For instance, my Japanese-born translator read the manuscript for mistakes. He questioned the details around Utamaro's imprisonment. "It was not possible to visit a prisoner," he said. But I got all that information from a Princeton PhD on punishment in the Edo period, all of which was written from original sources. His innate impression was inaccurate and the visit of Hokusai and Oei to the jail is, I believe, quite realistic.

Similarly, a woman I know was born in the Yoshiwara district in Edo. She was the daughter of a doctor, middle class. But there were remnants of the brothel culture still. She too read the novel for errors. She was bothered by a mention I made somewhere of a serviette. "They would not have used one," she said. However, she loved the courtesans' slang. "You got it just right!" she said.

JC: Is there some piece of advice about writing or the writing life that you wish someone had given you when you first began your journey as a novelist?

KG: It can be a lonely life. No one mentioned that to me. They were too busy telling me I could not make a living! I love having a project that involves me in a community. Earlier in my career this was the community of writers. Now I am involved more with human rights, with immigrants and museums.

Here's another surprise: when I started to write and publish, at the end of the 1970's, we didn't think a lot about the viability of our work. Now a writer has to be quite entrepreneurial. Most of us were naive and expected somehow that publishers could unload thousands of literary novels on an unsuspecting public without us trying to please. Now a writer has to be quite entrepreneurial. We are sliding to the opposite extreme and sales seem to be all that matters. Somewhere there should be a balance. Maybe we're working toward it.

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