The house of Nire

Das Haus Nire ( Japanese 楡 家 の 人 び と , Nire-ke no hitobito ) is a Japanese novel by Morio Kita from 1964. The work was initially published as a serial in Shinchō from January 1962 to mid-1963.

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The novel is about the Nire Hospital, a mental hospital. The hospital was created by Nire Kiichirō, head of a family that is portrayed over three generations. The work spans the Meiji , Taishō and Shōwa periods and ends with the destruction of the hospital in the Pacific War .

The novel is written with a sophisticated sense of humor, a number of characters, including unusual ones, are drawn, among which Kiichirō is the best example. He was born Kanezawa Jinsaku and was the son of a poor farmer. He left his native village, studied medicine and took the unusual family name "Nire" - "elm" - on. He built the hospital into a respected and prosperous facility, despite its unorthodox method of taking anamnesis: he looked the patient in the ear to get a glimpse into their brain.

Characterization of Tetsukichi, the son and boss in the 2nd generation, and of Shūji, the grandson, include traits of Morio's father, the psychiatrist and writer Saitō Mokichi , and of Morio himself.

Post Comment

Morio Kita had been working on the novel, which was initially to be called “Das Haus Kamio” (神 尾 家 の 人 び と), since he was a student. - The novel was then published under the title "Das Haus Nire" and became a great success. Since it was noted by literary experts that the novel is based on the structure and ideas of the Buddenbrooks , the work was translated into Japanese by Thomas Mann in 1969 with a similar title "Buddenbrooks-ke no hitobito" - once again.

German edition

• Morio Kita: Das Haus Nire - A family's decline. be.bra verlag, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-86124-909-2 .

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Nireke no hitobito . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1097.