ISSN: 2637-0875 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1),30-44 (2021) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

NEGOTIATING EXISTENTIAL CONCERNS THROUGH THE GROTESQUE IN YUKIO MISHIMA’S FORBIDDEN COLOURS

Seach Jin Beng1 and Arbaayah Ali Termizi2* Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Email: [email protected] ; [email protected] *Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT The grotesque and existential concerns are rarely studied alongside each other in the field of literature. History has it that the grotesque is always associated with aspects which denote negative connotations, such as deformity, death, violence or monstrosity. Additionally, the grotesque is also popularly employed as an approach to challenge traditions and deviate from what is accepted as the norm. Meanwhile, the origins of existentialism can be traced back to as early as the 19th century. The existentialists’ main concerns have always been seeking the meaning of life and they are constantly looking for ways to justify one’s existence in a world where pessimism rules. Thus, this paper aims to establish a connection between existentialism and the grotesque by primarily focussing on how the two male protagonists, Yuichi and Shunsuke, in Yukio Mishima’s Forbidden Colours (1951), employ the grotesque as a way to deal with their existential concerns of death and meaninglessness as posited by Irvin Yalom. Grotesque elements, such as misogyny, pederasty and carnivalesque, will be studied alongside two existential concerns, which are death and meaninglessness. This is meant to show how the male protagonists are able to rely on the grotesque to subdue their fears and anxieties brought upon by their existential concerns in order to justify their sense of existence.

Keywords: existential concerns; Forbidden Colours; grotesque; post-war Japan; Yukio Mishima ARTICLE INFO Article history Received: Oct 10, 2020 Accepted: Feb 21, 2021 Published: March 31, 2021 Volume 8 Issue 1

© Penerbit Universiti Putra Malaysia ISSN: 2637-0875 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1),30-44 (2021) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

INTRODUCTION

Mishima Yukio was born in the Yotsuka district Tokyo, Japan on January 14, 1925, and was a prolific writer whom many literary critics still regard as one of the most significant and influential Japanese novelists of the 20th century. Kenne (2015), in Five Modern Japanese Novelists, notes that, outside his own country, Mishima was probably the most famous Japanese who had ever lived. Europeans and Americans, who would have difficulty naming even one Japanese emperor, politician, general, scientist, or poet, are acquainted with Mishima’s name, if not his works. In large part, of course, this is the result of his spectacular suicide but, even before this event, he was the only Japanese chosen by Esquire magazine in its selection of one hundred leading figures of the world, and the only Japanese who appeared on internationally televised programs (45). Mishima’s Forbidden Colours was published between 1951-1953 and the novel centres around the themes of homosexuality, betrayal, beauty and aging. The Japanese title kinjiki is a euphemism for homosexuality in Japan which can also be understood as erotic love. Piven suggests that Forbidden Colours (Kinjiki) refers to the ecstatic stratifications of homoeroticism. The Japanese word for colour, jiki or shiki, connotes sexuality, and the word kin denotes precisely forbidden sexuality in this work. The novel expresses Mishima’s repetitive and compulsive fantasies but, in this work, he amplifies dimensions of these fantasies with intense, graphic, and prolix detail (135). The novel is a timeless classic in both Japan and many Western regions because it discusses homosexuality in post-war Japan openly. McLelland points out that, although same-sex eroticism is celebrated in much of premodern Japanese art, poetry and literature, it has little relevance for the way in which homosexuality is understood today either by the wider society or by homosexual men themselves (18). He further explains that information about male homosexuality during this post-war period is relatively sparse. In Forbidden Colours, Mishima’s treatment of homosexuality is marked by an undercurrent of anxiety and self- doubt, even self-hatred. The alienation of homosexual men from mainstream society is emphasised in scenes contrasting the hidden, furtive activities of gay men which take place behind closed doors in bars or in ‘closed’ public spaces, such as park bushes and toilets, with the open manner in which heterosexual people, particularly families, go about their business (26-27). Piven goes on to explain that Forbidden Colours bears all the hallmarks of Mishima’s signature elements that include beauty, the misery one feels from such beauty and the pain of aging and being ugly. Another scholar, Flanagan, notes that Forbidden Colours had seen the ultimate defeat of the misanthropic old novelist and the triumph of the beautiful young man, whom Mishima was both enthralled by and desirous to turn himself into (122). Forbidden Colours’s English translation was eventually made available in 1968 by Alfred H. Marks. As a professor of early American literature at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Marks had published works on Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) and Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Interestingly, he also served in Japan during World War II as part of the military intelligence as well as being a Fulbright scholar in Kanazawa in 1965. Marks also translated Mishima’s 1950 novel entitled Thirst for Love, and, since then, the same English versions of these novels have been used by non-Japanese scholars to examine the texts. This study aims to examine Forbidden Colours in respect of Irvin Yalom’s existential concerns specifically with regard to death and meaninglessness seeing that the main characters- Shunsuke and Yuichi struggle in their lives to find meaning to justify their existence and values. In the existentialists’ point of view, the problem dealing with the meaning in life is a significant one that all must frequently confront. Forbidden Colours has been extensively studied by numerous scholars in its overt representations of male beauty, queer identities and unconventional masculinities. Despite the fact that there is a strong presence of existential ideas, the novel is rarely studied in the area of existentialism. Hence,

31 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) this study will bring new insights into the understanding of the novel by examining it through the existentialist and grotesque points of view. In order to meet the objective of this study, a textual analysis on the selected text will be carried out to show how the grotesque plays a role in helping the two main characters deal with the existential concerns that they are encountering, namely death and meaninglessness.

EXISTENTIALISM AND THE GROTESQUE As a literary trope or concept, the grotesque and existentialism have been examined quite extensively in the field of literature. However, it is crucial to note that the grotesque and existential philosophy are hardly applied and studied jointly. One of the reasons could be because the general consensus is that the grotesque brings negative connotations. The field of existentialism usually examines how meanings of life can be created through ways which are more conventional and overall positive. For instance, it is more prevalent to examine how our sense of existence can be strengthened through religion, love, friendship, nature or even patriotism. Consequently, the therapeutic effects of the grotesque for overcoming existentialism are often the last to be regarded. Although the combination of the grotesque and existentialism may seem unconventional, an attempt to establish a connection between the two will be a worthwhile attempt as it will certainly shed new lights to the field of knowledge relevant to the two. Significantly, the origins of existentialism as a movement or a concept can be traced back to as early as the 19th century. Generally, existentialists emphasise on the individuality and subjectivity about the existence of human and they, too, acknowledge the pessimistic elements in human existence. Consequently, elements of life, such as anxiety, freedom, death and responsibility, among others, are often given paramount importance in the field of existentialism. For instance, Reynolds observes that pessimism, freedom, death and rationality are the primary focus of existentialists (3). As a philosophy, Gravil (2007) explains that Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as the major 20th century philosophers, such as Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, were important figures who have contributed to the existentialist ideals (7). As many philosophers have contributed to this field, the ideas surrounding existentialism are vastly proliferated. However, existentialists do share one commonality. Gravil also notes that existentialists set about trying to answer the fundamental questions that lie at the heart of all philosophy: Why do we exist? What is our purpose in life? What is our relation to the world, and to other people? (7). Hence, existentialism is about finding the meanings to validate our very existence and to examine a text through the existentialists’ lens; thus, it is important to focus on how the idea of human existence is dealt with. Flynn (2006) asserts that existentialists aim to personalise individuals’ experience in a world that they have limited understanding in (19). Although existentialism is primarily regarded as a Western philosophical idea, its influence on Asian literature should not at all be undermined. In Japan, for instance, Jesty notes that the ideas of existentialism, Marxism, and surrealism had already started to influence Japanese writings in the late 1940s and early 1950s (91). Meanwhile, Havens notices that existential views, particularly those from Germany, appealed to Japanese philosophers who were caught in a “pessimistic mood” after defeat in war, whereas the French existential views that emphasised individual responsibility, influenced many post-war artists in Japan to seek the creative freedom to carve out their own individuality (28). Yukio Mishima, being a post-war writer, it is not surprising to see many of his literary works were also heavily influenced by the notions of existentialism. As pointed out by Slaymaker, post- war intellectual issues in Japan coincided greatly with issues raised by Sartrean existentialism and many of the themes associated with existentialism-loneliness, angst, purposelessness, waiting and enduring resonated well with the Japanese post-war sentiments. Writers at that

Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) 32 ISSN: 2637-0875 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1),30-44 (2021) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press time and those who wrote of those years often present strong links in their writings with existentialism (26-27). The grotesque is prevalent in our world whether one chooses to acknowledge its presence or completely disregard it. Although the term ‘grotesque’, is used colloquially today to describe objects which bring negative connotations such as ugly, bizarre, strange, scary or even abnormal, the epistemology of the grotesque is undoubtedly more far-reaching than its literal form. Hervouet and Vega posit that the grotesque famously borrows its name from the accident of the discovery around 1480 of the remains of Nero’s Domus Aurea and its elaborate ornaments. Its meaning then gradually expanded from the designation of the decorative grotesque of the Renaissance to what may appear as a vague or all-inclusive category (2). Aside from this, it is also noteworthy that the grotesque is a concept that transcends all boundaries and, as noted by Burke (1984), the grotesque cuts across any logical boundaries even though “such application may seem at first irrelevant, incoherent, or anarchic”. The concept of the grotesque has been largely explored in many literary genres spanning from novels to plays. Schevill (1977) notes that writers, such as Hawthorne, Melville and Poe, in bringing to life their grotesque characters, focused on the “supernatural and fantastic”. Meanwhile, Endurance et al. (2014) argue that the grotesque was employed by Poe in an in-depth manner to arouse the mysterious and inexplicable events, strange/abnormal characters and degradation through death. Furthermore, Steig (1970) also highlights that prominent literary figures, such as Shakespeare, Dickens and Grass, had respectively introduced influential grotesque characters into the literary world. In relation to this, this study aims to examine the concept of grotesque from a less conventional perspective where the grotesque will be used as the main literary trope to examine how it can be employed as a way to deal with existential concerns. To be more specific, this study examines how grotesque elements, such as Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, pederasty and misogyny, are used by the main characters, namely Shunsuke and Yuichi, in order to suppress the effects of their concerns for death’s meaninglessness and how that eventually enables them to emerge stronger as an individual. Baktin’s idea of carvinalesque, that is closely associated with the grotesque, champions the suspension of hierarchical ranks, privileges, norms and prohibitions. More importantly, the concept of carvinalesque has been applied in examining both Western and Eastern literary texts. As far as Japanese literary texts are concerned, Uchiyama notes that Bakhtin’s concepts of carvinalesque and material body are crucial in strengthening one’s understanding of the strange creatures and events in setsuwa (51). As noted by Eubanks, setsuwa tales were often used in sermons to illustrate points of doctrine. They were also compiled into a number of literary collections between the 9th and 13th centuries in Japan, the same time span during which Buddhism moved beyond the court and came to permeate all levels of Japanese society. (19). He further adds that setsuwa is grotesque-inclined as motifs of self-sacrifice, violence and dismemberment of human bodies often appeared in setsuwa literature (93). Thus, it is deemed feasible to examine Bakhtin’s ideas in Forbidden Colours that resonates with the notions of material body, sexuality and perversion. Apart from Bahktin’s carnivalesque, this study also aims to examine how pederasty plays a role in enabling one of the main characters in the novel, Shunsuke, deal with his existential concern of death. Hubbard and Verstraete posit that pederasty involves the sexual relations between men and adolescent boys, continues to be severely condemned in our society and that was pervasive in China and Japan until the 19th century (2). Apart from pederasty, the idea of misogyny is also evident in the novel Forbidden Colours. Gilmore explains that misogyny is a sexual prejudice that is symbolically exchanged and shared among men. It is

33 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) something that is manifested and specifically acted out in society by males, often in ritualistic ways (12). In the chauvinistically-dominant Japanese society, women were often regarded as peripheral to men. As noted by Tsurumi, before and during the war, men usually walked a few steps in front of women. For a man and a woman to walk abreast would have been considered immoral during the war and liable to be questioned by the police box (7). In modern Japan, Gerteis and George explain that, despite major changes in the electoral system and the educational attainments of women, women remain disadvantaged in the Japanese workforce and underrepresented in Japanese politics (105). With regard to the notion of misogyny, Piven points out that Forbidden Colours introduces readers to Shunsuke who is misogynist who despises women. As a result of his wife’s infidelity, he is consumed by the thought of revenge against all women (136). When examined closely, both pederasty and misogyny are grotesque-inclined as they deviate from the norm and convention.

STUDIES ON WORKS BY YUKIO MISHIMA Although Yukio Mishima wrote only in Japanese, his works have been studied and examined by many non-Japanese scholars by virtue of the well-translated English versions of his works. Tak, in her 1998 study, Reflections on Narcissism on the Three Novels by Oscar Wilde, Yukio Mishima and Gu Cheng, examines the representation of narcissism in the three novels of Wilde, Mishima and Gu Cheng. This study is insightful as it focuses on how narcissism can be examined as a form of universal expression although narcissism is depicted and approached differently in the Western and Eastern contexts. By examining how the notion of ‘self’ is understood in different contexts, Tak then concludes that narcissism is manifested differently by different individuals through different means but they all come to a point of convergence where the self is seen as an important element to justify one’s existence. Atkinson (1989) also discusses Mishima’s selected works in response to their pessimistic tones. As observed by Atkinson, the only fundamental principle of existence for Mishima is the right to absolute liberty, in which one accepts the chaos of the universe. In tearing down established moral, social, and religious values, then, Mishima signals the need to flee from the protected and contrived world of human society. Ng (2017), in The Aesthetic Philosophy in the Works of Yukio Mishima: The Pursuit of Absolute Divine, attempts to establish the notion of human existence with Mishima’s aesthetic philosophy by examining the concepts of death and destruction. In a more recent study, Kawsaka (2018), in Mishima Yukio and the Homoeroticisation of the Emperor of Japan, explores how Mishima’s works have carved out a queer space in Japanese public culture and national politics by examining elements, such as male nudity and blood. Meanwhile, Nishiyama’s study, entitled A Comparative Examination of the Hyperbole in Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami and Fudotoku Kyoiku Koza by Yukio Mishima (2018), focuses on the use of hyperboles used in the selected fictions of Haruki Murakami and Yukio Mishima in enhancing the readability and enjoyment of their narratives. Finally, Seach et al. (2020), in Negotiating Existential Concerns of Death and Meaninglessness through the Grotesque in Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost, examine how the protagonist in Wilde’s novella employs the grotesque to help him supress the fear and anxieties brought upon by the existential concerns of death and meaninglessness. Although some of these selected studies do not deal directly with the concept of the grotesque, the subject matters that these studies concentrate on, such as narcissism, death, exaggeration and non-conformity, are, in fact, closely associated with the grotesque. Hence, a study like this, that aims to establish a connection between the grotesque and existentialism, is indeed a worthwhile attempt.

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NEGOTIATING EXISTENTIAL CONCERNS THROUGH THE GROTESQUE Striving for a Meaningful Death Yalom asserts that our fear and anxiety towards death are often the two struggles that we have to cope with for the sake of repressing them. That being said, it is crucial to note that not every individual respond to the notion of death the same way. Yalom explains that an instinctive fear of death exists at every level of human awareness, from the most conscious and intellectualised, to the deepest depths of the unconscious, which manifests as death anxiety. Sometimes the anxiety is of such enormous proportions that a considerable amount of a person’s life energy is thus consumed in the denial of death (27). Meanwhile, Mishima’s works of fiction have always been closely associated to the idea of death. As Nathan J asserts, amid his ludicrous flamboyance, Mishima espoused a philosophy of death and had a pure devotion to it (2). The idea of death was constantly being played out in the mind of Mishima and it is surely no coincidence that one of the main characters in Forbidden Colours, the veteran writer, Shunsuke, is obsessed with the idea of death. Shunsuke’s anxiety towards death is not manifested by the fact that he fears that he will cease to exist one day but, rather, his anxiety towards death leans upon the idea that his presence will be completely wiped out once he is dead.

At the beginning of the novel, readers are made aware of the fact that Shunsuke no longer feels the excitement that life brings. Although he has, on many occasions, contemplated the idea of taking his own life, he represses such thoughts as he knows that there is a void in him that is left to be filled. Shunsuke’s lack of will to continue living a miserable existence can be seen from the following lines: The old writer had already lost all the muscles necessary for creation; he had tired of the labour if careful craftsmanship. Now, left only with the task of interpreting aesthetically his past productions (33). Although Shunsuke is still highly revered as an established writer, he has clearly lost his power of creativity to continue producing more scholarly works that bring values to his existence. He resorts to living on his past glory as a revered writer as his only reason to stay alive. Indeed, nothing is more depressing than losing the desire to be alive and having to resort to the past to justify the presence. Shunsuke’s inner world is filled with pain, anger and sorrow as a result of his ex-wife’s infidelity and failed marriages. Still, he chooses to endure all the pain and continue living a painful existence as he is bidding for the opportunity to create his masterpiece. It has always been Shunsuke’s wish to create a masterpiece that the posterity will remember him by, a masterpiece that will continue to exist on his behalf even when he is gone. As fate has it, Yuichi comes to his life when he needs him most: what an irony it was that a youth like Yuichi should appear before him at this time! (33). Harvard psychiatrists Olsen and Lifton posit that individuals often rely on a few approaches to suppress their fear and anxieties brought upon by the notion of death. One of it is what they term as ‘symbolic immortality’ that deals closely with what remains in our lives after death. By creating a state of symbolic immortality, we never cease to exist after death but, instead, part of us lives vicariously through a secondary form of life. For instance, we may continue to live materially though the things we have created, built and given birth to when we are alive or we can also live ephemerally through our thoughts, our values, our joke, our influence, our contributions, our doctrines or ideas. Yuichi serves as the perfect fit to fill the void that Shunsuke has in his heart. As soon as they meet, Shunsuke and Yuichi build a strong bond and their relationship quickly develop into a pederastic one. One significant hallmark of this form of relationship is that it often involves an elder character tutoring and inspiring a younger character. It is stated in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) that this form of relationship is based on an older man teaching a young boy the ways of life and

35 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) warfare, how to become a man. Sex could or could not be included in this relationship because it is believed that education stands higher than sexual pleasure between the men. However, it is important to note how pederasty can be examined in relation to the concept of the grotesque. In Clayborough’s point of view, he argues that the word ‘grotesque’, originating as a technical term designating a Late Roman style of decoration, thus becomes applicable to whatever is incongruous with the accepted norm, in life or art. From a more colloquial way understanding of the word, it is pejoratively associated with the ridiculous or the monstrous. In critical use, it may be effectively used to describe any style of art which deviates from the conventional patterns (16). In post-war Japan, which was the period that Mishima lived in, pederasty was also seen as a form of perversion. Bleys notes that pederasty may have helped to retard the growth of population in Japan and gives rise to a high number of hysteric men. He even likens pederasty as one of the most blatant and hard to eradicate vices (173-174). Frentiu notes that the age that Yukio lived in was filled with pessimism with an increase in consumption that interrupted the harmony of traditional Japan. With the advent of technology that improved human existence, the Japanese people’s moral standards would have to be compromised (76). Given the fact that pederasty was deemed a form of perversion in post-war Japan, pederasty is then also associated with the grotesque as it resonates with what Clayborough terms as ‘incongruous with the accepted norm in life’.

The pederastic relationship between Shunsuke and Yuichi can be seen from the fact that Shunsuke wishes to take Yuichi under his tutelage for the sake of passing his doctrines, beliefs and influences to him. Since this paper aims to explore how the grotesque serves as a way for the main characters to overcome the fear and anxieties brought upon by existential concerns specifically death and meaninglessness, it is just appropriate to begin by probing into how the pederastic relationship between Shunsuke and Yuichi leans towards the grotesque. As a result of his ex-wife’s infidelity and failed marriages, Shunsuke turns into a misogynist. His hatred towards to women can be seen here:

As with the dairies of decades past piled on his shelf, the pages of this dairy too were filled with curses directed against women. Women can bring nothing into the world but children. Men can father all kinds of things besides children. Woman’s jealousy is simple jealousy of creativity. A woman bears a son and brings him up tastes the honeyed joy of revenge against creativity. When she stands in the way of creation she feels she has something to live for. Woman survives everywhere and rules like the night. She drags all values down into the slough of sentiments to comprehend doctrine. Lacking in originality she can’t even comprehend the atmosphere. All she can figure out is the smell. She smells like a pig does. Perfume is a masculine invention designed to improve woman’s sense of smell. Woman’s sexual charm, her coquettish instincts, all the powers of her sexual attractions, prove that woman is a useless creature (16-17)

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According to Nathan J, there is an intrinsic psychological relation between sickness, impurity, and misogyny in many of Mishima’s works of fiction. In Forbidden Colours, for instance, the old, sinister Shunsuke despises the vagina and vows revenge on loathsome women. Women’s genitalia are evil, reeking, putrid, carnal, undulating, vomiting things, regurgitating blood-soaked corpses in childbirth (23) and, because women are perceived as so insidious and repugnant, prone to sexual betrayal and abject stupidity, the protagonist's malicious obsession in Forbidden Colours is revenge against women through seduction, rejection and humiliation (25). In order to seek revenge against women, Shunsuke needs a conduit that will be able to help him carry out the sinister deed on his behalf and Yuichi is thus seen as the best candidate for the job. When Shunsuke first met Yuichi, he was at an impressionable age and his innocence meant that Shunsuke would be able to pass his influences on him without much complications: Yuichi had all the gifts if youth the old writer lacked, but at the same time he had that supreme good fortune the artist had always hypothesized as the object of his heart’s desire. In this way Yuichi became transformed into Shunsuke’s idea, his work of art (34). By turning Yuichi into his work of art, Shunsuke is then able to supress his anxiety of death through a way that Olsen and Lifton term as ‘symbolic immortality’. Our creativity through art, literature can grant us a state of symbolic immortality. Great writers, musicians, scientists and philosophers are never forgotten after their death because their works, ideas and inventions continue to live on in every corner of the society. In this way, one escapes death by living afterwards through their contributions and accomplishments. Consequently, they will be remembered for their long-term legacy. What is worth examining is how, through Yuichi, Shunsuke is able to immortalise himself by passing on his influence and beliefs to him and, when studied closely, Shunsuke’s influence and beliefs gravitate towards the grotesque. In relation to this argument, it is appropriate to examine this through the lens of misogyny. Misogyny is grotesque-inclined as it refers to the irrational hatred and prejudice against women or girls and Shunsuke’s hatred towards women is exaggerated through the advice he passes on to Yuichi.

I’m not joking. Men marry logs; they can even marry ice boxes. Marriage is man’s own invention. It is something he can do; desire isn’t necessary. At least in the past one hundred years, mankind had forgotten how to act with passion. Just make believe she’s a bundle of sticks, a cushion, a side of beef hanging from a beam in the butcher shop. You’ll surely be able to conjure up a counterfeit passion to excite her and make her happy (34)

Through Shunsuke’s words, women have been dehumanised as sticks, cushion and beef and these forms of exaggerations are clearly grotesque as they have trespassed what should be viewed as normal. Such deviation from normalcy, which likens women as merely objects that are soulless, conjures up the ideas that women are nothing but grotesque figures. When women cease to become human, that is when our perception towards them will lean towards the grotesque. Apart from using words that liken women as soulless objects, Shunsuke also likens them to an animal, namely pig.

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Woman survives everywhere and rules like the night. She drags all values down into the slough of sentiments to comprehend doctrine. Lacking in originality she can’t even comprehend the atmosphere. All she can figure out is the smell. She smells like a pig does. Perfume is a masculine invention designed to improve woman’s sense of smell. Woman’s sexual charm, her coquettish instincts, all the powers of her sexual attractions, prove that woman is a useless creature (16-17)

In Shunsuke’s eyes, women are nothing more than useless creatures that smell like pigs. When read closely, such hatred towards women is indeed shocking seeing that he himself was married thrice to women who won his heart. As a writer who is obsessed with the notion of beauty, such negative perception he has for women comes as a stark contrast to what he preaches in his works of fiction. Clearly, being able to pass on his influence to Yuichi has given Shunsuke a new lease of life and as seen in the following lines:

Yuichi’s existence, like a work in process of creation, never left the thoughts of the writer. It had got so that a day that went by when he didn’t hear the clear, youthful voice, if only over the phone, was an unhappy cloudy day. Yuichi’s voice, filled with clarity and golden grace, was like a brilliant ray filtering through the clouds. It poured into the desolate soil of his genius. It brightened the

configurations of those stones, the overgrown vegetation. It made it a slightly less unbearable place to reside in (147)

Shunsuke has never felt more alive with Yuichi’s presence in his life. From being an aged writer who has to live on his past glory to finding a sense of purpose to continue living, he feels revitalised physically, mentally and spiritually by having Yuichi as his work of creation. This lends credence to the claim that, through their pederastic relationship in which Shunsuke is able to pass on his misogynistic doctrines to Yuichi, Shunsuke is thus able to suppress his anxiety brought upon by the fear of death through the grotesque. Shunsuke has never been able to live the life that he has always wanted. Even through his works of fiction that turned him into a revered writer, he never really expressed what he honestly felt in his heart through his highly-acclaimed scholarly works. However, it is only through having Yuichi as his work of creation that Shunsuke is able to truly express himself honestly.

The process in which a writer is compelled to counterfeit his true feelings is exactly the opposite of that in which the man of society is compelled to counterfeit his. The artist disguises in order to reveal; the man of society disguises in order to conceal (11)

Through Yuichi, Shunsuke will never have to conceal his true feelings as what he does with his works of fiction. Through Yuichi, he lives vicariously as who he really wishes to be that is being an ingrained misogynist who derives joy from degrading and tormenting women. Through Yuichi, he hides no more and he is thus able to live freely. This has once again lent

Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) 38 ISSN: 2637-0875 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1),30-44 (2021) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press credence to the claim that the grotesque element, namely misogyny in this case, has been able to help Shunsuke repress his concern of death.

Escaping Meaningless Reality through Carnivalesque Aside from death, meaninglessness is yet another existential concern that will be closely examined in this paper. From the existentialists’ point of view, the problem dealing with the meaning in life is a significant one that all must confront frequently in life. It is also deemed the most complex, unsolvable and unavoidable question of all. Yalom further explains that “[t]he human being seems to require meaning. To live without meaning, goals, values, or ideals, seems to provoke considerable distress. In severe form it may lead to the decision to end one’s life” (422). It is imperative to note that there are multiple ways where one can rely upon to create meanings in their lives to justify their existence. For the purpose of examining how the protagonist, Yuichi, creates meaning to justify his own existence, the hedonistic approach will be examined alongside the Bakhtinian concept, the carnivalesque.

According to Yalom, the hedonistic approach is a lifestyle where one aims to live life to the fullest, to retain one’s sense of astonishment at the miracle that is life, and to search for pleasure in the deepest possible sense (443). As far as the carnivalesque is concerned, Bakhtin saw it as a form of fusion and, through such fusion, people are then truly able to be who they want to be because all rules are abolished and all levels of hierarchy are suspended. Bakhtin listed a few functions of carnivalesque and, according to him, the spirit of the carnival is meant to consecrate inventive freedom, to permit the combination of a variety of different elements and their rapprochement, to liberate from the prevailing point of view of the world, from conventions and established truths, from cliches, and from all that is humdrum and universally accepted. This carnival spirit offers the chance to have a new outlook on the world as it helps us realize the relative nature of all that exists, and to enter a completely new order of things (30). From the onset of the novel, it is made clear that Yuichi is aware that his life as a homosexual is bound to be a challenging one as the society in general frowns upon such lifestyle and Yuichi has no choice but: to come to the inescapable conclusion that society is governed by the rule of the heterosexuality, that endless tiresome principle of majority rule (61). That is probably one of the reasons why Yuchi succumbed to Shunsuke’s offer to marry Yasuko for the purpose of tormenting her. While it may very likely not be Yuichi’s intention at all to torment women, with that marriage, Yuichi is then able to play his role as a dutiful son and be shielded from the discrimination that the society had upon homosexual men. However, under the constant influence of Shunsuke that encourages Yuichi to seek bodily pleasure, Yuichi soon realises that he no longer wants to suppress his sexual desire for men. Fueled by his lust and curiosity, Yuichi goes out to explore the hidden world of homosexual desires by venturing into some sinful nocturnal payolas. Unable to find joy and happiness through the marriage he was forced into, Yuichi resorts to the nightly nocturnal adventures to find meanings to justify his existence and, as he ventures deeper into the circle, he comes to a realisation that everyone has a role to play in it. In that circle, everyone comes to play a role that is akin to the Bakhtinian’s concept of the carnivalesque where this carnival spirit offers the chance to have a new outlook on the world as it helps us realise the relative nature of all that exists, and to enter a completely new order of things (30). Since homosexuality was frowned upon during the post-war Japan, many homosexual men had to find an alternative space where they could continue living their existence away from the public eyes. Mackintosh, in discussing the gay scene in post-war Japan, notes that the world was hidden away in the nightclubs and bars of major cities, and the culture of the

39 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) manly men who love manly men largely existed in a shadowy world often despised by the society of ‘common sense’ (22). What is obvious is that Yuichi has found a perfect entry into the hidden world through his nocturnal adventures, where he is an observant young man and, as what he sees it:

Muffled in a straw poncho, this world idled through the daylight hours. There was friendship, the love of comrades, philanthropy, the love of master and protégé; there were partners, assistants, managers, houseboys, leaders and followers, brothers, cousins, uncle and nephew, secretaries, amanuenses, drivers-there were numbers of other capacities and stations of diverse kinds; executives, actors, singers, authors, artists, musicians, high and mighty college professors, white-collar workers, students. In the world of men they idled, muffled in all kinds of ponchos made of straw. They asked for themselves the advent of a world of supreme benison; bound by the spell of their common fate, the dreamed a dream of a simple truth. That dream was that the

truth that man loves man would overthrow the old truth that man loves woman. (103)

What is truly captivating is that, despite having to live an existence that is not visible to the general public, the hidden homosexual world is still as multi-faceted, exciting and dynamic as ever. Everyone joins the world by playing a different role just like the spirit of the carnivalesque and, irrespective of their differences, all of them have one goal in common: that is to realise: the truth that man loves man would overthrow the old truth that man loves woman (103). Bernier, in her study, Gargoyles, Kisses and Clowns: A Study of Carnivalesque Male Urinals and Restrooms (2011), investigates the trend of new male public restrooms that employ carnivalesque urinals which defy the concept traditional urinals in America, Europe and Japan. She proposes that carnivalesque urinals in male restroom are used as an emphasis on individual indulgence as well as capitalist values. These urinals, as she noticed, were built to allow personal intentions and desires to overshadow political and socially constructed authorities. Through the nocturnal adventures that Yuichi participate in that reverberates the spirit of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, Yuichi is able to enjoy new-found meanings and excitements to justify his life that he previously felt meaningless. Yuichi feels a sense of belonging when he is with strangers who share the same passion and dream with him:

They are all my comrades, Yuichi thought as he walked. Rank, occupation, age, beauty notwithstanding, they are a fellowship welded by the same emotion-by their

private parts, let us say. What a bond! These men do not have to sleep together.

From the day we were born we have slept together. In hatred, in jealousy, in scorn, coming together for a short moment of love just to keep warm. (63)

Bakhtin’s concept of carnivalesque that is closely associated with the grotesque is evidently present in Mishima’s Forbidden Colours. As seen through the character of Yuichi, the grotesque spirit of the carnival is clearly manifested through his nocturnal adventures. These adventures have been able to help him create meaning in life that eventually allows him to suppress his anxiety of meaninglessness by discovering that there are others who share

Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1), 30-44, March(2021) 40 ISSN: 2637-0875 Journal of Language and Communication, 8(1),30-44 (2021) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press the same dream and purpose with him. As they boldly participate in the spirit of the carnivalesque, they are guaranteed to experience the consensual joy that Mishima described as:… in the night many, many, wide-open, thirsty glances met and melted into each other (62). Hence, the grotesque is once again shown through this analysis that it has the ability to help Yuichi supress his concern of meaninglessness. CONCLUSION It is safe to conclude that not all people have the same opinions about what is attractive but this study goes a step further by showing that the same understanding can be applied to the concept of the grotesque. The grotesque, that is predominantly viewed as something associated with repulsiveness and negativity, should be given an opportunity to prove itself to be otherwise. The grotesque, that started out as being an idea that was negatively perceived, is now more widely accepted and recognised as a literary trope that is all-encompassing. This can be seen through how the grotesque is beginning to gain popularity and acceptance in dark comedies, works of fictions or even Children’s Literature. More literary scholars are also beginning to explore the functions of the grotesque beyond its traditional forms. The grotesque, for instance, has been explored as a form of propaganda tool to raise awareness on certain issues that are deemed unfair or distorted. When certain worldviews are being distorted and depicted in a way that is grotesquely unfair, people begin to pay attention to something that they will otherwise overlook. It is then crucial to note that this study does not aim to champion that idea that the grotesque is the definite way for individuals to deal with their personal existential concerns. Instead, it only seeks to show that the idea works effectively for the main characters, namely Shunsuke and Yuichi, particularly in helping them overcome or subdue their existential concerns.

While many may still not be able to adopt the grotesque as a means to help them deal with their existential concerns, this study aims to show that it can serve as an alternative for some individuals who experience different life circumstances to do so. Lastly, everyone needs a reason to justify their own existence. When faced with the unbearable burden brought upon by the concerns of death and meaninglessness, our basic survival instincts naturally come alive and we begin to seek, within us, the preferred ways to create reasons and meanings to justify our own existence. In the case of Yuichi, the grotesque has been shown to work utterly well in helping him deal with his concerns of meaninglessness. The young Yuichi who started out as being a timid, aimless and innocent young man, who had to rely on Shunsuke to set the directions of his moral compass, has metamorphosed into a man who is able to live a real existence.

Nevertheless Yuichi was gradually-above all through this silence- at least as far as Shunsuke was concerned, attaining the state Yuichi himself had so dearly wished for, in other words, the ‘real existence’. He now appeared before Shunsuke’s eyes in his uncertain, untrue, yet real, beautiful form (190)

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