Motoyuki Shibata is always ready to listen to writers’ voicesMotoyuki Shibata is always ready to listen to writers’ voices Motoyuki Shibata still clearly remembers his first encounter with literature in English. He was 12 years old and his English textbook included a modified version of Lafcadio Hearn’s short story, “Mujina.” To this day, Shibata remembers the first sentence: “Kinokunizaka was a long slope in Tokyo.” “Although I couldn’t articulate it at th
