Hoshi to Matsuri

[Machine Translation] Company president Kikiyama loses his precious daughter in an accident on Lake Biwa. His daughter's body has not been recovered even after seven years. Unable to accept death, Kikayama sees it as a period of "struggle" that exists between life and death, and begins a dialogue with his daughter in his mind. One day, he is invited by Omiura, the father of the young man who died with his daughter, to an old temple near Lake Biwa, where he encounters the eleven-faced Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. Hearing that "Kannon is a Buddha in training who has taken it upon himself to save people from their troubles and suffering," Kikiyama becomes captivated by the eleven-faced Kannon and begins to visit the eleven-faced Kannon by the lake. In the meantime, he is invited to a moon-watching trip in the Himalayas, and decides to go to the Himalayas to have a private dialogue with his daughter. Kikiyama feels "Eternity" in the snow-capped mountains, which shine divinely in the moonlight. Kikayama accepts his daughter's death as "fate" and tries to overcome his grief, while Omiura joins his hands to repose the souls of the dead. Through these two fathers, this moving full-length novel painstakingly depicts "how to mourn for loved ones.

会社社長の架山は琵琶湖の遭難事故で、大切な娘を失う。娘の遺体は七年経っても上がってこない。死を受け入れられない架山は、それを「生と死」の間に存在する“もがり”の期間と捉え、心の中で娘との対話を始める。ある日、娘とともに死んだ青年の父親・大三浦に誘われ、琵琶湖近くの古寺で十一面観音に出会う。「観音が人間の悩みや苦しみを救うことを己に課している修行中の仏様である」と聞いた架山は、十一面観音の虜となり、湖畔の十一面観音を巡り始める。そんな中、ヒマラヤでの観月旅行に誘われ、娘と二人だけの対話を持つために、ヒマラヤ行きを決心する。月光を受け、神々しく輝く雪山に「永劫」を感じた架山は―。娘の死を「運命」と受け止め、悲しみを乗り越えようとする架山と、死者の霊を祀り「鎮魂」するためにひたすら手を合わせる大三浦。二人の父親を通して、「愛する者の弔い方」を丹念に描き切った感動の長編小説。