👑 国宝 (上) 👑 - Advanced Book Club - Home Thread

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1

Welcome to the :crown: 国宝 (上) :crown: Book Club!

Join the Advanced Book Club here !
Natively link

国宝 tells the story of a boy from a yakuza family that becomes a renowned kabuki actor. There is a movie adaptation, who was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and was released in Japan in June. It has been selected in the Best International Feature Film for the 98th Academy Awards, which will take place on March 15th, 2026. We plan to read the first book within the official ABC,and hopefully finish the second book in a spin-off club.

There’s also a manga adaptation.

View the nomination post here

cover_image_23098_0cd2bd348a
cover_image_23098_0cd2bd348a454×640 54.3 KB

Where to find

Amazon Kindle JP
Amazon Audible JP
Amazon JP
Honto
Rakuten
BookWalker
Kinokuniya JP
eBook Japan
CD Japan

Schedule

The book seems to have been written specifically for the book club, with 10 chapters of either 39 or 40 pages each.

Proposed schedule

Week Chapter # of pages Digital edition %
Week 1 - Nov 15 Chapter 1 39 pages 11%
Week 2 - Nov 22 Chapter 2 39 pages 21%
Week 3 - Nov 29 Chapter 3 40 pages 30%
Week 4 - Dec 6 Chapter 4 40 pages 40%
Week 5 - Dec 13 Chapter 5 40 pages 50%
Week 6 - Dec 20 Chapter 6 40 pages 60%
Week 7 - Dec 27 Chapter 7 40 pages 70%
Week 8 - Jan 3 Chapter 8 40 pages 80%
Week 9 - Jan 10 Chapter 9 39 pages 90%
Week 10 - Jan 17 Chapter 10 39 pages 100%

Vocabulary

Auto-generated lists created with this program.

Vocabulary with translation
Vocabulary as JMDict ids - for downloading and importing in Bunpro (maybe other SRS ?)

Discussion Guidelines

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice

  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Character List

Membership

Will you be reading with us?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but I might start late
  • Maybe
  • No
0 voters
Which version will you be reading?
  • eBook
  • Paperback
  • Hardcover
  • Audio book
0 voters

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to be notified when weekly threads get posted!

5 Likes
2

@Magyarapointe Thank you for setting up this thread so quickly! Amazing schedule btw, I love it! :raising_hands:

Also a quick heads-up to BookWalker users: The book is currently 50% cashback if you buy for more than 1500円 (if you buy both parts, that’s sufficient). Guess what I just acquired :grin:

4 Likes
3

Hey there. Since I’ve just finished the previous advanced club and I feel the vocab list did help somewhat with the enjoyment I wanted to ask if you still plan to set something up?
Would probably soon start to pre learn the most common words I don’t know.

2 Likes
4

I’m really excited to read 国宝 as I’m a huge fan of the author!

Thank you for setting up this thread!

2 Likes
5

Ah, yes, sorry ! Here are the lists, with english translation and with JMDict id if you want to import them in Bunpro (I’m not familiar with importing into other programs, so you might want to check if the JMDict id can be used with your favorite SRS).
The lists are auto-generated with this program,so there’s probably a lot of not-too-useful vocabulary, though on the other hand, it doesn’t presuppose any specific vocabulary knowledge or level.

Vocabulary with english translation
Vocabulary as JMDict ids

2 Likes
6

I’m looking forward to it too ! I read パークライフ a long time ago. And the movie is getting a theatrical release here in France for Christmas, though this will leave me with a quandary : movie spoilers, or book only ?

2 Likes
7

Or read fast enough to be done with the book by Christmas :winking_face_with_tongue:

2 Likes
8

Both volumes ? That sounds like a challenge to me !

2 Likes
9

Yeah ok I can see that both volumes may be a bit tough :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
10

I didn’t know we had a release in France!
The other movies adapted from his novels (悪人、横道世之介、怒り）didn’t get one afaik, so I’m definitely going to the theaters for this one! Btw I’m totally in if you want to read both before Christmas, it’ll spice things up a little bit haha. I’m always in for a fun challenge :relieved_face:

2 Likes
11

I tried reading the free sample (from amazon) a little to get a feel for the novel. At least the sample for chapter one. And oh boy. All the place names in Kyuushuu, the names of the different groups, names for different traditional clothes. It really put me in my place. I hope the whole novel is not as hard as that beginning sample :frowning: .

新しき年の始はじめの初春の今日降る雪のいや重しけ吉事よごと
— yeah no idea what anything after 雪 means

If you want to read both until Christmas, I think you have your work cut out for you ^^.

EDIT: just to clarify, I read a little of this Amazon.co.jp: 国宝　試し読み版 eBook : 吉田　修一: Kindle Store

3 Likes
12

Don’t worry ! A quick google search told me this is a quote from the 万葉集😅. And judging from the first result page, the Japanese themselves need an explanation for this one…

I’ve also found , from reading another book where the author is way too fond of 当て字(小栗虫太郎, I’m looking at you !!) that sometimes if you don’t understand, ditching the furigana/当て字 and just taking in the kanji will help. 吉+ 事= good luck + thing, roughly. JMDICT has 吉事(きちじ/きつじ) as «auspicious event »

2 Likes
13

It’s by no means an “easy” read, but you have to challenge yourself sometimes haha.
Thanks for heads up!

2 Likes
14

(after much tinkering with scripts…) The thread for the first week is up !

2 Likes