Photo/Illutration Kaori Muraji, left, and Haruki Murakami appear on stage together at the Waseda International House of Literature in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on Oct. 16. (Provided by Waseda University)

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series on “Authors Alive!” book-reading and other events to mark the opening of the Waseda International House of Literature, known as the Haruki Murakami Library.

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Accustomed to working alone, author Haruki Murakami forgot about his accompanying partner while reciting his works during an event held at the Waseda International House of Literature in Tokyo.

But classical guitarist Kaori Muraji kept up as Murakami, perhaps excited by the words he had written, began reading more than he was initially supposed to.

Impressed by the way Muraji improvised, Murakami said, “It feels so good collaborating with a musical instrument.”

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The logo of the “Authors Alive!” events (Provided by Waseda University)

The collaborative recital on Oct. 16 was the second in a series of public reading sessions titled “Authors Alive!” to mark the opening of the institution, also called the Haruki Murakami Library, which stands on the main campus of Waseda University in the capital’s Shinjuku Ward.

The event was seen by only a very small audience, including Waseda University students, as admission numbers were limited under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Murakami and Muraji appeared on stage together for the first time since February this year at “Murakami Jam,” an event held on the sidelines of an FM radio program hosted by the writer.

“Speech is in the leading role here, with sound supposed to provide only a stage setting,” Muraji said before Murakami began reading his works aloud. “I will be thinking about how to prepare a background as I pluck my guitar strings, pianissimo.”

Murakami started with “The Strange Library,” a picture book he had written and illustrated by Maki Sasaki.

Murakami then began reading a passage wherein a “sheep man,” a familiar figure from his early works, brings donuts and lemonade to the male narrator who has been locked up in a library.

Next up in the program were Muraji’s solo performances of three pieces, including “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” which she said she played at a venue where she first met Murakami.

That was followed by another reading, this time of a passage from “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage,” a Murakami novel. As a rough plot of the work was going to be presented, something about the authorial experience appeared to have struck a common chord with the pair of artists working in their respective trades.

“I wrote that book quite a long time ago, so I remember very little of what it was all about,” Murakami said. “I went, the other day, to watch ‘Drive My Car,’ the film adaptation (of my own short story), but I couldn’t tell where the boundary was between what I had written and what had been added in the movie.”

“Something similar happens to you if you are a composer,” Muraji said. “Like, when you hear a piece of music being aired in a cafe and you like it, only to realize that you composed it yourself.”

Murakami chimed in, “I was once, also, listening to a story being read on the radio and I found it quite interesting, only to realize that it was mine. Well, you don’t reread the stuff that you wrote. You have read it so many times over before it comes out in a book, so you no longer wish to read it over again.”

Muraji accompanied Murakami’s reading by performing “Years of Pilgrimage,” the work by Franz Liszt that is cited in the novel’s title. Murakami read aloud a scene wherein characters in the novel, including the protagonist, talk about the musical piece along with recollections of a deceased friend.

The story, speech and sound intermingled as an engaging and engrossing mood permeated the lively moment.

“What about (Johann Sebastian) Bach?” Murakami asked Muraji in the end, to which request she answered by performing the hymn, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” to conclude the session.

Details on the “Authors Alive!” series, to comprise a total of six sessions, are available in Japanese on the library’s website at (https://www.waseda.jp/culture/wihl/).

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