Yasushi Inoue: MEMOIRS OF THE PRIEST HONKAKU

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any evidence that this one has been translated into English so far, so I'm going to make this a bit different. Well, and another reason would be that I really like the video clips below ;-)

Yasushi Inoue
MEMOIRS OF THE PRIEST HONKAKU
164 pages

In Japan, in the age of Samurai, the famous tea master Sen no Rikyu is ordered to commit suicide by the warlord Hideyoshi. His student, the priest Honkaku, tries to find out what caused the rift between Hideyoshi and Rikyu that led to his master's suicide.

I really enjoyed this novel a lot. It was quiet, but meaningful. It teaches a bit about Japan, about Japan in the late 1500s and early 1600s. In his beautiful writing, Yasushi Inoue re-tells the story of Honkakubo's search for the truth.



This is a scene from Hana Yori Dango - Boys Over Flowers, where two of the major (not main!) characters are having tea. Granted, I'm pretty sure this is in no way similar to the tea ceremonies as they were held in the 1500s and 1600s, the time in which THE BOOK is set, but I think it's a nice scene to get at least an idea about it.

In case you're interested in HYD, here's a short intro on the four boys, called F4:



And another video on HYD, with a summary of the relationship between the two characters in the first video and what happened that lead up to the tea scene:




And one just because I love the character of Hanazawa Rui: