October 4 Reflection – Shi Shi

This week’s readings were definitely interesting, and they offered a curious but bleak, and probably honest, portrayal of everyday love, marriage, and sexual desire. 

I found that the strangest and most disturbing story from this week’s selection was Hiromi Kawakami’s Seahorse.The magical realism of the narrator being a seahorse that came onto land and was passed from husband to husband to be very unsettling. I am still trying to make sense of the narrative, but I interpreted it as a reflection of the narrator’s past life where they are stuck in limbo. When she first leaves the sea, she is departing from life but must acknowledge an oppressive past; and then when she finally returns to the sea, she finds ground and direction and can move on. ?? Not sure if that makes sense, so I am looking forward to discussing this particular story.

In addition to Seahorse, I didn’t really understand the ending of Banana Yoshimoto’s Tomo-chan’s Happiness when it started referencing something similar to God. Similar to Seahorse though, I thought it centered around trying to find love and/or acceptance after a traumatic and oppressive experience–in this case, when Tomo-chan was raped at 16. 

The themes of alienation and identity and how they become intertwined with marriage and social pressures was also interesting to read about. I had read Convenience Store Woman in Professor Frederick’s class last semester, and so it was interesting to see similarities in other stories, such as in Picnic and Realizing Fun Things through Water. I don’t really understand the meaning behind the title of the latter, though. In all three of these stories, there are characters who are not “normal” according to their society and appear to be maybe asexual. It’s an interesting decision to have characters with traits like these, and it says something about a feeling that is a more hidden commonality in everyday life.

The first post from Miguel

 This weeks readings were a jump from a lot of readings I have done so far. There were a lot of times while I was reading where I would have to pause and reread to make sure what I read was actually true, because of how bizarre some of the scenarios were. I could definitely see how the readings connected to one another, whether it be the texts directly referring to each other or like how Ice Man and Straw Husband were eerie in different ways, but still connected in some way. To me the Ice Man was my favorite reading because of how descriptive and mood-setting the reading felt. I also found it funny how when the reading talked about ice sort of sealing like memories/the past my brain made the connection to Frozen, specifically Olaf when he talked about water containing memory and thats how they were able to see the past as Elsa froze the water. The Straw Husband to me was the most frustrating of the readings because why did the husband care for that car so much, like I get that its probably and expensive car but I doubt that his meltdown was needed and then even after all that the couple stays together and acts like nothing happened? Also the instruments were just very confusing, like I imagined something nastier or scarier to pour out. Smartening Up I feel was the easiest to read and also very interesting, but I hated how I was left with a cliff hanger. I wanted to see what the aunts trick was going to be. I mean she talked all big about becoming monsters together and then bam the story ends with no continuation of that thought. However, I really liked the message of the story (or at least what I picked up from it), encouraging women to embrace their true selves and that societal beauty standards aren’t what you should be measuring up to. There is power behind hair! The Greengrocer’s Daughter was a bit of a harder read, but I just found the death of Oshichi pretty disappointing in a way I feel there was a way this could’ve been avoided and then the I know it was for his own good, but everyone avoiding telling Kichisaburo was pretty sad. However, at least in Silently Burning we see how people see this event or Oshichi herself as a sort of symbol for love and people come to her grave for their wishes.

Post from Miguel

 The readings for this week didn’t really stand out to me as much as last weeks readings. I feel like this weeks readings were less weird in the way last weeks readings had more magic realism involved, but this weeks didn’t as much. The reading about the woman faking her pregnancy and then suddenly the baby turns out to be real confused me so much. I know there were missing pages, but the jump from her researching about pregnancy and then her feeling a kick in her stomach was a very confusing turn around. The reading about the surveillance job was to me a bit boring because the narration overall was detailed and monotoned. In part I felt there really wasn’t much of a meaning to the story. The woman in the purple skirt was very creepy, but not in the way like last weeks stories were. The stalking and all had me questions the narrator. I found the bodybuilder story the most interesting to me because the situation was one that I felt was common to read about, well to some extent. The wife and husband in the story both lacked self esteem and it reflected on each other. I felt that even when the wife began to become a body builder she still lacked a sense of self esteem, this was backed up when she couldn’t do anything when she saw those two dogs fighting in the store. She wasn’t confident in her muscles and thus froze. The ending of the story to me was also somewhat predictable as I felt the two depended on each other. They fed off of each others validations in order to feel better about themselves, the husband needed to hear that his wife would not leave him for those boxers and the wife looked for the husband to notice the change in her appearance. So when they stayed together at the end I felt although the wife was sorting of moving in a more independent way it made more sense within the structure of their marriage for her to stay with him.

09/2.0/2024

 Melissa LaRochelle

09/20/2024                      Week 3 Reading

Diary of a Void: This story was a little confusing for me.  I thought she’d simply lied about being pregnant and that she was faking the stages but halfway through we have a bit of a jump where suddenly she’s very pregnant and the baby is kicking? A little confusing. I’m interested in everyone’s input on this one

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: This story is one I thought would be about female empowerment but it ended up being something else. A woman feeling ignored and belittled by her partner and seeking change, deciding to be a bodybuilder. This hobby is particularly unique considering how much of Japanese culture revolves around being very small, while bodybuilding revolves around being very big. She’s treated differently by her peers and strangers, and still ignored by her husband. And after all the pain and loneliness she’s been through, in the end she stays with her husband who hadn’t even noticed her bodybuilding. Felt like a step back.

There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job: I found this story interesting. It outwardly seems like a monotonous job that our speaker is dredging through on a daily basis, confiding in the reader about the absurdity of convenience store prices and the act of surveying someone who does so little everyday. But there is so much mystery in this story. What is the contraband item they’re looking for? Who is it from? What are the stakes of this surveillance case? One would assume that the stakes are high if the speaker isn’t even allowed to fast forward on the tapes, and yet the speaker themself has no idea the severity of the case they are pouring hours of their day observing. There are no ‘easy’ jobs. There are jobs that require a lot of patience, mental fortitude, intelligence, coordination, and people skills. Even when it appears easy on paper, such as watching tapes, the importance of the job remains in the details.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt: At first this story seemed kind of sweet in a way. I can definitely relate to seeing a stranger that stands out and imagining what their life must be like. You create a storyline in your head of who they are. As the story progressed, however, I couldn’t help but feel this level of observation was kind of creepy. I mean, the speaker knows where she lives, knows what jobs she has when she has them, knows her daily schedule, and even followed her on her way to work for her first day. I also found it interesting that the speaker was surprised that the woman giggled at the end, as if that were out of character. They wouldn’t have a real way of knowing whether that is out of character or not because they’ve never even spoken to her! It is so odd that they seem to have a parasocial relationship with a person in their real life. 

Note: tons of capitalization in this story, like everything related to this woman is its own title.

The Most Boring Red on Earth: I liked this story a lot. Obviously, there is once again a theme of magical reality, such as last week, where we’re seeing something ordinary be made extraordinary. The difference with this story however, is that the speaker seems surprised by this magical turn, rather than it be a norm in her world. It’s also  wonderful symbolism to show that just because your period is a repeated event in your life as a woman, doesn’t mean it’s less special. Your period can remind you how our bodies can literally create a human being. Our uterus can create and destroy as it does every month and that is something to marvel at.

September 20th Reflection - Maya Thiart

 This week’s readings were quite interesting to me, as I was fascinated by the especially feminine angle that they all seemed to portray, discussing the different facets of life of women in Japanese society. The stories centered on women in the workplace, women’s relationships to their significant others and self-ideal, and bodily perception. The most striking story of the week, I felt, was "The Most Boring Red on Earth", as it is most shorter than the rest of the weekly readings, however it got to its point in a particularly poignant way-- Rika's discomfort and humiliation towards having her period quickly changes into admiration after viewing it in a different life, no longer forcing herself to ignore it for what it is. The story reminded me of "Smartening Up" from last week, in which a woman reclaims her identity towards parts of her body/self that she feels ashamed about. 

One narrative that frustrated me this week was "The Lonesome Bodybuilder". At the end of the piece, the main character seems to have a better relationship with her husband and yet still maintains her job appropriately and has a better peace of mind and confidence. What made me upset, however, was that her husband didn't feel like he appropriately redeemed himself by visiting her at the gym. Their entire relationship was founded on his need for self validation at the expense of her needs, and I didn't feel like his motion to see her at her hobby made up for that fact.

I was hoping we could talk about the significance of the baby in the first story ("Diary of a Void"), because I was unclear about the message-- was it that she felt the only way for her to be treated equally was to have a child? Or was it more of a tale of her coworkers unlearning their dependency on her work?

 Jiahan/Cindy Lyu on 20th September's reading:

I really like these readings we read this week. Most of them are centering on the role of woman, or narrated from the perspective of a female narrator, and each of the pieces we read in quite unique and wondrous.

"A Woman In the Purple Skirt" talks about a mysterious woman, who is always dressed in a purple skirt and has some certain routine that she follows everyday. People in her community all know about her and each of them make speculations on her. Nonetheless, as the story proceeds, the actual speaker, our woman in the yellow cardigan, who has always kept an eye on the woman in the purple skirt, somehow caught more of our attention as the story proceeds, which is interesting. In other words, We knows more about the narrator as we are told of her observation on the woman in the purple skirt. I think that Imamura Natsuko is doing this on purpose, though I could not really draw a conclusion to this yet. My speculation is that the "purple skirt" and the "yellow cardigan" are of contrast colors in paint, which might suggest that the woman in the purple skirt and the woman in the yellow cardigan are quite different form each other. What's more, I feel that the woman in the yellow cardigan is somehow lonelier and more alienated than the supposed woman in the purple skirt.

"There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job" talks about a surveillance worker, who watches over the activity of the writer, Yamae Yamamoto day by day. I am still guessing on the point that the story wants its reader to get to but couldn't say anything assertive yet. Nonetheless, I believed that this story touches on the role of female employees and on Japanese working environment.

"The Most Boring Red on Earth" talks about how a girl, a woman then, Rika gradually accepts her period without embarrassment and appreciates it as it is. This is really a beautiful story, which tells girls that they should have no period embarrassment and it is a normal and beautiful thing which happens to every woman on earth.

Sept. 20 Readings – Shi Shi

I really enjoyed this week’s selection of readings and all of the insights into cultural and gendered norms. While it frustrated me to read about how certain characters had this internal struggle with adhering to gendered roles and expectations, it was a very interesting reflection of issues prevalent in Japanese society that are beginning to be discussed today. 

In Diary of a Void and The Lonesome Bodybuilder, I felt that both narratives explored self-empowerment and autonomy. I interpreted Shibata’s fake pregancy as a form of establishing authority in a male-dominated workplace. While pregnancy could be seen as a characteristic that weakens a woman's physical ability in the office, Shibata uses the idea of pregnancy as the driving force in transforming the space into a functional, self-reliant system. The narrator in Lonesome Bodybuilder also uses her body as a physical model for self-improvement and accomplishment. Her husband still confuses me a bit, and I’m unsure how to interpret the end of the story when they hug.

Womanhood, specifically that of menstruation and childbirth, was an interesting theme that was explored, and I felt that they both worked to destigmatize notions surrounding these less openly discussed topics. The Most Boring Red on Earth was a fun read as it was something I could relate to. I enjoyed the honest injections of humor, like the orange juice line, that made it feel more real. As for the topic of childbirth/pregnancy, I was also in Kaito’s class last semester where we read parts of Breasts and Eggs, and so it was interesting to now have the focus be on Natsuko, whereas before we had read sections on Makiko and her desire for breast augmentation. These chapters, in particular, were interesting to read from a western perspective since I feel that sperm donors and other alternatives in family planning are so common. 

I was most unsettled, but still intrigued, by the last two stories, as they both were extremely voyeuristic in how they referenced feelings of loneliness. I felt that There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job was more focused on the narrator’s life and how her job offered her an opportunity to reflect on what she was looking for in her life/career. In The Woman in the Purple Skirt, however, it felt much more about the other party in the story; there’s this obsessive nature and feeling of envy and vulnerability that is perhaps reflective of how women feel in Japanese society.

September 20 Readings Jaxon

 Diary of a Void discussed the phenomenon of women in Japan as office workers. I felt very strange and ridiculous when my friends from Japan told me that, as women, they have to pour tea for men in the office only because they are females. The stereotype that women should serve tea has been eliminated a long time ago in China, and I believe if you ask a woman to serve tea for you in a company, you can get sued. Japan is doing a good job preserving traditional cultures, and maybe there's a downside to it, which is hard to get rid of bad cultures as well.

To fake a pregnancy was surprising, from the descriptions in the book, I can see men are only treating her better when they know that she has been pregnant. I attended an event about analyzing Japan's low birth rate in Havard. The professor said that many Japanese women don't want to take maternity leave because they are afraid of giving trouble to their coworkers, and they might not be able to get back to work smoothly after the long leave. In the story, after the protagonist takes a long break, things actually get better. She doesn't have to do the work for men, and men learned to do the simple things by themselves.

 The Lonesome Bodybuilder, the Most Boring Red on Earth, and Breasts and Eggs stories discuss the struggle with female physical traits. Sex, period, and the body's shape which are defined in aesthetics by society. A female will become lonesome when she is walking against the majority. Reject to have sex but still want to have a baby and build a body shape that probably won't get understood by most people as a woman, people in the story live freely and pursue their selves, even if they might get criticized. 

For the Woman in the Purple Skirt, maybe I lost some important information, but I feel the narrator is committing severe stalking. Maybe the author wants to show that a figure like the woman in the purple skirt is hard in society, but she can still pay the rent and most of the bills. 

September 20 Reading Reflection - Kaito

I really enjoyed all of these works. It was interesting to read about motherhood in Japan and the hardships that are similar and different to what I'm familiar with in the states. I also thought the focus on work, work relationships and work environments across the readings very curious. There were many perspectives and situations that gave insight into the complexities of the workplace for women in Japan. I was really engaged with all the stories and wanted to keep reading the segments that came from books. I was especially drawn to "There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job" and "The Woman in the Purple Skirt", both concepts were so unique, creative, and a bit strange that I wanted to know how the story and characters would develop. In LJ251 last year I read part 1 of "Breast and Eggs" but never finished it, and the focus in part 2 was not what I expected at all. I'm looking forward to discussing all the readings in class!

September 13th Reading Reflection - Maya Thiart

Of the six readings that were assigned for this week’s class, each of them had a pairing that wove together themes across the stories, with one adapting and playing off of the other one.

Haruki Murakami’s The Ice Man and Yukiko Motoya’s Straw Husband are one such pairing. Both stories touch on a woman’s recollection of her marriage and how her perception on it has changed over time and over the course of their relationships. Both of the main characters in the stories marry unconventional men (one a “Ice Man” and the other a man literally made of straw), and how they married their husbands against the qualms of their family and friends. The stories both address the idea of falling out of love and growing separate from each other, although readers are left with an impression that the two women are left in very different places in their life once the story has ended. In The Ice Man, the wife seems to be trapped in a life of depression and discontent, quietly wasting away while resenting the fact that she ever came to the South Pole in the first place. She is left isolated, homesick, and stuck in her station in life. Meanwhile, the ending of Straw Husband is a bit more ambiguous– the wife in the story seems to now have recognized the faults of her husband, and should she want to leave him, she might have that agency. 

Kanze Kojiro Nobumitsu’s Dojoji and Aoko Matsuda’s Smartening Up are another pairing. Both stories address a woman dealing with the fact that some of her youth/years were “wasted” on a man– in the play, it’s a woman who has been tricked by her father to “wait” for a priest, and in Smartening Up, it’s a woman who has been dumped by her lover, trying to grapple with her life afterwards. Within the text of the story, Smartening Up even references the play, but instead of the main character succumbing to her sadness and trying to fix herself, she reclaims her power within her hair, once again left in a better state than that of the woman in the play. Rather than become a serpent with scales, she becomes a beast with hair, and owns her newfound abilities proudly. She no longer cares about her looks, or how people perceive her, and the readers feel confident in her ability to move on in life.

Aoko Mastuda’s Silently Burning also references Saikaku Ihara’s The Greengrocer’s Daughter and the story of Oshichi by having the main character work at her temple. These stories play on the idea of fire representing passion– in the old text, quite literally, with Oshichi committing arson to see her lover again, and in the newer piece, with the women coming to the temple with the fire inside them “silently burning”. Both stories touch upon women reclaiming and recognizing their power, and fueling their passion for the betterment of themselves.

Cindy's post

I enjoyed this week’s reading very much, which mainly focuses on depicting marriage and love from different angles and perspectives. I think that they provoke deeper thoughts inside me and grant me some new insights:

First of all, I wish to talk about a toxic marriage motif in Murakami Haruki’s The Iceman Man and Yukiko Motoya’s Straw husband. In my opinion, the Ice Man story can be classified into horror novel class, and it is about an ice man husband, who robbed away every single warmth and joy from his wife unintentionally, and made his wife an ice woman as himself. This story reminds me of a saying, which goes: “if someone does not love you as you expected, it does not mean that he/she does not love you”. And Biologically speaking, everyone has different body languages and distinct ways to show love. We can undoubtedly make the point that the Ice Man does love his wife, who is our protagonist. And it is assured that they once loved each other deeply and profoundly, disregarding all the disagreement surrounding them. Nonetheless, they are people living in different worlds, who wants a love that the other could not accurately expressed. This crucial point serves the main reason for their tragic end.The wife can bear with the Ice man’s coldness, yet she still needs certain amount of tangible warmth and regular connection with the society to maintain her life; On the other hand, the Ice man has secluded himself from the outside world, and is rejected by the whole Tokyo society, therefore, does not particularly need love, which follows that he cannot show love in a consoling manner. So, it goes along with the passage of time that fissure should certainly crack between their gradually toxic relationship. In other words, although they love each other, their love cannot communicate and thus not reciprocal and equal, which irretrievably turns their happy marriage into a toxic and heavy bond, such that they both became cold physically and psychologically, lose hope totally, and became people who only live in the past. The wife unfortunately lost herself in the end , and even her sorrow is frozen into ice… From which, I conclude that this ice man story might intend to show what disaster a toxic marriage might bring. And this shares a common ground with Motoya’s Straw husband, which depicts a frightening story that because of the straw husband's overly obsession with his new car and his picky attitude towards his wife Tomoko, Tomoko has thought of kill him by flames and regretted the marriage. Which again, shows how trivial quarrels could become huge problem through mutual failure to forgive between husband and wife. 

Besides, in addition to what states above, I wish to add two other angles to view Murakami’s ice man story: firstly, it can also be viewed as a story, which talks about people, who refuse to change and immerse in the past, would only earn a life as cold and dull as an ice cube; Secondly, it might also be interpreted in the light that the story itself serves as a satire, which criticizes the lack of liveliness of the contemporary Japanese society. (I got these two insights after reading some book reviews online, so they are not totally original).

What’s more, I also wish to briefly talk about another motif in the other stories, which is the braveness and boldness of a woman’s love. For instance, in the Dojoji story, Kiyohime chased behind her monk lover Anchin and transformed into a snake, which leads to Anchin’s destruction at last. And in the greengrocer’s daughter tale, our female protagonist burns a house in order to see her samurai lover again, which condemned her to punishment and her lover into a monk. From the first glance to either of these two tales, they are tragic and troubling. But I want to make a point that they somehow show Japanese woman in a quite different light.In stereotypical view, Japanese woman are conceived as graceful, obedient, and weak (somehow) in novels, such as in the Madame Butterfly. In other words, an image similar to “a damsel in distress” image in the west. However, in these couple of stories that we read, we could see Japanese women fearlessly pursue their love although their passion consumes them to ashes, which surprises me and mesmerizes me. And somehow they are also self-destructive in their love.

Last but not least, I also want to point out a recurring motif that takes place in the Dojoji story, which echoes in world literature. It is the motif of crossing the river for one’s love, which also happens in the Ancient Greek Leander and Hero story, and the South Asian tragic love story Sohni Mahiwal, thus provokes me to think that they might have a same origin or some sort connection while literature circulates the world.

September 13,2024 Readings from Melissa

     When it came to this week's readings, my overall impression of the theme was the imperfections of love and being alive. As The Ice Man and Straw Husband demonstrated, being married with the one you love doesn't equal a happy ever after. Sometimes letting love triumph over everything else can leave much to be desired. It becomes isolating when one person becomes your whole world.  In The Ice Man, we see that the ice man seems to not fit into the world him and the narrator share. They are scorned by their peers and the woman's family. They're on their own.  When the couple ventures to the South Pole, while the woman feels more isolated, the ice man finally feels in his element.  This then takes up their lifestyle, leaving the woman cold and alone in a place where she literally can't communicate with anyone.   In Straw Husband, while the relationship seems fine t first, the couple running together in the park, the story takes a turn when the two are alone and the wife makes a mistake with the straw husband's car. He is suddenly not the kind, doting partner he seemed. Rather he is stubborn, passive aggressive, and uncommunicative.  He spills out his anger until he's a pile of straw.  He doesn't accept his wife's apology until pages later.  He isn't content until she has given up on fighting.  These stories are about a man's overall needs and priorities overshadowing the happiness of his wife.

    In the kabuki Dojoji as well as Smartening Up, we see the effects of a woman scorned by love. Dojoji tells the story of a woman betrayed by a man she loved and turns into a serpent demon to destroy his life. In Smartening Up, we have a woman who is plucking and perming every part of herself in response to being cheated on and dumped by a loser.  She tries to become beautiful because she thinks her lack of attention to her appearance is what made her ex-boyfriend betray her.  The ghost of her aunt, however, reminds her of the Dojoji tale. Thus, the woman becomes a sort of demon herself. Taking back her beauty, and in this case her hair. Becoming a demon is merely a form of empowerment after heartbreak. It's interesting that these women feel they have to become a terrifying beast just to make the men that broke their heart feel regret.  

    Then we have the story of The Greengrocer's Daughter and Silently Burning. Silently Burning references the tale of Oshichi and her tragic love story that we learned about in The Greengrocer's Daughter. Our main character works as a temple calligrapher and witnesses as the legacy of Oshichi inspires (mostly) women to visit the Oshichi Temple she works at, praying for success in love. The narrator and I had similar reactions to this. After reading the tragic love story of Oshichi, I too wonder why women choose to pray to her. Oshichi desperately loved someone and attempted to set fire to her home in order to see him again.  In doing so she was caught and burnt at the stake. her lover hadn't found out about this for months and immediately tried to end his life when he did. Instead, he became a monk. So, the woman died and her lover was a depressed monk for the rest of his life. I too don't quite understand why that's something to aspire to in one's love life. Perhaps the narrator of Silently Burning and I share a lack of interest in obsessive love that clouds one's judgment past the point of no return.

    While love does not always end up to be as dramatic and sometimes as tragic as some of the stories read this week, it is true that it is not an automatic happily ever after either. Sometimes love heats up so much that it burns everything else down. Other times, love once filled with deep understanding freezes over, leaving the two people involved wondering whether or not they fit in the life they built together. No good can come from biting one's tongue. All of these stories include people unable to express themselves. Whether it be to their lover or to society. A lack of communicating one's needs will lead to disaster.

September 13 Reading Reflection

September 13 Readings

It was really interesting to read a selection of stories that referenced past works and understand how historic writings have kept their relevance in current times. The themes of women, relationships with men, and the difficulties women face within these relationships and within themselves was very interesting to see from both a past and current lens. 

The Ice Man and The Straw Husband held many parallels to each other. The Ice Man’s imagery was so beautifully written, and the story itself was unexpected. I was very drawn in, but in all honesty I’m not sure exactly what all of it symbolized. I found The Straw Husband to be as or maybe more compelling. The similarities to The Ice Man were definitely there, but I found the differences lent itself to characters I felt I could understand more wholly and empathize with. I felt I could read the woman’s motivations, desires, and fears very vividly.

Having read no traditional Japanese theater before this, it was a new experience reading Dojoji with the way they wrote about women and the subject matter. Seeing that this version we read was based on another iteration of the story from 1040 was also quite insightful, and I appreciate the changes from that version to portray Kiyohime as a less villainous character. I really enjoyed the theatrical elements and stage directions. In Smartening Up I loved the way Kiyohime is looked up to and revered in a modern context. The societal topic of body hair, especially among women, has huge prevalence, and tackling it in such a unique way with the inclusion of the aunt’s ghost was refreshing to read.

I really loved Silently Burning, the premise for the story was so fun to read to begin with, and all the details made the story so immersive of a read for me. I thought it was interesting that the protagonist herself had little interest in romantic relationships, yet every day saw and thought about people praying for luck in love. The description of those people with the capacity to hold a deep obsession for someone or something is so relevant in today’s world. Similarly with Dojoji, the references to The Greengrocer’s Daughter with a Bundle of Love and Oshichi’s temple were very interesting to see. I also noticed the comments about the protagonist’s calligraphy being “fiery”, maybe calling parallels between her and Oshichi’s passion despite not being about love- that a woman can have passions and talents in things other than romance and relationships.

Kaito

Week 2 Reading Reflection from Jaxon

Among two stories written with magical realism(The Ice Man and Straw Husband) and two stories from Where The Wild Ladies Are, the four stories all discuss the love from women to men and marriage problems. Although I feel I know nothing about marriage I still can feel the discussion about alienation and inevitable conflicts in marriage. In Iced Man and Straw Husband, this kind of problem is shown more directly. The protagonists in both stories marry someone who is not supported by their family. They all believe they made the right decision at first and then they gradually found they have an unreachable gap between the one they married. 

For the Ice Man, the protagonists try to make up the gap by trying to visit the South Pole, a place that's in the Ice Man's favor. Then it turns out that she couldn't fit into the environment and she was finally "frozen". Maybe she found she was not able to address the issues between them, she realized her child would also be affected by her husband and she couldn't help with it.

For Straw Husband, Tomoko irritated her husband just because of her carelessness which caused a scratch on her husband's car. Tomoko couldn't understand why this kind of small mistake could make her husband such angry. I think this refers to different values between men and women about things around them. People look upon something that might be nothing to speak of for other people, and this can cause conflicts since you can't easily change people's values on something. Just like what Tomoko did in the story, she made the apology, but her husband thinks she will still make the same mistake since her value don't change, she is just "doing that to prevent him getting angry with her."

In both stories, the protagonists firmly insist on marrying the man who is disliked by their family. Since in The Ice Man, it's described as "an Ice Man" I suppose it's the kind of people that doesn't fit into the society the protagonists live very well. Maybe some foreign people live in foreign countries? Also, I think the two stories imply that love makes people blind since the protagonists ignore all the advice and they seem to not have a happy ending.

For Silently Burning and Smartening Up, I found they are interesting to read but I think I don't get the hidden content behind the stories especially for Silently Burning. 

While reading Smartening Up, I know depilation has been a severe phenomenon in Japan. I was watching some news from Japan and it says now some primary school students have started laser depilation which shocked me. In the story, the protagonist is very afraid of herself for not fulfilling all the responsibilities a female should fulfill in a relationship. She also became blind at first but I think after her aunt guided her she kind of realized what happened and started to get a "special trick"? 

The delicate life the protagonists described at the beginning was interesting to read too. I even forgot I was reading a story that is supposed to draw a lot of inspiration from Japanese traditional ghost stories. 

September 13 Reading Reflection

Many stories we read this week centered on self-reflection during times of change. Both Murakami’s The Ice Man and Motoya’s Straw Husband use magical realism to explore life and relationships, highlighting how shifts, often isolating, affect characters. The alienation of characters is a recurring theme I’ve noticed in Japanese literature. While I’m still unsure about the significance of the husband being made of straw in Straw Husband, I appreciated how the narrative focused on one event to depict the end of the honeymoon phase in their relationship. I particularly enjoyed Murakami’s story, as I’m drawn to his use of magical realism compared to other short stories I’ve read by him (I also read Kafka on the Shore three years ago and, while I didn’t fully understand it, I liked how it really made me think). In The Ice Man, I found it interesting how the narrator’s attitude toward her relationship begins to frost as she becomes more distant, which I think symbolizes the loss of the emotional spark. For the most part, these two stories reference pretty mundane topics, but the use of magical realism helps to elevate it more.

I also liked the theme of self-empowerment, particularly in female characters in other works we read. In The Greengrocer’s Daughter, Oshichi’s love for Kichisaburo drives her to commit arson, a tragic but bold and intentional act of passion. She becomes a symbol of determination, which is also reflected in Silently Burning, as the narrator’s passion and command is evident in each calligraphic stroke. This kind of empowered symbolism is also seen in Dojoji when the woman’s pursuit transforms her into a serpent. Similarly, in Smartening Up, the narrator’s confidence grows after her breakup, and the story even references the woman in Dojoji directly as a figure of inspiration. I find it so interesting how these older stories are still referenced in more modern literature to demonstrate similar themes but in entirely different contexts, ex. Body hair, and feel that these older allusions help enrich the quality of the story.

Shi Shi