The Rise of East Asian Literature and Ayako Yuzuki’s ‘Butter’

Emily Bird

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Ayako Yuzuki’s novel Butter soon got me out of a reading slump and transported me back to happy times in Japan.

Returning to the UK in September to complete a master’s degree left a gaping hole in my heart from my time in Japan. Thankfully, Yuzuki’s Butter perfectly satisfied that longing.

FROM BLAND TO BOLD

I gorged on Yuzuki’s book as soon as I bought it. Offering a taste of Japan and blending traditional food culture with a feminist narrative, Yuzuki’s writing leaves a moreish feeling with every page.

“Yuzuki creates a world of characters that feel real, with elements that every reader can resonate with.”

The story follows Rika, a journalist for the Shumei Weekly, running through life at 100mph, hoping to become the first female writer on the news desk. Her friends and family come second to her career, but the person she truly neglects is herself – until she meets Manako Kajii. As a prisoner at the Tokyo Detention House, Kajii forces Rika to change how she sees the world through food, which leads to a new relationship with her body. But when Kajii begins to seep further into Rika’s life, she is forced to question where her life is heading.

Butter presents the perfect blend of drama, culture and reality. There were moments throughout the book where I asked myself questions similar to Rika’s about my past, present, and future. Yuzuki creates a world of characters that feel real, with elements that every reader can resonate with. Rika’s fairly mundane (albeit successful) life is one we’re all afraid of having. Through Butter, Yuzuki perhaps teaches us the recipe for a balanced life. As Rika and many others obsess over their weight, Yuzuki makes us realise there’s more to life.

CHANGING TASTES

The Foyles’ bestseller list features numerous texts from Japanese, Chinese, and Korean authors. The UK is experiencing a new wave of East Asian literature, and people are hungry for more. In 2023, the first UK festival for East and South East Asian writing was announced.

“It is about time we started weaving voices like Kuang’s into our narratives, fictional or otherwise”

If you’re reading this as a Londoner, you may have found it hard to avoid RF Kuang’s Yellowface as of late. Sprawled on tube station adverts around the city and positioned front and centre at every major bookshop, China-born Kuang has recently seen a wealth of success in the UK. It is about time we started weaving voices like Kuang’s into our narratives, fictional or otherwise – after all, reading is just as much about education as it is about pleasure.

HOW HAS THIS PHENOMENON COME ABOUT?

How has this wave of Asian literature swept across the nation? The answer to most phenomena that enter our cultural consciousness overnight is TikTok. With influencers like Jack Edwards recommending these novels on BookTok, social media has again made cultural waves. And just like Rika, we are falling hard.

In the realm of Japanese fiction, there are certainly a whole host of titles to choose from this summer: Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s ensemble of short stories from the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days at the Morisaki Bookshop and the sequel More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, or if you’re looking for a classic Japanese title, there is, of course, Murakami’s Norwegian Wood.

If you wish to delve into the world of Japanese fiction, please remember to support your independent bookshop.

READ MORE:

• SEVEN SHORT STORIES FOR SUMMER

• NEW JACQUELINE WILSON BOOK ‘THINK AGAIN’ IS FOR GROWN-UP FANS

• FOURTH WING AND THE RISE OF THE NEW ADULT GENRE

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Featured image courtesy of Lenin Estrada on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence can be found here.