FINAL PAPER JAPANESE LITERATURE II

The figure of suicide for love

Beauty and sadness is a novel published in 1965 by Yasunari Kawabata, this work happens in Kyoto and

Kamakura and tells the story of two couples of impossible loves; at the end of the novel, appears a modern

version of the figure of suicide for love.

Generally, this topic is present in stories that narrate the relationship of impossible lovers usually separated by

the difference of social class; the first time this topic was presented in Japanese literature was in the jōruri play,

The love suicides at Sonezaki, written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. This play premiered in 1703, had such an

impact on Japanese society that in1723 the representation of this was prohibited, it is so that the evocation to

the tragic and rebellious end that the characters of this play had, led to mass suicides of lovers; however, it

was finally presented again in 1955.1

Beauty and sadness tells the story of a writer, Oki Toshio, in whose youth had an affair with a young girl, Ueno

Otoko, who is now a renowned artist who carries the burden of shame of this affair, which he captured in a

very popular novel; likewise, this story of amorous disagreement contains another amorous conflict; in this, the

art apprentice, Keiko, is dazzled by her teacher and initiates a revenge plan, consequently, has an affair with

the same man and his son, Taichiro. While, in the middle of this plot is Oki’s wife and Taichiro’s mother,

Fumiko, whose psychological and home stability is being attacked by her husband’s mistakes.

In principle, it is necessary to establish that the culture of honor suicide is deeply rooted in classical Japanese

culture and it has been losing consistency and meaning over the year until it becomes incomprehensible to the

current Japanese citizen or distorted as in the World War II.2 In this way, we see that unlike other works in

which this topic is present, suicide is not essentially caused by impossible love, but that this problem is

1 Gonzáles Correa
2 Guzmán Urrero
reinforced by economic and social situation in which both are. Traditionally, honor suicide is related to the

purging of sins and aims for a death without shame that nourishes the spirit of Japan.

In The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, although the problem of an impossible love because of social differences is

presented in the first scene, the love between Tokubei, merchant of Osaka, and Ohatsu, courtesan of the

brothel Tenmaya, nor the opposition the presents the family of him, seem to be reason enough for double

suicide. At the beginning, there is the image of Ohatsu worried about what the disappearance of Tokubei could

mean, revealing a much more personal conflict: “can a prostitute be a decent wife?”; like the play say:

NARRATOR: His hand she takes and clasps against her breast, and weeps reproachful and entreating tears exactly
like a proper wedded wife: man though he is, he also weeps aloud. […]
OHATSU: Are you joking? Why have you kept so trivial a thing from me? You must have had some more serious
reason for hiding. Why don’t you tell me? (Chikamatsu 392-393)

The conflict increases when he confesses that he has been committed to the niece of his uncle’s wife, in order

to settle his debts in an honorable way; however, he refuses to correspond with his affections towards Ohatsu,

demonstrating in this way that he is not willing to be separated from her, and so he seeks other ways of

establishing himself economically. The idea of death will not appear until the second scene, being that at the

end of the first, Tokubei is victim of the betrayal of his friend, Kuheiji, and accused of thief, besides being

beaten and humiliated in public: «I’ve been the victim of a clever plot, as no doubt you’ve heard, and the more I

resist it the worse off I am. Everything has turned against me now. I can’t survive this night. I’ve made up my mind

to it» (400). Thus, the idea that the death of lovers is not only due to their impossible love, but to an

impossibility to continue living in shame and indignity, is shown once again when Ohatsu announces the death

of Tokubei to Kuheiji, and adds that she will die with him as support: « […] Only death can wipe out the disgrace.

[…] Kuheiji, you dirty thief! Nobody could hear your nonsense without being amazed. No matter what happens, I’m

going to die with Tokubei. I shall die with him» (402). So, in what seems to be the traditional romantic figure of a

woman who will kill herself only to be together with her beloved for all eternity, is hidden the shame of a

woman who is not willing to continue living in the indecency of selling her body to support her family; finally, in

the last scene, during their praying, she gives a short farewell to her parents expressing her wish that they are

not able to forget the reason of her death:

 OHATSU: […] When they get word tomorrow in the village of my suicide, how unhappy they will be. Mother, Father,
brothers and sisters, I now say good-bye to the world. If only my thought can reach you, I pray that I may be able to
appear in your dreams. Dearest Mother, beloved Father! (408)

In contrast, in Beauty and sadness, we found this same desire to death by a form of honor, is distorted by the

desire of revenge. In this case, will see the conflicted lover is Keiko, a young woman who is in love with her

master, Otoko; reason why, would initiate a plan of revenge against the man who betrayed her master, caused

great pain and shame for the rest of her life:

[…] She paused, then went on coldly, ‘Otoko, I want to get revenge for you.’ ‘Revenge?’ Otoko was shocked.
‘Revenge for me?’ ‘That’s right.’ […] ‘Why on earth are you talking about revenge?’ ‘You know why.’ ‘I’ve never
thought of such a thing. I have no wish for it.’ ‘Because you still love him – because you can’t stop loving him, as long
as you live.’ Keiko’s voice choked. ‘So I want revenge.’ ‘But why?’ ‘I have my own jealousy!’ (Kawabata 46-47)

Keiko had gone to meet Oki Taichiro and Otoko felt that she was losing her. It is at this point that Otoko asks her what

kind of revenge she has planned and why she went to visit Oki’s family; in this way, Otoko will have the

premonitory word that will suggest the tragic end: «‘Is that your revenge, seducing that boy? Or being seduced by

him?’ Otoko let her hand drop from Keiko’s shoulder. ‘It looks as if I’m the one ought to be jealous.’» (48). In the

same way that the phrase: «Though my bones be crushed to powder, though my flesh be torn away, and like an

empty shell I sink the slime of Shijimi River, if I am parted from you, what shall I do?» (Chikamatsu 394), appears in

the previous play, suddenly, the name of Taichiro is suggested as relevant in the story.

From this point, Otoko will become the personification of destiny, although it is the driving force of the story,

she does not actively participate in it more than in the form of a memory or an anxiety where her greatest fear

will be that Keiko’s life will also be destroyed by her imprudence and desire of revenge.

During the development of the novel, Keiko’s obsession grows to the point of wanting to relive the story of

Otoko and Oki, an obsession that is nourished by the constant thought that they still loving each other; likewise,

in her sexual relationship with Oki, Keiko discovers what a woman can come to feel for a man, questioning

whether her feelings for Otoko and her entire plan continue to make sense. Keiko intends to hide this change

during the novel, however, Otoko sees her strange, emphasizing the loss of romanticism in her young pupil;

this will be reflected in the work with the appearance of nostalgia and deep depression, just as the sense of
honor suicide changes seeking to recover a lost past, she changes looking for a past that does not belong to

her.

Finally, in the penultimate chapter, “Strands of Black Hair”, Keiko receives Taichiro at the airport and makes

sure to let him know how confused she is with the intentions he has with her, showing her innocent and in love.

In the next chapter, Keiko will take a tour around Kyoto with Taichiro, arousing Otoko’s suspicions, who asks

her not to meet him if she does not really want to see him and it is all part of the revenge; in this way, the

relationship between them becomes forbidden, and from this moment, an increase in the desire that she feels

for him will be noticed:

She could not suppress her anxiety.

This morning Keiko had not once mentioned ‘revenge’. She said she hated men, but that was nothing to rely on. She
had already betrayed herself by leaving without breakfast, on the pretext of a late dinner the night before. What was
Keiko going to do to Oki’s son? What would become of them, and what should she herself do, after all these years as
a captive of her love for Oki? Otoko felt that she could not sit and wait.
Having failed to stop Keiko from leaving, all she could do now was try to pursue her and talk Taichiro herself. But
Keiko had not said where he was staying, or where they were to meet. (Kawabata 127)

However, the idea of death does not seem to be presented yet, even though a specific forbidden love has

already been proposed; thus, in the last chapter, Keiko reverberate Taichiro that she was planning to revenge,

and him in turn confessed that without counting the economic benefits, the only one benefited of that novel

was his father, so that a complicity between both two begins to form. Sadly, the complicity that is presented in

this case, unlike the previous work, is not related to falling in love but the dislike of a man and his novel, and

how it caused the misfortune of a couple of very important women in their lives.

But the fate Keiko had for both of them was already written, that is how they end up in Lake Biwa to spend the

night together; there, Taichiro receives a call from home without knowing how they know his whereabouts, to

which Keiko responds that she has called his mother to tell her that they are together and that he has

promised to marry. At the call of his mother, Taichiro begins to suspect her, but she convinces him to stay the

whole night; it is so that after going to swim, she insistently asks him to ride a motorboat even though it was

very dark, circumstances that will kill Taichiro.

Although Keiko seems to have planned this death in great detail, at the end of the book it gives the feeling that

she would have wanted to die too or that she regretted the fulfillment of her mission.

In conclusion, I think that while in The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, suicide for love is presented in part to

preserve the honor of the lovers, in Beauty and sadness, although not fully realized, it is presented as a way to

romanticize a crime as if it were fair; just as in Japanese history honor suicide was distorted, in its literature,

the figure of a suicide for honorable love has been changed by a death without love or honor, disguised by a

desire to recover the lost past. Thus, the first and second works represent respectively faithfully pre and post

imperialist Japan.

Bibliography
Chikamatsu, Monzaemon. "The Love Suicides at Sonezaki." Keene, Donald. Anthology of Japanese Literature.
Tuttle Publishing, 1703. 391-409.

Gonzáles Correa, Alejandra. "El suicidio por amor a tráves de la literatura." Revista electrónica de estudios de
la muerte (2016): 45-56.

Guzmán Urrero. "Seppuku y harakiri. El suicidio ritual en Japón." n.d. TheCult.es.

Kawabata, Yasunari. Beauty and sadness. Trans. Howard S. Hibbett. London: Penguin Books, 1965.

Ariadna Delgado
2017R518