While the themes of Takaoka's travels were mature, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa broke the seriousness of some of the content with the book's hilarious and episodic style of storytelling.

While this book is the account of the travels of Prince Takaoka who was very much a historical person, and features other historical characters, it owes more, as we shall see, to Sinbad the Sailor than historical fact, as the story is clearly fanciful, with imaginary animals, strange people and events and a lot going on that clearly has little or no basis in historical reality. Interestingly, Sindbad and Takaoka are more or less contemporaries. Apart from a short story, it is the only book by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa to have been translated into English.

Prince Takaoka has been obsessed with the idea of travelling to Hindustan since he was a child. He was the son of Emperor Heizei but though only a child, he is enamoured of one of his father’s concubines, Kusuko. Indeed, despite their respective ages,there is some sexual play between the two. However, Kusuko tells him stories of faraway places and, in particular, Hindustan, where the Buddha came from. She forecasts that he will eventually go there.

However , a power struggle takes place and Heize takes the tonsure and Takaoka is no longer heir apparent. When he is in his twenties, he too shaves his head and renounces the world. Though he is a Buddhist, he remains exclusively obsessed with the idea of Hindustan. He becomes a disciple of the monk Kūkai. When he reaches his sixties, he decides to travel and applies to the Emperor for permission to travel round Japan. But the pilgrimage never happens. Instead he changes his request and asks for permission to travel to the Tang Empire. Sixty monks travel with him. Two monks, Anten and Engaku, are his key associates. However just before they are to leave, a boy comes rushing up to the ship and begs for protection as he is a slave who has run away from his master. Takaoka agrees to take him with them and calls the boy Akimaru (it means autumn)as he had had a page boy with that name.

We now follow their travels and, inevitably they have problems. Getting becalmed but also heavy winds and rain. As we head south, things will occur that we could never have imagined back in Japan. Perhaps the world itself will turn upside-down!. The first place they reach is Nhật Nam, in modern-day Vietnam. As we are to discover the political geography of South-East Asia is, not surprisingly, very different from what it is today. There we find people drinking through their noses. They get violent and try to seize Akimaru. In doing so his clothes are torn revealing that he is not a boy. She, as we shall now have to call her, remains, however, disguised as a boy.

We also meet the first of many odd animals. They spot a dugong and take it on board, something it willingly accepts. Akimaru talks to it in her language and the dugong soon learns the language and the two converse. We will meet the dugong again as well as many other exotic animals. Some are very much real but exotic to our travellers, such as elephants and tigers. Others are very much fanciful.

Anachronisms abound. The next exotic animal we meet is a somewhat temperamental talking great anteater. However the narrator comments The great anteater will be discovered roughly six hundred years from now, when Columbus arrives in what will then be called the New World. So how can we be staring at one here and now? Can’t you see its very existence defies the laws of time and space? The anteater itself gives an explanation.

From Vietnam they move to Tonlé Sap in modern-day Cambodia. In Cambodia they meet a man who offers to teke them to the harem of Jayavarman I. This is another anachronism as Jayavarman I lived two hundred years earlier. Could this actually be the more contemporaneous Jayavarman VII who built Angkor Wat but also constructed a system of lakes and canals which our heroes have to negotiate? The harem, whoever it belongs to, turns out to be something of a surprise and is guarded by a talking white ape.

We continue to Panpan in modern-day Malaysia, where we meet an animal whose diet consists of dreams.

The travels continue around places which are seemingly unknown to us but a quick check on Wikipedia reveals their modern location and political structure, so we can easily chart their travels which seem somewhat chaotic. Of course their journey is not straightforward, with becalming, shipwreck and even attacks by ghosts. However everywhere they go, they will encounter strange and imaginary fauna and flora, peoples with decidedly odd customs and often odd biology. They generally come across Buddhists on their travels. We will also find that the boundaries between the dead and the living and reality and dreams are very fluid. But will they get to Hindustan? At one point the Prince can no longer see his reflection, apparently a sign that he will die within a year and he meets Kūkai, his guru who has been dead for thirty years who confirms this. He does come up with a very highly imaginative way of making the final leg of the journey but will it work?

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and highly colourful and imaginative story. With many of the characters and places having a historical basis, it is not all fantasy, though clearly a lot is. I have no doubt that Shibusawa consulted various myths and legends, both Japanese and others, but, I have no doubt, much of the work clearly comes from his obviously fertile imagination, giving us a highly entertaining read.

A fantastic tale of the real historical figure of Prince Takaoka, as he tries to reach Hindustan from his native Japan. The book is written as a series of short stories that provide glimpses to the main events along his journey. Each is a blend of real, fantastical, fanciful, and dream-like. The boundary between reality and dream is never clear, making the book all the more interesting, as the reader is kept on their toes. The closes analogue is perhaps Gulliver's Travels, but with more sexual themes and even more whimsy, and peppered by Socratic dialogues between the Prince and his travel companions.

Overall, I liked the stories - they all had something quite unusual and fantastic, making me sit up while reading it, encountering a new idea. The effect of these events on the Prince is also interesting, helping the reader learn about a fascinating personality, that is quite exploratory, open-minded, and courageous.

The main issue for me in this book was the translation. It felt wooden and mechanical. Almost soul-less. It really did a disservice to what otherwise can be a magical flight of fancy. It got better as the story unfolded, but I always struggled to see the story through the bad translation. The word-choice was often weird (taking me physically aback - as if the translator used a dictionary without fully understanding what was happening), the phrasing was off, and the descriptions were laconic. A better translation would have made this a real gem, that is far easier to read.

I would recommend to people interested in Japanese literature (the author's life-story deserves its own novelisation!), and those interested in magical realism set in the 9th century, in a vastly different context to that of the West.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I feel like "Takaoka's Travels" was a nice blend in history, culture and magical realism. As a child, I heard about Prince Takaoka, and how he was, allegedly, killed by a tiger in his travel to India. To read more about this figure in a "fantasy" setting, made it amazing to read.

I don't know if the translation made it more difficult to follow, but sometimes, I mixed up facts and the voices felt similar to eachother.

Still, I'd recommend it.

Prince Takaoka sets out in search of the Buddha, but perhaps he does not need to go that far. His travels and especially all his dreams are a fundamental part of the dreamlike atmosphere of the book, which, however, unfortunately bored me.

Il principe Takaoka parte alla ricerca del Buddha, ma forse non gli serve andare tanto lontano. I suoi viaggi e soprattutto tutti i suoi sogni sono parte fondamentale dell'atmosfera onirica del libro, che peró, purtroppo a me ha annoiato.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Stone Bridge Press for an advance copy of this fantasy novel with a lot of travel and many wonders, the first translation into English by a very renowned Japanese author.

As one writes the reality of one's surrounds tend to make there way onto the the page. Fiction, nonfiction, fantasy or history, the experiences of the author, the life and times, highs and lows begin to show. One can start with a firm idea, this book will go from A to B to C, and end this way. Once the implement hits the page, or the fingers type the words, all bets are off. When one knows an author this is apparent, but when is new to a writer, or even in translation, this can be missed. One might enjoy the story but not get the story, or even wonder why something that seemed so linear went so askew. And became something even more beautiful and full of meaning. Takaoka's Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa and translated from Japanese by David Boyd seems a book of magical realism about travels around Asia, but by the end becomes something far more.

Prince Takaoka grew up in a life of privilege, with every desire given to him. Takaoka's days were spent in leisure, or with an older woman who he loved, who shared stories about the countries far from Japan. Until she went away, leaving him with a strange story. Takaoka's father backed the wrong person in a game of politics, and Takaoka to survive becomes a monk. After a few years Takaoka asks for permission to travel to China, which takes time, and from there permission to travel to India, which takes more time. The day they leave his party of three if joined by a runaway slave boy, who talks of a mean master, but has secrets of his own. Upon landing they are attacked by tall men, and this only the start of their odd adventures in lands not their own, with a strange feeling that Takaoka is missing something.

The story is really well written in a style that seems removed as if told by a court chronicler to a group of people. However underneath it all is strong love of life, and an emotional feelings keep coming to the surface while reading, that one does not expect. Even in translation this comes across, so I must praise the translation. Upon reading some of the endnotes certain points of the story make sense, I won't ruin it, but suddenly odd things and choices fit perfectly, and even if at all possible hit harder. There is a love of life here, that magic is all around us if we just look, and don't wait until it is too late.

This is not a long work, but I found myself slowly reading different passages, and upon finishing reading the last third once again. I really enjoyed this work. I'm not sure if it is for everybody, but this will be one of the books I will recommend quite often.

A very strange story full of magical realism, Takaoka's Travels felt somewhere between a historical retelling and a fantasy adventure. After learning that Tatsuhiko Shibusawa was dying when he wrote the book it was easier to empathize with Prince Takaoka's story and desperation to reach India. It was also interesting seeing Hiromi Kawakami's quote that she loved Takaoka's Travels and it inspired one of her characters since I love People From My Neighborhood and how it blends surrealism into everyday life.

In “Takaoka’s Travels” by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, readers are swept into a mesmerizing narrative that combines the allure of travel with profound introspection. The story follows the journey of Takaoka, a prince-turned-monk on a quest for both external adventure and inner enlightenment from Japan to Hindustan (India).
The author crafts a narrative that is as much about the landscapes Takaoka traverses as it is about the landscapes of his own mind. Takaoka encounters with a diverse array of eccentric characters and mystical occurrences. Each encounter and experience challenges his preconceptions, leading to profound insights and moments of clarity.

For lovers of fantasy, “Takaoka’s Travels” is an exquisite masterpiece presented in the form of a surreal literary journey, making it an essential read that captivates the imagination and delights the senses.

I like the thematic work this was trying to cover but the translation was not good. It was over written and felt very unnatural.

As much as I normally really, really, enjoy translated works this one feels extremely over-written and I don't know if that's due to the translator or just how the work is written in original text. Not to be too critical but it's just impossible to tell what the actual fault was.

Unfortunately the book moves very quickly between characters and inserts anecdotes in the middle of stories that are already happening. Making it very difficult to follow along with what the main part of the story is. I'm sure that for some people this won't be an issue but for me it was very difficult to keep up with as I tried to parse who was doing what and when.

I feel that maybe I would better be able to follow this as an audiobook if I wanted to try and listen to it to try and revisit reading it again. But as for right now it's not something my library will be picking up.

Takaoka’s Travels is unlike any other book I’ve read. In the afterward, it’s described as a “cabinet of curiosities,” which is a good way to put it. Each section of the book is its own story, sometimes somewhat separate from the others, other times referencing earlier sections. It’s unclear what parts are dreams and what parts are reality. It had some rather bizarre sexual scenes, but the afterward discusses the original author having been tried in Japan for obscenities in a different translated work, so perhaps this is intentional (like a stick it to the man type of thing). It was an odd but interesting read.