Event Report - A Conversation Between Sayaka Murata and Ginny Tapley Takemori: Gender, Literature and Translation

Sep 4, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

Event report documenting a 25 January 2019 seminar at ICU from 17:30 to 20:00 featuring author Sayaka Murata and translator Ginny Tapley Takemori. The program included introductions, an interview session, live readings, and audience Q&A, conducted in English with Japanese-English interpretation by Manuel Azuaje-Alamo. About 65 participants discussed gender, sexuality, and literary translation, revisiting Murata’s writing and Takemori’s translation process, and reflecting on the international success of Convenience Store Woman.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Event Overview

Participants and Language

Program Structure

Background and Motivation

Related Symposium Inspiration

Purpose of the Conversation

Interview Highlights

Writing and Translating

Meaning of Novels and Translation

Convenience Store Woman and Reception

145 Event Report A Conversation Between Sayaka Murata and Ginny Tapley Takemori: Gender, Literature and Translation Coordinator: Juliana BURITICA ALZATE (Assistant Professor, CGS) The 25th of January 2019 between 17:30 and 20:00, we welcomed author Sayaka Murata and literary translator, Ginny Tapley Takemori here at ICU and discussed issues around gender, literature, and translation, and we particularly addressed the English translation of Convenience Store Woman. The event included the introduction of the guests, background of the event, an interview session, live readings, and time for questions and answers from the audience. It was conducted in English, and Manuel Azuaje-Alamo was Murata’s interpreter from Japanese into English. Around 65 people participated, including students, academic staff and members from translation and academic circles outside ICU. I was inspired by a daylong symposium on Japanese literary translation“Strong Women, Soft Power” held on November 18th, 2017 by Allison Markin Powell, Lucy North and Ginny Tapley Takemori, which resonated with my own research on Japanese contemporary women writers and with my desire to promote the translation and study of their works. During this symposium we listened to author Minae Mizumura and translator Juliet Winter Carpenter, and I decided to host a similar event, bringing author and translator together to spark a conversation on their art and collaboration. The powerful and unconventional works of Sayaka Murata offer a world of possibilities to rethink what we as a society consider “normal,” together with current sociocultural models of family, reproduction, sexuality, and marriage among others; thus, they are worthy of being explored from a gender and sexuality perspective. This report revisits my conversation with both the author and translator, and is written as an interview—condensed, edited and translated by me. Juliana Buriticá Alzate: How did you start writing? How did you start translating? Sayaka Murata: I’ve been writing novels since my childhood years. Since I was a child, I enjoyed imagining stories, but I didn’t really start writing novels until I was in elementary school in my third or fourth year. It was not until I went to university that I started writing so-called junbungaku (pure literature), and I started applying for prizes, and right after graduating from university, upon winning one of these prizes, I made my debut in the literary scene. Ginny Tapley Takemori: I actually started translating from Spanish and Catalan, I was living in Barcelona at the time, and I was working for a literary agent as a foreign rights agent. That is when I discovered Japanese literature. And, to cut a long story short, I just decided that that’s what I wanted to study, and I just dropped everything and went back to university and studied Japanese at SOAS in London. Then I got a job at Kodansha International and worked there for a few years before I left and did a Master program and then started translating. JBA: What does writing and translation mean to you? SM: I think it hasn’t changed since my childhood years: I write to learn. When I write a novel, I write it without knowing the ending. So, whenever I reach the ending, I am able to know something that I was not aware of or know some specific part about humanity. When I was a kid, I liked the expression hontono honto “the truth of the truth,” and it is still an important word for me. I feel novels lead us towards a deeper truth beneath the common truths claimed by everybody. Novels—like ships—carry meaning. GTT: As a translator, I’ve always loved reading. I mean, ever since I was a child, and I’ve always loved language, so it makes sense to me to combine both things. I just love the process of translation—I love working out what is going on in the original book, how the author is constructing their story, what they are trying to achieve, thinking about the story from every single pos

FAQs

When and where did the event take place?

The event was held at ICU on 25 January 2019 from 17:30 to 20:00.

How many people participated, and how was language handled?

About 65 people participated, and the event was conducted in English with Japanese-English interpretation by Manuel Azuaje-Alamo for Murata.

What topics were discussed in the conversation?

The discussion focused on gender, literature, translation, and especially the English translation and broader themes of Convenience Store Woman.

Sep 4, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle