Summer at Mount Asama
Japan

Summer at Mount Asama

by Masashi Matsuie

Coming of Age Fiction 2025

Summary

Set in Japan in the summer of 1982, Summer at Mount Asama follows Tōru Sakanishi, a recent university graduate who joins a prestigious architectural practice in Tokyo. Founded by Shunsuke Murai, a distinguished architect and former student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the firm is known for its thoughtful designs and quiet devotion to craftsmanship. When the team relocates to a mountain retreat near Mount Asama, they begin work on a competition to design the National Library of Modern Literature. As Tōru observes the creative process and the relationships among his colleagues, he encounters four remarkable women whose presence gradually transforms his understanding of love, ambition and adulthood. The tranquil mountain setting, with its changing light and natural beauty, offers a counterpoint to the professional rivalries and personal uncertainties unfolding around him. Through its subtle portrayal of architecture, memory and human relationships, Matsuie’s novel explores how places shape our lives and how the smallest encounters can influence the course of a future.

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Country
Japan
Asia
About the author
Masashi Matsuie
Masashi Matsuie

Masashi Matsuie is a Japanese novelist and former literary editor, born in Tokyo in 1958. Before becoming a novelist, he worked for the Japanese publishing house Shinchosha, where he edited works by prominent writers, including Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa and Banana Yoshimoto. He also helped establish Shincho Crest Books, an imprint dedicated to introducing international literature to Japanese readers. Matsuie made his literary debut in 2012 with Summer at Mount Asama, originally published in Japanese as Kazan no Fumoto de. The novel received the prestigious Yomiuri Prize for Literature, an unusual distinction for a debut work. Its thoughtful exploration of architecture, nature, artistic ambition and human relationships established him as a distinctive voice in contemporary Japanese fiction. His subsequent works include Sinking Francis (2013), Elegant or Not, I Don’t Know (2014), The Dog of Light (2017), which received the Kawai Hayao Story Award, and Foam (2021). His writing is admired for its restrained prose, close observation of everyday life and sensitivity to the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit.

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Details
Published
2025
Author
Masashi Matsuie