Q061: What are some of your favorite books? In a past interview you mentioned having read historical novels and biographies on famous people...do you admire anyone now? What is your favorite historical period and why?
A061: Ha ha ha. I read biographies of famous people when I was kid, between the ages of seven and ten. I really liked the biographoes of politicians and generals. Those of Nobunaga Oda (a Japanese shogun), Nopleon and Hitler etc appealed to me the most. I would read about how these dictators all failed with their dreams half-realized, and I dreamed of becoming a dictator myself - except I would not repeat their mistakes. I started reading these biographies because my mother got tired of me constantly reading Manga and she started buying biographies for me to learn something from. That led to the birth of a child who dreamt of becoming a dictator - maybe she should have let me stick with the Manga. I forgot that childhood dream when I encountered music. I used to love reading and would read everything. At one period, I read lots of foreign literature, but I came to realise that I should really read it in the original if I wanted to appreciate it fully, so now I read much less foreign literature. I still love lots of Japanese literature, particularly that from the late 19th century up to the 1950s, because the literary style of this period are really beautiful. In terms of literary genres, I like fantasy and detective novels. Many of them I read over and over again. There are too many favorite authors to mention, but here are just a few : Kobo Abe, Shiro Kunieda, Seishi Yokomizo, Rampo Edogawa, Kyusaku Yumeno, Futaro Yamada. I am also a huge fan of the uniquely written erotic literature of Koichiro Uno.