The Quilt and Other Stories by Tayama Katai

 

 

 

The central character of Futon or The Quilt is a man caught in the midst of many contradictory desires, originally appearing in 1907 its mention and discussion of repressed passions may have provoked sharp intakes of breath although from a retrospective viewpoint the story is a fully realized portrait of a man caught with ennui in the emerging realization that his married life is running on empty. Through translator Kenneth G. Henshall's thorough introduction we learn that Futon along with Toson's Hakai/The Broken Commandment, of 1906 is one of the earliest examples of the Shishosetsu. Takenaka Tokio is a man of literature who receives repeated requests to act as a patron for a young woman named Yoshiko whose character is the polar opposite to that of his wife, she in ways represents the new age, unlike Tokio's rather old fashioned wife she has a passion for new literature, under Tokio's tutelage the plan is that she will become a successful writer, which of the time the idea of a female author was more than likely seen as being quite a modern phenomenon. There are many scenes of desperation throughout the beginning of the story, Tokio's sense of entrapment within his marriage reduces him to bouts of drinking out of frustration, and when Yoshiko has moved into the family home he begins to become deeply enraptured by her, but is caught in wondering if she feels the same way, rumours go around and she has to move to a relatives house to avoid the gossip of scandal spreading. The story becomes more fraught for Tokio when it's discovered that Yoshiko had been whisked away one night by a fellow student, Tanaka, and Tokio is left in a state of agonized suspicion as to whether anything happened between the two, has Yoshiko's chastity been preserved?, the rest of the story witnesses the untangling of the predicament. Futon is obviously an important landmark work in Japanese Literature, there is much here that is representative of the changing attitudes of the age, and also of it heralding the changes within literary styles told with a psychological honesty that must has made revelatory reading on its publication. When considering what had been before, the honest and unrestrained voice of Futon and some of the other stories here must have seemed to represent a colossal shift in direction and tone, Kenneth G. Henshall also discusses Tayama's reactions to readings of Guy de Maupassant, Turgenev, Zola, Nietzsche, Sudermann and Hauptmann, and his philosophical outlook and his own vision of the leading writers of Naturalism of the day.

 

As mentioned The Girl Watcher/Shojobyo, 1907, is very much in the same vein as Futon, it was written slightly before, although everything is much more out of reach and at a distance for the protagonist, Sugita Kojo - also a literary man, although past his prime, he was once a popular writer of 'girl novels', and is ridiculed for his interests in romantic notions. Instead of being in contact with the woman at the centre of his fixation, and aside from returning a hair comb that she drops, he has to make do with watching her amongst the crowds aboard the tightly packed trains. Sugita is a pitiable character, although despite his appearance - 'he had the looks and build of someone about to do battle with the beasts', he believes in pure love, and the power of instinct, seeing the woman he questions himself: 'How could such a pretty girl exist in this vulgar world', his narrative dips into being that of a lament for his chaste youth. Another element of the autobiographical can be seen in the story One Soldier/Ippeisotsu, 1908, which also appears in the anthology - this story comes from the perspective of a wounded soldier on the eve of the Battle of Liaoyang, war and the military was something that Tayama had first hand experiences of in a number of ways, his father was killed in action during the Satsuma Rebellion, 1877, and in 1904 he was sent to Manchuria to report on the Russo-Japan War but was sent back after contracting typhoid and on his return, Kenneth G. Henshall adds, he was treated by the writer/doctor Mori Ogai.

The stories cover the period from 1902 to 1914, I'm not sure of the intention in the way they are presented but there is a linking familiarity in some of the settings of the stories and in the way that some of them thematically merge, The Girl Watcher with its tragic accident on the railway at its ending links to the story The Railway Track, 1912, which begins with an accident on the rail lines, and One Soldier shares perspectives with The Sound of Wheels/Karuma no oto from 1908. One Cold Morning/Samui asa, 1914, and The Photograph/Shashin, 1909, appear as being two brief stories that stand alone in their setting, The Photograph is in ways as literal as it sounds, offering a snapshot portrait into the lives of a group of people assembled for the taking of a photograph, and One Cold Morning witnesses the intrusion of death in an innocently presented domestic scene.

It could be said that in every short story collection there is a stand out story, and Futon is obviously the most widely known perhaps for its notoriety, but for me The End of Juemon/Juemon no saigo, from 1902, is a story that wanders away from the rest in the uniqueness of its narrative and in depicting how the forces of nature surreptitiously intercede on man's fate, it's the earliest story here from 1902, written when Tayama was 30 and influenced by his reading of Hermann Sudermann's Der Katzensteg/The Cat's Bridge, aka Regina or The Sins of the Fathers, from 1890. The narrator recounts meeting in his school days two fellow students, Yamagata and Nemoto, who had come to the city from a remote village in Nagano, they rent lodgings above a bath house, and as they grow closer they exchange stories of characters and families from their hometown. Some years later the narrator tracks out the village of his friends and asks a villager for directions to their family homes, he learns that the village is in a state of turmoil and unrest after recent attacks of arson. After meeting up with one of his old friends the story of the outcast Fujita Juemon begins to emerge, born with a rare deformity which left him with an enlarged scrotum, symbolizing by implication the state of the family legacy he inherits, his childhood was filled with episodes of rejection and ridicule, although eventually he marries and for a time his life appears to stabilize, only again he falls back into previous debaucheries that are a result of the anguish he feels at his deformity, after learning of his extra marital activities his wife too has an affair, Juemon's life disintegrates and he takes up with a feral woman and goes on a rampage of revenge to vent  his bottled up sense of rejection. The story is imbued with an almost mythic quality, and its setting in a remote village near the Chikuma River, overlooking Mt. Kosha adds to this, it's a story that holds a deeply entwined morality to it, Juemon's end is one that ends in murder after the natives can no longer tolerate his arson attacks. His death is made to look like an accident in a rather bungled attempt at a cover up, although set in a remote village and thus seen as a microcosm, The End of Juemon reads very much as a case study in the psychology of communal thinking, of the transferability of moral codes and examines the margins between acceptance and non-acceptance, Juemon appears as the scapegoat that is sacrificed in order to preserve the sense of the 'normal'. The tone of the narrator is one that becomes more affected and more empathetic to Juemon's plight as the story progresses, at the beginning of one of his contemplations of what he is witnessing he considers - "If man is completely natural, then it's bound to end in tragedy. For then nature necessarily comes into conflict with the conventions of the present day. In which case, does not nature itself end up, in this world, as unnatural?", (pg142) . Out of the eight stories The End of Juemon/Juemon no saigo seems to offer the most penetrating insight into Tayama's at times harsh and unrelenting vision of naturalism, written a little over 110 years ago, during reading I had to pause to contemplate at the period of its setting. The collection was originally published by Tokyo University Press and is currently out of print.


For a more in depth look on the shishosetsu - The Rhetoric of Confession by Edward Fowler.

and also Kenneth G. Henshall's book on Tayama Katai  - In Search of Nature, Brill Books, 2012




                                 

Country Teacher

After reading a few articles on Katai Tayama's (1872-1930), 'Futon', Country Teacher seemed like an interesting novel to look at. Tayama is known as being one of the foremost writers in Japanese naturalism. First published in Japan in 1909 under the title 'Inaka Kyoshi' by publisher Sakura Shobo, this translation by Kenneth Henshall and is published by University of Hawaii Press. Kenneth Henshall also translated Tayama's 'Literary Life in Tokyo 1885-1915', as well as, 'The Quilt and other Stories', (containing Futon), both out of print as far as I know, I'd really like to read both of these. In his preface Kenneth Henshall explains how Tayama had based his novel from the real life diaries of Kobayashi Shuzo,1884-1904, and gives a background to the characters in the novel, and also of the authors who make an appearance under alternative names, who include, Ota Gyokumei, critic Hasegawa Tenki, and Tayama himself. He goes onto highlight that Kobayashi's literary hero was Shimazaki Toson , and reminds us that in those days, writers were followed in the press like pop and sports stars are today. Also included here is an extract on Country Teacher from Tayama's 'Thirty Years in Tokyo', in which he goes further into detail about the diaries and Kobayashi Shuzo whom he had met a number of times through Ota Gyokumei, in the extract there is a page of photographs and a map of the area of where the novel is set, mainly around the border between Gunma and Saitama prefectures.

In the novel Shuzo's name is changed to Seizo Hayashi, starting as a teacher in the small rural village of Miroku, and opens just prior to the Russo-Japan War. Like most of the other young men in his village he has an interest in literature, his group of friends are planning to start a literary magazine, (Gyoda Bungaku), Seizo is often found reading 'Myojo', he reads admiringly of Akiko Yosano , and one of his favourite poems is Enoch Arden. Seizo's family struggles to survive financially, after his father's business went bankrupt, so Seizo's new job come's as a great relief to the family. Seizo also had a younger brother who died young due to tuberculosis. The group of friend's excitement grows as publication of the first edition of their magazine approaches, and Seizo is asked to go to the temple near his school to see if he can obtain a manuscript from the chief priest, who had connections with the literary world in Tokyo, but has since turned away from that world, speaking of an old acquaintance he says, 'It was hopeless for him to chase fame and get smeared with dirt from the city. It doesn't matter how successful you become, once death comes calling, your nothing but tears in other's eyes'.
 

Whilst walking with his friend Ikuji, Seizo realize they both have feelings for the same girl, Mihoko, but Seizo seems quite happy not to stand in the way of his friends happiness should they become a couple. Seizo has to walk miles from his own village to the school, and as the temple is close to his school, Seizo lodges with the priest. Whilst here, his friends begin to drift away from the village, moving onto universities in Tokyo, the feeling that Seizo gets that his life might not be going in the direction he had envisioned, begin to surface as he observes the older teachers, and thinks sadly of himself, that if he's not careful he might end up like them, 'Am I too then going to pass my life with idle words, like so many people in the world?'. Things worsen when Mihoko returns from her dormitory in Urawa and he receives a postcard from Kojima (an old school friend) telling him that he's qualified for higher school and is going to Kanazawa, Seizo writes him a congratulatory letter, than bursts into tears over his own lack of fortune.
 

Winter approaches and the literary magazine the friends started is abandoned due to increasing debts and Seizo learns of Ikuji's and Mihoko's relationship which is a source of bitterness. His parents have increasing debt which he helps with, barely leaving any money left over. He continues teaching, eventually moving into the school, on a return trip to his home village he finds that none of his friends are there anymore, he begins to distance himself from the world, composing verse, and weeps over his situation. Seizo begins to learn of Hotto, a neighbouring village and hears of the loose morality there, he contemplates the harsh life in the countryside, compared with the great men in the newspapers, thinks about how many people live the mundane existence, could he to be content with that?. He learns that the countryside is full of stories of suicides, infidelities, burglaries. One day he builds up the courage to take the ferry and visit one of the brothels across the river, after walking away once, he resolutely walks back and picks out the prostitute Shizue, who he's very much taken with, and returns to her again, thinking that maybe they could start a relationship. But he thinks that maybe the brothel house is just toying with his lonely heart, considering her other clients. He doesn't visit for sometime but when he does Shizue has been redeemed, another prostitute gives him a parcel, inside is a note with sorry written in crude characters and a photograph.

In an attempt to change the direction of his life, Seizo signs up for a music school in Tokyo, he makes the journey for the entry exam but fails to get through and returns, with mounting debts Seizo feels he has to get a further grip on his life, concentrating at his job, he restarts his diary in November 1903. Seizo who has suffered from ill health begins to develop a temperature, at night he sweats and begins to suffer from stomach pains, and through the start of the new year his condition worsens, but continues to work. Ikuji returns home and the two discuss the war, and the mounting tension of the siege of Port Arthur . The doctor can't seem to find a cause and the suspicion that it could be consumption is discussed, but nothing can be verified and they can hardly meet the cost for the medicine, Seizo grows paler. Ikuji and Mihoko are to be married, which he can't bring himself to contemplate, and his friend takes him to another doctor for a second opinion, but he is unable to give definite diagnosis. His condition deteriorates and Seizo's doctor announces that its a permanent disability, and he becomes bedridden, he worries about his sick pay entitlement, after investigating he's entitled to two months. Confined to his bed Seizo frustratingly contemplates not being able to take part in the jubilation of the victories as the war progresses and thinks of the soldiers fighting and giving their lives on the plains of Manchuria.

Kenneth Henshall highlights in his preface that Tayama elaborated on some aspects of the diaries and changed some of the dates, and also notes that Kobayashi's original diaries were used to repair sliding doors in the second world war, so sadly further re-examination is impossible. The novel gets a little nationalistic near the end, but being written when it was, it's none too surprising, I'm unaware of Tayama's politics, but Tayama's depiction of Seizo's loneliness as his friends leave for university, and pursue life beyond the village, was done with a heart breaking accuracy, further compounded by the novel's sad conclusion.