The Times of Botchan

Jiro Taniguchi ("The Walking Man", "The Caucasian Elm") marries talent to a solid script by Natsuo Sekikawa to present us with "The Times of Botchan", a fresco of Japanese society towards the end of the Meiji period, when the country was beginning to open up to the West. What in hands of another author could have simply been an illustrated textbook becomes a narrative for adults of great artistic and historic significance. The writer Sōseki Natsume, who suffers from neurosis as a consequence of cultural shock, conceives of what will be his new book, "Botchan", as a response to the challenges of his time. Other famous characters of that time appear along with him in a portrayal of the political, social and cultural life of what was arguably the most important period in the history of Japan.