Waseda University graduate Haruki Murakami wrote A Wild Sheep Chase in 1981. The book won the Noma Literary Award for new writers, and latter on Mr. Murakami also won a Tanizaki prize for one of his newer novels.1 Sheep Chase is a Fantasy / Detective novel set in early eighties Japan. An interesting thing about this book is that none of the characters have names. They are all referred to by their relationship the main character (my girlfriend, my ex-wife, my business partner), or by they’re profession (the chauffeur, the hotel owner). The two pivotal characters in the book are ‘the boss’ and the narrator.

‘The boss’ was a solider in the Japanese army during WWII who participated in the invasion of China. After the defeat of Japan a US lead war commission brought ‘the boss’ to trial for war crimes, but the charges were dropped when US doctors discovered the he had developed a massive brain tumor and probably only had a few weeks left to live. However after ‘the boss’ was freed he didn’t become ill at all. In fact ‘the boss’, who had only been a barely literate grunt was completely changed:

“…When he was released from prison, he had risen to the top, in every sense of the word… He had charisma, a solid ideology, powers of speech making to command a passionate response, political savvy, decisiveness, and above all the ability to steer society by using the weaknesses of the masses for leverage.” - Murakami, 117

‘The boss’ also had prophetic visions where he gained insight that he used to put together a clandestine empire that controls all of Japan and much of the modern world. The same empire was responsible for the relative peace that the world has enjoyed since 1945. In all of his visions there was a constant presence, a small, gray, pudgy sheep with a patch of black fur that looks like a star. ‘The boss’ was intrigued by this and studied sheep as a hobby for 40 years and the only thing he discovered is that there is no known breed of sheep that ever existed anywhere in the world that corresponds to the animal from his dreams.

The story begins in 1981, ‘the bosses’ brain tumor has become active again and put him into a coma. His ‘black-suited secretary’, who is a 5’10” Japanese-American with a personality akin to Darth Vader, is now running the empire. One day the secretary orders for the narrator who is a 29 year old co-owner of an advertising company to be brought to him. The ‘black-suited secretary’ tells the narrator about ‘the boss’ and the mysterious animal. The Narrator becomes confused and demands to know what this has to do with him. The other man then takes out a blown-up photograph that the narrator had recently used in an advertising campaign for a life insurance company. The picture is a country scene with mountains in the background and a meadow in the foreground, and in that meadow there are sheep. The man then uses a magnifying glass to point out one animal, a small gray pudgy sheep of a breed that doesn’t exist with a patch of black fur that looks like a star. Finally the ‘black-suited secretary’ charges the narrator with a mission. Find that sheep before ‘the boss’ dies, or you and those close to you will suffer the consequences.