M/T and the Narrative About the Marvels of the Forest

M/T and the Narrative About the Marvels of the Forest (M/Tと森のフシギの物語, Emutī to Mori no Fushigi no Monogatari) is a novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, published in 1986. Like most of Ōe's later work, it features his mentally disabled son Hikari (光, light), although most of the story is focused on the mythological and actual history of the small village of Ose, located on the Shikoku island. He is trying to put into writing the oral traditions of the village, as told to him by his grandmother and the elders in the village. This is a mission he, according to the book, has been trying to accomplish since his youth. At times it felt like an impossible task, and as a boy he even tried to commit suicide by drowning to escape from it. The story goes back to the foundation of the village by ousted samurai youngsters, through a period in which the village was trying to hide its existence from the outside world, to more recent and accurate history about the time around the Meiji restoration.