Kirikirijin

"Kirikirijin" 吉里吉里人 (The People of Kirikiri or The Kirikirians - 1981) is Inoue Hisashi's major satirical novel, challenges the political, cultural and linguistic authority of Tokyo, by depicting the political separation for the Kirikiri people from the rest of Japan. The Tohoku dialect juxtaposes the fact that it is closely related with the Tokyo dialect (considered as ‘standard’ Japanese) with the fact that it is considered a rural, uneducated and backward dialect because of its sound. It defies Tokyo-centred culture and the homogenisation of individual experience, as well as celebrating imagination, independence and innovation

This novel has been considered as a main example of the current of Magic Realism in Japanese Literature. Other Japanese authors with considerable literary contributions to this genre are: Abe Kobo, Murakami Haruki, Yasunari Kawabata and Oe Kenzaburo.