American Values in Misako's Marriage in Junichiro Tanizaki's Some Prefer

34 APPENDIX 1 BIOGRAPHY Junichiro Tanizaki was born in Nihombashi in 1886. He was born in a merchant class family of declining fortunes. Tanizaki was introduced to literature and theatre during his childhood. He studied at Tokyo Imperial University, but was forced to leave due to lack of finance of his family. In his early years, he was infatuated with the West and all things modern by living confidently in a Western- style house in Yokohama (the foreign expatriate suburb of Tokyo). He first published in 1910, “The Tattooer”. The story follows a brilliant, successful and sadistic tattoo artist who succumbs to his ultimate desire: to tattoo a masterpiece across the torso of a beautiful young geisha-to-be. But, as he finishes the piece, the young girl transforms from a modest beauty into a cruel woman triumphant in her life. With all of many problems inside the main female character, that story was very successful at that time. After publishing “The Tattoer”, Tanizaki’s reputation began to take off, especially after he moved to Kyoto after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. At that time, his house in the fashionable resident area was leveled by the quake. Tanizaki left his wife and child and moved to Osaka area which was much older fashioned. There, he stopped using western models and started to take interest in the traditional Japanese culture, especially in the traditional Japanese literature such as the classical Japanese tales and so on. Since 1920’s, Tanizaki started publishing many great works, especially novels such as: Naomi, Tade Kuu Mushi (Some Prefer Nettles), Manji (Quicksand), Sasameyuki (The Makioka Sisters), Bushoko Hiwa (The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi), In’ei Raisan (In Praise of Shadows), and many more. During 1930’s, Tanizaki turned away from contemporary affairs to write about Japan’s feudal past, perhaps as a reaction to the growing mood of militarism in society and politics. After The Second World War, Tanizaki again emerged into literary prominence, winning a host of many awards (one of them is the Imperial 35 Prize in Literature in 1949) and until his death in 1965, he was regarded as Japan's greatest living author. Most of his works are highly sensual, a few are particularly centering on the cultural matters inside the main character. Though he is remembered primarily for his novels and short stories, he also wrote poetry, drama, and many essays. Most of his works are concerned in discussing the comparison between two cultures, especially the Japanese culture and Western culture. He also added many stories which based on his own experience (his private life). Toward the end of his career, Tanizaki resumed his erotic interest in his last book, ªDiary of a mad Old Manº which tells us about an aging man becomes consumed by his lust of his daughter-in-law and uses a diary to chart his efforts to bribe her into granting sexual favors. Here, sexual frustration encounters the theme of death, as the old man's desire to continue living becomes utterly concentrated in his desire for sex. It would seem that the sexual frustration reveals himself, at the end of Tanizaki's life, to be inseparable from the fear of death. Tanizaki lived his later years mostly in the Kanzai. He died in Yugawara, south of Tokyo, on July 30, 1965. Therefore, looking at the explanation about his life's background, Junichiro Tanizaki was considered as a great Japanese author at that time. He was, above all, a masterful storyteller also. 36 APPENDIX 2 THE TRANSLATOR Some Prefer Nettles is a Japanese novel which translated into English by Edward Seidensticker. He was born on February 11, 1921 in Colorado. He is a famous scholar and translator of many Japanese literatures. In 1968, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He also received the National Book Award spesefically for translation in 1971. He has already translated the Tale of Genji, The Sond of the Mountain, The Decay of the Angel, and many more. Edward Seidensticker also translated Junichiro Tanizaki's The Makioka Sisters and Some Prefer Nettles and authored important criticism on Tanizaki's place in 20 th century Japanese literature. He taught at Stanford, The university of Michigan and Colombia until his retirement in 1985. 37 APPENDIX 3 SUMMARY Some Prefer Nettles which was written by Junichiro Tanizaki is a story of personal confession and the story of cultural conflict. The central situation, an unhappy marriage between two people, named Kaname and Misako who are not interested in each other anymore sexually and who feel a tormenting uncertainty over what to do about their marriage life. The real theme of Some Prefer Nettles is the clash between the new and the old, the imported and domestic culture (American and Japanese culture). The main conflict of this story is about the marital conflict and the cultural conflict between the old traditional Japanese culture and American culture. Misako (the main female character in this story), as the Kaname's wife, is drawn toward the new and foreign culture. On the other side, Kaname (the main male character in this story) as the husband is drawn more strongly toward the traditional Japanese culture. This situation, yet, is pulled by many conflicting forces. Kaname and all Misako's family push her to follow the roles of Japanese values at that time it is because they think that as a Japanese woman and as a Japanese wife Misako has to do that and has to act like most of many Japanese women did at that time. For example as a Japanese wife Misako has to follow what her husband asked; she has to serve her husband, manage and do the entire house chores, and take care of the children. ªOnly in two points is woman superior to man: bearing children and making love.º ( Tsuda, 1970). In fact, Misako cannot do that, because she thinks that she is not a kind of many Japanese women who exist at that time. Misako is pictured a stylish young Japanese woman of the future. Misako wants the freedom and independence for her private life, especially her marriage life. She also wants to have the equal position as her husband in her marriage life. In the story, Misako is going to fight for many problems which occur for her individual rights to get whatever she wants, to get love and happiness in her private life. Misako is more drawn toward the American values. In fact, as an Eastern woman (especially as a Japanese 38 woman), it is hard for a woman to get her individual rights for her life because of the influences of strict rules and values of the old traditional Japanese culture itself. Therefore, the thesis writer is curious to know what American values adopted by Misako, the reasons of adopting them, and also the effects of the American values adopted toward her marriage life. As a Japanese woman, Misako has to do many things according to her culture She thinks that it is difficult to break the tradition that grows within because Japanese culture and values themselves are very strict. Kaname, as a Japanese man is more concern in facing his daily life of the old Japanese way of life habits. This condition brings this couple to a complicated problem. Then, many problems occur. There is always misunderstanding happened in their communication because of different point of view and different way of thinking. Another problem is that many people around Misako like her family, reject the Misako's decision, then they starts to under estimate Misako. After many problems occur in Misako's life, she feels that now she has a different point of view with her husband. After that moment, she does not love her husband anymore. She feels that without him she still can survive. From that time, Misako decides to have another relationship with another guy named Aso. Moreover, the nature of her relationship with Aso is more modern. Misako is willing to be with him without the promise of marriage, without legal and traditional legal validity. Then, to end her problem, Misako decides to have a divorce with Kaname. After having discussed with Kaname himself, finally they agree to have a divorce because they do not love each other anymore. Their marriage becomes loveless from day by day. As the final note, they cannot ignore the final scene of the novel. They cannot avoid the divorce in their marriage life. If she is unable to make the decision of that divorce at the final moment, it is not only because of her internal character, not only because of her loveless marriage with Kaname but also it is also due to the fear of being rejected by her society and family. Looking at the story of Some Prefer Nettles, the readers can picture how important the values of one culture influence the way of thinking of someone. This happens because the original cultural demands or expectations do not always become the first choices 39 of a person to make a decision, because cultural demands or expectations cannot control someone's life and cannot guarantee someone's happiness. So, someone has to think deeply what values of culture will be applied in their life in order to get happiness in their life..

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