＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
Sato Kiwamu’s “Tezcatlipoca,” winner of the 165th Naoki Prize (first half of 2021), is a masterpiece of crime fiction and dark fiction (noir fiction).
1. The Novel “Tezcatlipoca”
(1) What is the Novel “Tezcatlipoca”?
This novel is a full-length novel set in modern-day Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia, depicting people involved in drug trafficking and organ trafficking.
This novel, “Tezcatlipoca,” also won the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize in May 2021, making it the second time in 17 years, since Kumagai Tatsuya’s “Kaikou no Mori” in 2004, that a novel has won both the Naoki Prize and the Yamamoto Prize.
It is a crime novel and dark fiction (noir fiction) full of violent scenes. According to selection committee member Hayashi Mariko, there was a discussion lasting over an hour about whether such brutality, including violence and child organ trafficking, is permissible in literature. Sato Kiwamu, who said he had nightmares while writing, stated, “If you ask me whether it’s right or wrong for such a prestigious award as the Naoki Prize, I would say it’s wrong. But in reality, things even worse are happening. I hope you understand that in capitalist realism, these kinds of people are behind the system.”
(2) Synopsis
In 2013, a war erupted in northeastern Mexico between two major drug cartels. Involving innocent civilians, and brutally murdering critical journalists and writers, the bloody conflict culminated in 2015 when the emerging Dogo Cartel attempted to eliminate the four brothers who controlled Los Casasolas using drone strikes.
The only survivor, the third son, Balmiro, narrowly escaped the country. In Jakarta, Indonesia, he became the owner of a mobile food stall, posing as a chef (El Cosinero), while secretly selling cheap drugs to customers, patiently waiting for his chance for revenge.
It was then that Mitsutsugu Suenaga, using the alias Tanaka, began frequenting his stall as a customer of his illicit business. Originally a brilliant cardiovascular surgeon, he killed a boy in a car accident due to cocaine addiction. To escape arrest, he underwent plastic surgery and fled to Jakarta, where he had fallen to the point of becoming an organ trafficking coordinator.
These two men join forces to plan a big business: the trade of hearts, the “diamonds of blood capitalism.” They plan to abduct children without birth certificates in Japan under the guise of protection, extract their hearts while they are still alive, and sell them for over 600 million yen to the world’s wealthiest families with children suffering from heart disease.
To make this a success, Balmiro rebuilds the “family” he lost in his hometown. He personally recruits talent, giving each of them a Spanish name, and, under the command of “We are family” (somos familia), trains them into loyal subordinates. His final trump card is a giant young man, Kosimo Hijikata, over 2 meters tall…
(3) Highlights
The story of Balmiro, who, having been indoctrinated with stories of the gods by his grandmother, a descendant of Aztec warriors, performs a ritual of extracting the hearts of his enemies and traitors while they are still alive and offering them to the ultimate god, Tezcatlipoca.
The story of Hijikata Cosimo, born to a yakuza boss father and a Mexican mother, who grew up neglected (child abuse) and barely attended school, and who, at the age of 13, killed his parents and was sent to a juvenile detention center.
In the process of merging the fates of these two men, the film also carefully depicts the lives of other supporting characters who were forced to become part of their families. By weaving Aztec mythology into the entire story, which is filled with gruesome scenes, the film imbues it with a dark sacredness and literary quality.
2. About Kiwamu Sato
Kiwamu Sato (born 1977) is a novelist born in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and a graduate of Fukuoka University Ohori High School.
In 2004, his novel “Sargius’s Reaper” was selected as an outstanding work in the 47th Gunzo Newcomer Literary Prize. Afterward, he published two books under the pen name Norikazu Sato and continued writing, but spent over 10 years in the world of pure literature as “dead stock.”
In 2015, while working part-time at a post office, he wrote a “zombie novel” without being asked to, and when he told an editor he knew about it, he was encouraged to submit it to the Edogawa Ranpo Prize.
Following this, in 2016, under the pen name Kiwamu Ken’in, he submitted “QJKJQ” to the 62nd Edogawa Ranpo Prize and won. This work was published under the pen name “Kyu Sato.”
In 2018, “Ank: a mirroring ape” won the 20th Haruhiko Oyabu Prize and the 39th Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Newcomer Prize.
3. Who is “Tezcatlipoca” in Aztec mythology?
First of all, “Tezcatlipoca” is one of the main gods in “Aztec mythology” (*).
(*) “Aztec mythology” refers to the myths transmitted in central Mexico during the Aztec era (a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico for approximately 95 years, from around 1428 to 1521).
“Tezcatlipoca” was considered to be the most powerful of the gods and was labeled a “demon” by Christian missionaries.
“Tezcatlipoca” is derived from the Nahuatl words “tezcatl” (mirror) and “poca” (smoky), meaning “smoking mirror.” Incidentally, the “mirror” refers to the obsidian mirrors used in rituals throughout Mesoamerica.
This deity is associated with a wide range of concepts, including the night sky, the night wind, the north, the earth, obsidian, hostility, discord, dominion, prophecy, temptation, magic, beauty, war, and conflict. The many alternative names for this god indicate different aspects of his divinity.
These include Moyokoyani (the Almighty), Titrakawan (we are his slaves), Iparnemoani (the one who gives us life), Nekok Yaotl (enemy of both), Toroke Nahuaque (king of those near), Yowari Ehecatl (night wind), Ome Acatl (two reeds), and Ilwikawa Tlalticupake (owner of heaven and earth).
Tezcatlipoca is typically depicted with a black body and black and yellow stripes on his face, often with his right leg replaced by an obsidian mirror or a snake.
This represents his battle with an earth monster in the Aztec creation myth, where he lost his right leg. Sometimes, he is depicted with a mirror on his chest, from which smoke is visible.
Tezcatlipoca’s nahual (transformed form) is a jaguar, and the jaguar-like aspect of his divinity is represented by the god Tepeyolotl (Heart of the Mountain).