Out of the Mansion of the Motoyasu

This is an autobiography, in which the author's life story is told not only from deep within her soul, but also from a place outside the narrator and hovering above her. It is a historical novel, telling the story of Japan's encounter with the West at the end of the 19th century, and through the years a er World War II. This is a book of personal mythology and spirituality documenting the growth of the author's soul, starting from the age of four as she starts painting on scraps of cardboard while hiding in hand-dug bomb shelters during the bombings, and then as she grows into an intensely serious artist. This book will be attractive to anyone interested in psychology, selfrealization, spirituality, feminism, religion, language, different cultures, or the relationship between life and death: the passionate integration of all these themes makes this book extraordinary. And it is a compelling account of the essence of art--of the artist's role as a passionate witness, and as a constructive outsider.

Review :
Junko's story is every woman's story. It is a story about the pain and splendor of a woman giving birth to herself by opening up the interior world of her own knowing and being. That hidden world is the only place to be that is safe when gender norms, cultural codes and family values dictate when a woman must sacrifice herself. Junko has reflected, probed and analyzed this secret world that creates the space for woman to be other than, different from, what her society or culture makes her. What makes this story so powerful is the searing honesty of her self-knowing and the political crucible in which she forges the words to speak to us. Junko' story is set against the deep connections to nature fostered by Shintoism, the strenuous disciplines of femininity for women of the Imperial court, and the confusion of revered Japanese traditions being overrun by American modernity. All these play out against the terrifying backdrop of nuclear war, the trauma of the authoritarian military state and the social upheaval of occupation. There are 1000 reasons to read this book. Karen Torjesen, Author of WHEN WOMEN WERE PRIESTS. The work engages from its very first sentence with remarkable narrative momentum, slowing just long enough for the cultural or anthropological insights that enrich it along the way. We are seeing its world initially through the eyes of a child, but what eyes! The pictorial imagination at work is just beautiful. I am deeply impressed by this account of the making of an exceptional artist. Jack Miles, Author of GOD: A BIOGRAPHY There are those who regard foreign nations, other cultures, with suspicion or contempt and those who idealize them. With regard to Japan, Junko Chodos' rich and various achievement provides a cure for both conditions, for it reveals the history and customs of that country through a kaleidoscopic approach that deepens our understanding and surprises our expectations. But primarily this is story of a life, and in the telling Chodos explores language, dreams, the awakening of the artistic spirit, and the struggle for identity within a family and within a culture. Many of the vignettes haunt the imagination -- that one, for example, about her first husband trained by the Japanese military as a suicide bomber but never required to complete a mission. The author discovers that on many nights he rises secretly and slips out into the cold, into the garden, to begin digging a hole for compost, a hole, says Chodos, that seems shaped like his own grave. It's this intersection of cultural knowledge, first-hand experience and poetry that makes "Out of the Mansion of the Motoyasu" a striking exploration. Suzanne Lummis is a widely published, award-winning poet whose poems have appeared in THE NEW YORKER and many other publications.