How to read "Kokoro" by Soseki Natsume (3)
The Masanamachi Incident and Konnyaku Enma
I can't find anyone who understands the Masunacho Incident and Konnyaku Enma. I can't go through them all, but as far as I can tell, I can't find anything. Even those who claim to be able to explain it are unaware of it. The teacher can't erase this resentment until he dies, so he has to know what he's talking about. This may also be because it is outside the scope of "Contemporary Literature B." However, if you don't understand this area when you read "Kokoro" and write an essay about it, I think it's no good.
Unless you are able to walk around Tokyo freely, it would be better to read this story while looking at a Google map or something. First, check the location of the University of Tokyo, then Konnyaku Enma (Genkakuji Temple), Masago-machi, and Koishikawa. The location of the roads are slightly different from what they are now, but since many of the buildings are still intact, I don't think you will be mistaken if you look at the current map. The word "Genkakuji" does not appear in "Kokoro". It is written only as "Konnyaku Enma", which is difficult to understand for people who do not live in this area.
I wonder why I am so sleepy. I'm sure you're having a nervous breakdown.
What is it?
You really are an angry person, aren't you? I don't know how you manage to work at school.
He's very quiet at school.
You're even worse at school. You're like a konnyaku demon.
Why?
"Because I'm Konnyaku Enma. Because you look like a konnyaku demon.
It's not just anger, you know. When people say right, she says left; when they say left, she says right; she's never done anything they didn't tell her to do; she's stubborn.
You're a stubborn woman. That's the stubborn one. If you want him to do something, just tell him the truth and he will do what you want. The other day, when I asked him to buy me a bat umbrella, I deliberately told him I didn't want it and that I didn't need it, and he immediately bought it for me.
It's so good. "It's good, isn't it? I'll do the same from now on" (Soseki Natsume, "I am a Cat")
There are dictionaries that roughly translate the meaning of "konnyaku enma" into "uchi-benkei," but this is not the case. In "I am a Cat", it is used to mean "a stubborn demon". This is the same meaning as "Soseki". It really is Soseki, with the addition of anger. The fact that it is said to be beneficial for eye diseases is related to Takoyakushi in "Sanshiro". Forget Soseki's nickname "The Eye" or "Daisuke" in "Then and Then", which is about a man who emits colors from his eyeballs. In "Kokoro", Konnyaku Enma represents the way to school. Enma is the god who judges the sins of the living. A guilty person is a person to be stared at and to be avoided.
Masago-cho is also a place name that appears repeatedly in Soseki's works. Konnyaku Enma is located a little higher, while Masago-machi is lower. The road from the University of Tokyo to Koishikawa through Masago-machi is a little circuitous and uphill.
The whole story of the Masunacho incident is told as follows.
It was on this narrow strip that I first encountered K. I was so preoccupied with my feet that I was oblivious to his presence until I came face to face with him. Suddenly my eyes were blocked in front of me and I happened to look up and saw K standing there for the first time. I asked him where he had gone, and he said he was just passing through. K and I switched bodies on the narrow strip. Then I saw a young woman standing right behind her. My nearsightedness had prevented me from recognizing her until now, but when I looked at her face after passing K, I was more than a little surprised to see that she was our daughter. I was more than a little surprised to see that it was our daughter. At that time, her hair did not have a peak like it does now, and it was wrapped around her head like a snake. I was staring at her head blankly, and the next thing I knew, I had to give way to one of them. I took the plunge and stepped one foot into the sludge. I made room for a relatively easy passage and handed the young lady over.
After that, I went out into the streets of Yanagimachi, and I didn't know where to go anymore. I had the feeling that no matter where I went, it would be uninteresting. I walked wildly through the sea of anchovies, not caring that the mud was rising. Then I returned home immediately. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
K explained that they had run into each other in Masago-machi and had come back together, and made fun of the young lady for asking where she had gone. There is a black snake on the young lady's head. The teacher becomes Konnyaku Enma. The teacher carries the jealousy of this moment with him until his death. Before the Masanacho incident, there is a rather racy scene.
The wife, seeing me standing silently in the middle of the room, felt sorry for me and helped me take off my cloak and put on a Japanese dress. (Soseki Natsume, "Kokoro")
The brazier in K's room has a fire, and the brazier in my room doesn't, so I'm uncomfortable and dazed, and his wife is in her underwear. The logic is that she is glancing at his crotch. It's not written down, but that's what it would be. Most women do glance. The widow at the boarding house doesn't usually help the young man change his clothes. What if your daughter was helping K change her clothes? It makes me think of something like that. In any case, Soseki's works are paired, so if the wife took care of the teacher, then the daughter took care of K. Soseki does not write that the young lady stared at K's loincloth. He doesn't write that the young lady stared at K's loincloth, but he did write about a Westerner standing in front of everyone, using only one monkey crotch. If the crotch gets wet, it's transparent. Even if it is not transparent, if you stare at the loincloth, you can see the shape. Soseki apparently had his wife help him change his clothes on purpose. Please think about it again. Would a widow dress a mere lodger in her underwear? This is a story that does not need to be reduced to eroticism. Eventually, the widow will be nursed by her son-in-law.
However, I think most people can't understand why the doctor can't erase his jealousy of the Masunacho incident for the rest of his life.
If the young lady helped K to change her clothes, took the trouble to avoid Konnyaku Enma, walked along a poorly drained road twice, and carried a black snake on her head, then she must be guilty. The teacher can't judge that for life. You can't be Yama. He is quite stubborn. It's Soseki. The first thing to know is that the explanation "We met by chance in Masago-machi and came back together" is a lie and something that the lady or his wife made him say. It is a woman's job to put charcoal in the brazier. It is a woman's job to put charcoal in the brazier; it is a woman's or a wife's job. If so, she must have been asked by her wife or invited by her daughter to come out. The wife said that he must have had some business to attend to. But please think about it. What kind of errands does a penniless, friendless K have to run? At best, he may have left something at school.
I don't think that K and the young lady were having sex in the Masunacho incident. However, the teacher can't erase her jealousy of the Masunacho incident for the rest of her life.
Isn't it unnatural here? How can the Masunacho case become a case after years of marriage? If my wife dated someone before we were married, it would be a non-issue once we were married.
But Soseki can't pretend that this never happened. Soseki has left a clear suspicion here. That's why Konnyaku Enma's jealousy of the teacher won't go away. The stubborn natural devil who invited K into his pseudo-family and kicked him out will never forget the Masago-machi incident.
Recommended reading: Hiroki Azuma, "Living as a Minority" : A Perfect Guide to Natsume Soseki's Kokoro
Warning: This article contains spoilers. If you wish to read it on your own, please leave the site immediately. If you think this reading is a ton of fun, the
soseki-kokoro.blog.jp
This person has not given his name. Even if it is a pseudonym, I think it should be given. The article is generally read correctly as far as it is written. The way this article is driven home is particularly excellent.
1. The doctor became aware of his homosexual carnal desires ("terrible shadows," "tremendous flashes") around the time of his mother-in-law's death. He had come to Kamakura to satisfy his sexual desires with a westerner.
K was the only eternal lover for him, and he was not interested in me. The suicide note was not a love letter to me, but to be used as a reminder.
So, these two points are inaccurate, but overall, it is an accurate consideration of what it means to be a homosexual protagonist.
Some people may be impressed when they reread this "great spark" part.
I just felt a deep sense of human sin. That feeling makes me go to K's grave every month. That feeling makes me nurse my wife's mother. And that feeling tells me to be kind to my wife. I have even wanted to be flogged by a stranger on the street because of this feeling. As I go through these steps, I feel that I should whip myself rather than be whipped by others, and that I should kill myself rather than whip myself. I had no choice but to go on living as if I were dead.
How many years has it been since I made that decision? My wife and I have been living happily together as before. My wife and I have never been unhappy, we have been happy. However, one thing about me, which is not easy for me, always seemed dark to my wife. When I think about it, I feel very sorry for my wife. (Kokoro, Soseki Natsume)
I don't strongly disagree with the idea that this "one point that I have, this one point that is not easy for me" is homosexual. However, it does not fit the definition of "I" as "someone who can love people" and "someone who cannot be hugged". I don't think that homosexuality is the reason why I can nurse my mother-in-law, and I don't think that homosexuality is the reason why I should be flogged at the end of the Meiji era. If "this one point that I have, this one point that is not easy for me" is connected to the "man and man unite to become Buddha" in "Mein Kampf," then it is okay to be a homosexual. The only question is whether the teacher is male, female, feline, or hetero. So the "I" understanding of him as a total affirmation and lover of humanity is a misunderstanding.
Yes. But it does mean that, "My wife once said to me that she wondered if a man's heart and a woman's heart could ever be exactly the same. I replied vaguely that they could be when they were young. This is a misinterpretation of the meaning of the word "I". The teacher has had a platonic love for the daughter since she was young. He has not had fleshly desires since he was young. If I read this conversation as "not for men and women" to "men can work well together," then my point would be homosexual, but the fact is that the teacher has had a platonic love for the young lady since she was young, almost like a faith, so why not make K the teacher's only lover? Is the object of platonic love a woman and the object of carnal desire a man?
I think we need to sort this out.
It is true that Tsuda and O-Nobu's relationship is ambiguous. It seems like they did or didn't. Tsuda and Kobayashi are suspicious. It is strongly suspected that Kobayashi is the cause of Tsuda's hemorrhoids. I wonder if the reason why the doctor can't pull out the roots of loneliness from "me" is because we don't have the same orientation, even if we are homosexual.
Rather, I might suspect that the one point I have is "congenital erectile dysfunction. Soseki had many children, but his medical history in his later years suggests that he had erectile dysfunction. However, in "Meian", there is a first night. I think the doctor with "congenital erectile dysfunction" in Platonic Love sees the black shadow of K plugged between Shizuka's legs.