers over three nights and four days.
Times have changed now, and it's probably no longer held on that scale, but when I first read "Night Picnic" as a junior high school student, I felt like I had experienced both the excitement I had felt in the past and the excitement I might feel in high school, and it was an overwhelming feeling.
I have read the main characters, Toru Nishiwaki, Shinobu Toda, Takako Koda, and Miwako Yusa, many times, so they remain in my memory. However, rereading this time made me realize once again how fascinating the other characters are.
For example, there is Ryoko Uchibori, a female student who always picks on Toru Nishiwaki. She is portrayed as a cunning, oblivious Madonna, and I had always found her rather difficult to get along with.
But this time, I somehow felt a little sorry for her. I'm sure she was trying to enjoy the walking festival in her own way, and there was a strange realism to the character design, which gave me an indescribable feeling.
Koichiro Takami, the man who gets involved with her at the end, or rather gets the best part at the end, is also one of the characters who leaves a very different impression.
When I read it as a teenager, I thought, "Wow, so many jokers like this. I really can't stand them." and took a cynical view of it.
But strangely enough, when I read it now in my 30s, my impression of him has completely changed. I want you to see for yourself how he behaves, baby.
Well, since I've read it so many times, this expression of love may have come off as a bit of an oblique one, but it's a masterpiece that will surely touch your heart no matter what angle you read it from.
Onda's works are often discussed from the perspective of "youth," and this work can truly be said to be a masterpiece of youth novels.
In fact, the work refers to "youth" in various ways, and the way its impact changes as the reader's life stage changes may be one of the secrets to why people want to read this work no matter how old they are.
There are so many passages I would like to quote and talk about, and not enough characters, so I will end by quoting a scene that will really hit you unless you read the whole thing.
I'm sure I'll go on night picnics with them many times in the future.
Takako looked in the direction of Toru's gaze.
Light pours down on the world.
Friends walking in a group. The dusty road. The hustle and bustle of the city approaching.
But then, they saw something invisible.
It's invisible to the eye, but it's the exact same thing.
