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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2009 In the Voices of Men, Beasts, and Gods: Unmasking the Abject Persona in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Women's Poetry Lee Friederich Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Friederich, Lee, "In the Voices of Men, Beasts, and Gods: Unmasking the Abject Persona in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Women's Poetry" (2009). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 408. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/408 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures Committee on Comparative Literature Dissertation Examination Committee: Rebecca Copeland, Chair Lingchei Letty Chen Marvin Marcus Jamie Newhard Akiko Tsuchiya Kellie Wells IN THE VOICES OF MEN, BEASTS, AND GODS: UNMASKING THE ABJECT PERSONA IN POSTWAR AND CONTEMPORY JAPANESE WOMEN'S POETY by Lee Evans Friederich A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 St. Louis, Missouri copyright by Lee Evans Friederich 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION In the Voices of Men, Beasts and Gods: Unmasking the Abject Persona in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Women's Poetry by Lee Evans Friederich Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese and Comparative Literature Washington University in St. Louis, 2009 Professor Rebecca Copeland, Chairperson This dissertation examines the dramatic use of personae of abjection in the works of contemporary and postwar Japanese women poets Ishigaki Rin (1920-2004), Tomioka Taeko (b. 1935), Yoshihara Sachiko (1932-2002), Itô Hiromi (b. 1955), and Isaka Yokô (b. 1949). Recognizing the strong sense of abjection that permeates postwar and contemporary Japanese poetry in general, I explore the ways in which women poets embody the abject--the fantastically grotesque, the deviant and the mortally wounded--in their poetry. Turning away from the dictates of twentieth century critics that women poets write in a transparently autobiographical mode (primarily about their experiences as wives and mothers), these poets take up personae of abjection in order to both recognize the ways in which Japanese women have suffered through sexual slavery, for example, as well as to extend notions of "experience" to include acts of the imagination. The abject takes many shapes in this dissertation: the fantastic manifestation of female power within the home and the fallen postwar nation-state in Ishigaki Rin's poetry, the rebellious spirit iii that refuses the notion of dichotomous gender identity in that of Tomioka Taeko's, and the abject wounds of love in Yoshihara Sachiko's poetry. The aesthetic considerations of the abject are taken up in this dissertation's examination of poetry by Itô Hiromi and Isaka Yôko, both of whom take a strongly experimental approach that so often ruptures the semiotic boundaries of language as a symbolic medium of thought. Making use of theories of abjection and horror put forth by Western feminists such as Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler, this dissertation also analyzes the poetry in relationship to recent scholarship by Japanese feminist critics such as Mizuta Noriko and Arai Toyomi as a means of discussing the aesthetic concerns of the poets as well as relationships between gender and power that their poetry describes. While Japanese originals are placed side- by-side with the author's forty-some translated poems in order to increase the accessibility of these works to non-Japanese readers, this dissertation stresses the innovative and nuanced ways in which these postwar and contemporary poets express their poetic sensibilities through the Japanese language. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my committee members at Washington University for their help in preparing this dissertation, especially Professors Rebecca Copeland and Marvin Marcus, who have guided me from start to finish, and will no doubt will continue to do so in the future. In addition, I would like to thank my tutors of Japanese over the years, who have worked with me on the many translations that appear here, including Shiho Takai, Megumi Rau, and Yoshida Kayo. The research and writing of this dissertation were also made possible by generous summer funding from The Committee of Comparative Literature and a Dissertation Writing Fellowship at Washington University, as well as by a Dissertation Research Fellowship by the Fulbright Foundation. I would also like to acknowledge the support of Professor Noriko Mizuta, President of Jôsai International University, who sponsored me during my Fulbright year in Tokyo. My thanks are also due to Dr. Leith Morton at Tokyo Institute of Technology, who was kind enough to offer comments and suggestions on my chapter on Ishigaki Rin. Azuka Tanaka at East Asian Library at Washington University was extremely helpful in locating books for me, and JoAnn Achelpohl and Debra Jones in the Asian and Near East Languages and Literature Department offices were always most willing to help me find my way through the administrative channels of the dissertation process. And finally, I wish to thank my husband Joel and my two sons Jackson and Toby for their encouragement, support and, most of all, patience over the past many years. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1-24 Introduction In the Voices of Men, Beasts and Gods: Unmasking the Abject Persona in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Women's Poetry 25-63 Chapter One Through Beastly Tears: Devouring the Dead in the Poetry of Ishigaki Rin 64-121 Chapter Two In the Voice of Amano jaku: Tomioka Taeko's Poetry of Refusal 122-161 Chapter Three In the Voice of a Human God: (Ad)dressing the Open Wound in the Poetry of Yoshihara Sachiko 162-219! Chapter Four ! Pain and Beauty, Pleasure and Horror: The Aesthetics of Abjection in the Poetry of Itô Hiromi 220-270 Chapter Five Strangling the House: Semiotic Displacement and the Animation of Abjection in Isaka Yôko's Poetry 271-286 Conclusion Amano jaku Returns in the Guise of a Fox in Recent Japanese Women's Poetry 288-302 Works Cited vi LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 65 Photographs of Tomioka Taeko by Araki Nobuyoshi 121 Appendix 1 Photograph of statues of Amano jaku 217 Appendix 2 Photographs by Ishiuchi Miyako from Itô Hiromi's Ashi, te, niku, karada (Feet, hands, flesh, body 218 Appendix 3 Photographs by Araki Nobuyoshi from Itô Hiromi's Teritorii ron 1 266-270 Appendix 5 Manga by Yamada Murasaki accompanying Isaka Yôko's poem "Kyômei" in Baiorin zoku 287 Appendix 6 Cover photograph by Yasukawa Nao's appearing on her collection of poetry Melophobia SOUND RECORDING 219 Appendix 4 Recording of Itô Hiromi Reading "Watashi wa Anjuhimeko de aru" from CD version of Nihon gendaishi no rokunin vii My Residence After Japan's Defeat Spring 1947 On the torn shôji Soiled swans flap, flap. The mirror is covered with cracks, The rose in the vase thoroughly beaten. Outside the window Everyone's soiled as soiled can be. The earth, out of oil, is rickety-rackety. Isn't there a room for rent on some star? Like a greedy crow I Bite into enormous sufferings... Fukao Sumako (Japanese Women Poets, trans. Hiroaki Sato) "I imagine, and the act of imagination revives me. I am not fossilized or paralyzed in the face of predators. I invent characters. Sometimes I feel as if I am digging people out of the ice in which reality has encased them. But perhaps, more than anything, the person I am digging out at the moment is myself." David Grossman ("Writing in the Dark," trans. Jessica Cohen) 1 Introduction In the Voices of Men, Beasts and Gods: Unmasking the Abject Persona in Postwar and Contemporary Japanese Women's Poetry In her 2003 Nijû seiki no josei hyôgen (Twentieth century women's expression), Mizuta Noriko situates contemporary Japanese women poets at the edges of what she calls "gender culture," as "foreigners" (ihôjin) or "refugee/defectors" (hômeisha) (1). This dissertation on the dramatic use of persona in postwar and contemporary Japanese women's poetry will investigate the ways in which Ishigaki Rin (1920-2004), Tomioka Taeko (b. 1935), Yoshihara Sachiko (1932-2002), Itô Hiromi (b. 1955), and Isaka Yokô (b. 1949) display and explore, often quite painfully, their "refugee/defector" status through their use of personae of abjection. Flatly rejecting the autobiographical approach so often ascribed to women writers, these poets' inventive use of personae not only cuts deeply across the notion of a unitary identity, but also fulfills a visionary function, providing an imaginative space in which the ongoing liberation of Japanese women continues to be explored. Vividly embodying the abject--the fantastically grotesque, the deviant and the mortally wounded-- these poets poignantly contribute to current discussions about the relationship between gender and power taking place among Japanese feminists (Kanai 9) and offer poetic means by which the power differentials between men and women can be subtly subverted. Indeed, a strong sense of abjection underscores a great deal of postwar Japanese poetry and must be seen as a vital feature of the postwar poetic imaginary. Exploring 2 both physical and moral devastation to which the nation's citizens were subject during and after the war (Keene 367, Koriyama and Lueders 77), the Arechi (Wasteland) group gave expression to their generation's "feelings of desolation" (Selland 196) for the social chaos that ensued after the Pacific War.1 Although the group dominated Japan's poetry scene through the 1950s, its membership did not include women poets.

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