I finally went to Shimohondamachi (金沢下本多町), Kanazawa, to find the location of the cover image to my novel. Although I think I was able to locate it, as with most places 100 years old in Japan, the street is almost unrecognizable now.
The second photo shows the Shimohondamachi area of Kanazawa today, between the Great People of Kanazawa Memorial Museum and the Ishikawa International Salon, where in 1921 Kawase Hasui rendered this spot as part of his second collection of paintings in his series Souvenirs of Travels.
You can match where the walls in the woodblock print curve with the curve in the same (widened) road in my photo. Also, where the telephone pole is in the print, a lamppost now stands. Finally, the four rows of rocks in the wall in the photo could well have been three rows in the painting 102 years ago. Unfortunately, the beautiful trees along the road are long gone, and the same could almost be said for young women in kimono holding traditional sun parasols.
Photos 3-5 show a newly published book in Japanese by Daiya Hashimoto titled Immerse Yourself in English. Subtitled, “You Can Master English in 10,000 Hours,” it includes recommendations of 30 books in English to read. I’m honored for Kanazawa to be among those 30 books!
