Reformation Of Kikuji Mitani In “Thousand Cranes” Essay, Research Paper

“Thousand Cranes” by Yasunari Kawabata

ILLUSTRATE THE ROLE WHICH MRS OTA AND HER DAUGHTER FUMIKO PLAY IN BRINGING ABOUT THE REFORMATION OF KIKUJI’S CHARACTER TO COME TO TERMS WITH HIS PAST. IN WHAT WAYS (IF ANY) DOES THIS HELP HIM BECOME A BETTER PERSON?

Kawabata’s “Thousand Cranes” is a novel that puts little emphasis on story lines, placing more value on emotions, reflections, symbolism and such. The rather crude (at first sight) plot of this complicated piece of Japanese literature is concentrated on a tangled web of relationships of the past, riddled with jealousy, insecurity and deep mistrust.

Kikuji Mitani, the main character, has grown up watching many of these triangular and adulterous ties all unfold before his eyes – his father taking the star role. As a result of this, even now, as a young working man the ghosts of the past come to haunt him, threatening to take over his life and make him a replication of his father even though he is now dead. The center of this ‘haunting’ is in something he witnessed as a boy of eight or nine – Chikako’s birthmark. This disgusting image has a surprisingly intense effect on Kikuji, in fact so deep-

“He could sometimes imagine even that his own destinies were enmeshed in it.”

This is the state of Kikuji at the start of the book, an obsessive, even neurotic, driven character completely confused and angered by life, trying to push the past as far away as possible.

His first meeting with Mrs. Ota is a forced one, a meeting he would rather have avoided. He had wanted to meet the Inamura girl – later identified as “the girl of the thousand cranes” – who is “beautiful” and more importantly “pure” in his eyes-

“…clean against the rankling histories of middle-aged women”

in sharp contrast to the likes of Mrs. Ota, whose very presence is impure-

“It seemed wrong to meet the girl…here before Mrs. Ota.”

The thought of seeing Fumiko for the first time is even less appealing-

“…he was even more repelled at the thought of meeting the daughter today.”

However his first impressions after four years of Mrs. Ota are-

“She seemed wholly warm, tender, overcome by pleasure at such an unexpected meeting.”

But this is quickly ruined by his malicious thought-

“One can only conclude she was wholly unaware of her place in the assembly”

and in society (?).

From repulsion for both Mrs. Ota and Fumiko, Kikuji reserves his disgust only for Mrs. Ota, leaving sympathy for Fumiko-

“Was the woman foolish, or shameless? He was overcome with pity for the daughter…”

Fumiko is still an unknown, with nothing revealed about her personality or any past history, but Kikuji does notice as Mrs. Ota is leaving that-

“There was a look of appeal in the girl’s eyes.”

We can conclude from here that Kikuji is very perceptive, noticing details that others may not take note of, although her “appeal” can be understood in many different ways, maybe an appeal for forgiveness, or an appeal to stay away from her mother. But the point being made here is that Kikuji is observing maybe a little too much about the two women if he has such a deep hatred for them. He should rather be aloof and uninterested in them. There are many other instances throughout the book where he scrutinizes like this, Fumiko and her mother both being characterized by their “long, white neck(s)/throat(s).” His keen perception of such detail could be used to guess at another aspect of his personality- that he is to some extent like an artist.

However Kikuji’s newfound willingness to deal with his history is displayed when he purposely walks to Mrs. Ota despite his aversion for her-

“Nevertheless, he walked toward the gate.”

This is a very impulsive and perhaps dangerous (mentally harmful) decision for Kikuji to make, quite rash, because anything can happen. He seems to have made it quite clear in the pages before that at the moment he believes that his only salvation from his father’s curse (obviously he feels it is a curse) is to keep away from its living components- Mrs. Ota, Chikako and perhaps Fumiko. Now he is not even stopping to think what this new contradictory action will do to his years of resolve, to his determination to bury his past. He is willing to open a new can of worms with no regard for the consequences.

Mrs. Ota has a new revelation for Kikuji when she tells him-

“Your father was very good to her (Fumiko) …she did her very best for him.”

This comes as a surprise for him as he sees his father in a new light, as a kinder caring person, not simply the man who was double-crossing his mother. Fumiko too is different from what he perceived her as- she tried so hard to make a man who is almost her stepfather happy. Maybe this is the start of his end to avoiding anything to do with his father and his past.

Immediately after Kikuji and Mrs. Ota’s first intimate encounter (which was completely unexpected because of his obvious distaste of her at the start) he is surprisingly happy-

“Kikuji, the bachelor, usually felt soiled after such encounters; but now, when the sense of defilement should have been keenest, he was conscious only of warm repose.”

Here, with Mrs. Ota, his father’s lover, he has done exactly what his father did, and does not feel a “sense of defilement” at all! He seems to have acknowledged his past at this moment but has he become any better as a person? He is still obsessive and vindictive, mentioning Chikako’s birthmark again-

“Something had risen inside him to say it. Something that wanted to rise…and injure the woman.”

Mrs. Ota does not seem to have done much to help his personality so far, though she has made some definite progress which can be shown in the following quotation where, for the first time, he actually appreciates her-

“Mrs. Ota’s warmth came over him like warm water. She had gently surrendered everything…he had felt secure.”

It could be possible that he is seeking the love that a mother could give him, but in this context, to regard Mrs. Ota as a mother figure, Kikuji would be thinking along the lines of incest, giving the story an edge of extreme perversion; even more than the disgust that was already created in my mind at their actions considering their relationship through Kikuji’s father. Although Kikuji is making advancements toward a better personality and acceptance, his method of doing so is, to me, anything but natural.

At the start of the novel, I was given the impression that Kikuji was unstable and insecure in every way. Now, because of Mrs. Ota, he “had felt secure.” His symbolism of Mrs. Ota as “warm water” – later to be referred to as a “wave” which “washed over him” – is very interesting. “Warm water” is usually associated with relaxation i.e. it has a very soothing effect on the mind of a person. To Kikuji, Mrs. Ota is this source of comfort. A very different perspective from his introductory character! Yet then he did not know her, Chikako was his only source of information about her, and most likely to some extent influenced his perception of her. But with his new knowledge of Mrs. Ota, he appears to feel that because of her, he can now regard his father and his past in a much more positive way, even though, ironically, she was one of the main reasons he became disillusioned with it to begin with. It is only after Fumiko’s visit that this view (if he ever had it, even for a short while) alters drastically.

Fumiko does make significantly great improvements to Kikuji’s character although this only becomes apparent later on. One of the early signs is during her visit to him two weeks after his first meeting with Mrs. Ota, when he is, I believe, for the first time sensitive to someone else’s feelings other than his mother and himself. On the subject of his new relationship with Mrs. Ota, he thinks-

“How deeply they must have wounded and shamed her (Fumiko)!”

This seems to be his first display of humility and/or embarrassment for his own actions so far.

But the fact that Mrs. Ota is still an obstacle to his peace is made known as he contemplates “how good it would be to talk freely of his father and take no account of Mrs. Ota.” It is also made clear though, that Kikuji now secretly believes and accepts his own partial responsibility. Therefore when “the image of the girl with the thousand-crane kerchief came to him” it appears that he has included himself in the impurity that is so much in contrast to her uncontaminated beauty and innocence.

A new hint of his still persisting opposition to confront and accept his history is revealed in the form of his unopened tea cottage, which has almost been elevated to the position of a shrine-

“Kikuji had not used the tea cottage since his father’s death…it had been closed since his mother’s death.”

He appears to be afraid to disturb anything from the cottage that contains so many memories from his past, and maybe the basis of this fear is that those memories will fuse with his and become him. His disposition towards Chikako has not changed the slightest from the start of the book and her insistence over the phone on opening the cottage is welcomed with the following thought:

“The venomous persistence came at him over the phone”

as if she is some sort of snake that ejects her “poison” (as it is later referred to) over him. Even to the end of the novel this extreme hatred is the one thing Kikuji constantly maintains throughout the course of the story. The last words of the book reinforce this continued loathing-

“ ‘And only Kurimoto is left.’ As if spitting out all the accumulated venom on the woman he took for his enemy, Kikuji hurried into the shade of the park.”

I think that it can safely be concluded that this is one aspect of his past that Kikuji will never change his position on.

As Chikako cleans the cottage, “The sound of her broom became the sound of a broom sweeping the contents of his skull, and her cloth polishing the veranda a cloth rubbing at his skull.”

This extraordinary metaphor gives us great insight into Kikuji’s attitude towards his past and his memories. There are two contradictory statements here. Sweeping the cottage that almost holds his parents presence in them is like ridding himself of their memories, and he evidently does not wish this. But “polishing” his “skull” is obviously a good thing; it is releasing the dirt that has clogged his mind. Although it is Chikako and not Kikuji who is doing the cleaning, he doesn’t seem to have taken this into consideration; it doesn’t matter who is doing it, it still has the same effect on him. But Kikuji seems to be torn between deciding what he wants. This confusion keeps surfacing at intervals just when the reader gets the feeling that Kikuji has overcome his indecision. He rightly describes himself as “weak and quivering” by letting Chikako take advantage of him.

More meaningful lines in which Kikuji takes a closer look at himself include-

“The dirtiness was not only in Chikako…It was in Kikuji too.”

Kikuji’s acceptance of his father’s actions has presented a great problem to him. Everything is happening exactly as he feared. Everything was all right as long as refused to acknowledge his past and avoided anything to do with it and kept it simply in his head. Now that it has been physically let loose in the form of Mrs. Ota, Fumiko and Chikako it has become a grave threat to his independence

“He could see his father…The figure of his father became the figure of Kikuji himself.”

However, he has not yet lost his new kindness towards Mrs. Ota, and to her self-reproaching cry of “The things I do!” (on the fateful night before her suicide) he answers gently “But I’m grateful to you” instead of heartlessly agreeing as he would probably have done originally. His anger at being likened to his father has not left him though, and understanding Mrs. Ota’s actions as she falls on him in a faint, he furiously questions her-

“’Can’t you see the difference between my father and me?’”

He again makes clear her role in bringing him to affirm his history-

“…the truth is that you’ve washed my whole past for me.”

He uses the word “washed” again referring to the symbol of water as Mrs. Ota, but more importantly it pertains to the purification of it. She has “washed” his past clean. She is no longer presents the dirty aspect of it, this is instead blamed solely on Chikako-

“All the poison from the old days is concentrated in that woman.”

With the suicide of Mrs. Ota, Fumiko takes over her role as reformer, although indirectly. Mrs. Ota death takes a great toll on Kikuji making him “unable to sleep” and forcing him to take “sedatives with sak? (traditional Japanese drink).” He apologizes to her in his thoughts and “love flowed into the apology to coddle and mollify the guilt.” His actions here are pointedly in contrast to his original reaction when he first met her with intense dislike and scorn, questioning her place in society.

As Fumiko (unknowingly?) copies her mother’s actions and falls across Kikuji’s lap, he realizes the eerie cycle is repeating itself once again, but feels no revulsion. Instead he seems even

relieved that it is a way for them to share their grief and give it a way out. They each try harder than the other to take the blame of Mrs. Ota’s death (Kikuji- “I made her die” Fumiko- “it was I even more”). Fumiko can be excused for such behaviour, she is too much like her mother, but this is hardly characteristic of the spiteful Kikuji who was introduced at the beginning of “Thousand Cranes.” Their similar experiences give them both comfort and pain from the other-

“He and Fumiko…the pair of Raku bowls deepened the sorrow they had in common.”

They are symbolised as the “Raku bowls,” a “pair” which together face their grief.

Kikuji longs for Mrs. Ota – even though she too is now completely a part of his past – and even thinks that he is “falling in love” with her, to the point of “intoxication” especially “now that she was dead.” And it is because of Fumiko that he gets this thought, suggesting that it is actually Fumiko who he has these feelings for. Chikako’s attempt to disgrace Mrs. Ota further by indirectly calling her a “devil” is met with hostility and immediately moves away from her. Yet in another of his mood swings, he considers himself a “criminal” for his craving for Mrs. Ota. Does he now think of her as so dishonorable? He tells himself that the only way to save himself is to stop these thoughts-

“He felt he could not be saved unless he fled those moments.”

Is he back to his old vindictive self? Is he no longer “grateful” to her for her part in bringing him to terms with his past? What happened to all the kindness, the gentleness, the forgiveness?

The last question can be answered by looking at the way he is now with Fumiko. All of it seems to have flowed from the direction of Mrs. Ota to Fumiko. This is soon confirmed-

“(His) guilt seemed to disappear when he heard the daughter’s voice. Did it make him feel that the mother was still living?”

When Fumiko leaves and fails to return, making Kikuji realize that she too had probably committed suicide, Kikuji is in disbelief. He credits her for everything that he has understood about his past and improved in-

“There was no reason for Fumiko to die, Fumiko who had brought him to life.”

The above sentence shows the level of appreciation and gratitude Kikuji had for Fumiko. She “brought him to life!” What greater gift can there be? She has helped him so much, that he feels like she raised him from the dead! This one line proves my theory that Fumiko is to be given more credit than Mrs. Ota for making Kikuji the person he is at the end. But it was Mrs. Ota who started off this chain of events and it would have not been possible without her.

Kikuji is an extremely unpredictable character, from his entrance at the start to his changed identity at the end. Many times throughout the novel he leads the reader to a point where they begin to feel safe about his thoughts before erratically altering his position again. However, these inconsistencies make him all the more interesting and worthwhile as a character. His radical transformation in attitude in the cases of Mrs. Ota and Fumiko in a matter of pages leave us wondering and desperately trying to understand this complete alteration. Although Kawabata eventually takes pity on the reader and feeds us a few reasons why Fumiko and Kikuji become close (their common experiences), we are forever left in the dark about the pivotal point in the story, the intimate encounter between Mrs. Ota and Kikuji. Why they did it and how they got together is never explained and we are left to speculate. Kikuji’s slow personal reformation of character is easy to keep track of however, and the main sections where he changes for the better- Fumiko’s first visit at his house; Mrs. Ota’s final visit in the night; news of her suicide the next day; his visit to Fumiko; and his realization of her evident suicide, are easy to pinpoint.

It is becomes very obvious that because of Mrs. Ota and Fumiko, Kikuji appears willing to deal with his past, but becomes alarmed and quickly flustered with all the problems that arise as his confronts his history. His method of dealing with this starts off as he begins throwing the blame in the direction of others; Mrs. Ota the main whipping post for his frustration, but soon realizes that he has the sole responsibility for his actions. Here he begins to evolve into a much more agreeable character although he has the occasional lapses, refusing to be likened to his father even though I believe it was his own fault that he acted like his father. His constant spiteful behaviour towards Chikako can be excused, because she never made him happy, was never a friend to him, and is not presented as a likable character, being more dictatorial and sly. His hatred towards this woman alone to the end does not reflect a desire to avoid anyone from his past as he did before, but is based more on personal dislike for Chikako herself and not general dislike, as was the case at the start. Kikuji has changed to accept and even have a few pleasant memories about his past because of his experiences with Mrs. Ota and Fumiko.

I believe there is enough evidence to conclude that Kikuji is indeed a reformed character at the end, with an assorted number of improved qualities, namely humility and compassion, which were pointedly missing when Kikuji made his entrance. But “Thousand Cranes” is a very complicated story with so many interwoven layers of secrets that it may be almost impossible to discover all the emotions and feelings that Kawabata had in mind when he wrote it. A very challenging read.

Bibliography

Kawabata, Y., Thousand Cranes