Kurara Chibana publishes her first anthology
Kurara Chibana advertising her first anthology “At the Beginning, There was Love,” on June 29 at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjyuku, Tokyo.
June 29, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo
On June 28, 37-year-old model and actress from Naha, Kurara Chibana’s first anthology “At the Beginning, There was Love” was released at bookstores.
The anthology will hit Okinawa’s shelves at the beginning of July.
Besides writing about her experiences with love and marriage, she also candidly writes about her miscarriage.
She also incorporates subjects, such as the existence of the current U.S. military bases and her grandfather’s experience during the Battle of Okinawa. Chibana’s grandfather was a survivor of the Geruma Island forced mass suicide.
On June 29, there was a book launch event at the Kinokuniya Main Bookstore in Shinjyuku, Tokyo.
Chibana said, “I was moved and amazed by how I had found a place where I could be so free after finding tanka and really got into it.
There’s a me that can be free as much as I want in a small world comprised of just 31 syllables.
I’m excited to see how Okinawan people will feel about my songs and react to them.” With her expecting to become a mother this fall in mind, she opened the prospective of a next anthology.
There are also songs on the situation of countries she visited as a Japanese Ambassador from the United Nations World Health Program (WFP), namely Africa, the Middle East, and Asian countries, all of which have issues with poverty and food shortage. ]
Her “Scales of a Nile Perch,” which was awarded the Kadokawa Tanka Award in 2017 is also included.
Her songs related to Okinawa are on the Battle of Okinawa and the U.S. military bases.
The songs read, “If there are no hand grenades, then you’ll encounter strangling via thin green grass at the forest where kids play,” “Rays of komorebi fall on my grandfather’s back who cries, ‘I’m sorry I’m alive,’” “Go under the wire-netting of the school grounds and you’ll find Sago palm and empty shell cases trailing to the mountain behind.”
Poet Kazuhiro Nagata, who corresponds with Chibana on tanka provided commentary.
Poet Machi Tawara provided the endorsement for the book’s obi, or wraparound band.
The cover photograph was done by Kishin Shinoyama.
The anthology is 200 pages and is 1600-yen including taxes.
(English translation by T&CT and Chelsea Ashimine)
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