Junichiro Tanizaki's 1929 novel SOME PREFER NETTLES was first published in an English translation by Edward Seidensticker on this day in 1955. SOME PREFER NETTLES is considered one of his most noted translations.
“Children retain a great deal, and when they grow up they start going over things and rejudging them from a grownup's point of view. This must have been this way, and that was that way, they say. That's why you have to be careful with children—some day they grow up.”
―from SOME PREFER NETTLES(1929)
―from SOME PREFER NETTLES(1929)
Junichiro Tanizaki’s SOME PREFER NETTLES is an exquisitely nuanced exploration of the allure of ancient Japanese tradition—and the profound disquiet that accompanied its passing. It is the 1920s in Tokyo, and Kaname and his wife Misako are trapped in a parody of a progressive Western marriage. No longer attracted to one another, they have long since stopped sleeping together and Kaname has sanctioned his wife’s liaisons with another man. But at the heart of their arrangement lies a sadness that impels Kaname to take refuge in the past, in the serene rituals of the classical puppet theater—and in a growing fixation with his father-in-law’s mistress. Some Prefer Nettles is an ethereally suggestive, psychologically complex exploration of the crisis every culture faces as it hurtles headfirst into modernity. READ more here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…/some-prefer-nettles-b…/
Some Prefer Nettles (蓼喰ふ蟲 Tade kū mushi) is a 1929 novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. It was first published in 1928–9 as a newspaper serial. The novel is often regarded as the most autobiographical of Tanizaki's works and one of his finest novels.
The Japanese title of the novel is literally water pepper-eating bugs, and is the first half of the Japanese saying tade kuu mushi mo sukizuki (蓼食う虫も好き好き), or "Water pepper-eating bugs eat it willingly", equivalent to the English "Each to his own." The translation as Some Prefer Nettles was chosen by Edward Seidensticker; he considers it one of his most noted translations, and it has been included as a translation of the original saying in the authoritative Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary.[1]
Contents
[hide]Plot[edit]
Kaname and Misako’s marriage is drifting towards a separation and divorce, and Misako has taken a lover, Aso, to Kaname's approval. Their young son, Hiroshi does not yet know anything about their plans. Both are procrastinating over this marital decision; Kaname realizes that he is fascinated by his father-in-law's bunrakutheater and young mistress O-hisa. Misako's father is a traditionalist who attempts to keep the couple engaged in the arts of Japan, in order to purge the negative influence from the West.
Themes[edit]
Performance[edit]
The theme that structures the novel in its entirety is that of performance. As the book opens, Kaname gently pressures his wife, Misako, into meeting her father and his mistress at a bunraku performance. And the "old man" (he is fifty-six or fifty-seven) has a deep interest in many forms of traditional Japanese performance, from samisenand song to rustic puppets. But these are only the framing performances, as the life being led by Kaname and Misako is itself, as Tanizaki reminds us several times, a performance; even their son, Hiroshi, becomes a performer. The closing words of the novel (Tanizaki's endings are always stunning) transform a wooden doll into a woman.
In many ways, from local accent to clothing, the central characters assume roles they need and can hardly bear, making the story's structure a series of mirrors in which artifice and reality interweave.
East vs West[edit]
In reading Tade kuu mushi, a theme that becomes immediately apparent is the struggle between East and West. Although the terms themselves are artificial social constructions, the dissonance between the two is present throughout the entire novel, and indeed throughout this portion of Kaname’s life.
The beginning of the novel presents a Kaname whose aesthetic tastes lean more toward the so-called West. His romanticized version of it is manifested in the western wing of his house (in particular, the veranda under which he likes to sit), his fascination with American movie stars, and very potently in an English translation of the Arabian Nights that he is wont to skim through in order to find the more lewd passages for which it is famous.
After a visit to the bunraku theater with his father-in-law, wife, and his father-in-law’s mistress in Chapter Two, however, Kaname’s interest in traditional aesthetics is piqued, and he even becomes envious of the ‘Old Man’ and his lifestyle: at an old play, pipe in hand, sake and a young mistress at his behest. This is the beginning of Kaname’s divergent interest in the East, his preference for the past.
But there is no East, and there is no West — a concept that becomes more apparent as certain tokens or representations of each begin to arise. For example, the Old Man’s mistress, Ohisa, comes to represent the traditional East, always dressing in kimono, conforming her ministrations to the Old Man’s every whim—and her iconic Osaka black teeth. The idea that Ohisa represents the East is consummated in the closing lines of Chapter Ten: “Ohisa truly was a vision left behind from a feudal age” (TKM, 139). But in spite of such a strong affirmation of her ‘easternness,’ all throughout the novel we are given clues as to her ‘true’ nature that serve to contradict the mask she is wearing: how she is scolded for using a compact (Chapter Two), how she uses sunscreen in Awaji (Chapter Ten), and certainly how she complains about the stiff clothing that the Old Man insists she wear. So we are told she’s a vision of the past, then led to suspect that very concept. In reality: she is both. And neither. She is simply Ohisa.
The same goes for Louise, the prostitute in Chapter Thirteen, who is a dubious (at best) representation of the West. She pretends to be Turkish — and looks it, too. Were the white powder she practically bathes herself in removed, though, Louise would be revealed as Eurasian, half-Korean, half-Russian, as close to the East as Kaname himself, in spite of her directness and blatant sexual nature that together form the now gossamer connection between her and the West.
Kaname’s copy of Arabian Nights is a mix of these two contradictions, being an exotic collection technically written in the East, but translated into English, and thus made all the more exotic in Kaname’s eyes. His world is convoluted, to say the least.
Madonna vs Harlot[edit]
The second major theme that permeates the novel can be summed up as "Madonna vs Harlot" a theme for which Tanizaki is notorious, and which he addresses directly at several points in Tade kuu mushi.
In speaking with his cousin, Takanatsu, Kaname reveals that he’s only interested in two types of women: the motherly-type and the whore-type (bofugata and shoufugata, respectively). What he looks for in a woman oscillates between the two, and the fact that his wife is neither one nor the other, but a mix of both, is largely the impetus behind his waning, if not dead, interest in her. Kaname prefers extremes, which will become more and more apparent as the novel progresses.
There is some sort of reconciliation between these two extremes, however, and it is found in what is coined as the “Eternal Woman” (eien josei), a woman to be worshiped. Though it’s not expressed clearly who exactly this Eternal Woman is, nor what characterizes her, it is clear that she’s someone who would not only inspire, but command genuflection of the man who worships her.
To unravel what it means to be an Eternal Woman, however, it may help to look at Tanizaki’s use of dolls throughout Tade kuu mushi, for it is in looking at the doll Koharu — in the play Shinjuuten no amijima (The Love Suicides at Amijima) — that Kaname gets his first taste of her power.
Dolls[edit]
While watching Shinjuuten no Amijima, Kaname takes particular notice of the character Koharu—the doll that becomes the very Form of what Kaname thinks women should be (later to be replaced by Ohisa). The conception of womanliness that Koharu inspires in Kaname is what lies at the heart of his Madonna-Harlot conflict, what makes him attracted both to an image of the Virgin Mary and to Hollywood movie stars: he isn’t interested in real women at all, but in idealized forms of them: women who can be appreciated from afar for what they represent, not for who they are. And dolls encapsulate this perfectly, being masterfully sculpted, subtle in their beauty, and silently manipulated by men.
Fantasy vs Reality[edit]
Kaname has an overly active fantasy life that he seemingly prefers to interact with more than he does reality. In that same manner, his interest in the West is rooted more in its fantastical (not necessarily accurate) elements; the same can be said for his interest in the traditional East.
An example of the former is evidenced in his preference for the Western concept of divorce, how everyone supposedly does it—to the extent that it’s almost a fad. He is also fascinated with the colorfulness of western sexuality and, in particular, the way in which American films continually find new and more poignant ways of exhibiting a woman’s beauty. Both divorce and sexuality are viewed differently in the ‘West’ than in the ‘East,’ but there are generalizations and exaggerations of both that render Kaname’s fixation with them more fantastical than real.
As for Kaname’s recognition of the wiles inherent in eastern tradition, the more shadowy locations in "Tade kuu mushi" seem to encourage his imagination and perpetuate a potentially false concept of the East. A perfect example of this is in Chapter Ten, wherein Kaname, walking alongside Ohisa with the Old Man toddling behind, is struck by the image of a dark old house. The passage that follows practically brims with enchanting musings as to what might actually be going on behind the house’s curtains, deep in the shadows beyond its latticework, a narrative technique that is largely unused up until this point in the novel—one that’s tapped only when the readers are finally given the opportunity to glance briefly into Kaname’s world of fantasy.
References[edit]
- Tanizaki Jun’ichirō. Tade kuu mushi (蓼喰う虫). Tokyo: Shinchō Bunko (新潮文庫), 2004.
- Seidensticker, Edward G., trans. Some Prefer Nettles. Tanizaki Jun’ichirō. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
| 蓼喰ふ虫 Some Prefer Nettles | ||
|---|---|---|
| 著者 | 谷崎潤一郎 | |
| イラスト | 装幀：小出楢重 | |
| 発行日 | 1929年11月 | |
| 発行元 | 改造社 | |
| ジャンル | 長編小説 | |
| 国 |  日本 | |
| 言語 | 日本語 | |
| 形態 | 上製本 | |
| 公式サイト | [1] | |
| コード | NCID BA34142939 | |
 ウィキポータル 文学 | ||
| ||
『蓼喰ふ虫』（たでくうむし）は、谷崎潤一郎の長編小説。全14章から成る。谷崎の中期・成熟期を代表する作品で、愛情の冷めた夫婦を軸に理想の女性美の追求を描いている。日本の伝統美に目覚めた谷崎の転回点となった重要な作品である[1][2][3]。
1928年（昭和3年）12月4日から1929年（昭和4年）6月18日まで『大阪毎日新聞』と『東京日日新聞』（東京は6月19日）に連載された（挿画：小出楢重）[2][1]。単行本は1929年（昭和4年）11月に改造社より刊行された[4]。
あらすじ[編集]
要と美佐子の夫婦仲は冷え切っている。小学4年の子供・弘の前では取り繕っているが、美佐子は時間さえあれば恋人・阿曾の住む須磨に通う有様である。ある日、義父から人形浄瑠璃（文楽）の見物に誘われ、夫婦で出掛けてゆく。要は以前に見た時とは異なり、人形の動きに引き込まれてゆく。同席した義父の愛人・お久はおとなしい女で、要は人形のようだと思い、惹かれていく。
義父とお久が淡路の人形浄瑠璃を見に行くというので、要も同行する。ひなびた舞台も要には面白く、また自分たち夫婦に引き替え、義父・お久の関係がうらやましく思われた。三十三か所を巡礼するという義父たちと別れた要は、神戸に向かい、なじみの娼婦ルイズと会う。ルイズは借金があるので千円出してくれとしつこく、来週持ってくると約束をさせられてしまう。
要が離婚の件を義父に手紙で書き送ると、何も知らなかった義父は驚いて夫婦を京都の自宅に呼び出す。義父は美佐子と2人で話したいと言って、近くの懐石料理店に出掛けてしまう。
登場人物[編集]
- 斯波要
- 大阪在住の会社重役で暮らしには余裕がある。妻と離婚を考えているが決断ができない。小学4年生の子（弘）がいる。
- 美佐子
- 要の妻。30歳近い。夫公認で阿曾という男と不倫をしている。
- 義父
- 美佐子の父親。50代半ばだが既に隠居し、若い愛人（お久）と京都鹿ケ谷に住んでいる。
- お久
- 京都生れのおっとりした女。おとなしく、人形のような女。
- 高夏秀夫
- 要の従弟。上海で働いている。離婚歴あり。
- ルイズ
- 神戸の外国人娼婦。朝鮮人とロシア人のハーフ。18歳から20歳くらい。
作品背景[編集]
日本回帰[編集]
谷崎は関東大震災をきっかけに、関西に移住し、伝統文化に傾倒していった[1]。『蓼喰ふ虫』でも、〈アメリカ映画のやうな晴ればれしい明るさ〉から眼を転じて、日本古来の文楽のなかにある〈何百年もの伝統の埃の中に埋まつて侘しくふるへてゐる光〉に惹かれていく心情が描かれている[1][2]。
モデル[編集]
そのため、妻の愛人・阿曾のモデルが佐藤春夫だと長いこと考えられてきたが、谷崎の末弟・谷崎終平の『懐しき人々』によると、1929年（昭和4年）頃、千代を和田六郎（のちの推理小説作家・大坪砂男）に譲る話があり、佐藤が猛反対したとされる。これらを裏付ける谷崎から佐藤春夫宛ての書簡（昭和4年2月25日付）も見つかり、高夏のモデルが佐藤春夫である可能性が高く、第一部は実際以上に事実に近いことが分かった[5][6]。
テレビドラマ化[編集]
刊本[編集]
翻訳[編集]
- エドワード・サイデンステッカー Some Prefers Nettles 1955
- シルヴィー・ルノー＝ゴーティエ、安西和夫(仏語） Le Goût des orties
- （ドイツ語）Insel der Puppen
- マリオ・テティ（イタリア語）Gli insetti preferiscono le ortiche
脚注[編集]
参考文献[編集]
- 谷崎潤一郎 『蓼喰う虫』 (改版) 新潮文庫、2012年8月。ISBN 978-4-10-100507-2。 初版1951年11月
- 笠原伸夫編 『新潮日本文学アルバム7 谷崎潤一郎』 新潮社、1985年1月。ISBN 978-4-10-620607-8。
- 『文藝別冊 谷崎潤一郎――没後五十年、文学の奇蹟』 河出書房新社〈KAWADE夢ムック〉、2015年2月。ISBN 978-4309978550。
- 小出龍太郎; 明里千章; 荒川朋子 『小出楢重と谷崎潤一郎――小説「蓼喰ふ虫」の真相』 春風社、2006年10月。ISBN 978-4861100840。
- 小谷野敦 『谷崎潤一郎伝――堂々たる人生』 中央公論新社、2006年6月。ISBN 978-4120037412。
- 瀬戸内寂聴 『つれなかりせばなかなかに――妻をめぐる文豪と詩人の恋の葛藤』 中央公論社、1997年4月。ISBN 978-4120026744。 文庫版（中公文庫）の『つれなかりせばなかなかに――文豪谷崎の「妻譲渡事件」の真相』は1999年12月。ISBN 978-4122035560
- 谷崎終平 『懐しき人々――兄潤一郎とその周辺』 文藝春秋、1989年8月。ISBN 978-4163434605。
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