Ito Awa, a 30-year-old essayist, published a new book, “Majo ni Naritai” (“I Want to Be a Witch”), at a milestone age. In a two-part conversation with literary critic Watanabe Yuma, she discussed her own life, her insistence on writing in her own words, and the essay about reconciling with her Senegalese father, whom she had effectively cut off.
Watanabe said he had reread her work for the occasion and found three pillars: family, events at her part-time jobs, and friends. Ito agreed, saying she has mostly written about the family she lived with for years — her father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and younger brother — and about people close to her and things that happened at work.
The note essay “Papa to Watashi” (“Papa and Me”), which brought her attention, began with a huge fight with her Senegalese father that left them nearly estranged. By the end of “Majo ni Naritai,” the two had reconciled, closing what Watanabe called the “father — estrangement edition” after five books.
“It's like, ‘Act One: complete,’” Ito said, laughing. She said that in terms of both age and experience, she felt her “first round” had ended.
A marriage, and a message sent late at night
Watanabe suggested that rather than a clear reason, a switch had simply flipped in Ito, and asked whether her marriage was a major factor. She said it was very large. She married in December, and it let her feel that her life was not only her own.
Family, she said, attaches to you from birth. But growing up, forming your own views, and then building a new family with someone you met on the basis of those views felt like a kind of culmination.
One night she sent her father a message on LINE, the messaging app, while drunk, and he replied a few days later. He barely uses LINE, but had happened to open the app and was startled to find a message from her.
The message had arrived only three days earlier, so he called her in a fluster, she said.
Asked whether she had ever been to Senegal, Ito said she never has, but plans to go next year on her honeymoon. Her father is due to move to Senegal next year, so by the time she visits he expects to be living there as a Senegalese resident.
“I want people to know that there are also ‘quiet, dark halves’ out there.”Ito Awa, essayist