The Woman in the Dunes - Machi Abe [80]
He might as well put off his escape until sometime after that.
JUDGMENT
CLAIMANT: Niki Shino
MISSING PERSON: Niki Jumpei
DATE OF BIRTH: March 7, 1924
A declaration of disappearance concerning the above-mentioned party having been filed, the procedure of public notice having been fulfilled, and the unascertainability of either the existence or the death of the person in question from August 18, 1955, for seven years hence, having been recognized, the following decision has been handed down.
DECISION
Niki Jumpei is hereby declared missing.
October 5, 1962
COURT OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS
SIGNATURE OF JUDGE
NOTIFICATION OF MISSING PERSONS
NAME OF PERSON: Niki Jumpei
DATE OF BIRTH: March 7, 1924
In view of the fact that a notice of missing person(s) has been filed by Niki Shino (mother), notification of the existence of the missing party should be made to this court by September 21, 1962. In the event of no further report, the said person will be pronounced missing. Anyone knowing anything about the person in question is requested to report to this court by the above date.
February 18, 1962
COURT OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS
About the Author
Kobo Abé was born in 1924 in Tokyo and grew up in Mukden, Manchuria, during World War II. In 1948 he received a medical degree from Tokyo Imperial University, but he never practiced medicine. Abé is considered one of his country’s foremost novelists. His books have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been best sellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man, and Secret Rendezvous. Abé is also widely known as a dramatist. He died in 1993.
About the Translator
E. Dale Saunders, translator of Kobo Abé’s The Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another, and The Ruined Map, received his A.B. from Western Reserve University (1941), his M.A. from Harvard (1948), and his Ph.D. from the University of Paris (1952). He was Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, having previously taught at International Christian University, Tokyo, and at Harvard University. Among his publications are Mudra: A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture (1960) and Buddhism in Japan (1964). He died in 1995.
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