Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms

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Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms

Cover of the tankōbon

夕凪の街桜の国
(Yūnagi no machi, Sakura no kuni)

Manga

Author

Fumiyo Kōno

Publisher

Futabasha publishers Ltd.

Other publishers:
Sharp Point Press Dargaud Last Gasp

Demographic

Seinen

Magazine

Weekly Manga Action

Original run

2004

Volumes

Animated film

Director

Kiyoshi Sasabe

Released

July 28, 2007

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (夕凪の街桜の国, Yūnagi no machi, sakura no kuni^?) is a one-volume manga, written and drawn by Japanese mangaka Fumiyo Kōno, and published in Japan in 2004.

The book is composed of two connected stories about a survivor from the atomic bomb and her relatives.

The stories are fiction but based on most people who were in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms has been adapted into a live-action movie.^[1]

1 Town of an Evening Calm (Yunagi no Machi)
2 Country of Cherry Blossoms (Sakura no Kuni)
- 2.1 Part I
- 2.2 Part II
3 Characters
4 Reception
- 4.1 Awards
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Town of an Evening Calm (Yunagi no Machi)

Set in Hiroshima, ten years after the bomb dropped, it is a story about a young woman (Minami Hirano) who survived from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima when she was a little girl. Her mother and herself were injured, and she lost her father and sisters. She lost one sister to radiation poisoning. Her brother was evacuated to Mito. One of her co-workers at the office has fallen in love with Minami, but she can't return his love. She dies from the effects of radiation poisoning.

[edit] Country of Cherry Blossoms (Sakura no Kuni)

[edit] Part I

A story about a primary school student Nanami living in Tokyo. She is part of the second generation of the atomic bomb victims. She is a tomboy who plays baseball and loves the baseball team Hiroshima Toyo Carp. She is quickly nicknamed "Goemon", to her disgust, at school, and her best friend is a feminine and clever girl called Toko. Nanami has a grandmother, who dies in the summer following Part I. Nanami's mother died four years before the start of Part I. Nanami has a brother but he has asthma and is staying in a hospital. Nanami and Toko sneak off to go and visit him.

[edit] Part II

This takes place 17 years after Part I, in 2004. Some parts are told in flashback to the courtship of Nanami's father and mother.

One day Nanami will notice that her father often goes to Hiroshima.

So, she will visit Hiroshima with her friend to find what her father is doing there.

Then she will know .....

[edit] Characters

Minami Hirano - A female clerk living in a shanty town (a.k.a. A-bomb slum) in Hiroshima. She will make or repair her daily necessaries by herself for the saving, but according to her mother she is "all thumbs." In the movie, she is played by Kumiko Asou.
Ms. Furuta Minami's co-worker. In the first half of the book, Minami helps Ms. Furuta make a dress similar to a more expensive version she had seen in a shop window. Her first name is never mentioned.
Yutaka Uchikoshi - Minami's co-worker and love interest. Although the two care for each other deeply, Minami is reluctant to return Uchikoshi's affection because she is an atomic bomb victim. By the time the two realize their feelings for each other, Minami becomes gravely ill from radiation poisoning.
Fujimi Hirano - Minami and Asahi's mother, also a seamstress. In Town of Evening Calm, Minami describes her as having been temporarily blind immediately following the bombing of Hiroshima. She outlives her husband and all of her children, with the exception of Asahi.
Asahi Ishikawa - Minami's younger brother, and Nanami's father. When he was fostered out to Mito, he took the last name of the family he lived with. It wasn't until after Minami died that he began returning to Hiroshima; prior to her death, his fear and memories of his hometown kept him from going back. In later chapters he makes frequent excursions to Hiroshima to learn more about Minami's life, but because he leaves without telling his children, they suspect he is becoming senile.
Nanami Ishikawa - Asahi's daughter and a main character in the second half of the story. One night she tails her father on one of his "outings," only to discover that he has been visiting Hiroshima. In following him she slowly learns more and more about her family's history. Later, Asahi tells her that she reminds him greatly of his late sister, Minami. In the movie, she is played by Rena Tanaka.
Nagio Ishikawa - Asahi's son and Nanami's younger brother. In his youth, he suffered from asthma. It is revealed in the second part of Country of Cherry Blossoms that he is in a relationship with Nanami's friend Toko, but that her parents warned him to stay away from her because he was the son of an atomic bomb victim.
Toko Tone - Nanami's childhood friend. After receiving a note from Nagio that he could no longer see her, she resolves to follow Nanami to Hiroshima. While Nanami learns more about her family, Toko visits the peace park in the hopes that she can convince her parents to like Hiroshima, and from there allow her to see Nagio.
Kyoka Ota - A girl from the shanty town who helps Fujimi after Minami dies. Her teachers assume that she is slow because of the atom bomb. However, Asahi tutors her and she improves. When she grows up, they become engaged. She is Nanami and Nagio's mother. She died four years before the events of Part I.

[edit] Reception

The story has been praised for its brevity and its "depiction of 'the dark shadow of war'" by the reviewers of the Japan Media Arts Festival.^[2]

The simple artwork has been praised by The Comics Journal.^[3] Comic World News has called the story "humane" and "profoundly moral", and praised the characterisation as being "real".^[4] Publishers Weekly named it one of best ten manga of 2007.^[5]

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms has been translated into Hangul under the title "저녁뜸의 거리", into Chinese Traditional under the title "夕嵐之街櫻之國", both in 2005, and French as "Le pays des cerisiers" in 2006, and as well as English in 2007. The story was adapted into a live-action movie, released in July 2007.^[6] A 175 page novelisation, with a cover featuring the film's actors, was also released at this time.^[7]