Yoshimoto's Fiction Explores Family and Relationships

1
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.
2
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.
3
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.
4
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
10
According to writer Nicole Gaouette, some reviewers criticized Yoshimoto’s plots are superficial and her
protagonists are too dramatic.
www.dailycelebrations.com/030901.htm, Gaouette, Nicole. “Combines Old and New Japan”. Access in
March 2005.
11
March 2005.
5
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
write?) in Bessatsu Takarakima. 1988.
6
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.17
However, 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
18
(shaberite) rather than a formal narrating style (takarite). 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.
p283.
18
1999. p16.
19
Mitsui, Takayuki & Washida, Koyata, Yoshimoto Banana Shinwa (The Myths of Yoshimoto Banana),
Tokyo: Aoyumisha. 1989. pp107-108.
7
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.
8
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
23
The third explanation of 「闇」in 広辞苑 is: 先の見通しがつかないこと。絶望的であることのた
とえ。Dictionary 広辞苑、pg.2593.
24
Emmerich, Michael tr., Asleep, New York: Grove Press, 2000. p108.
9
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).”25
Indeed there is nearly no permanent family (biological family with its fixed members) in
Yoshimoto’s fiction. In her article “Family” she explains:
25
Popular Culture, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. p292.
10
“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
in chapter four.
Fantastic elements
Along with the themes of family and relationships, Yoshimoto tells many stories
which contain supernatural elements. She develops her own “effervescent spin” on magic
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.
11
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
30
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.
12
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.
Healing
Yoshimoto’s writing is described as “healing literature” and she also admits that
she is interested in spiritual healing.32 In this thesis I identify healing as the major theme
32
Yoshimoto, Takaaki & Yoshimoto, Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki X Yashimoto Banana, Tokyo: Rokkingu
On, 1997. p167.
13
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
33
Knight, Lorna ed., Collins Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus, Glasgow: HarperCollins Publisher, 2001.
p.285.
34
Yumiyama, Tatsuya, “Varieties of Healing in Present-Day Japan.” In Japanese Journal of Religious
Studies, 1995. 22/3-4. p267.
35
Abdulla Adnan,cited Freud’s article “The Relations of the Poet to Day-dreaming (1908). Aristotle
argues: “Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with
minute fidelity.” He regards the concept of catharsis as the relief that comes from the tension of two
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.
14
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
37
1999. p30.
38
Studies, 1995. 22/3-4. p.272.
39
Ibid, p269.
40
Sherif, Ann tr., “Helix” in Lizard, New York: Washington Square Press, 1995.
15
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
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.
16
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
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.
17
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 Hanabata47, she witnesses his soul waving her good-
bye from the other bank of the bridge where they last separated. She is emotionally
healed and resumes her normal routine after that.
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.
18
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.
19
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”. 51
Yoshimoto 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 25th March 2005.
20
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.
21
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
concept 57 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.
22
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.
23
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 &
24
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 &
25
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
67
Ibid, p.11
26
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 &
70
Jackson, Rosemary, Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London & New York: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
1981. p91.
27
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
1981. p13.
72
Ibid, p65.
28
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
74
Ibid, p15.
29
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
30
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.
31
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.
32
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
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
33
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
84
Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture.
Richmond: Curzon Press. 1996.p287.
34
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.
85
Produced by 20 Centaury Fox , Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Cast: Gregory Peck & Ingrid
Bergman.(1945)
86
Irwin, W. R., The Game of the Impossible: A Rhetoric of Fantasy, Urbana Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1976. p6.
35
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
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.
36
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.
37
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.
38
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.” 91
Terako’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.
39
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’.93
Although 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
40
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
41
away to that place called eternity. It occurred to me that I might be possessed by sleep,
just as Shiori had been possessed by her work. The thought scared me.”96 The eternality
here is a metaphor for death, because she knows that this is the same situation that Shiori
has gone through. She is frightened when she realizes sleep is not a good solution but is
instead sucking the life out of her. The more she loses her control, the closer she is to
death. Terako meets Shiori once in her dream, and in that dream they made a flower
arrangement. The flowers were white tulips and they were trying to put the flowers in a
big black vase. I read the contrasting black and white colors as a metaphor of life and
death. The big black vase is just like a deep hole, an ominous, dark passage for Terako to
go further to meet her death. When Terako passes the tulip to Shiori one by one, she is
actually surrendering her life in phases, to the other world.
Terako is happy to be able to meet Shiori in her dream that she is very reluctant to
wake up. She says: “Everything my eyes settled on seemed like a lie. Only the feeling
that I’d just been back with Shiori seemed real…(The dream is) a second reality that lures
the dreamer in, ever so realistically coloured, seen from a realistic angle, with the same
sense of presence.”97 This narration of her dream shows Terako’s inertia in the real world,
and thus she subconsciously tries to keep herself away from reality. However, the further
she escapes, the nearer she is to death.
Terako also senses that her own life is in danger. The only thing that wakes her up
is the telephone calls from Iwanaga. According to Ann Swifen, “the magic sleep is
common folk/fairy tale elements, traditionally the magic sleeper can be woken only by
96
97
Ibid. p152-53.
42
the sound of a particular drum, horn or bell.”98 This is a very true statement for Asleep.
The calls are actually described as a life buoy to Terako: When Terako is in her infinitely
deep sleep, nothing can wake her up other than a call from her boyfriend.
“But even while I slept, even then I could tell when my boyfriend called. The
telephone sounded completely different when it was Mr. Iwanaga. For some reason I
could just tell it was him. Every other sound came to me from far away, but when he
called, the ringing of the phone reverberated deliciously inside my head, the way music
does when you listen to it through headphones.”99
Every time he calls, she feels the echoes of his voice touch her with internal
eternity. She realizes the crucial importance of his calls because only that single line
connects her to the outside world.
As mentioned earlier, Terako’s sleeping sickness is caused by her relationship
with Iwanaga. According to the needs of Iwanaga, she adjusts herself between the
world of real and surreal. In another words, Iwanaga holds, controls and activates
supernaturalism between the life and death of Terako. This causes her to suffer
frustration and exhaustion, and as she loses confidence in the relationship, she doubts
the authenticity of her love.
“If someone could give me some sort of evidence that what we’re doing here is
really love, I’d be so tremendously relieved that I’d probably kneel down at that
person’s feet. And if it isn’t love, if it’s eventually going to end, I want to go on
98
Swinfen, Ann, In Defence of Fantasy. London & Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1984. p45.
99
43
sleeping like this; I want to stop hearing the phone when he calls. Let me be alone
again.”100
Being disturbed by the uncertainty, Terako’s supernatural power breaks down.
She is surprised to realize that she has missed several phone calls from Iwanaga while
in her deep sleep. She starts to feel apprehensive for she knows that she would be in
extreme danger if she fails to detect his calls. Someday, she may forever lose
consciousness and fall into a coma like Mrs. Iwanaga, or even waste away and die.
Parallel to the phone calls, “beds” also have metaphorical meanings for both
Terako and Shiori. For Shiori, the bed is a communication tool she uses with her
customers. She has a gigantic bed in the room for her work, “the huge soft bed which a
medieval aristocrat would fall asleep in, with a canopy over it and everything.”101
Besides these two beds, she has an enormous hammock hanging from the center
of her living room. In the final days of her life when she is too absorbed in her job, she
finds it difficult to sleep in any sort of normal bed that she has to sleep in a hammock that
is neither comfortable nor stable at all. Shiori does not choose to die either in the huge,
luxurious double bed or in the hammock, but chooses to end her life in the simple single
bed. This is despite what she has mentioned to Terako, that one would probably have a
better chance of going to heaven if he/she died in the big bed. 102 This is indeed an
interesting point to note. I believe that Shiori intentionally disassociates herself from the
big bed because it has brought her too much painful experience, sense of loss, and
familiarity with her customers, which she so much wants to escape from. The description
100
Emmerich, Michael tr., Asleep, New York: Grove Press, 2000. pp108-109.
101
Ibid. p111.
102
Ibid, p111.
44
used on Shori for the last time the girls met, was “her eyes were utterly empty.” 103
Clearly, we know that loneliness and despair has penetrated her so deeply that she is
filled with melancholy and emptiness. Likewise, the canopy of the huge bed and iron
door of Shiori’s apartment both act as isolators, which shut Shiori out from the rest of the
world.
A similar scene is depicted in House of the Sleeping Beauty. When Eguchi visits
the house for the first time (where he sleeps with drugged girls), he is led into a room,
which has its four walls and door covered with crimson curtains. The only other thing it
contains is a girl already asleep on the bedding.104 The sealed room with its heavy red
curtains is a clear suggestion of isolation. Visiting the house gives Eguchi a feeling that
his youth and sexual ability are rejuvenated, however it is just a false perception, and he
becomes more isolated from the real world when he visits the house more often.
Similarly for Shiori, the iron door and the bed that she uses for her job also draw her far
from reality and her true self. In her last few days, Shiori could sense nothing but only
her customers’ dreams. She transforms from a happy and lively girl to an exhausted
person with ‘empty eyes.’
Shiori has some terrible dreams a few days before she dies. Everything is surreal:
“dreams where she is on a boat that is sinking, dreams where she loses some coins she is
collecting, dreams where the darkness comes in through the window and blocks up her
throat…”105She believes that it is how her customers feel in their minds, “so lonely it
hurts.” 106 The drifting boat expresses her feelings of aimlessness, while the coin she
103
104
Seidensticker, Edward tr., House of the Sleeping Beauty. New York: Ballantine Books. 1970.
105
106
Ibid, p125.
45
collects represents something precious in her life yet she loses them. Hence she feels the
darkness as the sorrow thrusts into her heart and causes her mental breakdown. Therefore,
it would be very natural that Shiori does not want to die in the big bed, even if it may lead
her to heaven. If heaven could be so lonely and dark, she would rather not go there.
Similarly, Terako’s bed also symbolizes the same life and death struggle. Shiori’s
relation with her customers is similar to that of Terako’s relationship with Iwanaga.
Shiori’s job requires her to comfort her clients and set them free from troubles and
loneliness. Terako is actually a comforter to Iwanaga, helping him seek relief from his
problems and solitude. Whenever he feels tired, he goes to Terako for reassurance, and
Terako adjusts herself to the state of sleep or the state of conscious, in accordance to
Iwanaga’s needs. When Terako falls deeper in the relationship with Iwanaga, she finds
herself being towed into the flow of some gigantic, dark, irresistible fate. 107 She is
gradually able to perceive the same feeling, which wore Shiori out. “When you’re
sleeping next to all these exhausted people, it’s like you start matching your breath to
theirs, slowly, those deep breath… maybe you’re breathing in the darkness they have
inside them”.108 Sometimes when Terako sleeps in bed with her boyfriend, she would see
the edge of night. She feels the familiarity that replicates the lifestyle and encounters of
Shiori. She tells Shiori that she always feels like the “middle of winter” when she is
bedding with her boyfriend. Terako feels that she is sucked into a darkness in which she
has no thoughts at all. “Nothing exists in this world but me and my bed.” Finally her
sleeping therapy turns into a nightmare.
107
108
Ibid, p125.
46
In comparison to Terako, Shiori has a more sensitive personality, and is more
susceptible at perceiving the inner worlds of others. Thus she is more vulnerable to the
grief she senses from her customers. On the other hand, given that Terako used to be a
strong and lively girl before she developed the relationship with Iwanaga, 109 her innately
resilient persona therefore serves her better at eventually overcoming her problems. After
being encouraged by Mrs. Iwanaga in her (Terako’s) dream110, Terako gradually learns
how to appreciate the simple life, and she gains the ability to retrieve her happy and
healthy self, which Shiori failed to do. At the end of the story, in contrast to Shiori’s
dream of losing her precious past, Terako declares she has found hope and courage:
“It was something like guts, the ability to move on to the next thing. It was
something like hope, like anticipation… I feel sure that this something I’d unknowingly
cast aside was the same thing that Shiori had lost, was what she’d cast aside herself, also
without noticing.”111
Her meeting with Mrs. Iwanaga serves as a turning point for Terako to re-evaluate
the life she has now. Initially, Terako even suspected that Mrs. Iwanaga had put on a
curse on her so that she could not wake up despite the calls from Iwanaga. Evidently, she
has lost confidence not only of herself, but also of those she loves, including Iwanaga.
Yet, upon meeting Mrs. Iwanaga in her dream, she re-gains her hope on life and her
relationship with Iwanaga, enabling her to appreciate what she has around her. Finally
she manages to get out of the shadow of Shiori’s death.
109
110
While sitting on a bench in a small park near her apartment, Terako falls into asleep. Mrs. Iwanaga
appears in Terako’s dream. She warns Terako the danger of her sleep sickness and urges her to get a job
and resume to normal life.
Ibid, p162-63.
111
47
The silent communication
Rosemary Jackson says: “Fantastic is all that is not said, all that is unsayable,
through realistic forms under certain social restrictions.”112 To put it in layman terms,
when one’s desire works against social norms, moving in the opposite direction of the
common mental composition and presumptions, the desire is expelled for good. Jackson’s
statement can be well fit into the case in Asleep. There are plenty of dialogues in the story,
but the most significant dialogues are actually communicated in silence. The
conversations between Terako and Shiori (after Shiori’s death), the questions and issues
she (Terako) wants to discuss with Iwanaga, and most importantly the conversations
between Terako and Mrs. Iwanaga, are all in the silent mode. They are the conversations
deep within Terako’s inner imaginary world. This phenomenon is explained well by
Rosemary Jackson, “the fantasy traces the unsaid and the unseen: that which has been
silenced, made invisible, covered over and made ‘absent’”.113
At the beginning of the story, Terako wants to tell Iwanaga that her best friend
Shiori has committed suicide. But she never lets the words slip from her mouth. The
harder she tries to make him understand the more her words turn to dust. She wonders,
“How she can express the loneliness she feels, how she can make him see.”114 Gradually,
Terako begins to get used to the silent mode of communication. She says: “I liked it that
he kept quiet. It felt somehow like I was sleeping with an enormous night…As long as he
didn’t use words it felt like I was embracing his true self…I could just close my eyes and
112
1981. p180.
113
Ibid. 1981. p4.
114
48
feel him, nothing but the true him.” However, when she keeps on with such a practice,
her mental burden increases daily and her condition worsens. She always asks herself
why she feels so lonely when she is with him, and I concur that their love is built on and
supported by loneliness. In other words, neither of them had clear intentions, or directions
as to how they should manage their lives in future. They simply enjoyed the mutual
company while it lasted. Neither one of them was able to haul themselves out of the
deadly numbness that was so silent and isolating. This was akin to what Terako referred
to as the “edge of night.” 115
The “edge of night” is experienced when Terako feels Iwanaga’s inner world
through her dreams. Iwanaga never spoke in any detail of his current situation, but when
they are in bed together Terako could sense how utterly exhausted Iwanaga feels. “He
didn’t tell me anything specific about how things were with his wife…(but I can feel that)
he’d been so worn out by everything that was going on.”116 The more exhausted Iwanaga
became, the more he tried to keep Terako at a distance from reality. She finally realized:
“I’d absorbed the darkness of his exhaustion.”117
To release the burden, she creeps into sleep trying to detect the inner world of
Iwanaga as well as to communicate with her best friend Shiori. Through her own
experience, Terako understands Shiori’s suicide. Before Shiori died, she also tried to
communicate with her clients through her sleep. Although it was not her intention to do
so, she could not help interacting with them, and was thus able to disclose various sad
experiences her clients had. When she absorbed too much gloom and despair, she lost her
mental control.
115
116
Ibid. p146.
117
Ibid, p133.
49
As brought up, the silent communication between Terako and Mrs. Iwanaga is the
turning point for Terako, as she is in a critical condition where both her spirit and psyche
are drained. She is so near to eternal sleep, to the extent of being able to meet Mrs.
Iwanaga in her dream.
Mrs. Iwanaga recognizes that Terako is her husband’s future and she wants him to
be happy, so she wants to help Terako. This is a beautiful example of the goodness of
human nature. Yoshimoto has a very positive opinion of human nature, creating
characters that are ultimately kind and generous. Although these women would
traditionally pitted against each other, they come together because of their love for
Iwanaga.
At the end of the novel, when Terako and Iwanaga stand together silently
watching a firework display, she notices that a lot of simple things like the paper lantern,
the small eating house and the lines of her boyfriend’s forehead are shockingly beautiful.
By learning to appreciate the simple beauty of life, Terako regains her courage towards
life: “The feeling of being healthy must have come back to me…when I turned to
confront the darkness inside me, a totally unexpected and inexplicable strength came
gushing up within me.” Regaining strength and hope eventually pulls Terako out of her
depression.
Shared Dreams in Dreaming of Kimchee and Kitchen
Yoshimoto talks about various kinds of dreams in her novels. Nearly the whole
story of Asleep depicts dreams of the two main protagonists, Terako and Shiori. The
escapism, frustration, desperation and hope in their dreams are clearly presented in front
50
of readers. In her other stories, for example in Dreaming of Kimchee and Kitchen, shared
dreams are told and they are significantly related to the protagonists’ healing process.
The issue of shared dreams is studied by scientists and psychologists and is also a
frequent topic in literary works. Folklorist Yanagita Kunio opines in his article “Dreams
and Arts”:
“The most mysterious of dreams that I want to study is when groups of related
individuals with the same worries share the same dreams regardless of whether they are
staying together, or whether they are in the same time frame. The shared hallucination
helps to prove their beliefs on the matter concerned… quite a number of people have
encountered this, and it is said that when people have a strong wish for something in
particular, they will see the hallucination.”118
Shared dream is the core setting in Dreaming of Kimchee. 119 Dreaming of
Kimchee is a short story about a young woman who has an affair with a married man. She
speaks mostly of her “tests” of his commitment to their relationship. At one point she
asks her sister to move in with her. She figures that if he fails to deal with this change,
then the relationship was not meant to be. She talks about the skepticism that most people
bring up on the topic of having an affair with a married man. This man does end up
leaving his wife for her, and they get married. Not feeling the happiness she expects, she
realizes that it is because of guilt for hurting another woman. When his ex-wife
announces her engagement to another man, the new couple feels relieved of their self-
reproach and that night they experienced the same dream, the dream of Kimchee. This
118
Yanagita, Kunio, “Dreams and Arts” in The Complete works of Yanagita Kunio. Tokyo: Chikuma
Bunko, 1978. p166.
119
Kimchee is a kind of Korean pickles which has a strong smell.
51
connection was enough to prove to them that they really are meant to be together, and
that they are in fact part of one another.
The real and unreal is again not certain in this story. One may argue that it is not a
supernatural event. It could be the sour and spicy whiff of the pickle (Kimchee) that
penetrated their consciousness, causing them to have the same dream. Whatever the case
might be, it does disclose the fact that the two of them shared the same worries and guilt
over the same matter although they never declared it openly. The dream merely implies
that the couple is going ahead with the same healing process. The process is completed
when they confirm their love for each other through the shared dream.
The same kind of shared dream is portrayed in Kitchen. Mikage, the narrator and
her friend Yuichi have the same dream on the night when Mikage goes back to where she
lived with her grandmother to take some of her personal items. She spends the night in
the kitchen, and dreams of the two of them mopping the kitchen floor. They are both
exhausted but are very satisfied with their cleaning work - the kitchen has been tidied up
and looked like what it used to be when her grandmother was still around. The dream is a
significant sign that the two of them will be sharing their lives together, and will be
finding happiness through the same sufferings and tough experiences. This implication is
well articulated in the second part of the novel, Full Moon. Yuichi’s father, (transsexual
mother) Eriko is stabbed by a crazy man, which makes Yuichi an orphan just like Mikage.
When Yuichi losses Eriko, he begins to truly understand the loneliness and despair,
which Mikage had gone through. The shared pathos solidifies their relationship and
becomes a force for their mutual recovery.

52
Shared dreams in Dreaming of Kimchee and Kitchen are a metaphorical sign that
suggest the protagonists are sharing the same concerns in their subconscious and the
same concerns lead to a mutual understanding. To build up a mutual understanding is
very effective for the protagonists to help each in achieving the final goal of healing.
53
Chapter 4: Family and Unusual Relationship in the Healing Process
Family- the nostalgic sanctuary
Yoshimoto earns her fame not only through the fantastic elements of death, dream,
and supernatural powers but also by telling stories of unusual relationships and families.
Both family and relationships are critical in Yoshimoto’s healing process. Normally after
tragedies, the protagonists will try to form or assimilate themselves into new families and
relationships that would help them to cure their emotional wounds. In many cases they
function together alongside supernatural happenings, which I have mentioned in the
previous chapters.
In the 1960s, the structure, function and interaction of typical Japanese families,
saw a drastic transformation as a result of the nation’s high economic growth and rapid
urbanization. That was the era in which Yoshimoto was born. In her growing up days
(throughout late 60s and 70s) the shrinking of the Japanese family size to 3.5120 meant a
compositional change from the traditional family (extended family) to the nuclear family.
That suggests possible alteration of family relationships and lifestyles. Through the
course of modernization, urban immigrants, in the midst of striving to adapt to the new
environment, and seeking material pursuits, 121 witnessed the dissolution of familial
connection and ties.
120
Suloway, Stephen tr., Social Psychology of Modern Japan. London & New York: Kegan Paul
International. 1993. p519.
121
Ibid, p519-21.
54
Along with the drastic modernization and change in lifestyles especially in urban
areas, families are more than sentimental references to the past. ‘Going home’ is a kind of
nostalgia for those seeking greener pastures in new cities and other parts of the world. All
hopes are tarnished when they return home to a “lost” family, failing to merge their
fantasies with harsh realities. With reference to chapter two, the narrator in Newlywed,
found himself lost in bustling Tokyo and unconsciously looked back on his natsukashii
(nostalgic) tranquil hometown. This is proof enough that the sustainability of family ties,
fail to preserve in the face of work pressures and lifestyle transformations and people can
only relish the good old times, not being able to relive them again.
Yoshimoto’s writing often contains this sense of nostalgia especially when she
talks about special families. Her debut novel, Kitchen, is well-known for its
unconventional family structure. In her subsequent novels, this became one of the main
themes. There are at least two characteristics that can be identified in Yoshimoto’ family
structure: non-biological families and the absence of a father.
Non-biological Families
The non-biological families normally consist of members with unhappy pasts, and
they develop an inter-dependency to console each other, share similar past and future
experiences, develop new love and friendship and ultimately achieve the goal of healing.
Family is portrayed as one of the key elements in the protagonists’ self-rebuilding course
and has a significant function in the process of healing.
There are many examples of these non-biological families, such as Mikage’s new
family with her friend Yuichi and Yuichi’s transsexual father in Kitchen. Sakumi in
Amrita also has a family where some members are not blood-related or do not belong to
55
her direct kin - she lives with her mother (widowed and then divorced) and her younger
stepbrother. Other two members are her cousin and her mother’s childhood friend. In the
novel Tugumi, Maria and her mother live together with her aunt’s family at a small
seaside town, because her parents are not legitimately married, whereas her father works
and lives in Tokyo and only visits them on weekends and holidays. The story Tugumi is
actually based on Yoshimoto’s own life. Yoshimoto was raised in an extremely liberal
setting, enjoying much freedom in comparison to most Japanese teenagers. Her parents
have had an unusual relationship as well. 122 Yoshimoto’s parents were not officially
married when she was born because her father was then married to another woman.
Yoshimoto’s writing of unconventional family could be partly derived from her own
experiences when she was young.
The families in Yoshimoto’s novels often give readers an impression of
temporality and individualism. This impression may well fit into the situation of Japanese
family relations today. According to Fumie Kumagai who researches on modern Japanese
families, there are many interesting terms to describe the modern Japanese make-up, such
as ‘rozu famili-zoku’123, which refers to a disintegrated family, consisting of members
who are merely concerned with their individual pursuits. Yoshimoto’s novels on one
hand, reflects this realty of individualism in modern Japanese family relations. On the
other hand, her protagonists bear a yearning to build stronger connection ties within the
family.
122
Huang Xinning tr., Yuan Lai Ru Ci de Dui Hua. Taipei: Shi Bao Chu Ban, 2004. p.20-22.
123
Kumagai, Fumie & Keyser, Donna, Unmasking Japan Today: the Impact of Traditional Values on
Modern Japanese Society, London: Westport, Connectiut, 1996. p33.
56
In an essay entitled “Famiri”(Family) Yoshimoto admits establishing a temporary
family as a mode of survival, wherever she lived. 124 The “temporary family” Yoshimoto
refers to would be unconventional and contrary to the norm, such that the members of the
family are not necessarily biologically related but share similar values or experiences.
They seek warm relations and harmony with each other and form stronger bonds than the
“normal family”. Matsuda Ryoichi says this kind of new family culture becomes very
trendy amongst the new generation in Japan. 125 In Yoshimoto’s ‘model home’, the
substantial relations between family members are more meaningful than genetic ties.
In Painappurin (Pineapple Pudding), Yoshimoto explains further of what she
regards as a family and the relation of its members:
“Usually the world is a terribly difficult place to be, and lots of times we end up
living our lives apart from each other. That’s why the family is a fort built for us to flee
into. Inside that fort both men and women become symbols, and there protect the home. I
like that fact. I really think it’s necessary, even when it’s hard.”126
To Yoshimoto, the concept of family is a symbolic one. She refers to the family
as a defensive fort, wherein the family members are “symbols” with different roles. They
can enter and leave, without obligations to the family, considering they are merely “a
group of strangers.” 127 Most of Yoshimoto’s protagonists often feel alienated from their
biological families because they discern no necessary link between the obvious fact that
they are ‘derived’ from their parents and their original families. In Kitchen, the main
character, Mikage, reflects upon her present dislocation of her past family:
124
Yoshimoto, Banana, Painappurin (Pineapple Pudding), Tokyo: Chikuma Shoten, 1989. pp39-42.
125
Matsuda, Ryoichi, Yamada Emi, Ainoseikai- Renai, Manga, Yoshimoto Banana. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki
Kabushiki Kaisha. 1999. p.11-12.
126
Yoshimoto, Banana, Painappurin (Pineapple Pudding), Tokyo: Chikuma Shoten, 1989. p39-40
127
Ibid, p40.
57
“When my grandmother died the other day, I was taken by surprise. My family
had steadily decreased one by one…when it suddenly dawned on me alone, everything
before my eyes seemed false. The fact that time continued to pass in the usual way in this
apartment where I grew up, even though now I was here all alone, amazed me. It was
total science fiction...”128
Mikage’s reaction to losing her entire biological family is relatively calm. Words
such as “surprised’, “amazed” and “science fiction” used to describe her feelings of
losing her kin, are exceptionally different in comparison to those who would express
extreme grief towards the loss of their deeply loved ones. However, despite a weaker
sense of belonging to her original family, Mikage does yearn for a family life. This can
be proved by her confession of love for a kitchen.
In the opening of the novel, Mikage describes the kitchen as her most favorite
place: “The place I like best in this world is kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter
what kind, if it’s kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me.”129
Kitchen is the place where meals are prepared and served to all family members. Without
the function of a kitchen, a home will eventually be a resting place like a hotel room.
Thus the kitchen represents a happy family life and a strong bond of its members in
Yoshimoto’s accounts. When Mikage says she likes all kitchens “no matter where it is
and no matter what kind” it implies that she welcomes a real family life regardless of its
form and family members.
128
Backus, Megan tr., Kitchen, New York and London: Washington Square Press, 1988. p4.
129
Ibid, p1.
58
Critic John Treat says in his article that in Japan, a hectic modern life makes the
kitchen the modern consumer’s nostalgic dream.130 In the first part of the story, Mikage’s
kitchen is indeed a place that can only be imaginary. She wanted a family yet did not
have a concrete idea of what kind of family she actually wanted. Mikage was left in
absolute despair when she lost her grandmother, the only kin she had. However, her pain
of losing her current family was no more severe than the loneliness and emptiness she felt.
The fear of loneliness and disconnection with the rest of the world made her long
nostalgically for a family. She said, “I was seized with nostalgia, a nostalgia so sharp it
was painful.”131 There was her desire to return to a simple, nostalgic life, even though she
was not really clear of what it should be. As John Treat points out, “Yoshimoto’s
characters’ yearning for a family that never existed, such nostalgia would seem to prove
that it is indeed a desire without object.”132 It was only after the Tanabes adopted Mikage
did she begin to have a concrete idea what a family meant to her. Eventually, she learnt
to reconcile her dream with reality and finally found herself a real kitchen and true
happiness in life.
Victorians called the family ‘the place of peace; the shelter, not from all injury,
but from all terror, doubt and division.’ 133 The Tanabes’ kitchen exactly fulfills this
connotation. It provides Mikage a peaceful shelter where she could grow up as a matured
woman. It is also a nostalgic fantasy for Mikage that eventually helps her heal from her
130
Skov, Lise & Momeran, Brian ed., Women Media and Consumption in Japan. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995.
p280.
131
132
Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture.
Richmond: Curzon Press. P301.
133
p289.
59
wounds. From the Tanabes’ kitchen, Mikaga starts her first step towards recovery. As
compared to Like Water for Chocolate134, a Latin American fantasy story which also
relates kitchen and food recipes with grief relieving, the healing process in Kitchen relies
more on family functions and new relationships that the protagonist (Mikage) finds after
the tragedy (losing her grandmother).
In Like Water for Chocolate, Tita, the heroine of the story had to give up her lover
to her sister, and forcefully prepare the wedding cake for them. Her tears fell into the
mixture of flour, and the resultant was extreme sadness for those who ate the cake. All
her recipes seemed to possess strong magical power in alleviating her affliction. The
genre of Latin American fantasy is more surreal than Yoshimoto’s fantasy fiction. In
elaboration, one can identify its fictional nature when reading Like Water for Chocolate-
they will know it’s a fantasy story. On the other hand, Yoshimoto’s story blurs the
boundaries between reality and the fantasies. When Mikaga and Yoichi felt hungry at the
very same time, readers may think that it is just coincidental, rather a surrealistic
occurrence. Mikage’s remedy is closer to our daily life even though it may be a little
transcendental. She finds herself in a “strange” apartment, with its suspicious inhabitants,
namely, Yuichi and his transsexual father-Eriko. Yuichi introduces everything about
Eriko to Mikage in a very casual manner and Mikage also accepts it calmly as if it is
nothing unusual. Three of them then form a rather unconventional family, without blood
ties (with Mikage) but live happily. The kitchen in the Tanabe household provides
Mikage with a golden opportunity to re-build herself. Actually the image of the kitchen is
a synonym for the family, the mark of a nostalgic desire for what orphan Mikage never
134
Esquivel, Laura, Like Water for Chocolate, Christensen, Carol & Christensen, Thomas tr., New York:
Anchor Books, 1992.
60
had. In other words, Mikage was presented with the opportunity to recreate (rebuild)
herself without the constraints of a traditional family.
Kitchen depicts a changing family structure: no longer ‘natural’ but nonetheless
‘happy and normal’, which means they function just as ordinary families do. Writer
Fujimoto notes, “There are an increasing number of such families, in which unlike the
traditional family, there are absolutely no kinship relations.”135 Although Kitchen depicts
a non-traditional family structure, it does expose a “classical human problem’: the status
and function of the home in this new era of ‘global cultural process’.136 Kitchen presents
the solution in which families should be substantial, not functional in the mere site of
human reproduction. In fact, as John Treat argues that “the only thing ‘produced’ in the
Tanabe apartment is Mikage’s meals - any other kind of reproduction is patently
impossible.” 137 However the non-reproductive mother (or father)-son and sibling-like
(between Mikage and Yuichi) relationship is just an ideal structure for shojo (adolescent
girl) Mikage’s growing up process and healing.
At the beginning of the story, Mikage, a college student, is defined as a typical
shojo by John Treat as, “a complete consumer who is not involved in reproductive sexual
and capitalist economy.” 138 Through the pain of losing her grandmother and the re-
forming of her newfound family, she matures both physically and mentally. Not only
does she get a job as an assistant cook in a cooking school, she also develops an intimate
135
p291.
136
Ibid, p284.
137
Ibid, p291.
138
Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture.
Richmond: Curzon Press. 1996. p280-281.
61
relationship with Yuichi. They later become lovers and their relationship helps both of
them in overcoming the death of their loved ones.
The whole summer that Mikage spends with the Tanabes is a crucial period in
Mikage’s healing process. She spends all her part-time earnings for cooking. “Angry,
fretful, or cheery, I cooked through it all.” 139 She is obviously happy to do that, because
she has two other members who appreciate her effort. “I lived like a housewife.”140 Her
joy is genuine when she watches them enjoy her food. “I cooked for them: she (Eriko)
who made a fuss over everything I did; he (Yuichi) who ate vast quantities in silence.”141
The sight of seeing members gather around a family table and having their meals together
is a harmonious family picture that many people (even from biological families) could
only dream of. In today’s hectic life, more meals are prepared in the microwave. That
makes Mikage’s cooking more heartfelt, implying that Mikage has truly integrated into
her new family.
Even before Mikage leaves the Tanabes, she already developed intense
attachment towards the newfound home. “Some day, I wondered, will I be living
somewhere else and look back nostalgically on my time here? Or will I return to this
same kitchen someday?” A strong sense of belonging is revealed. This sense of belonging
never cuts off even after Eriko dies. Upon hearing Eriko’s death, Mikage immediately
turns herself into a comforter for her family (Yuichi). When Mikage orders katsudon and
delivers it to Isehara where Yuichi stays, she binds Yuichi and herself in the ‘fort’ that
139
140
Ibid, p57.
141
Ibid, p57.
62
Yoshimoto calls a family.142 The healing is achieved when the family provides Mikage
the energy for her transformation from a sufferer (of her own loss) to a comforter (to
another lonely soul). “In the final pages of Kitchen, Mikage effectively turns the entire
Izu peninsula into a kitchen as she races across with her hot dinner-to-go for lover/brother
Yuichi.” 143 Yuichi asks Mikage, “Why is it that everything I eat when I’m with you is so
delicious?” Mikage responded. “Could it be that you’re satisfying hunger and lust at the
same time?” “No way, no way!” Yuichi said, “It must be because we’re family.”144 This
conversation between Mikage and Yuichi confirms that even in the absence of Eriko, two
of them now connect on the family level.
The ideal family in Yoshimoto’s writing is never genetically based, but is instead
a willed construct. As critic Fujimoto notes, “There are only unconventional, abnormal
families (in Yoshimoto’s writing), but within those families there most certainly exists an
individual will and liability in having made those choices.” 145 I believe in Kitchen, Eriko
is the key character in choosing the ‘unconventional lifestyle. Not only did he undergo a
transsexual operation but also chooses to live as a woman. This is an unimaginable way
for a father to bring up a child, especially when his open communication with his children,
contradicts the traditional image of a Japanese parent. Similarly, Sakumi’s mother in
Yoshimoto’s novel Amrita also chooses to have an unconventional family.
Sakumi, the narrator in Amrita, who resembles Yoshimoto’s other characters, is
part of a unique family structure. Apart from her stepbrother Yokio, the family has finally
142
pp296.
143
Ibid, p289.
144
Backus, Megan tr., Kitchen, New York and London: Washington Square Press, 1988. pp100-101.
145
Cited by John Treat. Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and
Popular Culture. Richmond: Curzon Press. 1996.p292.
63
found stability through this all-female family structure. Sakumi’s family is a kind of
“new-age family that with modernist ideologies of individualism.”146 They form a family
based on equality, treating each other as friends. Members within the family are
independent, leading their own lifestyles, without interfering or imposing on others.
Sakumi mentioned: “after mother split up with my step-father, the father-mother-and
child union vanished, our home became something of a boarding house…blood ties
seemed unrelated to how we were living.” 147 Yet the family does display strong bonding
especially when members are faced with difficulties. For instance, When Yukio has
problems managing his supernatural power and frequently plays traunt, Sakumi expresses
her understanding towards his telepathy and empathizes with his strange behavior. She
takes him for holidays to Kochi and Saipan where they both achieve complete healing.
Shortly after her younger sister Mayu’s death, Sakumi loses part of her memory
after falling from the stairs and suffering a concussion. Sakumi’s healing may be more
complex than that of Mikage, since it encompasses both physical (memory loss) and
mental (the pain of loss Mayu) complications. To put it conclusively, the growing
journey and transformation of the family members, all work to the advantage of Sakumi’s
recovery. To elaborate, we understand that Yukio was merely an ordinary boy at the
beginning of the story. Along with his grappling of superpowers, the journey of him
going through puzzlement, fear, avoidance, and eventually recovery, greatly affects
Sakumi. In fact, the trials and tribulations in the lives of each family member have a
significant bearing on Sakumi, both in the emotional and spiritual realms. As mentioned,
146
p283.
147
Wasden, Russell F., tr., Amrita, New York: Grove Press, 1997. p5.
64
when she deals with her little brother, she learns to look at the world from different
perspectives and most importantly, she experiences the precious love between siblings.
That helps her to cure the painful memories of losing her younger sister.
Absence of Father in Family Structure
Additionally, the absence of a father is a notable motif in Yoshimoto’s writings on
family structure. According to John Treat, this phenomenon is frequently observed in
Japanese literature, that the character of the father is notably absent. 148 Likewise, in
modern Japanese fantastic fiction, a father or other authority figures are often problematic.
For instance, Kanai Mieko explores a bizarre relationship between a young girl and her
father in the novel Rabbits 149 . Most of the time, there is negligible presence and
communication between father and daughter. John Treat points out that, fathers are
shadowy and ambiguous figures in much of modern literature, and this phenomenon can
be explained by the relative decline of the prestige of the patriarch. He also argues that
the nuclear family and its father are rendered anachronistic with the advent of late
capitalism.150
It may be true that John Treat relates the “absent father” phenomenon with late
capitalism, as consumerism and individualism are more emphasized in a nuclear family
where fathers have decreasing authority. I also believe that ‘the absent father’ is a result
of the shift of the status of men in post-war Japanese society. Japanese men are expected
to compete in economic battles while their “professional housewives” manages the
148
Treat, John W. “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home: The Shojo in Japanese Popular Culture” in Treat,
John W. ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. UK: Curzon Press. P288.
149
Birnbaum, Phyllis tr., Rabbits, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1982.
150
Treat, John W. “ Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home : The Shojo in Japanese Popular Culture” in Treat,
John W. ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. UK: Curzon Press. 1996. p288-289.
65
home.151 Up till the end of the 1960s this seemed a relatively satisfactory solution, as
witnessed by Japan’s two-digit economic growth. However, the stage of Japanese success
brought about a sense of self-alienation, considering the primary focus to be economic
concerns and material progression, rather than the intangible rewards of family bonding.
Moreover, the marked ups and downs of the Japanese economy, especially in the years
since the 1973 oil shock, have undoubtedly contributed to an individual sense of
powerlessness, especially in men, who are still the primary breadwinners in Japan. 152
Being the economically active one in the house, a man is faced with much economic and
societal stress and has to strive hard to produce results, in the attempt to safeguard the
male ego. Most the time he is detached from his family, given the little time spent
together, and thus the impression of him is always insignificant. Maria, the narrator in
Tugumi, enjoys her life as part of a feminine extended family in which both Tsugumi’s
father and her own are real but invisible. John Treat also notes that Tadashi (Tsugumi’s
father) is a just “tangential figure” to the novel and appears only one or two times.153
Tsugumi never feels much love for his father nor is there much regret expressed over this
lack of intimacy. With the collapse of the father’s authority, Tsugumi’s father or all
fathers, “their power and their appeal, are rendered moot.”154 Yoshimoto has observed in
an essay that the conventional household is completely disappearing. 155 Similarly,
Sakumi in Amrita and Mikage in Kitchen are both shojos with no father. Mikage is an
151
White, Merry, Perfectly Japanese: Marking Families in an Eva of Upheaval. Berkely: University of
California Press, 2002. p188.
152
Suloway, Stephen tr., Social Psychology of Modern Japan. P522-23.
153
Treat, John W. “ Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home : The Shojo in Japanese Popular Culture” in Treat,
John W. ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. UK: Curzon Press. 1996. p288.
154
Ibid, p288-289.
155
Yoshimoto, Banana, Fruits Basket, Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1990. p123.
66
orphan while Sukumi lives with her single-parent mother. All the families seem to
function well without the involvement of a father.
The father is always distant or missing entirely in Yoshimoto’s stories. In her first
book Kitchen, Eriko, the father of Yuichi, transforms his role from a father to that of a
mother and ‘he’ behaves as a gentle and caring mother. Mikage is not only amused by her
physical beauty at their first meeting, but is also impressed at how Eriko juggles domestic
duties of the household, while working in a gay bar. Eriko’s warm approach and elegant
appearance give Mikage a sense of comfort; an ease to feel at home. Indeed, the manner
in which Eriko brings up Yuichi, is contrasting to that of normal Japanese male parenting.
Eriko reminds Yuichi to let the woman take lead upon entering social functions. For
instance, let the woman open the car door– a gesture man is akin to doing. This reflection
of feminism is indeed challenging to the traditional Japanese norm, whereby women take
up submissive, weaker roles, and allow the male to exert authority.
The healing process without the clear evidence of a father’s presence suggests that
the importance of Japanese fathers has deteriorated significantly along with the
156
establishment of the Japanese nuclear family. The motivation behind Eriko’s
transsexual operation further shows that mother-child relationship is somehow more
intense than the father-child relationship in the Japanese family structure.
Unusual relationships in the Healing Process
Other than bizarre families, unusual relationships also appear frequently in
Yoshimoto’s novels. I believe the shojo culture (adolescent female culture)157 Yoshimoto
156
Kumagai, Fumie & Keyser, Donna, Unmasking Japan Today: the Impact of Traditional Values on
Modern Japanese Society, London: Westport, Connectiut, 1996. p25.
157
“The modern concept of the shojo coalesced in the late nineteenth and early centuries, when rapid
economic change produced a social utility for ‘adolescence’, creating a youthful and all-female subculture.
67
is very familiar with, is one of the themes she uses in her writings of female relationships.
Some of Yoshimoto’s works dwell on topics, which are considered social taboos, such as
incest and lesbians stories (pseudo-lesbians). Although these may not be subjects of her
particular focus, she uses these unusual relationships, especially female relationships, to
explain healing processes. Yoshimoto’s N. P. and Amrita are the two major stories that
contain unusual relationships and they all have elements of lesbianism throughout the
plotlines.
Incest and Female Relationship in N.P.
One of her early novels, N. P., is a significant illustration of social taboos. Besides
an incestuous relationship between Sui and Takase (father-daughter), Sui also has a
sexual relationship with her half-brother, Otohiko. At the same time, she seems to be
attracted by Kazami, the story’s female narrator as well. The close relation between
Kazami and Sui implies a certain degree of lesbianism in N.P. I concur that Sui’s first
two relationships with family members, led to the development of guilt, self-disgust and
self-destruction, and eventually, repentance. Only after Sui has had intimate relations
with Kazami did she realize an end to such immorality was necessary. She gains the
courage to leave Otohiko and finally returns to reality from her chaotic life. Although
Yoshimoto does not clearly express her condemnation towards incest relationship, the
letter Sui sends to Kazami at the end of the novel, tells us that Sui is happier without
Otohiko. The relationship between the two girls actually provides a healing function to
Sui and also helps Kazami escape the fate of death when she was grappling with the
However, in Yoshimoto’s generation, the shojo culture was rearticulated as a definitive feature of Japanese
late-model, consumer capitalism.”
Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Richmond:
Curzon Press. 1996. p280
68
completion of the translation. Unlike her boyfriend Shoji and other translators who
committed suicide while working on the novel, Kazami acquires a better understanding
of the story after she develops close relationships with Sui and Takase’s children. She
gradually learns to develop self-control when translating Takase’s novel.
However, the close relationships between women in most of Yoshimoto’s fiction
do not go beyond a certain boundary - that is sexual maturity. Sui never develops a real
lesbian relationship with Kazami and the story ends when Sui says farewell to both
Otohiko and Kazami. With reference to John Treat’s comment, “the shojo are ‘off the
production line’, lacking any real reference in the economy and sexuality,” 158 In this
sense, Sui is no longer qualified as a shojo but Kazami still remains her shojo-ship as
there is no actual sexual relation mentioned between Kazami and Otohiko throughout the
novel. The nonsexual relationship between them may be the best healing therapy for
Otohiko who sees an end to the incestuous relationship with Sui. As for Kazami, through
the relationships she has had with both Sui and Otohiko, she is at the fringe of completing
her development from a shojo to a young woman. The story ends with Kazami and
Otohiko admiring the moon together while having a simple meal near a beach. Otohiko
confesses his love to Kazami and asks her to be with him. Kazami replies she will think
about it next autumn. This suggests she is reaching a higher level of maturity to be able to
accept a serious heterosexual relationship and say farewell to her shojo status.
Lesbian Motive in Amrita
Yoshimoto’s longest novel, Amrita, is clearly a story with a sense of maturation,
unfolding more intense and meaningful relationships in the process. In the afterword of
158
Treat, John W. “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home : The Shojo in Japanese Popular Culture” in Treat,
John W. ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. UK: Curzon Press. 1996.p280-281.
69
Amrita, Yoshimoto says that she intended to portray the very simple idea of ‘a never-
ending cycle of life’ in the novel. 159 Yet, it is important to acknowledge the fact that
along with the awakening of this (‘cycle of life’) comes the arrival of a new level of
awareness or truth - that is the relationships forged between women. Although the
interactions never resulted in sexual indulgence, they were, especially towards the
conclusion of the novel, flirting alongside such boundaries. The importance of Amrita’s
underlying lesbian motif is its interdependence with a higher level of spiritual awareness.
This awareness lies in the discovery of the inherent connections found in the cycle of life:
specifically the inherent connection between the women. In this sense Sukumi represents
the maturation of a shojo while simultaneously defying the presumed future of a shojo.
As anthropologist Jennifer Robertson points out: “Literally speaking, shojo means
a ‘non-quite-female’”160 Her further concept on shojo is also cited by John Treat in his
article, “shojo also implies heterosexual inexperience and homosexual experience-
presumably homosexual because the emotional life of the shojo is essentially narcissistic
in that it is self-referential, and self-referential as long as the shojo is not employed
productively in the sexual and capitalist economies.”161
Although the days of “heterosexual inexperience” 162 are left behind, the truly
meaningful relationships never become the ones with men and are, or are prophesied to
become the ones between women. Yoshimoto suggests that the recent appearance of a
“youthful and all-female sub-culture” 163 is actually more than a phenomenon of
159
Russell F., Wasden, Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. p367.
160
Robertson, Jennifer, ‘Gender-bending in paradise; doing “female” and “male” in Japan,’ in Gender 5,
1989. p50-59.
161
162
Ibid, p 283.
163
Ibid. p 280.
70
adolescence, but the surfacing of a natural, if not superior bond between women.
Throughout the novel Sukumi became mature and departs from the shojo state (because
she stays together with her boyfriend Ryuichiro at the end of the novel), she does not
leave this bond behind, and actually strengthens it. The development of this intrinsic
bond and its slow materialization into the conscious mind can be traced through the
progression of Sukumi's relationships with various women: Eiko, Saseko and Kaname.
These relationships are parts of the ‘life cycle’ of Sakumi and are significantly important
in Sakumi’s recovery and self-development.
Eiko is one of Sukumi’s old high school friends. Their relationship had at one
point transcribed the typical shojo relationship between two young girls. Sukumi
describes Eiko as “a friend who, among all my acquaintances, was by far the most
prissy.”164 She goes further to tell Eiko that “the only girls that dress like you are girls
fresh out of school.”165 This image is clearly parallel to Treat's description of a shojo: a
“girl who is attractive, and thus valorized, but lacks libidinal agency of her own.”166
However, this was Eiko’s past profile when she was still a college girl. After engaging in
a triangle love affair with her ex-boss, Eiko breaches this youthful naiveté. She no longer
fulfills the presumed role of a shojo not only by eventually becoming seriously involved
in a heterosexual relationship, but also by crossing into the world of careers by becoming
an office lady. Clearly, Eiko has grown up (from a shojo) to a young woman by
164
Russell F., Wasden, Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. P74.
165
Ibid, P76.
166
71
connecting herself with “productive /employment in the sexual and capitalist
economies.”167
The maturation of Eiko serves as a contrast to Sakumi’s stagnation and inability
to attain “adulthood”. There is a clear distinction between the lives of Eiko and Sukumi.
Sukumi does not get a regular job, and routinely leads her life with no sense of direction
even after graduating from college years ago. Perhaps, the delay in Sakumi’s maturation
is the result of her search for that “forgotten past”. Most directly, this co-responds to the
fact that she suffers from amnesia after falling from the stairs. It is thus noteworthy, that
Sakumi’s interaction with Eiko becomes a starting point of Sakumi’s self-discovery in
her ‘life cycle’ that helps her to connect the past with the present: through the relationship
built with her old college friend, Sakumi feels secured by a history; and by observing
Eiko’s growth into maturity, Sakumi gains courage for her self development.
Another relation with woman in Sakumi’s life cycle is further mentioned when
Sukumi meets Saseko (Sakumi’s boyfriend, Ryoichiro’s friend). Upon meeting her,
Saseko exclaims:
“You're half dead...when a person is about to die and they suddenly come back to
life, they bring with them the resources to tap all the powers they have inside. They've
actually been reborn.” 168
The meaning of being “half-dead”, is a recognition that Sakumi only has partial
memory. Saseko also foresees that Sakumi will eventually regain her memory and be
reborn as a new person. Saseko's vibrancy and supernatural ability to communicate with
spirits through song, is the onset of her relationship with Sakumi. Among all the audience,
167
168
72
Sakumi is the only one with the best understanding of Saseko’s songs. The songs seem to
bear a magical effect on comforting Sakumi’s sense of loss (loss of her sister and her
memory). The relationship Sakumi has with Saseko helps her to reaffirm her past and
brace the future. Towards the conclusion of the novel, Saseko sends Sukumi a letter,
which has clear connotations of romantic love. In one passage she writes:
“I think about the things you are thinking...and that's why I feel alive. I couldn't
ask for a better present in the world...all the things we did together...holding each other
tightly...there couldn't be a better fantasy…I wondered if I had fallen in love:”169
Although their relationship never actually takes on a sexual turn, they share an
extremely powerful bond, which Sukumi characterizes as a bond of eternity. When
Saseko is singing on the beach, Sukumi says: “she turned into something resembling pure
beauty...her song felt like it would continue forever.”170 It suggests the harmonious nature
of their relationship as well as the endless flow of the ‘life cycle’.
The question of sexual relationships between women is addressed when Sakumi
finally meets Kaname. Upon meeting her in the cafe, Sukumi becomes aware that: “I had
never felt this way with anyone before, not even with Ryuichiro...I wondered if I was
actually falling in love.” 171 Shortly after, as she becomes aware that the feelings are
mutual she wonders: “what would come next? Sex?”172 Although their relationship never
becomes sexual in the frame of the novel, the idea is developed, and the possibility
certainly remains a factor in the open ended conclusion.
169
Russell F., Wasden, Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. pp357-358.
170
Ibid, p237.
171
Ibid, p296.
172
Ibid, p299.
73
Kazami’s relationship with Kaname is described as a milestone in Sakumi’s ‘life
cycle’, however I find this is a rather vague part in the ‘cycle’ because Sakumi has
already retrieved her lost memory and has learnt to take control on her life. Moreover, at
the end of Amrita, Sukumi lives with Ryuchiro, and thus she finally surrenders her Shojo
identity and becomes a mature woman. The friendships that she has made with Saseko
and Kaname never actually surpass the point of real lesbianism, which implies earlier in
the novel. Yet, they are not set aside either. Perhaps Yoshimoto intentionally leaves the
story with an open ending to suggest the ‘never-ending cycle’ of the healing process.
74
Chapter 5: Feminine Power, Shadowy Male and Fantasy Women
Feminine Powers in Kitchen, Amrita and Lizard
As a modern female writer, Yoshimoto presents examples of the feminine
consciousness and a new type of relationship wherein men and women assume equal
status, are androgynous, and respectful towards mutual goals. John Treat points out that
the relationships built in Mikage and Yuichi’s family in Kitchen are not easily
“schematized as boyfriend and girlfriend, or mother and son, or brother and sister.”173
The relationship between them is an amalgam of all these elements, and is based on their
shared experiences and mutual understanding of each other. Yamamoto Toyoko identifies
their relationship as having a “twin-ship”174 characteristic, as feminist writer Nin brought
up in her article, “In Favor of a Sensitive Man.” Nin describes a situation “of a new man
and woman attempting to move towards twin-ship, or an equal and constructive
relationship in which each is free to draw on male and female elements within
175
themselves…[which was] a fledgling experiment at the time (in 1960s).” In
Yoshimoto’s generation, this concept seems to receive acceptance, as Yuichi and Mikage
fit into this ‘twin-ship’ well. There is little emphasis on gender differences in the story.
Instead the novel is a depiction of the two orphaned protagonists exchanging similar
emotional affliction and eventually succeeding in a mutual healing process.
173
p296.
174
Yamamoto, Toyoko. “Anaïs Nin’s Femininity and the Banana Yoshimoto Phenomenon.” In Anaïs Nin:
Literary Perspective. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1997. 199-210.
175
Ibid, p.201.
75
Nin further writes on the characteristic of a man who fulfills the image of this
‘twin-ship’, “The empathy these new men show women is born of their acceptance of
their own emotional, intuitive, sensory, and humanistic approach towards relationships.
They allow themselves to weep (men never do so), to show vulnerability, to expose their
fantasies, [and to] share their inmost selves.”176 Yuichi weeps readily and with sincerity.
He is precisely the kind of ‘sensitive man’ that Nin had envisaged. His counterpart,
Mikage also allows herself to express her emotions freely in front him, his father Eriko,
and Eriko’s friend Chika. I believe this is due very much to the way they have been
brought up. Mikage describes her grandmother as a loving old woman who has a very
gentle disposition. This is no doubt a necessary attribute for her to be a likeable, patient
owner of a florist, who consistently interacts with customers. She must have been very
kind to Yuichi when he worked in her shop part-time, such that he developed so strong an
attachment towards her that he broke down and cried hard during her funeral. It is clear
that Yuichi decided to invite Migake to move into his house even before he got to know
her as a means of repaying her grandmother’s kindness. Moreover, he believes that
Mikage is a good girl with a respectable personality, having been brought up by such a
kind woman.
“Gentleness” (yasashisa) is traditionally a feminine characteristic that is now
widely used to describe both genders in Japan. Here, I do not really argue that the
Japanese society is tending towards a kind of femininity. But yasashisa is no doubt one of
the valuable elements people pay particular attention to, in their search for friends and
partners. The trend of “yasashisa” reflects Japanese societal consciousness of a shift in
176
Yamamoto, Toyoko, “Anaïs Nin’s Femininity and the Banana Yoshimoto Phenomenon” in Nalbantian,
Suzanne ed., Anaïs Nin Literary Perspectives, London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997. p.201.
76
the social structure. Contemporary literature, such as Murakami Ryu’s Almost
Transparent Blue (1976), Tanaka Yasuo’s Indefinably Crystal (1981), and Murakami
Haruki’s End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland (1985) all express a sense of
terminality and many variations of “gentleness”.177
Compared to Mikage, Yuichi’s growing up experiences are unusual ones.
Yuichi’s mother died when he was very young, and his father went into a depression over
his mother’s death. He vowed never to love another woman, and thus decided to go for a
sex change operation to become a woman. By doing this he believed that he could
perform his responsibility well as both a mother and father. He changed his name to a
typical female one, Eriko. Eriko is one of the most attractive characters in the novel
Kitchen, and her philosophy of life does a great deal to outline Yoshimoto’s thoughts on
femininity. Her motivation for becoming a woman was the death of Yuichi’s mother;
when Eriko (she was then called Yuji) lost his beloved wife to cancer, he was tormented
by the restriction to cry openly. “He took his desire to become a woman – and thus was
allowed to express a greater range of emotion.”178
Eriko raises Yuichi in such a way that “allows his (Yuichi’s) true self to emerge.
The son (Yuichi) inherits the qualities of gentleness and self-awareness that were hard-
179
earned by his father (Eriko).” Although it is mentioned by R. W. Connell that
“hegemonic masculinity” still prevails as an ideology in the Japanese societal
landscape,180 in the private sphere however, women control the household and have more
177
Mita, Munesuke, Social Psychology of Modern Japan, London: Kegan Paul International, 1993. pp522-
23.
178
179
Ibid, p199-210.
180
Connell, R.W. 2000. The Men and the Boys. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin. P66
77
power over family expenses and children’s education. They play a more important role in
passing down traditions, social values, and moral codes to their children. The reason
Eriko wants to bring up Yuichi in the role of a mother instead of a father, is thus worthy
of our attention and further elaboration. Through the character Eriko, Yoshimoto
expresses her views on femininity and refusal to conform to gender expectations.
Although this is a very exceptional case and only happens in fiction, the concept in the
story Kitchen is supposed to be relative to the social environment in the late 80s as it was
widely read and enjoyed by a large segment of readers in the late 80s and early 90s. Eriko
intended to foster Yuichi as a gentle and considerable man with a caring personality.
Yuichi cooks and does housework. He is a sensible boy and always allows his true
feelings to be expressed openly. This is quite unlike typical Japanese men (even
nowadays), who refrain themselves from domestic involvement, and shield their inner
most feelings, with little or no outward expression. Yuichi’s character accurately reflects
Nin’s androgynous ideal that consists of “being an organic whole as a human being, large
enough to encompass being a ‘man’ in some areas and a ‘woman’ in others.”181
In Kitchen, Yoshimoto intimately describes two young people who forge a twin-
ship similar to that which Anaïs Nin had outlined. Yamamoto Toyoko commented,
“Yoshimoto depicts Yuichi as an androgynous figure. He is comfortable weeping in front
of Mikage, and provides quiet sympathy for her suffering and so does not conform to
traditional ideas of masculinity.”182 Mikage also notes his gentleness, which stems from
his self-awareness and sensitivity. Although such a trait is interpreted by the masculine
society at large as a sign of weakness, Mikage evaluates it positively from her own
181
182
Ibid, p.206.
78
perspective. Kitchen’s androgynous twins are exquisitely aware of ambiguity and pain.
They suffer a great deal (for the death of their beloved ones), but soon move through their
difficulties and confront life again. For them, “suffering is a forge that furthers their
individual quality of strength, gentleness and humour.”183 Both Mikage and Yuichi find
their positions in society, and also confirm their relationship after braving through the
obstacles.
Another notable fact is Yuichi’s readiness to accept Eriko as his mother. The way
he introduces Eriko to Mikage shows that he actually adores his “mother’s” femininity.
Mikage also notices this and she uses many words to portray Eriko’s charm. Mikage is
very much attracted to her when they first met. She regards Eriko as the most beautiful
woman she has ever known. “She (Eriko) had long silky hair, deep sparkling eyes, well-
formed lips, and a high, straight nose.” Her beauty was so breath-taking that Mikage
could not get her eyes of Eriko. Mikage’s final evaluation was, “She did not look
human.”184 The next morning, when Eriko was preparing breakfast in the kitchen in the
background of warm morning light, her greeting to Mikage with a cheerful smile made
her seem even more goddess-like. Eriko’s kind, peaceful image and voice have a magical
power in warming up Mikage’s heart, and she feels really welcomed and accepted by the
new family. The feminine power and charm Eriko possesses attracts Mikage. It evokes a
nostalgic sentiment of her lost home, and it becomes a remedy in aiding Mikage’s
recovery.
Besides Kitchen, feminine power is also portrayed in Yoshimoto’s other novels.
In Amrita and Lizard, this kind of power is infused in the female characters that have the
183
184
Backus, Megan tr., Kitchen, New York: Washington Square Press. 1993. p11.
79
ability to cure others. In Amrita, Saseko and Kaname are described as healers for Sakumi,
the narrator, and her little brother Yukio. Both women have supernatural powers. Sakumi
gets to know Saseko through Kozumi, who is a friend of Ryuichiro (Sakumi’s boyfriend).
Saseko is Kozumi’s wife, the couple having met in Saipan 185 when Saseko was then
engaged in prostitution. Saseko’s ability to communicate with dead people allows her
“access” to the perished soldiers in Saipan. These lonely souls long to return to their
home countries. Saseko starts to take on the role of a healer when she realizes that she is
the only person who can communicate and comfort them. Her singing does magic.
Whenever she sings, the lonely souls gain release and achieve freedom. Sakumi is
amused by Saseko’s song, and is surprised that she can actually understand the embedded
meanings. Saseko explains that this is because Sakumi has lost part of her memory and
has experienced “half-death” when she came to Saipan. Through her songs and their
close relationship, Sakumi gains the ability to define what happiness means for her. She
finds contentment in nature and with her family, friends, and lover. She gradually restores
control of her life.
The actual name of the novel is also very indicative of feminine power, although
we do not discover its meaning until the end of the novel. Ryuichiro decides to begin
writing a novel which somewhat resembles the life of Sakumi. He uses the thirteen major
events that Sakumi had jotted down as his guide. He decides to name the novel “Amrita”,
which comes from the old Sanskrit word ‘amrta’186 which refers to “A divine nectar,
something the gods indulge in…they say that when you let the liquid gush through you,
you’ve actually achieved life because what happens to the flowing water is similar to
185
Saipan is a battlefield during the final years of the Pacific War, many Japanese and American soldiers
died in Saipan.
186
Russell F., Wasden, tr., Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. p354.
80
what happens to people.” 187 There is a good amount of “water imagery”188 in the novel:
For instance, when Saseko sings, the spray of the ocean moves towards her. When
Sakumi dreams about Mary, they stand in the rain.189 This ‘divine water’ can be more
appropriately named as ‘water of Goddess’. The image of Saseko standing by the seaside
singing songs to comfort those lost souls in the war is reflective of Sandro Botticelli’s
painting “the Birth of Venus”. They both possess a peaceful image and a powerful inner
strength. “The power of peace” is Saseko’s input in her chanting. It further represents the
power of women and their role in life, or how to achieve true life through such power. To
Sakumi, Saseko’s power is supernatural yet real, mysterious yet substantial; the intensity
is tangible, facilitating communication in the process. The power Saseko exercises has
given Sakumi “hope,” and has opened a new window for her to explore a new life.
“Hope” provides Sakumi courage to retrieve and re-identify herself as a new person,
entirely different from the past. Re-realizing the meaning of life, family and herself gives
Sakumi the inner strength to face the past.
Sakumi gradually re-gains her memory after she returns from Saipan. She had
tried very hard to retrieve her memory but could never do so despite going through old
photos, books and diaries many times. I argue that she was sub-consciously rejecting
access to her old memory, in the attempt to rid the pain of losing her sister Mayu. When
she cried while watching the video of “My Neighbor Totoro,”190 she must have realized
that the love between her and Mayu was the same as the two sisters in the show. She
187
188
Raffler, Rachel, “Lesbians, Lovers and the Feminist Destiny” @ http://student.haverford.ed/east.
Accessed on 25th April 2005.
189
Sakumi read about a woman named Mary in Texas who also lost her memory in a newspaper and then
she had a dream that both of them were chatting on a beach, suddenly they felt raindrops fell on them.
190
Filmed by Studio Ghibli on 1988, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The anime basically tells about two
sisters’ encounters of a mysterious figure Totoro who lives in the forest next to their house. The close tie
between the two sisters is a very touching part of the film.
81
could not finish watching the video because she was afraid to discover more. Another
issue to complicate matters is her development of a very close relationship with Mayu’s
boyfriend, Ryuichiro. In her subconscious, she does not want to unveil the past of her
closeness with Mayu. She chooses instead, the superficial image of a happy family by
just looking through the old photos. She passed on another chance of retrieving her
memory when she found a CD recording of a famous musician’s concert that both she
and Mayu liked. She had forgotten the contents of the CD and listened to it with
Ryuichiro. She was very shocked to hear Mayu’s soft voice at the beginning of the CD.
She felt a tinge of regret playing it, partly because she was with Ryuichiro and also
because she was uncertain about herself. She could have recalled some past memory if
she had played it one more time, but she simply kept it in her room without ever touching
it again. To Sakumi, although losing her memory was a tragedy, regaining it might have
caused more pain. When she puts away the video and the CD, it implies that she is
intentionally distancing herself from her past. It is after her meeting with Saseko in
Saipan that Sakumi begins to try to make sense of the world and to search for the
meaning of existence. She restores her memory because she regains control over her life.
Near the ending of the novel, Sakumi goes for dinner with Yukio. He says to her
that he really loved the days spent together with her and Saseko in Saipan, with Sakumi
feeling the same way. Both of them regard Saipan as the healing place for them. Sakumi
receives a small package from Saipan at the ending of the story – it was a CD of Saseko’s
song, which sings: “My words will cross the ocean and reach you… I cry for you now, as
I stand on this distant shore, I’m calling to send you word…the love from a far eastern
82
world.”191 Sakumi responds by saying: “When I think back to those days when my life
was so messed up... when the light began to shine through the distant waters I knew
192
something happened, I knew I was saved.” Salvation is finally achieved not only
through Saseko’s holy songs but also through her power of spiritual enlightenment and
her deciphering of the true meaning of life.
Moreover, Sakumi gets to know Kaneme193 during this period of time, who ends
up becoming another feminine figure she adores. She is attracted to Kaneme not only by
her external appearance, but also by the inner power that she exudes. Through Kaneme,
she gets a better understanding of Yukio and that works well in helping Yukio overcome
his problems and return to his normal self.
Feminine power is also one of the main themes in Lizard. This is a story of a
young woman whom the narrator chooses to name Lizard. They began their relationship
one day when the narrator saw Lizard heal a young girl who had fallen and sprained her
ankle. As their relationship grew, Lizard revealed her childhood secret of once having
been blind for three years because of the sight of her mother being stabbed. Even though
she has healed her mother’s wound, the haunting shadow was still there. And it was at
that point in her life did she realize she had the power to heal, and that she needed to use
it to help the rest of the world. The loss of her eyesight was caused by her emotional
stress, and it eventually recovered naturally. But the most unbelievable fact was her will
to see her mother’s assassin be hit by a car, which eventually became reality, with her
feeling guilty because he died as a result of her supernatural powers. The processes of
191
192
Ibid, p361-62.
193
Kaneme is a friend of Yukio, who also once had supernatural power in her childhood. I mentioned her in
chapter four.
83
healing and destroying is not realized through the application of any medication or
actions, but by the invocation of one’s will, akin to religious healing. The only difference
is that the recipient does not need to worship or have any faith in her. Actually, the
recipient does not even know that Lizard has healing powers.
In many Yoshimoto’s novels I have read (such as Lizard, Amrita and Marika’s
Sofa), I observe that there are more women performing healing than men. It seems we
can conclude that feminine power is more emphasized in Yoshimoto’s writing. However,
the feminine power Yoshimoto admires can be a source of destruction, and can be
destroyable at the same time. For example, Eriko is described as a charming model that
Mikage adores. She is capable at managing both her home and the gay-bar but she is
destined to die under the hands of a mad male customer. This implies that somehow
feminine power is vulnerable. On the other hand, the feminine power is described as quite
a fierce power in Lizard, because it has both the ability to heal and to destroy. This may
be related to Greek mythology when Artemis, the Goddess of Moon, has the power to
heal and to kill. But Artemis has a rather a cruel personality, which is rather unwelcomed
in Yoshimoto’s creations. Nearly all healers are good and gentle people who always put
good spells on others. Even though Lizard had once put a curse on the man who stabbed
her mother, she later feels true regret at doing so when she hears of the man’s death. This
incident makes her realize her own power of healing. She uses the power to heal many so
as to compensate for her guilt.
Perfect Fantasy Woman

84
Feminine power in Yoshimoto’s writing is not only expressed through a woman
with supernatural abilities, but also depicted through the image of a perfect and
fantastical figure.
Susan Napier says, “The idea of the perfect woman has appeared in many modern
Japanese works. Not the perfect woman to marry, or to befriend, but the perfect fantasy
woman.”194 The fantasy woman often embodies the most literal form of fantasy, that of
wish-fulfillment. “The male characters (in some literary writings) wish intensely for an
escape from the reality of the modern world through the discovery, or at times the
creation, of a woman linked to a non-modern world. In these wish-fulfillment quests the
male characters go in search of a fantasy female.”195
In Oe Kenzaburo’s A Personal Matter, Bird even takes comfort in a fantasy
woman, Himiko. Himiko serves as a sexual adventure along with being a companion to
196
whom Bird always turned to when things were difficult. Fantasy women
characteristically attempt to compensate for a shortcoming that is a result of cultural
constraints: they live in the literature of desire, which seeks to tell of the experiences the
male characters feel they have lost.197
This concept is perfectly reflected in Yoshimoto’s Newlywed. The secondary
character in the story is a woman who, perhaps being only a figment of the main
character’s imagination, is the “fantasy” woman. She appears when the protagonist
begins to feel very down about his new marriage and has problems with his new wife.
194
Napier, Susan J. The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity. London &
195
Ibid, p23.
196
Nathan, John tr., A Personal Matter, New York: Grove Press Inc. 1969.
197
Napier, Susan J. The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature, The Subversion of Modernity. London &
New York: Routledge, 2000. p23-24.
85
In Newlywed, the fantasy woman serves as a confidant and is described as an
exotic beauty: “I couldn’t even tell what country she was from. She had long brown hair,
grey eyes, gorgeous legs, and wore a black dress and black patent leather heels…and she
wore a corsage of flowers, right over her ample breasts.” Although exotic, she also looks
like an acquaintance to him: “I definitely knew that face from somewhere - like maybe
she was my favorite actress, or my first girlfriend, or a cousin, or my mother…her face
looked very familiar.”198 The mixture of exotica and familiar images makes up the right
composition of a perfect and fantastical confidant. The combination of the familiar and
unfamiliar is also well explained by the narrator’s inner world: he feels isolated within
supposed familiar environment by the familiar people surrounding him. One could argue
that this man is just looking for someone else to talk to. But upon reading the story, one
must notice that when the woman first appears to the narrator as an old beggar, he
blatantly ignores the old man. Contrasting that with the lukewarm attitude the narrator
shows towards the old man, he seems happy to be engaged in conversation with the
mysterious beauty and is willing to confess his inner world to her. The “fantasy” woman
in the story helps to ease the pain of those who are not comfortable with themselves. She
induces the narrator to step out of his confined routine and helps him to re-realize the
perfect woman (his wife) in his life.
Later, when the narrator was put in the position of virtual death (discussed in
chapter two) by assuming that he himself would never return to his familiar life, he finds
out that his new wife Atsuko is actually a perfect woman. He simply fails to appreciate
the perfection in her. “She sings in the bath, and she talks to her stuffed animals while she
is dusting them. On the phone with her friends, she laughs hard at anything they say, and,
198
Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard. New York: Washington Square Press. 1995. p4-5.
86
if it’s one of her old pals from high school, they’ll go on for hours. Thanks to Atsuko’s
ways, we have a happy home. In fact, sometimes, it’s so much fun at home it makes me
want to puke.”199 Obviously, this is not such a happy home. Atsuko is displaying her
extreme efforts to make everything perfect, yet she never realizes that her new husband
does not feel comfortable with the “perfect” life style.
The story Newlywed, implies that sometimes people are afraid of undergoing any
change in routine or going beyond their comfort zones. They feel uncomfortable with
things that they do not understand, thus they feel that they are alienated. But at the same
time a change in life also brings a certain freshness, which fascinates them. This
complex feeling is just something the narrator of the story senses as a newlywed.
Although it is the same Atsuko, through fantastic encounters of the fantasy
woman, the narrator learns to look at herself from different angles. He recognizes that
Atsuko is not a fussy housewife, but a gentle woman with a loving heart. He gets a better
understanding of Atsuko’s perfection: “she never forgets to put a fresh bowl of rice on
the family alter every day. When I wake up on Sunday mornings, she’ll be doing laundry,
or vacuuming, or chatting with the lady next door. Everyday she puts out food for the
neighborhood cats, and she cries when she watches mushy TV shows.” 200 He would
certainly feel the same reminiscence (of his hometown) should he lose her and his current
life. Discovering this new value in his life is a crucial part of his mental healing. Finally
he pulls himself out from his melancholy state.
Shadowy Male character in the Healing Process
199
Sherif, Ann, tr., “Newlywed” in Lizard. New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. p7.
200
Ibid, p7.
87
In my observations, women characters seem to outshine their male counterparts in
Yoshimoto’s writing that deals with the process of healing. For instance, in Asleep,
Iwanaga is Terako’s love affair. But upon reading the story, his presence seems vague
and insignificant. He seems to be powerless in the face of danger. He neither tries to
understand Terako’s situation nor speak of his troubles to her. The more exhausted
Iwanaga becomes the more he tries to keep Terako at a distance from reality. He prevents
Terako from working and prefers that she stays at home and lives her life in silence. Thus,
Terako embraces the darkness of his exhaustion and acts like the shadow of his dream.
That is why Terako says that she always feels so lonely whenever she is with him.
Ann Sherif says that one predominant pattern in Yoshimoto’s writings is “the
theme of ‘women’s quest for transformation and transcendence facilitated by spiritually
potent male figures”.201 However, I would argue that in most of Yoshimoto’s writings,
the feminine powers are more emphasized. Instead of being the savior of Terako,
Iwanaga’s wife is actually acting on Iwanaga’s behalf to urge Terako to get back her
normal life. Mrs. Iwanaga, who is in coma, is an unseen character in the plot but plays a
significant role in Terako’s healing process. It is Mrs. Iwanaga who senses the danger of
Terako’s sleeping sickness. She enters Terako’s dream and persuades her to change her
life routine. Her persuasion indicates her acceptance of Terako’s relationship with
Iwanaga. I believe her acceptance is the turning point in Terako’s healing process. This is
in strong contrast to the role of Iwanaga, who is supposed to be a healthy and ‘capable’
man, and often makes his appearance in Terako’s life. However obvious, there is no
effective communication between them. Terako even says: “when we met in town our
201
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 Hawaii ‘i
press, 1999.p281.
88
meetings were like the shadow of dream…I passed my days in silence.” 202 Compared to
Iwanaga, Terako seems to be happier and talks more freely when she is with Shiori.
Terako mentions several times in the story that it is very fun and comfortable to live
together with Shiori, and she says “women friends are the best.” “There were times when
I was with Shiori when it would occur to me that I really liked women a whole lot more
than I liked men.”203 Whenever she feels sad, the first person she would turn to is Shiori,
not Iwanaga. She would discuss all her problems and share her secret with Shiori, but she
is never able to open her heart to Iwanaga.
The completion of Terako’s healing process without clear evidence of Iwanaga’s
participation reflects the collapse of the patriarch in some Japanese literary writing, 204
which also appears in many of Yoshimoto’s novels205. Even today, male domination of
financial and political power still looms large in Japanese society. 206 However, male
domination is pretty much absent in Yoshimoto’s novels. Yoshimoto’s vague male and
potent female characters in healing process expose her feminine consciousness and her
questioning of patriarchal rules.
202
203
Ibid, p119.
204
I discussed the similar phenomenon, ‘Absent Father’ in chapter four.
205
Ann, Sherif, “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. p285-287.
206
Ibid. pp282-83.
89
Chapter 6: Conclusion
The Categorization of Yoshimoto’s Writing
Yoshimoto’s writing is generally categorized as pop-literature, 207 which has a
strong link with the popular and commercial culture of Japan. Her fiction is more
evaluated as commodities than literary products.208 However despite her simple plots,
Yoshimoto’s novels explore a fundamental human issue of grief and recovery. The cycle
of pain and healing is an undeniable experiential process for most people.
As I have mentioned in introduction, most of Yoshimoto’s works delve into
magical realism. Fantastic elements, unusual family and relationship are common topics
in Yoshimoto’s writings, and they are closely connected with the main theme of healing,
which I have identified in the previous chapters.
Her first novel Kitchen that I have discussed in chapters two and four, handles the
issue of emotional management in the midst of losing someone close. The story does not
only embark on a wonderful journey into the human’s psyche, but is also a good example
of self re-building, and developing appreciation towards life’s every detail. Her book was
not only welcomed in her native country but gained international recognition and
appraisals. While some may argue that her overwhelming success was the result of
effective advertising and media exposure, making Kitchen the best seller amongst
Japanese novels in the United States, it is important for critics to delve deeper, exploring
207
write?) in Besastsu Takarakima. 1988. pp.152-55.
208
Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Homes” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture.
Richmond: Curzon Press. P280.
90
and appreciating her plotlines of loss and recovery, which are indeed beguiling and
resonant themes that not only catches the eye, intrigues the mind, but also tugs the
heartstrings of many, impacting lives as a process. Hence, it is without a doubt that
Yoshimoto’s first publication of Kitchen in 1987 was well received with great success.
In the introduction of this thesis, I brought up a question common yet puzzling
amongst critics: “In the circle of many contemporary Japanese authors, why is
Yoshimoto the first to go global?” 209 After reading many of her novels, I believe the
theme of healing itself, coupled with the sense of hope her stories present, is one of the
many contributing factors of her accomplishment. With the increasing concern over the
issue of healing and the boom of healing products since late 80s, books about healing
always attract many readers210. Thus it is quite understandable that Yoshimoto’s books
are sold by millions of copies.
Besides the emphasis on healing, the ‘triumph of popular culture’ 211 is also
believed to be another reason behind her popularity. Despite having her books be rebuked
as ‘baby talk’212, Yoshimoto’s novels attract a large group of readers, especially young
females. It is probably true that Yoshimoto’s writings lack the literary value of Nobel
prized works, but categorized as a pop cultural writer, Yoshimoto’s novels indeed have a
close relationship with shojo manga (teenage girls’ comics) and popular culture, and this
is commendable in its own unique ways.
209
Women Media and Consumption in Japan. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995. p278.
210
I have mentioned this in the introduction, p10 of this thesis, footnote 33.
211
Treat, John W., “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Homes” in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture.
Richmond: Curzon Press. P 278.
212
John Treat cited Miyoshi Masao’s article “Off-Center: Power and culture relation between Japan and the
United States”. 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. p277.
91
As I have highlighted the affiliation (with popular culture) in introduction and
chapter four, her plots and characters are much alike of the stories and the shojo
characters in young girls’ magazines.213 I agree with Shima Hiroyuki214 that some of her
plots need further analysis and characters need further development. The popularity of
Yoshimoto’s works, according to Treat, shows the victory of commercial, popular culture
over the critical association with junbungaku.215 Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo complains
that Japanese intellectuals, including students in major universities, no longer look to
serious literary writing for new models of the future and he says this phenomenon is
associated with the social changes.216 Mass cultural products become the main stream in
commercial market. Young writers such as Yoshimoto Banana, Tawara Machi and
Murakami Haruki fairly dominate the print side of Japanese popular culture today.
The success of Yoshimoto shows the perennial modern combat between the
forces of popular taste and those of its intellectual conscience. The boom of Yoshimoto’s
works, especially at the end of 80s and beginning of 90s, according to John Treats, is a
good example to prove that “the massive forces of commodification are currently at work
217
in Japan.” Cultural products especially popular cultural products have become
commodities, which can provide quick entertainment and temporary relief to readers.
Popular literature in the 1980s and 1990s reflects changing values of young
women in Japan who are now delaying marriage or choosing singlehood. “Yoshimoto’s
213
Shima, Hiroyuki, “Yoshimoto Banana wa Kakitsuzukerareru ka” (can Yoshimoto Banana continue to
write?) in Bessatsu Takarakima. 1988. pp152-155.
214
Hiroyuki Shima is the author of “Yoshimoto Banana wa Kakitsuzukerareru ka”. Refer to note 7 of this
page.
215
216
Cited by John Treat. Treat, John, “Yoshimoto Writes Home” in Contemporary Japan and Popular
Culture, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996. p278.
217
Ibid, p277.
92
characters mirror her readers’ needs to shape identities and to control their own lives; her
fiction suggests alternative roles to her female readers that they can mould their identities
and futures.” 218 Like Mikage’s self re-building through the establishing of a new family
in Kitchen and Sakumi’s re-evaluation and self identification through her memory loss
and retrieve in Amrita, Yoshimoto is unafraid to explore, and reveal the usually taboo
topics of incest, transsexuality and mysticism. She also handles subjects of
unconventional family and unusual relationships tastefully, although these topics used to
be dealt with much tact and sensitivity. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why
Yoshimoto’s books are welcomed worldwide. As Foreign Ministry spokesman Amano
pointed that, “There should be some elements in her book that can be shared, not only by
219
the Japanese, but by the younger generation all over the world.” Elizabeth Floyd
called Yoshimoto’s writings “something that young people the world over, regardless of
nationality, can enjoy.”220 In the other interview, Yoshimoto adds that she is attempting
her best to produce something readers all over the world can understand and not only can
be accepted by Japanese.221 Less cultural uniqueness and more economic orientation are
highlighted in Yoshimoto’s writings. Thus her writings are more international and
without absolute Japaneseness.222 In another words, the story in Kitchen is applicable to
lives from all over the world, not only unique to the Japanese experience. Likewise, the
218
Fairbanks, Carol, Japanese Women Fiction Writers- Their Culture and Society, 1890s to 1990s.
Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002. pp.512-513.
219
Mr. Amano gave the statement during a press conference of G-7 summit held in Tokyo in July 1993.
220
221
Yumiuri Shinbun, Osaka, 1st June 1993. Cited by Kitama Satoshi. Kimata, Satoshi, Yoshimoto Banana
Yellow Page, Tokyo: Kochishuppansha, 1999. p1.
222
93
emotional healing route of loss and recovery is a universal growing up process for the
young and old, regardless of race, creed or age.
Writer and critic Tanaka Yukiko labels Yoshimoto and Murakami Haruki as a
generation of “shinjinrui” (the New Age people), meaning those who grew up on
223
Western popular culture. Tanaka explains that, indulging in consumption in the
capitalist world helps to create a sense of belonging. 224 Writer Saburo Kawamoto
expresses a similar sentiment. “The world of Banana is familiar to both the Japanese and
the international audience because she writes about the changes brought about through
industrialization. The key themes are alienation from traditional values and family and
individualism.” 225
As I have mentioned in the introductory chapter, another reason for Yoshimoto’s
success is her manga-affected writing style and first person narration. She uses a large
number of dialogues in her novels. The following example is the narration made by
Terako (the narrator in Asleep) when she is on the way back after her meet-up with
Iwanaga:
“On one night like this I always stopped by her (Shiori’s) apartment. Not the one
she used for her work, but the one she lived in. I don’t know if it’s because I was drunk or
because I’d been sleeping too much, but I could sense that the line separating recollection
from reality was starting to become dangerously thin.” 226
223
Shinjinrui means the ‘new breed’ in Japanese who born in the 1960s or later. These Japanese youth
share a number of interesting characteristics: Raised in an affluent society, they have no experience of
poverty or starvation; they are whimsical, emotional, and playful… they lack of commitment, indifference
to larger issues, and unwillingness to grow up. Kumagai, Fumie and Keyser, Donna, Unmasking Japan
Today, London: West Point, 1996. p73.
224
Tanaka, Yukiko, Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women, London: Praeger, 1995. p75.
225
Kakuchi, Suvendrini, “Mirror, Mirror” in Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 160 No. 49, Hong Kong:
Review Publishing Co. Ltd., 1997. p98.
226
Emmerich, Michael tr., Asleep. New York: Grove Press, 2000. p135.
94
The narration clearly reveals Terako’s anxiety of not being able to understand
Iwanaga and her intuition of sensing the danger of her sleep sickness. The protagonist’s
thoughts are vividly described in the stories through her simple, first person narrative
style. It is as if Yoshimoto is allowing the reader to be privy to the very private, intimate
world of her characters. Through the first person narrative style and numerous dialogues,
Yoshimoto makes story imbued with sensuality, mystery and magic. She creates a surreal
world for both her protagonists and readers to approach the truth in our daily lives,
enabling the effect of healing to resonate long after one finished his reading.
In closing this thesis then, I will summarize the linkages, which I have identified.
They are mainly the themes of family, relationship, supernatural occurrences and spiritual
healing in Yoshimoto’s novels.
Family, Feminine Power, Unusual Relationship and Healing
In chapters four and five I have explained how unconventional families, unusual
relationships and feminine power function in the protagonists’ healing and growing up
process. After studying several of her novels, I found there is a significant connection
amongst these elements and healing.
Family
Yoshimoto’s writing of unconventional family and relationship is probably
related to her own background. In the Afterword of Tugumi, Yoshimoto confesses: “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 my family, and myself, I
would be able to retrieve them by reading this book…I am Tsugumi. What is naughty
95
about her is naughty about myself.”227 Even though Tsugumi is just a fictional figure and
is not a true reflection of the author Yoshimoto, the author herself admits to sharing
similar characteristics with Tsugumi.
As I have mentioned in chapter four, Yoshimoto’s parents shared an unusual
relationship and were not officially married when she was born. 228 With such non-
traditional role models, and the absolute freedom to choose her own path in life,
Yoshimoto grew up to be an independent, creative individual. On the one hand, her
individualist attitude and unconventional ideas about interpersonal relationships are
continuously exhibited throughout her stories. On the other hand, her characters appear to
be looking for traditional values to manage family issues and relationships. She obviously
envisions a new family structure wherein individuals do not have to be biologically
related to play symbolic functions in the house. But the characters in her novels are often
immersed in nostalgia, and in search of re-establishing the appropriate functions of a
traditional family. The sense of individualism versus family traditions is not necessarily
contradictory but can in fact, churn out a good combination in her stories. The substantial
relationships amongst the members are Yoshimoto’s primary focus, instead of what form
a family should actually be.
It is true that the young people in Yoshimoto’s novels are expecting a new kind of
family and relationship, seeking for individualism. The young people in Yoshimoto’s
funky novels enjoy modern art and pop music. Many protagonists in her stories are
engaging in liberal relationship (ie. cohabitation, lesbianism, etc…) instead of proper
marriage. However, traditional sensibilities also underlie her writing and this duality
227
Emmerich, Michael tr., Tsugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002. p187.
228
Huang Xinning tr., Yuan Lai Ru Ci de Dui Hua. Taipei: Shi Bao Chu Ban, 2004. p.20-22.
96
(new family structure and traditional sensibilities) drives much of her work. Without a
fixed life style and family structure, her protagonists and readers are seeking love and
harmony with nature and other people (which is traditionally in human relationship). That
is why I concur that Yoshimoto’s writing combines the old and new Japan. The sense of
‘nostalgia’ (in her writing of family) in Kitchen and ‘cycle of life’ (in her writing of
relationship) in Amrita is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. 229 In these novels 230, she
talks about family and relationship with both new perspectives and traditional value.
On one hand, the new family structures and unconventional relationships in her
stories display Yoshimoto’s openness to non-conformity. Taboos such as incest and
lesbianism are connected with the protagonists’ healing process in some of her fiction.
On the other hand, the healing process in her writing is actually a growing up process,
which suggests that it is significant for the protagonists to mature enough to reintegrate
into society, even after extreme alienation and tragedy.
The status and function of the home is ‘a classic human problem’ in the new set of
global cultural processes. Appadurai even questioned, “How do small groups, especially
families, the classic loci of socialization, deal with these new global realities as they seek
to reproduce themselves?” 231 In case of Yoshimoto’s stories, the question ought to be
rephrased as: “How does non-biological family assist its individual members in finding
their new positions in society and happiness in life?” Yoshimoto provides a trial answer
in her book Kitchen.
229
Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002. p.514.
230
Such as Kitchen and Amrita which I have discussed in chapter four.
231
Treat cited Appadurai’s article, ‘Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy’. 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. p284.
97
Kitchen creates the sort of ‘nuclear family’ that writer Jameson associates with
232
modernist ideologies of individualism. John Treats also says: “Nowadays family
relationships can become volatile, as new commodity patterns are negotiated.” 233
Yoshimoto’s stories in general and Kitchen in particular, raise in their own fashion the
crucial question of the family, reproduction, and late capitalism. The family, in other
words, is the substantial and not just virtual site of all (re) production.
When Mikage moves in Tanabe’s house, she, Yuichi and Yuichi’s transsexual
father Eriko forms a special family in which every one plays their role respectively and
individually. Eriko was Yuichi’s father but now plays a role of a mother, yet she does not
behave like a traditional domesticated mother who stays at home and takes care of
household. Instead of a parent-child relationship, Eriko treats Yuichi more like a friend,
and so does to Mikage. I believe this type of family is comparatively easier for Mikage to
fit in rather than a traditional family (father-mother-children) where Mikage may undergo
additional stress to fit in.
This fictional kitchen is the ‘best in the world’. It is indeed a room that one might
fancy, a luxurious ‘home’ that reeks with nostalgia of a family and its old-fashioned
comforts. Such old-fashioned hearth and the possibility of a family assembled beside it
are the modern consumer’s dream, and as a dream, it is “both unreal and powerful.” 234
Many scenes in the novel illustrate the function of kitchen as a source of
happiness and a venue for healing:
232
Women Media and Consumption in Japan. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1995.p283.
233
Ibid. pp284-285.
234
98
An appreciative Yuichi attacks the katsudon with gusto as Mikage, watches with
all the joy of a nursing mother:
“My spirits began to lift; I had done all I could. I knew it: the glittering crystal of
all the good times we’d had, which had been sleeping in the depths of memory, was
awakening and would keep us going. Like a blast of fresh wind, the richly perfumed
breath of those days returned to my soul…More family memories.”235
John Treats says, “In Yoshimoto’s novels, orphans are happy to be orphans.”236
Yet, upon reading through the novel, I feel a sense of incompleteness because the
children deeply yearn for a reunited family, despite expressing relative happiness in the
time being:
Yuichi ever asked Mikage why everything he ate together with her was so
delicious. Later he was able to give the answer himself: “It must be because we’re
family”.237
Kitchen depicts a changing family structure: no longer generic 238 . The role of
individual members differs from a conventional family, but nonetheless ‘happy and
normal’239 just like the nostalgic family people in modern society continually long for.
Unusual Relationships
Family and relationships are also the major themes in Amrita. The novel is about
the experiences of young adults growing up to discover themselves and to cope with
everyday life. Death, love, relationships and daily existences are some of the themes
235
Backus, Megan tr., Kitchen, New York: Washington Square Press, 1993. pp.99-100.
236
237
Ibid, pp100-101.
238
Ibid, p290.
239
Ibid, p290.
99
embodied in this novel. It offers a rich spectrum of musings on the fundamental issues
pertaining to existence that I have analyzed in chapter four. It questions both the
protagonists and reader’s perceptions on family and relationship and provides consoling,
hope and life-affirmation.
Sakumi, the narrator in Amrita, establishes intense friendships, mostly with
people who are telepathic. She recognizes that ‘family’ provides stability in her life, even
though her particular family is a nontraditional one as I explained in chapter four. She
recalls at the end in the story that both her sister and herself were “greedy for
happiness.”240 Sakumi has then to define what happiness means for her - she rejects the
supposed security of a traditional role as wife and mother, finding contentment in nature
and with her family, friends, and lover. Like her mother before her, “she learns to take
control of her life.” 241
Yoshimoto describes the theme of Amrita as, “there will always be the never-
ending cycle of life.” 242 The theme ‘never-ending cycle of life’ is intricately depicted
through Sakumi’s relationships with mainly three women, Eiko, Saseko and Kaname.
The relationships are described as a powerful force in Sakumi’s recovery. However as I
discussed in chapter four, I found the correlation with these relationships and the ‘never-
ending cycle of life’ relatively vague. The narration of the three relationships is not
coherent enough to explain the main idea of ‘never-ending cycle of life’. Sakumi’s
physical (memory loss) and mental (pain from losing her sister Mayu) healing seems to
240
Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002. p508. (should change to Amrita)
241
Ibid, p508.
242
100
be achieved through the beautiful nature in Saipan rather than through her relationships
(especially the relationship with Kaname).
Feminine Power
Besides the relationships amongst women, women are also portrayed as healers in
Yoshimoto’s stories, and in certain instances it suggests feminine power in the healing
process. However the power Yoshimoto presents in her stories is sometimes either
incomplete (Lizard’s supernatural power) or destroyable (Eriko’s death) which I have
discussed in chapter five.
Parallel to feminine power, the role of the father and other male characters hold a
secondary status in Yoshimoto’s works. This may be in part, the result of Yoshimoto’s
empathy with shojo culture that I have also mentioned in previous chapters. Shojo culture
in a sense “demonstrates the mistrust of male power and sexuality, and explorations of
‘non-reproductive’ or same-sex relationships” 243 . Yoshimoto’s protagonists typically
unite with another person, most of the case, a female character with a spiritual force and
attraction that binds the two together in their search for wholeness.
Fantasy Elements and Healing
Many Yoshimoto’s novels contain fantastic elements, like virtual death
(Newlywed), shared dreams (Asleep, Dream of Kimchee), lost and regain of memories
(Amrita, A Sad Premonition), and supernatural powers (Amrita, Lizard). Through these
fantastic events, Yoshimoto puts a surreal twist on the mundane, exposing deeply into the
human psyche and helping to unload the burden of those who are troubled in the past.
243
Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2002. p519.
101
When one encounters great trouble and finds no one to rely on, the desperation he
falls into is akin to the feelings of Terako, the narrator in Asleep. Readers are engaged in
the story to find out how Terako could walk out from the shadow of fear and win the
battle between life and death. Although the theme of healing is not really a new topic but
Yoshimoto portrays the story from a fresh angle. Through dreams and supernatural
events, Yoshimoto displays Terako’s inner world layer by layer, enabling readers to be
involved in the whole process of Terako’s recovery.
Yoshimoto’s supernatural power is meant for healing, to cure individuals who
have been severely hurt and are feeling lost in the emotional and spiritual realms. In
Lizard, the narrator (she is called Lizard) says:
“Even when bizarre things happened to people around us, we just have to believe
that anything is possible. At this very moment, how many people do you think are
suffering? Sickness, death, betrayal - and the violence. Think about it, how many people
there are like that, right now. I wish someone would just make it stop, so there’d be less
suffering.”244
Through the voice of her character, Yoshimoto expresses her deep concern for
those who are troubled in daily life. When Lizard says she wishes for someone would
stop her suffering, she means she feels the sufferings of her surrounding company, and
wants to heal them with her power. When Yoshimoto was asked for the reason behind her
emphasis on so many death scenes, she explained that she was not obsessed by death but
was more interested in healing those who suffered from losing of their beloved ones.245
244
Sherif, Ann tr., Lizard, New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. pp49-50.
245
Yoshimoto, Takaaki & Yoshimoto, Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki X Yashimoto Banana, Tokyo: Rokkingu
On, 1997. p167.
102
This can be one of the rationales why Yoshimoto writes something unusual - to pull
people out of their troubled daily life routine.
The fantasy elements in Yoshimoto’s writings eventually turn to a sense of hope.
Virtual death, dreams and supernatural powers that are encountered by the protagonists
assist them in re-finding either the important past they have lost or the things they should
treasure in their current lives. In her writings, Yoshimoto presents questions around love,
loss, loneliness and fate. Each of her works seems to address a specific affliction from
which the characters find healing. Yoshimoto believes that healing comes from a sense of
hope, which assists the protagonists in their self re-building.
Yoshimoto says something about hope in the Afterward to Lizard.
“I believe that we are not born with hope, but rather that it comes to us as a
transforming force. The people in my stories are encountering hope for the first time. The
process of discovery usually starts when they notice something about themselves or their
surroundings that they were never aware of before, or experience anew a forgotten
sensation. That type of awakening compels them to act and to change things.”246
Yoshimoto’s suggestion that healing comes through a new or a renewed sense of
hope struck me as an interesting and valid suggestion, through which healing can be
achieved. Since hope comes from and takes many forms, (such as family, relationship
etc.) I agree that it is a universal healer.
Healing in Yoshimoto’s writings is facilitated and successfully achieved through
fantastic events, unusual family structures and relationships. Yoshimoto’s novels are all
closely related to daily life. The fantastic events, unusual families and relationships are
encountered by mainly young people in the metropolitan society and the healing is also
246
Sherif, Ann tr., Lizard, New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. pp175-176.
103
applicable to those who have undergone sufferings in their past day-to-day lives. Each
character’s story adds insight and emotion to the main theme of her works, leaving
readers with a better understanding of postmodern themes of twentieth century Japanese
fiction.
In her afterword to Amrita, she says: “the idea that regardless of all the amazing
events that happened to each of us, there will be the never-ending cycle of life.”247 The
cycle is actually the full course of healing. It contains loss, grief, love, finding and
recovery. It would never end, as all of us cannot free ourselves from managing new
problems. However, Yoshimoto, through her stories tells us of ways to accept and handle
the difficulties. The most important thing for healing is to learn to build up hope and
appreciate life.
Most of Yoshimoto’s books seem to be deceptively simple-sounding yet
profoundly resonant. She brings up a lot of issues about living in today’s world, with all
of its loneliness, loss and moral ambiguities. Her books speak about confusion and
desperation and recovery. The common thread of healing runs throughout each of her
tales that somehow the protagonists manage to celebrate life.
247
Russell F., Wasden, Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber, 1997. p.367.
104
Bibliography
Japanese Fictional Works Consulted in English
Backus, Megan (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana, Kitchen, New York: Washington Square
Press. 1993.
Birnbaum, Phyllis (tr.), Kano Ayako, Rabbits, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
1982.
Sherif, Ann (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana. Lizard, New York: Washington Square Press,
1995.
Sherif, Ann (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana. N.P. New York: Grove Press. 1994.
Russell F., Wasden (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana. Amrita, New York: Faber and Faber,
1997.
Emmerich, Michael (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana. Tugumi, London: Faber & Faber, 2002.
Emmerich, Michael (tr.), Yoshimoto Banana. Asleep, New York: Grove Press, 2000.
Seidensticker, Edward (tr.), Kawabata Yasunari. House of Sleeping Beauties, New

York: Ballantine Books. 1976.
Fictional Works in Japanese
Yoshimoto Banana. Deddoendo no omoide (Last Memories), Tokyo: Bungei Shunshu,

2002.
Yoshimoto, Banana. Utakata Sankuchyoari (Fleeting Bubbles/Sanctuary), Tokyo:

Bungei Shunshu, 2002.
Yoshimoto Banana. Yume nitsuite, Tokyo: Kantosha, 1994.
Yoshimoto Banana. Fruit Basket, Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1990.
Yoshimoto Banana. Kanashii Yokan ( A Sad Premonition), Tokyo: Kadokawa-

shuden. 1992.
Yoshimoto Banana. Furin to Nanbei. Tokyo: Kanto-sha. 2003.

105
Yoshimoto Banana. Hanemun (Honey moon), Tokyo: Chuokoron-Sha, Inc, 1997.
Yoshimoto Banana. Hado-boirudo/ Hado-rakku (Hardboiled/ Hard luck), Tokyo:

Rockin’on Inc. 1999.
Yoshimoto Banana. Karada ha zenbu shitteiru (body knows everything), Tokyo:

Bungeishunsyu, 2002.
Japanese Fictional Works Consulted in Chinese
Wu Jiwen tr., Wo Ai Chu Fang, Taipei: China Times, 2001.
Other Fictional Work(s) in English
Christensen, Carol & Christensen, Thomas (tr.), Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for
Chocolate New York: Anchor Books, 1992.
Storr, Catherine. Marianne Dreams, London: Heinemann, 1967.
Secondary Works in English
Adnan, Abdulla. Catharsis in Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,

1985.
Connell, R.W. The Men and the Boys. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 2000.
Eagleton. Terry. Literary Theory - An Introduction, second edition, Oxford: T. J.

Press Ltd., 1996.
Fujiwara-Fanselow, Kumiko & Kameda, Atsuko. Japanese Women: New Feminist

Perspective on the Past, Present, and Future, New York: The Feminist Press, 1995.
Greenfield, Tony. ed., Research Methods, New York: Arnold, 1994.
Hasegawa Izumi ed., “Yoshimoto Banana: the Pure Literature of the ‘comic
generation’” in the New Female Writers. Tokyo: Aoyumisha, 1991.
Hoogland, Renee c, Lesbian Configurations, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997.
Irwin, W. R. The Game of the Impossible - A Rhetoric of Fantasy. Urbana Chicago:

University of Illinois Press. 1976.
106
Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London & New York:
Methuen. 1981.
Japanese Literature Today Vol 39. No.4.
Journals of Japanese Studies November 1998
Kakuchi, Suvendrini, “Mirror, Mirror” in Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 160 No.
49, Hong Kong: Review Publishing Co. Ltd., 1997
Keene, Donald. Appreciation of Japanese Culture, Tokyo, New York & London:
Kodansha International, 1998.
Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West, New York: Holt Winston, 1964.
Kitzinger, Celia, The Social Construction of Lesbianism, London: Sage Publications,

1987.
Kumagai Fumie & Keyser, Donna, Unmasking Japan Today: the Impact of
Traditional Values on Modern Japanese Society, London: Westport, Connectiut, 1996.
Napier, Susan J. The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature. London & Yew York:
Routlrdge. 1996.
Schines, Cathleen. “Growing up is hard to Do - Review of Lizard.” in New Yorker 3

April 1995,
Sherif, Ann. “Japanese without apology: Yoshimoto Banana and Healing” in Stephen,
Synder & Philip, Gabriel ed., Oe and Beyond, USA: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Skov, Lise & Moeran, Brian. “Hiding in the light: from Oshin to Yoshimoto Banana.”
In Skov, Lise & Moeran, Brian ed., Women Media and Consumption in Japan. UK:
Curzon Press. 1995.
Starr, Roy. “Nation and Tradition in Modern Japanese Literature.” Japan Foundation
Newsletter 24.1, 1996.
Strunk, Williams Jr., The Elements of Style, third edition, New York: Macmillan
Publishing Co., London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1972.
Suloway, Stephen tr., Social Psychology of Modern Japan. London & New York:
Kegan Paul International. 1993.
Swinfen, Ann. In Defence of Fantasy - A Study of the Genre in English and American
Literature since 1945. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1984.
107
Tanaka Yukiko, Contemporary Portraits of Japanese Women, London: Praeger, 1995.
Treat, John W. “Yoshimoto Banana Writes Home: The Shojo in Japanese Popular
Culture” in Treat, John W. ed., Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. UK:
Curzon Press. 1996.
White, Merry. Perfectly Japanese: Marking Families in an era of upheaval. Berkeley:

University of California, 2002.
Whittier, John W. “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or the Cultureal Logic of Japanese

Consumerism” In Skov, Lise & Moeran, Brian ed., Women Media and Consumption
in Japan. UK: Curzon Press. 1995.
Yamamoto Toyoko, “Anais Nin’s Femininity and the Banana Yoshimoto

Phenomenon” in Suzanne, Nalbantian ed., Anais Nin Literary Perspectives, London:
Macmillan Press Ltd., 1997.
Yumiyama Tatsuya, “Varieties of Healing in Present-Day Japan” in Japanese Journal

of Religious, 1995.
Secondary Works consulted in Japanese
Furubashi Nobuyashi. Yoshimoto Banana to Tawara Machi Ron, Tokyo: Chikuma

Shobo, 1990.
Kawanishi Masaaki. Shirei Kara Kicchin He - 50 Years of Postwar Japanese

Literature, Tokyo: Kodan Sha, 1995.
Kimata Satoshi. Yoshimoto Banana Yellow Page. Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1990.
Knight, Lorna ed., Collins Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus, Glasgow:

HarperCollins, 2001.
国文学、解釈と教材の研究、第 37 巻第 11 臨時号、９月臨時増刊号、東
京：学灯社、平成４年。
Matsuda Yoichi. Yamada Eimi: Ainosekai - Manga, Renai, Yoshimoto Banana.

Tokyo: Tokyo Shuseki, 1999.
Matsumoto Takayuki. Yishimoto Banana Ron, Tokyo: JICC, 1991.
Matsuzawa Masahiro. Haruki, Banana, Genichiro, Tokyo: Aoyumisha, 1989.
Mitsui Takayuki & Washida, Koyata. Yoshimoto Banana Shinwa, (The Myths of
Yoshimoto Banana) Tokyo: Aoyumisha, 1989.
108
Shima Hiroyuki, ‘Yoshimoto Banana wa Kakitsuzukeru ka’ (can Yoshimoto Banana

Continue to Write?) in Bessatsu Takarajima. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1988.
Tsuneo Matsuoka. Ajia No Shuen: Yoshimoto Takaaki to Yoshimoto Banana no Aida,

Tokyo: Daiwa Shobo, Shohan edition, 1990.
Yoshimoto Banana. Banana no Banana. Tokyo: Metarogu. 1994.
Yoshimoto Banana. Banana’s Diary, Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 2003.
Yoshimoto Banana. Hibinokangae. Tokyo: Littlemore. 2003.
Yoshimoto Banana. Painapurrin (Pineapple Pudding). Tokyo: Kadokawa-shoten.

1989.
Yoshimoto Takaaki. Yoshimoto Takaaki X Yoshimoto Banana. Tokyo: Rokkingu On.

1997.
Yoshimoto Banana. B-Gyu Banana (B-grade Banana). Tokyo: Kadokawa-shoten.

2000.
Secondary Works consulted in Chinese
Huang Xinning tr., Yuan Lai Ru Ci de Dui Hua (Conversation between Yoshimoto
Banana and Kawai Toshio), Taipei: Shibao Chuban, 2004.
Website
www.yoshimotobanana.com
www.dailycelebrations.com/030901.htm
http://student.haverford.ed/east.

Yoshimoto's Fiction Explores Family and Relationships

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Yoshimoto's Fiction Explores Family and Relationships

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1

Yoshimoto’s Fiction and Popular Culture

Mahoko. She is the second daughter of Yoshimoto Takaaki, an influential intellectual in

dominant stream in literary consumption. Traditionally high-culture products like

social phenomena in contemporary Japan.

‘unemployment’ dominated conversations. But Yoshimoto’s writings abandoned its

phenomenon” to modern consumerism which dominated Japanese (especially among

wrote stories of shojo and families. 6

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

in the form of written words instead of pictures.7

Yoshimoto’s writing achieved not only commercial success in the international

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

foreign influences, as somehow un-Japanese.” 11 Nonetheless, one should realize that

decreasing “Japaneseness” of Yoshimoto’s books made up the qualities that reflected

escapist entertainment for a pressured and workaholic society.

stories speak naturally of supernatural forces in daily events. Yoshimoto is adept at

of healing for the protagonists.

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

fashion magazines, appear to those critics as an unconditional capitulation to the forces

thus achieve a better result in healing.

(desolation/lonely) in some of her works:

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

the tip of your toenails.” 21

characters in her stories are explicitly presented in front of the reader.

desperation of finding a new position in society and within her family.

novels. In Asleep, she writes:

“When he (Iwanaga) called, the ringing of the phone reverberated deliciously

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

novels touch on the topic of family and relationships.

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

The family in Yoshimoto’s writing is never a generic one, as writer Fujimoto

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

Here, Yoshimoto suggests that family can be formed by ‘group of strangers’ if

The topic of family is hardly something new in literary writings. However

realism, celebrating human resilience and establishing a special postmodern stature in

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

flight of the imagination for young adults.

In Yoshimoto’s fiction, fantasy is often depicted in the form of supernatural

the protagonists achieve mental well-being.

achieving their final goal of healing.

Aristotle’s,35 Freud’s statement:

“The unreality of … the poetical world of imagination, however, has very

spectators and hearers.”36

large number of readers. According to a famous writer, Yumiyama Tatsuya, a broad

involves a psychological element. In Yoshimoto’s novel Helix,40 two protagonists discuss

readers that healing involves an experiential, physical comprehension of the meaning of

a strong emphasis on healing. A large amount of material on healing is displayed in the

and spiritual healing.”44

Yoshimoto’s writing actually performs the healing therapy by engaging her

an optimism and brightness absent in their lives.” 45

can eventually be overcome. Undeniably, the function of healing is prevalent in most of

Chapter 2: Death in Healing Process

Death as the Beginning Scene

When reading Yoshimoto’s novels, readers may be perplexed by one element,

beginning of her story, Moonlight Shadow, Yoshimoto writes:

healed and resumes her normal routine after that.