Japan's romance-writing nun 'took vows too young'

By Isabel Reynolds

KYOTO, Japan (Reuters Life!) - It's hard to believe the tiny, shaven-headed figure who welcomes visitors into her home in the hills outside Kyoto with green tea and dainty sweets once scandalised Japan with her unconventional love life and novels dismissed as "porn" by the literary establishment.

Popular Japanese author turned Buddhist nun Jakucho Setouchi says she cannot explain why she changed course by taking her vows 35 years ago, but freely admits she got the timing wrong.

"I'm glad I did it, but it was a little bit early," the 85-year-old laughed in a recent interview in the ancient capital of Kyoto. "It was a bit of a waste. I had no idea I was going to live so long. I thought it would be 25 years at most."

Not that she spends her days in solitary contemplation.

A prolific writer, who also preaches and makes frequent television appearances, she is in huge demand on the lecture circuit as an expert on the 11th century epic romance "The Tale of Genji", which is celebrating its 1000th anniversary this year.

"Usually people who do bad things make good writers," she said in a February lecture at a Kyoto hotel. "I did a lot of bad things, which is why my novels are interesting."

Born on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, Setouchi led a conventional life until her mid-twenties, when she left her husband and child after starting an affair with a younger man. She later had a lengthy affair with a married man.

"The most important thing to write about in novels is love affairs," she said. "Corporations and politics -- none of that is interesting."