{"id":124,"date":"2022-08-29T05:06:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T05:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124"},"modified":"2022-08-29T05:06:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T05:06:37","slug":"a-wonderful-memento-by-teruko-okura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"A Wonderful Memento"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I can\u2019t for the life of me remember how I first heard about Teruko Okura, but maybe this ghostly appearance is appropriate to her work. Okura is one of Japan\u2019s first female mystery writers (According to wikipedia, the first to be published in paperback. I have not confirmed this). She also has an amazing literary pedigree. She first studied under Futabatei Shimei, the man credited for writing Japan\u2019s first modern novel, and after Futabatei was sent to Russia, under Natsume Soseki. Yeah, that Natsume Soseki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okura moved abroad after marrying a diplomat (whom she later divorced), where she fell in love with the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Upon returning to Japan, she began writing mystery stories which were extremely well received. Kikuchi Kan praised her first collection as \u201cincomparable\u201d and said \u201ceach piece is full of ghastly force.\u201d As with most early mystery writing, the lines between science and the supernatural were always blurry. Sometimes this might feel a bit cliche to a modern reader, but it\u2019s also really, really fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story I\u2019m sharing today, <a href=\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Wonderful-Memento.pdf\">A Wonderful Memento<\/a>, falls into one of my favorite genres: a scary story about telling a scary story. While technically I guess it\u2019s a mystery story (there\u2019s a detective and everything), it feels almost like a ghost story. The atmosphere is creepy and you just get the sense that there\u2019s something around the corner, waiting to startle you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of twenty-six of Okura\u2019s stories that are available on Aozora Bunko. These stories are fairly easy to track down in print as well. One of her full-length novels, The Fastest Path of Death, is also available in a digital edition. I haven\u2019t made a concerted effort to track down her other work, but I\u2019m guessing it would require a good bit of library and used book store-hopping. I\u2019m also very curious about the more \u201cliterary\u201d works she put out before becoming a mystery writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy <a href=\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Wonderful-Memento.pdf\">A Wonderful Memento<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can\u2019t for the life of me remember how I first heard about Teruko Okura, but maybe this ghostly appearance is appropriate to her work. Okura is one of Japan\u2019s first female mystery writers (According to wikipedia, the first to be published in paperback. I have not confirmed this). She also has an amazing literary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kalau Almony\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-29T05:06:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-29T05:06:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jjkalm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jjkalm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124\",\"name\":\"A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-29T05:06:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-29T05:06:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5d8a3f6ec8c0f96a6c7622985772f86c\"},\"description\":\"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Wonderful Memento\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/\",\"name\":\"Kalau Almony\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5d8a3f6ec8c0f96a6c7622985772f86c\",\"name\":\"jjkalm\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a6f41df40c9d46c2badf470a3603030eb9b986409857dcc8911c3cd9839fc9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a6f41df40c9d46c2badf470a3603030eb9b986409857dcc8911c3cd9839fc9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"jjkalm\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony","description":"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony","og_description":"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.","og_url":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124","og_site_name":"Kalau Almony","article_published_time":"2022-08-29T05:06:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-29T05:06:37+00:00","author":"jjkalm","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jjkalm","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124","url":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124","name":"A Wonderful Memento - Kalau Almony","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-08-29T05:06:31+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-29T05:06:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5d8a3f6ec8c0f96a6c7622985772f86c"},"description":"A Wonderful Memento by Teruko Okura. Translation from the Japanese by Kalau Almony.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?p=124#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Wonderful Memento"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/","name":"Kalau Almony","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5d8a3f6ec8c0f96a6c7622985772f86c","name":"jjkalm","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a6f41df40c9d46c2badf470a3603030eb9b986409857dcc8911c3cd9839fc9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a6f41df40c9d46c2badf470a3603030eb9b986409857dcc8911c3cd9839fc9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"jjkalm"},"url":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalaualmony.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}