A Future for Memory: A Conversation with Yū Miri

A Future for Memory: A Conversation with Yū Miri “Minamisōma Medley”: Weaving Together Voices from Fukushima / 柳美里対談 「南相馬メドレー 」 福島から声をつむぐ
On October 5, MOA and the Centre for Japanese Research at UBC hosted a conversation with Yū Miri, award-winning internationally acclaimed author, about her work and experience in Minamisōma City, Fukushima Prefecture, facilitated by MOA Curator Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura.
Yū relocated to Minamisōma in 2015 and now runs a book café there called Full House, named after her celebrated novella. A number of her recent works-including her novel Tokyo Ueno Station (translated by Morgan Giles), the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature in the US; and her theatrical productions in Minamisōma-derive from her engagement with the aftermath of the 2011 triple disaster in Japan.
This event is part of Dr. Nakamura’s project A Future for Memory: Art and Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake, sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Japan Foundation; the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) and the Centre for Japanese Research (CJR) at UBC. MOA and CJR co-hosted a number of online conversations for A Future for Memory last year. The recordings can be viewed on our website.
This event was held at the UBC Asian Centre Auditorium (1871 West Mall, UBC Campus).
Bios
Yū Miri is a Japan-born Korean novelist, playwright and essayist. Born in 1968 in Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture, she grew up in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. After dropping out of high school, she joined the musical theatre group Tokyo Kid Brothers and worked as an actor. She then started her own troupe, Seishun Gogatsu-tō (Adolescent May Party), in 1987. She was the youngest recipient of the Kishida Kunio Drama Award for her work Uo no matsuri (Festival of the Fish) in 1993. Her 1996 novella, Furu Hausu (Full House), won the Noma Literary Prize and the Izumi Kyōka Literary Prize. Her 1997 novel, Kazoku Shinema (Family Cinema), was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize.
Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura is a sociocultural anthropologist, originally from Tokyo and trained in the UK. She has a joint position at UBC as Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) and as Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies. She is the curator of the exhibition A Future for Memory, which derived from ten years of her engagement with the disaster region in Japan since 2011, and was held at MOA last year during the tenth anniversary of 3.11.
THIS EVENT WAS SPONSORED BY THE CENTRE FOR JAPANESE RESEARCH, WITH SUPPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES AND THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT UBC.