At the End of the Matinee

Classical guitarist Satoshi Makino has toured the world & is at the height of his career when he first lays eyes on journalist Yoko Komine. Their bond forms instantly. At their first meeting, after Makino’s concert in Tokyo, they begin a conversation that will go on for years, with long spells of silence broken by powerful moments of connection. She’s drawn by Makino’s tender music & his sensitivity, & he is intrigued by Yoko’s refinement & intellect. But neither knows enough about love to see it blooming nor has the confidence to make the first move. Will their connection endure, weaving them back together like instruments in a symphony, or will fate lead them apart?

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Keiichiro Ryu made his name as an author of historical fiction in a career that lasted only five years, until his untimely death, Though coming late into the publishing scene, he was no novice to the subject of his life's work, which centered around the Edo Period of Japan (roughly 1600-1868). The Blade of the Couresans was his debut work, set in Yoshiwqara (the pleasure quarters) of old Tokyo. Ryu graduated from Tokyo University with a degree in Buddhist literature & went on to become an assistant.

Juliet Winters Carpenter was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1948. She is a veteran translator & double recipient of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission for the Translation of Japanese Literature, in 1980 for Abe Kōbō’s Secret Rendezvous & in 2014 for Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel. In addition to numerous works on Japanese culture & religion, she has translated fiction by authors such as Enchi Fumiko, Tawara Machi, Watanabe Shin’ichi, Miyabe Miyuki, Shiba Ryōtarō, Miura Shion, & Hirano Keiichirō. With Aotani Yüko, she edited the bilingual book Gems of Japanese Literature/ Eigo rōdoku de tanoshimu Nihon bungaku.