Fantastic elements, special families and feminine power in healing a study of yoshimoto bananas novels

Sigmund Freud says that a painful experience may lead to pleasure; a position similar to Aristotle’s,35 Freud’s statement: “The unreality of … the poetical world of imagination, however,

Chapter 1: Introduction

Yoshimoto’s Fiction and Popular Culture

Yoshimoto Banana was born in Tokyo in 1964 Her real name is Yoshimoto Mahoko She is the second daughter of Yoshimoto Takaaki, an influential intellectual in postwar Japan Unlike during her father’s generation, Yoshimoto Banana grew up in the late twentieth century when Japan had risen up to high material affluence and emerged as one of Asia’s advanced nations This was also a period when pop culture had become the dominant stream in literary consumption Traditionally high-culture products like

Junbungaku (pure literature) was no longer sought after by the young generation who

were brought up in the new cultural environment The appreciation or even obsession

with pop literary books like manga (comics) had in fact become one of the prominent

social phenomena in contemporary Japan

Young Japanese women grew up on shojo manga 1(teenage girls’ comics) that supposedly present a fantasy world for which they could escape into, seeking relieve from their normal routines Yoshimoto is able to create a similar channel using words rather than pictures, focusing on the topics of families, unusual relationships, telepathy, dream and death in her novels Some of these issues may sound surrealistic, but they are being described in Yoshimoto’s stories in a casual and natural tone The topics in her fiction reflect some aspects of young people’s life in the postmodern Japanese society

1 Pop musician Nanba Hiroyuki called the generation who born after 1960, “the pure literature of the

manga generation”, as large number of comic books have been published and widely read by children since

1960s

Hasegawa, Izumi ed., “Yoshimoto Banana: the Pure Literature of the ‘comic generation’” in The New

Female Writers Tokyo: Aoyumisha 1991 p319

After the burst of economic bubble, the forecast of a lackluster Japan, with uncertain prospects and a bleak future, loitered Economic terms like ‘recession’ and

‘unemployment’ dominated conversations But Yoshimoto’s writings abandoned its heavy, contemplative theme and spun out a tale of redemption, love, hope and renewal Her approach served as an optimistic response in opposition to the gloomy outlook of the day The combination of grief and recovery thus made her one of Japan’s preeminent young novelists and spurred the “Banana mania”2 that began with her first book, Kitchen

in 1987 Immediately, she attracted the attention of readers and critics and was awarded

The Prestigious Literary Journal Kaien’s Prize for new writers Many critics felt confused

and questioned the reasons behind Yoshimoto’s quick attainment of worldwide fame and success They further commented that the description “global”3 was in the “commercial and not literary sense.”4 That was to say, her books were highly valued in terms of cents and dollars rather than for its aesthetic value Yoshimoto had never won any major International literary prize Her books were translated into many languages and enjoyed

by readers around the globe Shortly after it was published, Kitchen sold two million

copies and had gone into more than sixty printings “Banana mania” was then storming

overseas and Kitchen was on bestseller lists in both the United States and Europe.5 Many scholars, both in her native country and abroad started to study the reasons behind the boom Among them, John Treat wrote many articles and related the “Banana

2 Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism.” In Lise, Skov & Brian, Momeran ed., Women Media and Consumption in Japan Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995 p274

3 In the article “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism”, John Treat

says that many critics wonder “among so many young writers in Japan why Yoshimoto is the first to go

global?” Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism”

in Women Media and Consumption in Japan Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995

4 Ibid, p278

5 Stated in the cover page of Kitchen Bachus, Megen tr., Kitchen, New York: Washington Square Press,

1993

phenomenon” to modern consumerism which dominated Japanese (especially among young people) cultural trend He was one of the critics who categorized Yoshimoto as a

‘perfect disposable’ author whom with her simple language and nostalgic sentiments

wrote stories of shojo and families 6

Matsuda Ryoichi, a writer and critic gave many explanations on Yoshimoto’s

writing style and compared it to that of manga He said her books were actually mangas

in the form of written words instead of pictures.7

Kimata Satoshi, a critic and also a fan of Yoshimoto’s books, said her simple language was indeed a lyrical poem that resonated with nature and primary sentiment of human beings.8

Yoshimoto’s writing achieved not only commercial success in the international scene but was also regarded to be the new breed of literature in Japan Critic and senior

novelist Nakamura Shinichiro added that “the book (Kitchen) is a product of abandon

completely indifferent to literary traditions and it strikes him (Nakamura) as a new sort of literature.”9 The new familial relations and structure in Kitchen suggest that Yoshimoto’s

protagonists and readers were seeking new kinds of lives to fit a new Japan The love and hope within these newly established families and relationships were deemed to be crucial

in helping both the protagonists and readers overcome depression and re-build their identities

6 Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism” in

Women Media and Consumption in Japan Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995

7 Matsuda, Ryoichi, Yamada Eimi, Ai no Sekai- Manga, Renai, Yoshimoto Banana Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki

1999 p30

8 Kimata, Satoshi, Yoshimoto Banana Yellow Page, Tokyo: Sanshusha, 1999 p2

9 Treat, John cited Fujimoto’s article Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and

Popular Culture, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996 pp276-77

Other than topics on family and relationship, Yoshimoto also showed her excellent communication skill through her characters and plots, which swayed between a

world of realism and a world of fantastic surrealism Her simple, manga-affected

narrative style and voluminous dialogue made the most of the language power to depict stories of loss and recovery, thereby connecting her protagonists and readers in the process of healing However, reviewers have rapped her for “superficiality,” saying her oddball characters were “too dramatic to reach, and creating protagonists who were often aimless and depressed.”10 They also criticized the lives of her characters as “full of foreign influences, as somehow un-Japanese.”11 Nonetheless, one should realize that most of her protagonists triumphed over despondency, finding optimism through the emotional therapy at the end of the day It did seem that the “healing effect” and decreasing “Japaneseness” of Yoshimoto’s books made up the qualities that reflected Japan- old and new, one of growing creativity and individualism Her novels echoed another facet of modern Japanese culture in their use of androgyny, surreal elements, and

psychic phenomena - all major motifs in Japanese manga, which served as explicitly

escapist entertainment for a pressured and workaholic society

Almost all of Yoshimoto’s stories are a blend of real and unreal On one hand, she depicts in detail the most daily and realistic activities in life and on the other hand, her stories speak naturally of supernatural forces in daily events Yoshimoto is adept at describing forces beyond humanly comprehensible means in the most genuine and

convincing manner in the world she creates She talks about events that people find themselves relating to, as they connect to the force that comes from within the mind and the subconscious Indeed, these supernatural forces serve as an accelerant in the process

of healing for the protagonists

In the following chapters of this thesis, I will explore the significant correlations among family, unusual relationships, supernatural elements and healing, which I found apparent in most of Yoshimoto’s novels

Characteristic and Narrative Style

Yoshimoto is said to be a writer of Japan’s generation X It is assumed in Japan that the majority of her readers are women from high school goers to approximately thirty

years of age Shojo manga is often indicated as the major influence on the themes and

style of Yoshimoto’s fiction.12 As John Treat has pointed out, “Yoshimoto’s stories, given their idiomatic kinship with billboards, television commercials, pop songs and fashion magazines, appear to those critics as an unconditional capitulation to the forces behind the production of popular culture and commercialization.” 13 Yoshimoto does not discredit Treat’s comment as she herself readily categorizes her writings as commodities that can be removed from store shelves after one has read them.14 She has been labeled as

a perfect pop-cultural disposable author as some even wonder if she is able to continue to

write and enjoy popularity with her simple, manga affected narrative style.15

12 Hiroyuki, Shima, ‘Yoshimoto Banana wa Kakitsukerareru ka’ (Can Yoshimoto Banana continue to

write?) in Bessatsu Takarakima 1988 pp.152-55

13 Treat, John W “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism” in Lise,

Skov & Brian, Momeran ed., Women Media and Consumption in Japan, Surrey: Curzon Press 1995 p 278-279

14 Yoshimoto, Banana, Fruits Basket, Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1990 p239

15 Hiroyuki, Shima, ‘Yoshimoto Banana wa Kakitsukerareru ka’ (Can Yoshimoto Banana continue to

write?) in Bessatsu Takarakima 1988

Yoshimoto admits that her writing is largely inspired by manga and her favorite

manga writers are Oshima Yumiko and Iwatate Mariko.16 As a result of manga influences,

Yoshimoto’s books are normally written in a simple style, and are usually told in the first person This has made her plots and characters more approachable and animated As

affected by manga, her narration is short and clean, with voluminous dialogues This

style has been criticized as “too light and sweet” and her plots are said to be cliché.17However, I argue that Yoshimoto’s writing should not be compared to that of Mishima Yukio’s, Kawabata Yasunari’s, and Tanizaki Junichiro’s in terms of its literary value, because Yoshimoto wrote from a completely different era, without the intention of writing high literature Most of her readers are high-school girls and office ladies who have attended two-year college Her fans are reportedly attracted to her works because they are easy to understand She tells her stories in a more casual-speaking language style

(shaberite) rather than a formal narrating style (takarite).18 She uses numerous

onomatopoetic and mimetic words, which are also inherited from manga books to

describe the inner world of her protagonists and nature Writing in a style that is both

“colloquial and real”19 has helped her books to sell by the millions

As I have observed, there are several consequences to her simple writing style Firstly, the colloquial narration serves as an easier form of communication for readers and therefore makes it more acceptable to a larger population Secondly, its explicit way

of writing has a lively quality and gives readers a deceptive sense of reality Thirdly, big,

16 Kimata, Satoshi, Yoshimoto Banana Yellow Page, Tokyo: Sanshusha, 1999 p16

17 Sherif, Ann, “Japanese without Apology: Yoshimoto Banana and Healing” in Snyder, Stephen & Gabriel,

Philip ed., Oe and Beyond-Fiction in Contemporary Japan Honolulu: University of Hawai’ I Press 1999

voluminous conversations in the first person narration makes her writing more vivid, akin

to having someone talking directly to readers, helping them release their tensions and thus achieve a better result in healing

Yoshimoto has a delicate hand in describing light and sound That has enhanced her power of depicting people’s inner world as well as the plot setting Below are

examples of how she uses “ao” (blue) to describe the feeling of “sabishisa”

(desolation/lonely) in some of her works:

a Blue-white, in Moonlight Shadow: “Through my curtains I would see the sky getting

lighter, blue-white, and I would feel abandoned in the chill and silence of dawn It

was so forlorn and cold, I wished I could be back in the dream.”20

b Blue, in Asleep: “Being with him (Iwanaga) always made me (Terako) feel

incredibly lonely I don’t know why, I’d always end up having these vaguely melancholy thoughts circling through my head - the kind of thoughts that you have when you’re gazing up the moon, full of longing, watching as it sinks deeper and

deeper into the blue depths of night, as it shimmers way off in the distance The sort

of thoughts that make you feel like you’ve been dyed completely blue, all the way to

the tip of your toenails.” 21

c Dark-blue, Asleep: “That’s how good a person she (Shiori) was, and how much fun

it was living with her She was fair… but her narrow eyes were as cloudy and dark

as a blue moon.” 22

The color of blue appears frequently in Yoshimoto’s writing It is not only used in describing the sight of nature but is also frequently applied to describe the emotions of

20 Backus, Megan tr., “Moonlight Shadow” in Kitchen New York: Washington Square Press, 1993 p112

21 Emmerich, Michael, tr., Asleep New York: Grove Press 2000 p136

22 Ibid, pp123-124

the protagonists ‘Blue-white’ in Moonlight Shadow (a) gives the reader a feeling of

lonesomeness and detachment It tells readers how the narrator, Satsuki feels when she

awakens in the early morning after losing her boyfriend in an accident In Asleep, when

Terako says that she feels completely dyed in blue (b) when watching the moon sink

deeper into the blue depths of night, she actually tells the reader she could sense the danger of her sleep sickness and that her life is sinking into a deep and uncertain darkness,

near to death Cloudy and ‘dark-blue’ (of Shiori’s eyes) (c) precisely describes the loss

and isolation Shiori feels after she experienced her clients’ sad dreams The protagonist’s sentiment is well portrayed through the subtle change of contrast of ‘blue’, and thus the characters in her stories are explicitly presented in front of the reader

In her novel, Kitchen, she uses the word “yami” (darkness) no less than

twenty-eight times to describe how the narrator, Mikage, feels when she loses her grandmother

and was left alone with no relatives According to the dictionary Koujien, one meaning of

“yami” is ‘the loss of the direction of future and despaired.’23 Although it may sound repetitive and simple, the word “yami” accurately portrays Mikage’s loneliness and her desperation of finding a new position in society and within her family

Similarly, the descriptions of sound are also effectively used in many of her

novels In Asleep, she writes:

“When he (Iwanaga) called, the ringing of the phone reverberated deliciously inside my head, the way music does when you listen to it through headphones.”24

The ring of Iwanaga’s call is not just a sound, but is a “delicious” signal that links Terako to the outside world It is so important that only the ring of his call can wake her

up and save her from the danger of going into an eternal sleep

To summarize, the manga affected writing style together with the use of fantastic

elements (ie supernatural happenings) in healing processes, which I will discuss in the later chapters, made her a distinctive woman writer in contemporary Japan

Themes and Motifs

Family and Relationships

Followed by the great success of her debut Kitchen, Yoshimoto subsequently published Utakata/ Sankuchuari (Fleeting Bubbles/ Sanctuary, 1988), A Sad Premonition (1988), Tsugumi (1989), Asleep (1989), N P (1990) and Amrita (1994) Most of these

novels touch on the topic of family and relationships

In her first novel Kitchen, Yoshimoto portrays an unconventional family which

the narrator, orphan Mikage, runs into Even without blood relations Mikage seems to be very comfortable in her new home and develops a close relationship with both the son (Yuichi) and the father/mother (Eriko) Mikage achieves her mental maturity not only by

practising her cooking skill in their kitchen but also finds herself a family and true love

The family in Yoshimoto’s writing is never a generic one, as writer Fujimoto points out: “there are only unconventional, abnormal families (in Yoshimoto’s works).”25Indeed there is nearly no permanent family (biological family with its fixed members) in

Yoshimoto’s fiction In her article “Family” she explains:

25 Treat, John cited Fujimoto’s article Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and

Popular Culture, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996 p292

“Wherever I go I end up turning people into a ‘family’ of my own That’s just the way I am, for better or worse, and I’ve got to live this way What I call a family is still a group of fellow-strangers who have come together, and because there’s nothing more to it than that we really form good relations with each other It’s hard for us to leave each other…”26

Here, Yoshimoto suggests that family can be formed by ‘group of strangers’ if they could build up good relations, exhibiting mutual care This family composition can

be found in her novel Amrita The family structure in Amrita has a sense of ‘secularity’

The complex family has five members, namely Sakumi (the narrator), her mother, her half-brother, her cousin and her mother’s childhood friend Her mother’s new boyfriend also frequently stays with them It’s no wonder Sakumi says that her home is like a

“boarding school.” 27 Each member lives quite independently, yet keeps a “good balance” according to Sakumi.28

The topic of family is hardly something new in literary writings However Yoshimoto has given a new meaning to the familiar subject by connecting it with the main theme of healing Families in Yoshimoto’s novels provide shelters for members to heal their wounds I will explore more about the family’s function in the healing process

26 Yoshimoto, Banana, “Family” in Fruit Basket, Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1990 p39

27 Wasden, Russell F tr., Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997 p2

28 Ibid, p2

realism, celebrating human resilience and establishing a special postmodern stature in Japanese fiction.29

The fantastic happenings in Yoshimoto’s novels are said to be inspired by

manga.30 Yoshimoto herself never denies it She likes to read Kaibutsu kun (the Monster) and Obake no Qtaro (The ghost Qtaro) when she was a small girl The extraordinary tales

in the manga books are described as unusual happenings in our daily life, like Doraemon

living harmoniously with Nobita’s family31 This is the kind of fantasy, which Yoshimoto likes and often adopts as one of the motifs in her fantasy stories In the form of fantasy, Yoshimoto manages to avoid tough confrontation of both inner and social conflictions Like what would capture the attention of the younger generation, she focuses on issues like problematic relationships, loss of beloved ones, alienation, and social taboos with a

light hand Just like the miracle rescue in Doraemon for children, Yoshimoto creates a

flight of the imagination for young adults

In Yoshimoto’s fiction, fantasy is often depicted in the form of supernatural happenings They are the most frequent reoccurrences in the forms of death, dream, and supernatural power These elements play an important role in her writings on the healing

process In Kanashii yokan (A Sad Premonition) Yoshimoto asserts that individuals who

can directly confront death and other seemingly overwhelming problems can survive and benefit from the new circumstances However, they need the support of caring people

Another example, which contains strange elements, is Moonlight Shadow, a story that

29 www.dailycelebrations.com/030901.htm , access in March 2005

30Treat, John cited Fujimoto’s article Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and

Popular Culture, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996 p278

31 Doraemon is a comedy manga series starting from year 1974 Doraemon is a robot cat who lives with

Nobita’s family(the main character of the manga) and helps Nobita solve a lot of problems Nobita, as a class weakling and dunce needs lots of rescuing and Doraemon is obliged to fix his situation

traces a young woman’s transition from despair after the death of her lover to a gradual

acceptance of life The characters in Kitchen, Mikage and Yuichi, are shaped by the death

of loved ones, but they mature as they come to terms with their grief

Yoshimoto’s message implies that painful pasts should not be erased but they can

be used to avoid mistakes and establish positive identities In her short story collection

Lizard, the protagonists are confused, carrying emotional baggage from their childhood

while searching for love in relationships that fail to resolve their problems Although lonely and alienated, they recognize that others are faced with the same feelings

Yoshimoto reveals the underlying depths of emotion and insight, as her story structure resembles that of fantastic tales such that heroes, male and female, are rescued

at the end They mature and find places under new conditions for themselves

Feminine Power

Other than special families and fantastic elements, feminine power is also one of the recurring topics in her writing As one of the preeminent female writers in contemporary Japan, Yoshimoto portrays many special women characters in her fiction For instance, Yuichi’s transsexual father/mother Eriko who assists Mikage’s recovery in

Kitchen and women healers like Lizard in Lizard and Saseko in Amrita Both women

have supernatural abilities They are not only able to heal physical traumas but also help the protagonists achieve mental well-being

because other recurring topics such as family, relationship, feminine power and fantastic elements have a close association with this major theme and help protagonists in achieving their final goal of healing

I was however, unable to find precise academic definitions for healing According

to Collins Dictionary, it means, “make or become well,” synonyms are “cure, mend, remedy and restore.”33 Healing in literature differs from what religion calls “salvation” or medicine calls a “cure”.34 Literature has a long history in performing spiritual healing Sigmund Freud says that a painful experience may lead to pleasure; a position similar to Aristotle’s,35 Freud’s statement:

“The unreality of … the poetical world of imagination, however, has very important consequences for literary technique; for many things which if they happened in real life could produce no pleasure can nevertheless give enjoyment in a play - many emotions which are essentially painful may become a source of enjoyment to the spectators and hearers.”36

That could well explain why books, which talk about healing, always attract a large number of readers According to a famous writer, Yumiyama Tatsuya, a broad interest in healing began in the 1970s in Japan This interest intensified across the new Japanese generation in the late 1980s, and became a fixture in the late 1990s That was

conflicting emotions (pain and pleasure) Adnan, Abdulla, Catharsis in Literature Bloomington: Indiana

University Press 1985 p31

36 Abdulla Adnan cited Freud’s article “The Relations of the Poet to Day-dreaming (1908) Adnan, Abdulla,

Catharsis in Literature Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1985 p31

also the time period that Yoshimoto published many of her affecting novels and earned her fame both in her native land and foreign countries Her novels are widely read and resonate with large group of readers, especially young readers who face problems in various forms,37 like problematic families and relationships under tough circumstances

Although in Japan, the topic of healing can be traced back to late 1970s, it only aroused attention at the collapse of the “bubble economy” in the 1990s 38 Healing and healing movements are booming in present day Japan, especially among the young They often stress on mental cures, which actually go far beyond the mere treatment of disease.39 This is because the suffering of the sick is not simply physical but always

involves a psychological element In Yoshimoto’s novel Helix,40 two protagonists discuss whether they should attend a healing seminar that allows the elimination of sad memories After a long discussion, they both agreed that it was more important to accept the ups and downs of life as a whole, rather than insist upon the need to forget the past The story tells readers that healing involves an experiential, physical comprehension of the meaning of life

The trend of healing can also be seen in bookstores New arts and literatures place

a strong emphasis on healing A large amount of material on healing is displayed in the sections of large bookstores Besides books and magazines, many workshops are selling healing commodities, which are purchased by high school girls who strongly believe in

their mysterious powers The healing goods are called Omamori (amulet) and they are

quite widely owned by young Japanese girls.41 They focus their interests on resolving issues arising from human relations, like romance and friendship Some of Yoshimoto’s

books talk about Omamori goods and the protagonists’ healing processes are closely

related to those healing goods 42 For example Chikako, the narrator in Blood and Water

could not withhold her affection when she touched the amulet her boyfriend Akira made She says:

“I wish you could have a chance to hold one in your hands, too… The first time I held the amulet in the palm of my hand, I could feel a squall of warm tears pass through the sky of my heart It felt so nice and sweet that it made my hand tingle.”43

Generally speaking, the healing goods Yoshimoto mentioned in her stories are believed to have the ability to create a sense of hope and are seen as a harmonizing force for the people who are seeking true harmony with friends, parents, and boyfriends, and the peace that this brings in the form of companionship, understanding, and love As reflected from Yoshimoto’s writing, the healing being sought in youths seems to be in tune with having harmony with nature, with others, and the sense of hope that comes with such harmony

In one of her novels Honeymoon, she tells the story of Manaka and her

emotionally scarred neighbor Hiroshi, whose parents left him with his gentle and caring grandfather to join a fanatic cult in the United States At the beginning of the novel, we learn that Hiroshi’s grandfather and his beloved dog Olive had died, and his father also died recently in a mass suicide The novel, which follows Manaka’s efforts to break

41 Yumiyama, Tatsuya, “Varieties of Healing in Present-Day Japan.” In Japanese Journal of Religious

Studies, 1995 22/3-4 p274

42 For example in Blood and Water & Small Fish

43 Sherif, Ann tr., “Blood and Water” in Lizard, New York: Washington Square Press, 1995 p107

through Hiroshi’s resentment, guilt, and fear, is “ultimately a tale of depression vs love and spiritual healing.”44

Yoshimoto’s writing actually performs the healing therapy by engaging her protagonists and readers in their whirlpool of encounters She presents the sense of hope

to readers when her protagonists complete their healing process According to Ann Sherif

(who translated Lizard), Dr Machizawa Shizuo, a psychiatrist in Tokyo says that even his most melancholy patients feel encouraged by Yoshimoto’s novels “They find in them

an optimism and brightness absent in their lives.” 45

Yoshimoto’s stories are closely based on the city life of young generation and feature on sufferings of ordinary people, and the journey in which they deal, solve and overcome the catastrophes All these relate to readers who have gone through depression,

as they are better able to express their experiences, pain, and eventually break away from the bondage of sorrow Yoshimoto’s analysis of the state of anguish is effective: grief brings depression, but it also brings relief The healing process involves setbacks, which can eventually be overcome Undeniably, the function of healing is prevalent in most of her works

I will further illustrate the fantastic elements such as death and dream in chapters two and three In chapter five, I will discuss feminine power and women characters in the healing process

44 www.dailycelebrations.com/030901.htm , Gaouette, Nicole “Combines Old and New Japan” Access in March 2005

45 Sherif, Ann, “Japanese without Apology: Yoshimoto Banana and Healing” in Snyder, Stephen & Gabriel,

Philip ed., Oe and Beyond-Fiction in Contemporary Japan Honolulu: University of Hawai’ I Press 1999

Chapter 2: Death in Healing Process

Death as the Beginning Scene

When reading Yoshimoto’s novels, readers may be perplexed by one element, which always appears in her plots, i.e death Death is one of the notable themes in Yoshimoto’s writings There are always staple scenes of death (both physical and virtual)

in her writings although they are sometimes being described very casually Normally, the protagonist has already lost her/his beloved one before the plot starts In the very

beginning of her story, Moonlight Shadow, Yoshimoto writes:

“Whenever he went, Hitoshi always had a little bell with him, attached to the case

he kept his bus pass in Even though it was just a trinket, something I gave him before we were in love, it was destined to remain at his side until the last.”46

This is a typical introduction of Yoshimoto’s stories A girl who loses her lover falls into absolute despair and loneliness Satsuki, a university student, becomes sleepless after her boyfriend, Hitoshi, perishes in a car accident She keeps mourning over his

death until one early morning of Hanabata 47, she witnesses his soul waving her bye from the other bank of the bridge where they last separated She is emotionally healed and resumes her normal routine after that

good-Although Hitoshi dies in the beginning of the story, Yoshimoto does not waste time elaborating on his death itself or on the detailed memories of their love story, but focuses more on the victims (Satsuki and her boyfriend’s brother, Hiiragi) who are left to

46 Backus, Megan tr., “Moonlight Shadow” in Kitchen , New York: Washington Square Press, 1993 p109

47 Hanabata is also called the Weaver Festival, held every year on 7th July

face reality Death is painful yet it becomes a fantasy journey for Satsuki and Hiiragi because they eventually manage to overcome it.48

In the story, Satsuki always sees Hitoshi off to a bridge, and the bridge is also the venue of their last meeting After Hitoshi’s death, Satsuki becomes sleepless in the early morning and starts her morning jogging The returning point of her routine jogging is the bridge Thus, in the realistic world, the bridge is a watershed separating death and life However, in the fantastic world, the bridge is a magic lieu49 for Satsuki to confront death and rebuild herself with a mature personality When Satsuki witnesses Hitoshi’s spirit standing on the other bank of the bridge waving her goodbye, Satsuki realizes that Hitoshi’s love is always with her and he wishes her to be happy Satsuki decides to accept the fact and lead a more positive life Instead of living in the shadows of the tragedy, she

is determined to stand firm on the grounds of reality

A similar tone is expressed in Yoshimoto’s masterpiece Kitchen There are issues

of life and death in the story, which we can all relate to On the first page of the novel, when Mikage was alone in her kitchen, she expresses her pain and loneliness “Now only the kitchen and I are left It’s just a little nicer than being alone.”50 On the next page, she tells the reader that, her parents had passed away when she was very young and recently she lost her only kin, her grandmother After losing her grandmother, Mikage feels utter emptiness She is lost, lonely and depressed Her soul longs for the comfort of another soul that is able to understand her torment The other person who shares the same loss is

48 Both Satsuki and Hiiragi encountered fantastic events: Satsuki met her dead boyfriend saying goodbye to her and Hiiragi’s uniform was taken away by his dead girl friend After the two events, Satsuki and Hiirage started trying to put their beloved death in the past They are finally able to piece themselves together and start for new life

49 Backus, Megan tr., Kitchen , New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.pp145-146

‘A magic lieu’ refers to the bridge where Satsuki meets Hitoshi’s spirit after he died in the day of Hanabata

50 Ibid, p4

Yuichi, another main protagonist in the story In the second part of the story, Yuichi’s mother, Eriko, (actually his transsexual father) is killed by a deranged individual Therefore, Yuichi faces identifiable pain and depression, which Mikage has gone through The two orphans feel as though death surrounds them and they cannot escape However, the death of their beloved ones also makes them bond closer to each other Both of them achieve personal growth by sharing the same experience and mutual support The novel

Kitchen is a model of Yoshimoto’s healing process, which opens with death/loss, goes

through the process of finding love/family and finally achieves healing In the quest of finding new love and family, Mikage meets with caring people, Yuichi and Eriko who not only provide her shelter but also support her mental recovery With their help, Mikage’s personality strengthens as she grows up to be an independent person (she gets a job) At the same time she finds hope, as she knows that even without her grandmother, she is not going to be alone

In her subsequent novels, Utakata/ Sankuchoari (Bubbles/Sanctuary), A Sad

Premonition, Asleep, N P and Amrita, death scenes never fail to make their appearances

Some critics have criticized this recurring writing as “vulgar” and “repetitive”.51Yoshimoto explains that: “death is a big motif for a writer to investigate life.” 52 The

deaths in N P and Amrita, force the protagonists to re-examine the value of family,

relationship and confront the dilemma in their lives In many of Yoshimoto’s novels, death is depicted casually as one inevitable part of the human experience Fantasy and supernatural happenings are frequently found in narrating scenes of death For example in

Moonlight Shadow, Satsuki could meet her dead boyfriend on the particular day of

51 Kimata, Satoshi, Yoshimoto Banana Yellow Page, Tokyo: Kochishuppansha, 1999 p24

52 http://www.yoshimotobanana.com , Q&A, accessed at 25 th March 2005

Hanabata; Fumi could meet Haru53 who died from drinking through a midget in Love

Songs Both the lives of Satsuki and Fumi are severely affected respectively by Hitoshi

and Haru’s death However, the fantastic happenings they encounter make them re-value their love and relationship This re-valuation is important in the protagonists’ healing process For example, Fumi and Haru were engaged in a love triangle Fumi thought she hated Haru because they shared the same man But upon meeting Haru’s spirit after she died, Fumi realized that they had many things in common and were more suitable to be friends Fumi’s new discovery of self and Haru hence helps her overcome the horror of death

Virtual Death in Newlywed and Tugumi

Death in Yoshimoto’s stories is not only about physical death but also a metaphor for mental disconnection and alienation; loneliness and closure

The metaphorical death is often depicted as an imaginary element and is a recurring scene in Yoshimoto’s novels It is told when her protagonists are confronted with great trouble (both physical and mental troubles) and tragedy In literary writings, death sometimes appears in our daily life (reality) in a form of fantasy and it serves to unlock individual layers of thoughts and feelings in the hearts of the victims, allowing them to release their burden Susan Napier says: “Fantasy promises an escape from reality It takes the protagonists as well as the readers out of the real world of hard facts, concrete objects and difficult decisions into a world of wonder and enchantment.”54 The function of the extraordinary as a wish-fulfiller and healer is an important one in many Yoshimoto’s writings Many supernatural events are told in her novels in depicting death,

53 Emmerich, Michael tr., “Love Songs” in Asleep, New York: Grove Press, 2000

54 Napier, Susan, The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity London &

New York: Routledge, 2000 p5

especially ‘virtual death’ Matsumoto Takayuki explains the connotation of ‘virtual

death’ in his book Yoshimoto Banana Ron According to Matsumoto, a ‘virtual death’ is a

‘fictional death’ that one images his own death in the world of reality when he is faced with conflicts in life.55 For instance, the narrator in Newlywed feels alienated and

disconnected from his new marriage life and his wife He imagines how the area near his home would look like if he died In the other words, he puts himself into the state of virtual death by assuming he will never return to this familiar place Under this critical circumstance of virtual death, the protagonists’ psyche is exposed between two worlds: according to Ann Swinfen, one is the normal everyday life which readers and protagonists are familiar with - the primary world; the other is the secondary world which

is created or imagined by the protagonists.56 The secondary world is a fantasy and unfamiliar place to both readers and protagonists

In Defence of Fantasy, Ann Swinfen explains this primary and secondary world

concept57 by saying that “it is by the magical renewing and refreshment of our perceptions in the secondary world that we come to view the primary world, dulled through familiarity, with newly wondering eyes.”58 This notion can be applied to

Yoshimoto’s novel, Newlywed, in which the protagonist’s (narrator’s) mind is allowed to

retreat from the primary world of reality to a secondary surrealistic world under the condition of virtual death When his mind transcends the border of the two worlds, it

55 Matsumoto Takayuki, Yoshimoto Banana Ron Tokyo: JICC Shuppansha, 1991 pp172-74

56 Swinfen, Ann, In Defence of Fantasy, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.pp5-6

57 Ibid According to Swinfen, “the essential ingredient of all fantasy is “the marvelous”, which will be regarded as anything outside the normal space-time continuum of the everyday world, the primary world Elements of the marvelous may irrupt into the normal world, but more often the reader is carried, at least part of the time, into another world, the secondary world The writer as sub-creator creates a complete and self-consistent “secondary world”, and if he is successful, the reader’s mind can enter the world he creates Our normal experience of the primary world thus leads us to give primary belief to primary realism, while successful sub-creation induces secondary belief in the secondary realism of a secondary world.” p5

58 Ibid, p6

possesses the invincible power of miracle for him to discover a new value of something familiar through unfamiliar illusions he experiences The familiarities are those of his nostalgic memories and the current daily life he leads; the unfamiliar things come from the fantasy he experiences when he travels in a train I argue that fantasy also provides a path of reminiscence for both the protagonists and readers’ nostalgic past, and thus completes the circle of return and rediscovery of his familiar self: to recollect the precious memories and re-discover the value of a long lost past that has a special meaning in the protagonist’s life would help a great deal in healing his psychic

disturbance This healing objective is being achieved in Newlywed: the protagonist is

made to stand on where critic Kimata Satoshi calls ‘point zero’59, or the point of origin, where he starts his life journey by detaching his mind from his familiar world The virtual death of the narrator suggests that by detaching one’s mind and soul from the physical world of reality, he may get a better and fuller vision of the world in which he is living and thus have a more complete understanding of the environment and people that

surround him The virtual death in Yoshimoto’s Newlywed, portrays this fantastic lost and

found process through which a man journeys

In the story, Newlywed, a man who has been married for only a month goes out

drinking with his friends When the train stops at his station, he doesn’t get off He has problems communicating with his wife whose life is confined to their household Moreover, he left his hometown when he was very young and has never felt quite at home in Tokyo At the next stop a mysterious old man in shabby clothes gets on and suddenly speaks to him as if he could read his mind: “I suppose there’s some good reason

59 Kimata, Satoshi, Yoshimoto Banana Yellow Page, Tokyo: Kochishuppansha, 1999 p24

why you don’t want to go home…”60 As the narrator remains in his seat, the old man furthers his conversation by saying: “I wonder if you’ll change your mind when you see

me like this.”61 With the narrator still ignorant, the old bum transforms himself into a beautiful woman, whom the narrator reckons, has a familiar face just like his “first girlfriend or an older woman he has always lusted”62 The combination of an exotic and

familiar illusion of this woman serves an “agent (maikai)”63 through whom he is able to view himself in both the world of familiarity and the imaginary world of the unfamiliar The familiarity of the woman helps the narrator to look back at his familiar past and reconcile it with his current life The reconciliation is actually a re-evaluation of himself, his new marriage life and his new wife The exotic appearance of the woman also serves

as ‘a fantasy woman’ who fulfills the narrator’s wish I will discuss the function of this fantasy woman later in chapter five

According to Susan Napier, the theme of fantasy can be divided into several related areas: invisibility, transformation, etc.64 The appearance and transformation of the old man are supposed to be improbable scenes for both readers and narrator It is mentioned in the text that after the old man entered the cabin, other passengers in the same cabin of the train all stepped out to avoid the unbearable odour Yet, it could just be

an imaginary scene, as the narrator was heavily drunk when he gave this account Whether the vision of the old homeless man is real or unreal remains a mystery to the reader and the narrator Thus a surreal atmosphere is being created and it brings both the

60 Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard New York: Washington Square Press 1995 p3

61 Ibid, p3

62 Ibid, p4

63 Matsumoto Takayuki, Yoshimoto Banana Ron Tokyo: JICC Shuppansha, 1991 p173

64 Napier, Susan The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity London &

New York: Routledge, 2000 p49

reader and the narrator into a fantasy world where the narrator’s mentality is further unfolded As Susan Napier says “Themes of the fantastic in literature revolve around this problem of making visible the un-seen, of articulating the un-said.”65 The narrator’s ‘un-said’ mind is being articulated through the mysterious dialogues made between the narrator, the old man and the beautiful woman

The uncertainty of the existence of this old man would suggest a blurring of the primary and secondary world of the narrator, and hence he begins his fantastic adventures Furthermore, it is inevitable for one to question if the old man had indeed established a conversation with the narrator because there were no other witnesses If it is an unspoken question, then it must be a question brought forth from his subconscious That is to say the narrator must be wondering to himself the purpose of wandering around like a vagabond instead of returning home The image of the odious, homeless man implies a feeling of ambivalence lurking deep in the narrator’s mind: the fear and horror of leading the same miserable lonely life as the old man is contrasted by the possible pleasure of enjoying an infinite freedom which the narrator has never before experienced in his life This ambivalence expresses the narrator’s dilemma in reconciling his familiar world and unfamiliar one The feeling of alienation grows stronger when he is traveling faraway from the usual station near his home When this alienation becomes more obvious and disturbing, he turns to see a more incredible vision This time it is the transformation of the old bum to a young and attractive exotic beauty If the certainty of the old man’s appearance is questionable then the eerie transformation would probably also be a false

65 Napier, Susan The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity London &

New York: Routledge, 2000 p48

vision that the narrator had seen through his drunken eyes With this transformation, the narrator slips from the primary world into the secondary world, which is the imaginary world His character can be seen as active and respondent Most importantly, he is gradually learning to self-analyze and exhibit his true thoughts through the conversations with the woman

When the woman further asks him: “You still don’t feel like going home? How long have you been down here in Tokyo?” The narrator feels uncomfortable with her tone,

as if she’s asking the question in a different language He is rather reluctant to answer her and a happy scene of his childhood in his hometown flashes through his mind Then the pretty woman starts talking again: “I’ve been watching this city long enough to know that it’s full of people like you, who are transplants from other places… and never feel quite

at home in this big city.” 66 Even though the narrator came to live in Tokyo when he was eighteen, the sensation of being uprooted from his hometown and the difficulty of fitting into the current lifestyle make him feel alienated and lost in the big, bustling city The exotic beauty and the ‘different language” she speaks are unfamiliar to the narrator, hence implying the isolation and alienation he experiences in his current life He murmurs: “I’d

be too scared to get on the train in the morning I’d never know where I’d end up.”67 That

is a valid confession of having lost aim and hope This confession also demonstrates the narrator’s conflictive mind: he expects to experience something new yet is afraid to go beyond the boundaries of familiarity to somewhere unknown Readers, including myself, find his feelings relatively understandable, considering he has mixed emotions as a newlywed and has yet to learn to adjust himself to the new marriage life Then the

66 Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard New York: Washington Square Press 1995 p9

67 Ibid, p.11

woman queries about the relationship he has with his wife, and he replies: “Actually, sometimes I feel like we live in totally different worlds, especially when she goes on and

on about the minutiae of our daily lives, anything and everything, and a lot of it’s meaningless to me… Sometimes I feel like I’m living with the quintessential housewife… all she talks about is our home.” 68Although they have only been married for little over one month, the couple seemingly experiences marital problems More precisely, the narrator has sensed the alienation while his wife remains unaware of the situation Hence the narrator feels that they are living in different worlds and he feels the urge to break free from such bondages

The dialogue between the woman and the narrator is kind of surreal based on a

scientific point of view However in fantasy writings such as in Newlywed, the

surrealistic scenes of the old man and the beautiful woman “express the unconscious desires”69 of the narrator Rosemary Jackson points out: “A fantasy text tells of an indomitable desire, a longing for that which does not yet exist, or which has not been allowed to exist, the unheard of, the unseen, the imaginary, as opposed to what already exists, and it permitted as ‘really’ visible.”70 It is a very true statement and I assert here, that Yoshimoto meant not only to create a supernatural scene, but rather to articulate the unsaid true feelings of the narrator- whether the illusion of the old and the woman is invisible or not is not discussed in the story as the narrator accepts it naturally The function of the surrealistic scene is to articulate the unsaid truth in the narrator’s mind

68 Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard New York: Washington Square Press 1995 p.10

69 Napier, Susan The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature- The Subversion of Modernity London &

New York: Routledge, 2000 p62

70 Jackson, Rosemary, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion London & New York: Methuen & Co Ltd

1981 p91

Then the narrator hears the woman’s seductive voice: “You never have to go back

to that station again, if you don’t want to That’s one option,”71 The option, which the woman proposed, has been a thought in the narrator’s mind although his desire has always been repressed when he is in his sober state The daily routine makes him feel confined to only his home and the train by which he commutes These places are normally supposed to be the most familiar places to him but now they also give him uneasy feelings and he senses isolation from them

When the uncanny figure of the old man transforms into the illusion of the fantasy woman, the narrator is brought into a world of unfamiliar Under the woman’s suggestion, the narrator finds himself disconnected from his familiar world (the primary world) and disappears in his daily life routine As Freud points out, there are two levels of meaning

to the term uncanny in relation to fantasy “On the first level, it signifies that which is homey, familiar, friendly, cheerful, comfortable and intimate It gives a sense of being at home, and its negation summons up the unfamiliar, uncomfortable, strange and alien It produces a feeling of estrangement, of being not at home A second level explains a disturbing power, which is concealed from others: all that is hidden, secreted and obscured It negates, then functions to discover, reveal and exposes the unsaid and unseen truth.”72 The fantastic transformation and conversation, which the narrator witnessed, combines these two semantic levels, while uncovering what is hidden and evoking a disturbing switch from the familiar into the unfamiliar The woman further illustrates this switch by giving the example of the train She says that most people think the train is a safe little box that transport them back and forth between their most familiar

71 Jackson, Rosemary, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion London & New York: Methuen & Co Ltd

1981 p13

72 Ibid, p65

destinations like office and home, but if people could adjust their mindset and regard their lives as a kind of train, instead of worrying only about their usual destinations, one would be surprised at how far they could go (to places unknown) 73

Assuming not to be able to go back again, the narrator then begins to recall the scenery of the station nearest to his home, and sees many familiar spots like the bookshop and bakery as well as many familiar faces All these flashbacks give him sweet and warm memories and he starts to imagine how he would be if he could never see them again This assumption of never returning suggests a total detachment from his familiar world and eternal farewell to his wife and his new marriage life The narrator presumes:

“Someday when I die, and only my soul exists, and my spirit comes home on a summer evening during the Bon Buddhist festival, that’s probably what the world will look like to me.” 74 This postulation of never returning to his family life suggests his metaphorical death in the world of reality

His virtual death in the primary world of reality, frees him from going back to his routine, allowing his mind to roam freely into the secondary world of imagination He sees his wife, Atsuko, walking aimlessly along the shopping streets, smiling sweetly as she enters a shop and carefully chooses her shampoo, just as carefully as she chooses all those small decorations for the home By observing Atsuko with utter detachment (neither as a mother nor wife), he finds she comes to be an entirely different being - “the beautiful, all-encompassing spun by this creature is at once so polluted, yet so pure that

73 Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard New York: Washington Square Press 1995 p11

74 Ibid, p15

feel compelled to grab on to it I am terrified by it but find myself unable to hide from it

At some point I have been caught up in the magical power she has.”75

After viewing Tokyo from every angle, visiting each building, observing every person, and every station, finally, he is able to retrieve the feelings he had when he just got married and dismisses the gloom that comes post-honeymoon - it is the incredible sensation of encountering a life force that comprises everything, including the station near his house, the slight feeling of alienation toward his marriage, work and life, and Atsuko’s lovely profile At last, his soul revives and comes back to the actual world He says farewell to the woman and decides to go back the station near his home He realizes

he is unable to turn back the clock to his childhood years, but learns to cherish whatever little familiarity and warmth in his memories he has left His decision to return home, suggests that he finally finds the nostalgia he had once lost upon leaving his hometown to live in Tokyo, in his current life and home

The idea of ‘never returning’ puts him under the threat of virtual death in his familiar world Therefore, the narrator is allowed to free his mind and perceive something beyond his normal sensations in the primary world Through the short, fantastic adventure with his imaginary companions, he understands the importance of treasuring the present He rediscovers his true self, and regards this current life as a

‘familiar’ one, realizing that he does prefer a typical lifestyle instead of an ongoing

‘exploration’ of unfamiliar territories, akin to the life of the homeless old man The return

of his soul from the journey of fantasy calls him to go back home

The re-finding of true self under the threat of virtual death can also be found in

Tugumi The novel is a careful examination of the relationship between two teenage

75 Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard New York: Washington Square Press 1995 p16

cousins in a seaside Japanese town Maria Shirakawa is a thoughtful young woman who

is made to live with her cousin, Tsugumi Yamamoto, in her relative’s small inn, under forced family circumstances (her parents never married; with her mother, she is waiting for her father's divorce from his current wife) Tsugumi, who is chronically ill, possesses

a mischievous charm that both annoys and amuses her family Maria describes Tsugumi:

“She was malicious, she was rude, she had a foul mouth, she was selfish, she was horribly spoiled, and to top it all she was brilliantly sneaky.”76 I argue that Tsugumi’s spoilt personality is permitted under the assumption of her early death.77 Ordinary people would normally conceal their flaws and control their temper, to present a pleasant persona in front of others On the other hand, Tsugumi always openly displayed her true personality, sometimes intentionally over-emphasizing her shortcomings without paying attention to the feelings of others “The obnoxious smirk that always appeared on her face after she’d said the one thing that everyone present definitely didn’t want to hear-and said it at the most exquisitely wrong time…this made her seem exactly like the devil.”78

Tsugumi’s ‘malicious’ personality is such because she expects a premature death

as her doctor had predicted Tsugumi's tenuous health seems to free her from the constraints that govern Maria and Tsugumi's long-suffering older sister, Yoko Disregarding behavioral norms, Tsugumi blatantly curses, flirts with boys, concocts elaborate pranks and shocks adults in a way Maria resents, envies and admires In the other words, Tsugumi’s expected death gives her the privilege of excuse Hence she is

76 Emmerich, Michael tr., Tugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002 p3

77 Ibid “From the time Tsugumi was born, she was ridiculously frail, and she had a whole slew of physical ailments and defects Her doctors announced that she would die young, and her family began preparing for her early death Tsugumi’s tenuous health seems to free her from the behavioral norms that govern Maria and Tsugumi’s long-suffering older sister, Yoko, allowing her to curse, flirt with boys, concoct elaborate pranks and shock adults in a way Maria resents, envies and admires.” P3

78 Ibid, p3

fostered in a unique way, which allows her to express her thoughts and emotions

explicitly The appearance of Tsugumi perfectly fits that of a typical shojo (as John Treat

defines in his article) 79but she obviously portrays herself otherwise I argue that despite her fragile health, she actually has a very determined personality and never shuns doing things that other girls her age do not dare to: Maria recalls Tsugumi in the seventh year during her school time, when she was once scorned upon by her classmate because of her poor health condition, and therefore inability to participate in a race In protest, she picked up a chair and hurled it against the glass window in the school, to everyone’s utter shock In contrast with her healthy peers, Tsugumi lives her life to its fullest, by exhibiting her rights and demands

The actual story begins when Maria, who attends university in Tokyo, goes back

to visit the seaside town in honor of the last summer before the inn’s imminent closure Through reminiscence and the eyes of Maria, we see a different Tsugumi – She maintains the ability to love and embrace those around her, despite having a bad temper and constantly exuding cruelty to others A dogfight on the embankment epitomizes Tsugumi's encounter with Kyoichi, the son of a hotel owner Together they weave a bittersweet and ephemeral love story It is through her capacity to love and the blessing of the relationship that Tsugumi is kept alive although she lapses into illness occasionally

The most intriguing part for readers can be found at the end, when Tsugumi writes a farewell letter to Maria Tsugumi is in a critical condition and is sent to the hospital after she tries to dig a pit in the back yard of her house She intends to seek revenge by luring the murderer of Kyoichi’s dog into the trap she had prepared However,

79 Treats, John J., “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture

Richmond: Curzon Press 1996 p276-278

due to her poor health, she is exhausted after completing the tough job Although she has always been on the edge of death, her end time draws closer right now She writes a letter

to Maria as a kind of summary and final will of her short life As she assumes that she would die soon, her letter is frank and explicit “Having a funeral in autumn is so lonely,

no fun at all.” And she ends up by confessing: “I saw myself as nothing but this pale little girl surrounded by people barely able to keep her flimsy body from collapsing, a girl who has lived her life from one day to the next thinking only of herself, running around throwing tantrums, and I realized that I would probably like this for the rest of my life.”

80 By reading her letter, Maria discovers a different Tsugumi who, beyond the nasty attitude, bears a warrior spirit and exerts her life to love without succumbing to poor health Combating death, Tsugumi also finds her true self: not the willful sneaky girl with an obnoxious smirk but a brave girl who was never afraid to face the threat of death Compared to her sisters Yoko and Maria, she is brilliant and courageous, and I argue that

this is the supposed positive characteristic of Tsugumi that other shojo characters

generally lack.81 Even though death may visit her at any time, Tsugumi never refrains from doing anything she considers worthy, even if it would shorten her life She even confronted the juvenile delinquents at school and trashed things out with the thugs who killed her friend’s dog.

In her last letter to Maria, she makes a retrospect of her life because she thought she would die in a few days.82 She expresses no regret on performing the stunt of digging

80 Emmerich, Michael tr., Tugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002 p183

81 At least, compare to other shojo characters in Yoshimoto’s novels, like Sakumi in Amrita and Terako in

Asleep, Tsugumi is more radiant, aggressive and more courageous when confronting problems Sakumi and

Terako are pessimistic and passive when dealing with troubles Compare to them, Tsugumi makes great effort and takes initiative in her healing process

82 Emmerich, Michael tr., Tugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002 p184

the pit even though she knew that “digging that pit as deep as the one I made would be a pretty major undertaking even for someone in good health.”83 She challenges her own limitations because she insists upon seeing justice served Re-discovering the great inner strength in herself suggests that the two young women have matured to realize the significance of life and friendship The growing up and healing process of both Tsugumi and Maria have thus been achieved in both physical sphere and in the mental realm

In some ways, Tsugumi is one of the most interesting characters Yoshimoto has created She avoids many of the cliches where a key character is facing death Yoshimoto says: “I have written this novel based on my experiences of those summers stored away somewhere within me If one day I were to lose all memories of myself and my family, I would be able to retrieve them by reading this book.” 84 Tugumi is actually a nostalgic

account of the growing journey of two young girls It conveys the message that physical malaise is not an obstacle for anyone who is capable of exhibiting his/her true self-potential

83 Emmerich, Michael tr., Tugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002 p184

84 Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture

Richmond: Curzon Press 1996.p287

Chapter 3: Dreams and Supernatural Happenings

Dream in Literature Writings

As a basic human necessity, sleep is a very significant aspect of life Both our mental and physical health depends on sleep, and throughout the ages, many cultures have placed a spiritual emphasis on sleep and dreams Not surprisingly, even modern cultures look to sleep and dreams for answers relating to spiritual disturbances In an

early Hollywood movie, Spellbound85, sleep was used to analyze the protagonists’ psyche, the motive and solutions to a crime based on Freud’s psychological theories Just like food, water, and air, sleep is every human’s daily essential, and, in many instances, it serves to be of symbolic understanding of the human spiritual condition and is also believed to promote spiritual healing

Sleep and dreams also make their appearances frequently in literary writings, especially in literary fantasies Jung writes, “The characteristic form of passive fantasy is the dream.”86 This actually indicates the nature of a dream: it is a fantasy, it is uncontrollable and mysterious Dreams may be derived from the dreamer’s desire or be related to his/her experience in real life, but a dream is not something real It is a fanciful experience for the dreamer and is often introduced in literary writings because of its fantastic and mysterious nature

Rosemary Jackson points out: “Literature fantasies, expressing unconscious drives, are particularly open to psychoanalytic readings, and frequently show graphic forms of tension between the ‘laws of human society’ and the resistance of the unconscious mind to those laws.”87 Indeed dreams sometimes reflect this tension that lurks in the dreamer’s mind and they create a surreal atmosphere in literary fantasies Dream reveals the unconscious mind of the dreamer and provides a good escape to the surreal world for the one who feels disturbed and is suffering in the world of reality

Dreams and sleep are frequent topics in modern Japanese fantasy writings One Japanese critic, Oka Yasuo states: “Modern Japanese fantasy begins with Natsume

Soseki’s Ten Nights of Dream.” The novel contains ten short surreal stories of the

narrator’s dream that is suffused with nostalgia for an increasingly inaccessible past.88

Although with a very different perspective, Yoshimoto’s novel Asleep also creates a

similar dreamy atmosphere The novel tells of a young woman who is having an affair with a married man and suffers from sleep sickness The whole story is insightful and surrealistic Instead of discussing the protagonist’s mental crisis under drastic social

changes as in Ten Nights of Dream, Asleep delves deep into the protagonist’s moral

confliction and weariness she feels Dreams and sleep in the novel provide the protagonist with an escape, because only in her dreams is she able to free herself from the tensions of the relationship Yet the excess sleep also prevents her from leading a normal routine and further intimidates her life Her physical recovery depends much on her

87 Jackson, Rosemary, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion London & New York: Methuen & Co Ltd

1981 p6-7

88 Cited by Susan Napier in her book Napier, Susan, The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The

Subversion of Modernity London & New York: Routledge, 2000 p2

mental healing The complexity of the protagonist’s healing process is well portrayed in the novel

Parallel narration in Asleep

Dreams and sleep are depicted in a parallel narrative style in many fantasy

writings Marianne, the main character in Marianne Dreams,89 is a story that successfully uses parallel narration in illustrating the recovery of two children who are sick and never meet in the primary world90 However they come across each other in the “dream world” whereby their encounters in the secondary world strongly affect their recovery in the primary world

Yoshimoto’s Asleep also applies a corresponding descriptive strategy to explore

the spiritual sides and the healing process of her characters Through parallel narrations, the book tells about two young women (the main protagonist and her friend) dealing with sleep issues that signify underlying spiritual difficulties in their personal lives, each of which results in an understanding and appreciation of life, even through the toughest times

There are many parallel expressions in Asleep The two main characters, Terako,

the narrator, and her best friend Shiori, are being set as two parallel figures:

89 Storr, Catherine, Marianne Dreams, London: Heinemann, 1967 Marianne, the main character in the

story is a normally active girl who suffers from a prolonged bout of illness which leaves her weakened and confined to bed for several months Through a shared tutor, Marianna learns of Mark, whose slow recovery from polio is hampered by his loss of the will to live Although she never meets Mark in the primary world, Marianne encounters him in the secondary world created by her drawings, which she enters in her dreams Parallels between the two worlds are immediately established The emotions she experiences in the primary world influence events in the secondary world In the story, Mark’s struggling between life and death critically depends on Marianne’s will in secondary world His healing process is well illustrated through the parallel narration of the two worlds

90 The concept of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ world is introduced in Ann Swinfen’s book In Defence of

Fantasy Cited and explained in Chapter two, page 4, footnote 13

Terako is struggling with sleep that consumes her whole day She is drifting through a current emptiness in her life following her love affair with Iwanaga whose wife

is in a coma In the other words, sleep is an issue surrounding her in all aspects In order

to escape from the morally wrong lifestyle she leads in the real world (primary world), Terako surrounds herself with sleep (secondary world) Her life gradually fades away when she gets more addicted to it

Parallel to Terako, is her best friend, Shiori, who is engaged in a very mysterious

and peculiar job called “soine” (sleep next to customers without sexual relationship)

Weird as it may sound, all her customers are mentally troubled by dreams, so her task is

to ensure that her presence by their side helps relieve them from their negative experiences during sleep Being overwhelmed by all the pain and suffering of others, Shiori commits suicide in a desperate attempt to escape forever from the burden

Besides the two main characters, there is Iwanaga’s wife who is involved in a car crash and falls into a coma for nearly one year

As a reader, one may ask how far Terako can escape in this sleeping practice and wonder if she is going to eventually plunge into eternal sleep (like Iwanaga’s wife) or even die in her sleep like Shiori Compared to Shiori, who sleeps because of her obligation to assimilate her client’s sad past, Terako seems to find herself in a more precarious situation, considering she is burdened with the emotional depression of the one (Iwanaga) she loves The more Iwanaga tries to avoid issues pertaining to his wife, and his future plans for this “underground” relationship, the more Terako feels insecure and frustrated

Important not to overlook, are additional sub-lines of parallel expressions applied

to the two girls respectively In the case of Terako’s life, the states of sleep (secondary world) and the states of consciousness (primary world) are comparably portrayed Her exhaustion in the primary world causes her to seek refuge in the secondary realm which

is created when she performs her sleeping therapy Referring to Ann Swinfen’s deduction:

“Some fantasies belong, rather, to an intermediate area of imaginative experience, where

an often precarious balance must be maintained between two distinct worlds…Such fantasies involve the movement of characters in and out of some form of secondary world, but the perception of secondary world is often indistinct and dreamlike… While perception of the secondary worlds may be dreamlike, movement from world to world and the constant cross-reference between them creates a sense of parallelism between the two Their structures are inevitably thrown into sharp juxtaposition, while action in the secondary world may parallel hidden tensions and desires in the primary world.”91Terako’s frustration and tensions in the real world (primary world) can be temporarily eased when she falls into sleep In the other words, Terako’s inability to connect effectively with Iwanaga in the emotional spheres compels her to release that repression

in the secondary world of dreams, where she finds comfort and a sense of acceptance The parallel narration is used when Terako switches between the states of sleep and consciousness, which metaphorically suggests that Terako is actually struggling between life and death

In the case of Shiori, the parallelism lies between her own world and the world she senses through the dreams of her customers Her job as a comforter to those with a

dark past is supposedly the cause of her death The strange job ‘soine’ is not a new term

91 Swinfen, Ann, In Defence of Fantasy London & Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1984 p44

in Japanese literature It is mentioned in Kawabata Yasunari’s House of the Sleeping

Beauties The story describes “relationships” between impotent old men and drugged,

sleeping girls.92 In House of the Sleeping Beauties, Kawabata presents an artificial sterile

world that becomes more of a trap than a refuge The protagonist, Eguchi is an old impotent man with lustful desires for women He is invited by a friend to visit a house where he sleeps next to nude girls who are drugged into sleep By sleeping next to the young girls, Eguchi seems to feel that he could move from ‘death’ to ‘artificial life’.93Although the role of Shiori as a comforter is opposite to that of Eguchi, somehow they both experience weariness and a loss of self-control when they are with their counterparts Gradually, Eguchi finds himself exhausted at the house but is at the same time increasingly drawn to frequent patronage, despite learning that a friend has died of a heart attack in the house

I argue that Shiori was also aware of the dangerous nature of her job but she could not stop herself from being drawn into her customer’s dreams Her deep involvement in her customer’s dream and the exhaustion therefore resulted in her death

Terako frequently visits Shiori before her death She questions Shiori of her relationship with Iwanaga, and why she consistently feels depressed Shiori replies: “For the time being you’re nil, you’re being held in reserve, you’re stacked in somewhere completely dark.”94

The “somewhere in the darkness” Shori refers to is somewhere in the surreal world, not one in the realms of reality Given Iwanaga’s obligation as a married man, he

92 Kawabata, Yasunari, House of Sleeping Beauties Seidensticker, Edward tr., New York: Ballantine

Books 1976

93 Napier, Susan, The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity London &

New York: Routledge, 2000 p61-64

94 Emmerich, Michael tr., Asleep, New York: Grove Press, 2000 p137

is unable to give Terako any real-world status recognition, but could only provide her with assurance via the world they have created This explains why Terako comments that their love is unrealistic Whenever she goes on a date with him, she experiences a dreamlike feeling akin to that of sleepwalking To Iwanaga, Terako fills his life as a substitute partner, since his wife is in a coma He subconsciously induces Terako’s sleeping sickness, because he prefers a Terako who is less conscious, considering she will therefore take up less mental strain and attention on his end For Tereko, Iwanaga can only be reached when she falls asleep When Terako is awake, he always avoids revealing his problems and fails to communicate openly with her Thus Terako can only understand his mind when she is asleep She confesses that she is stretching out like his shadow when she is lying besides him She is just breathing in the darkness and can actually experience his dream, just as Shiori identifies with the dreams of her clients The juxtaposition of the two girls is well portrayed through the parallel narration As Ann Swinfen says:

“In some fantasies, the parallels established are between the two worlds (primary and secondary)…the secondary world may indeed be a separate world, but when such dual worlds occur an apparently independent secondary world tends often to be a mirror

of the inner mind.”95

Terako’s mental exhaustion in real life causes her to sleep excessively, leading to

a plunge in the surreal world Terako’s sleep serves two folds - to escape from the fatigue and to communicate with Shiori who is no longer in this world

However, when Terako loses control of her sleep and fails to make the switch freely she senses danger: “Me just to rot away as I lay there, without ever waking; to slip

95 Swinfen, Ann, In Defence of Fantasy London & Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1984 P45