Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's Revenge: The Dismemberment of a Title Community

Author(s) Hamagawa, Hitoshi

沖縄キリスト教学院大学論集 = Okinawa Christian Citation University Review(2): 69-81

Issue Date 2006-01-31

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/9513

Rights 沖縄キリスト教学院大学 Okinawa Christian University Review No.2 (2005)

Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's Revenge: The Dismemberment of a Community

Hitoshi Hamagawa

ABSTRACT This paper examines Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's Revenge (Buta no Mukui) —the 1996 winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize —in an attempt to uncover a form of Orientalism by Okinawans against their fellow Okinawans. It argues that during the process of modernization, local communities throughout Okinawa experienced a series of transformations within which intellectuals have come to harbor ambivalent opinions about their home islands and cultures. Such ambivalent feelings charac terize the attitude of the protagonist, Shokichi, towards the three food-devouring female characters who represent the backwardness and the provincial elements of Okinawa. This paper demonstrates how Matayoshi's Pigs Revenge presents Okinawa as a political and cultural "other" in relation to Japan. Readers sense in the person of Shokichi the same kind of sorrow and loneliness as held by the Okinawan intellectual elite —victims of discursive self-exclusion, who, born and raised in Okinawa, were nevertheless forced to adopt foreign perspectives through which to "discover," ironically, what had always been theirs to begin with.

Introduction mixing their admiration with a hint of conde When The Okinawa Program was first scension. published in 2001 with its ambitious subtitle: In Okinawa Ryori no Chikara (Power of How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Okinawan Cuisine), Asako Kishi also describes Everlasting Health—and How You Can Too, the traditional ways of living on Okinawa under traditional culinary culture of Okinawa enjoyed the same favorable light. Kishi says that there more widespread popularity among English exist on these southern isles some qualities of speaking people. Speaking on behalf of the living that have been long lost in modern Japa people of Okinawa, which they call "Shangri-la," nese society, due to selfish individualism ram the Willcox brothers claim, "Their low-calorie, pant there. These "good old" aspects of life are plant-based diet high in unrefined carbohy what Kishi finds among Okinawans in their re drates not only meets the dietary recommen spect for their ancestors, in what is known as

dations of the U.S. national Cancer Institute yuimaaru (generous spirit of mutual helpful (NCI) but exceeds them, and more than ful ness), and also in their generous custom of shar fills the criteria recommended by most other ing foods at the times of festivities and scientific and medical authorities" (6). While it observances (43). In keeping such good old is not my place here to examine the credibil traditions alive for so long, Kishi claims, the ity of scientific data or the bold claims made happy islanders were able to sustain cultural in the book or elsewhere in support of the integrity in an environment with no modern Okinawan dietary system, I would like to advantages such as supermarkets, convenience stress the fact that such statements often pro stores, or access to processed or packaged foods. mote, or are often promoted by, certain cul Such high opinions and praises about tural images of Okinawa that Westerners and Okinawa coming from the Willcox brothers and Japanese alike have come to foster, somehow Kishi, however, never completely reflect the

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realities of Okinawa. Their observations com such people as "them" and not part of "us" in municate, rather, some negative feelings to troduces a troubling obstacle over which we ward the societies they themselves belong to. stumble on our way towards true understand Seemingly referring to Okinawa, their words ac ing. The way we perceive the problem could tually evoke certain nostalgia for things lost predetermine our answer in ways we may have through the process of modernization in the never intended. As is well known, Edward United States or mainland Japan. Thus, their Said introduced the notion of "Orientalism" to praises, while seemingly addressed to Okinawa, describe this mode of contradictory thoughts in fact reveal their own ideals concerning what or ambivalent feelings among western intellec their own societies should be like. Last year, as tuals in contact with the eastern cultures, socie many as five million people —mostly Japanese ties, and peoples. mainlanders —visited Okinawa, drawn to Ryu- This paper examines Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's kyuan history, traditions, and ancient customs Revenge (Buta no Mukui)—the 1996 winner of quite distinct from their own, looking even for the prestigious Akutagawa Prize—in an attempt some spiritual insights or healing experiences. to uncover a form of Orientalism by Okinawans Perhaps, it is safe to suggest, however, that their against their fellow Okinawans. Some readers yearnings will never be entirely satisfied by may find it difficult to accept, but I believe Okinawa alone, since their cravings emerge that it is easy, and in fact quite natural, for from a socio-cultural distance between these Okinawans to fall victim to self-directed dis resort islands and their own modern societies. crimination through which they regard them In fact, these very words of praise from selves either with contempt or envy, or perhaps, the Willcox brothers and Kishi may be easily with both at once. turned against them and imply, instead, how Ever since, or perhaps sometime before, backward Okinawa actually is. Wrapped in the disposition of The Ryukyuan Kingdom, ambivalence, their statements at first may Okinawa has imported new thoughts and com sound like pleasantries made with good inten modities from the West directly or through tions, but in fact can be found to hide dark Japan. In the succeeding periods, ideas and prejudices. Statements of their kind typically values long held among Okinawans underwent rest upon an innate presuppostion—itself never massive and widespread modifications. Local really questioned—that behind the subject and communities throughout Okinawa experienced object of observation lies the binary opposi a series of fundamental shifts in the culture tion of strong over weak. As the subject always which forced intellectuals into ambivalent per has power over the objects it observes and la spectives about their home islands and their bels, the observations that the Willcox brothers native cultures. They were in love with "the and Kishi make are characteristic of the colo good old" Okinawa even when they lamented nial conventions of discourse. Trapped in such its backwardness. They struggled to raise a rhetorical power structure, the statements — public awareness of folks while at the same no matter how well-intended—will never reveal time being caught up in the simple ways of the truth they claim to express. This is a fa their traditional living. A close look at the miliar dilemma we face as soon as we try to cultural history should convince readers that it describe those whom we define as members of would have been nearly impossible for Okinawan the political and cultural "other." Perceiving intellectuals to be completely free from such

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Orientalist biases. Matayoshi's Pigs Revenge by them. Their remarkable appetite seems to presents Okinawa as a political and cultural indicate their desperate vindictiveness against "other" in relation to Japan. The story is filled the bourgeois family ideal that they have mis with a sense of sorrow and loneliness held by erably failed to achieve. For when it comes to victims of discursive self-exclusion who, born marriage, they are clearly losers. and raised in Okinawa, were nevertheless forced Miyo, the mistress of a drinking establish to adopt alien perspectives through which to ment, once aborted a child she had with her

"discover" what always belonged to themselves. husband with whom she had lived for nine years. Yoko, one of Miyo's bar girls, lost her Eating first husband. After that, she had an unhappy Pig's Revenge is full of descriptions about marriage with his younger brother, which ended eating foods. Generally speaking, descriptions when she happened to see him in bed with an of food consumption are often closely tied to other woman. Shokichi, the main character, is broader observations of and opinions on the secretly in love with Wakako, another of Miyo's cultural customs and social values of which the girls, but she was once abandoned by her den customary manner of eating food is a part. tal hygienist boyfriend after a miscarriage of For instance, the contributor of the last article their baby. The three women, with whom of the third volume of Okinawa Shoku no Dai- Shokichi takes a trip to his home island of Hyakka (The Encyclopedia of Okinawan Foods) Maja, are trying to heal their broken hearts by states, "enjoying an active life as a positive in stuffing themselves with food. Their impressive dividual has much to do with appreciating eating seems to function as a substitutionary foods," stressing at the same time how impor act for building an ideal family, in addition to tant the mutual help between men and women being a symptom of the romantic traumas is for the sake of good eating habits (206). It caused by their miserable episodes with men. is the wife's role to prepare dishes, while the Let us, here, ask a fundamental question. other members of the family are expected to What is eating? That is to say, what figura appreciate and enjoy the foods on the table. tive meanings can we find in the act of con This image of an ideal family unit—consisting suming foods? According to Maggie Kilgour, of the mother as food caterer and of father and the act of eating is a mode of incorporation. It children as its consumers —serves a standard involves two opposing functions: separation model for the bourgeois nuclear family. The and identification. In the first function of encyclopedia further insists that the support separation, eating presumes two distinct terms- from understanding husband is indispensable eater and eaten, victor and victim, strong and for bringing such an ideal into reality. weak, etc. —which must be clearly set apart Even a quick reading of Pigs Revenge is and never be equivalent or reciprocal. The for enough to help readers see that this modern mer is expected to dominate or rule over the family ideal is notably turned upside down. latter. In the second function of identification, Numerous scenes concerning eating highlight however, its power structure is paradoxically this point colorfully. In fact, the three main turned upside down, leaving the two terms ul female characters in this novel —Miyo, Yoko, timately indistinguishable and easily reversible. and Wakako —prepare dishes for themselves, Through eating, the eater keeps on living by and the foods are indeed mainly consumed only taking the food inside. That is to say, the eater

— 71 — Okinawa Christian University Review No.2 (2005) is sustained physically by the eaten in a proc maintaining the exquisite balance between ess "to become one with the other" (8). Thus, eater and eaten in this small environment. As the two contradictory functions—separation and soon as they try to harvest every plant or hunt identification—must be kept in healthy balance every animal on the island, life on the island in an ideal mode of consumption which Kilgour would likely become unsustainable with terri calls "communion." This balance requires a har ble counterblows from the very nature that monious coexistence between eater and eaten they had abused. The three women are com in which the eater must make sure not to eat pletely oblivious to the fact that they are the up its foods, by allowing the latter to thrive intruders in this vulnerable living space, ready on as long as it won't pose threats. Thus, the to acknowledge no responsibility for consuming relation between eater and eaten, just like those "all the happiness on this island." If the island's between victor and victim or strong and weak, happiness were to run out, these unrepentant rests on "a delicate balance of simultaneous thieves would blame the original scarcity of identification and separation" (4). "happiness" on the island. Kilgour warns against Keeping that in mind, we find it signifi no other than this form of gluttony. For cant that Shokichi warns the three women — Kilgour's "communion" points to a sound man Miyo, Yoko, and Wakako—not to tell the island ner of incorporation, harmonizing both func ers why they had come to Maja Island. "These tions of separation and identification. Once a islanders don't like the outsiders to visit their healthy balance is lost from this activity, sacred mounds," Shokichi explains, "They think Kilgour states, the will to incorporate degener we have no business, asking things to the ates into a naked drive to consume all, and islands' gods" (31). Hearing this, Yoko says even into cannibalism, a murderous desire to the islanders are cautious about their visit be kill and eat each other. While communion aims cause "Wakako is so greedy." She says, "the is to incorporate the others and grow together in landers are afraid she might rob them of all the a healthy environment, cannibalism is moti happiness on this island." Yoko then accuses vated by a deadly desire to consume before her colleague of "coveting everything, even the being consumed. customers,' at the bar." Hearing this, Miyo, their According to Kilgour, however, there is al mistress, doesn't even bother to stop their argu ways a danger of the former to transform into ments, but instead unabashedly observes, "Can the latter. The consummation of loving rela she really bring everything home? I wonder if tions, thus, might slip into greedy sexual con the gods on this island have got so little" (32). sumption, and warm affection into cold aggression. Without knowing it, the three women And in fact, Matayoshi's Pigs Revenge is in here refer to the delicate balance between sepa fused with this shocking motif of cannibalism. ration and identification advocated by Kilgour. Maja Island's "happiness" here no doubt in Man-Eating volves the island's cultural and economic envi Close, anthropological studies on cannibal ronment as well as ceremonial customs. The ism reveal one interesting fact. According to "happiness" directly points to the entire liveli W. Arens, there is absolutely no direct evidence hood of this small island. Against the engulfing to prove that man-eating has ever been prac socio-cultural forces from the outside, their ticed in any human communities. He claims "happiness" has to be protected through that records of man-eating are all hearsay. Once

-72- Hitoshi Hamagawa: Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's Revenge: The Dismemberment of a Community all data are organized, evidence clarified, he Having said that, let us turn again to Pig s noticed that almost all records of cannibalism Revenge. Interestingly, in most scenes of eating belong to either those living in the remote in this story—and they are numerous—most of area with no communication to or from, or some the women, and very few men, enjoy food and distant ancestors who are described through later suffer from it. The descriptions of their fa mythologies to have lived during earlier tribal cial expressions while eating—notably those of history. For the members of a certain commu their mouths —are also strangely exaggerated nity, these people are all possibly considered to and even sensual. be "the others." It would be absurd to conclude The story opens with the account of Miyo that they were in fact all cannibals. Consider as she awaits a ferry bound for Maja Island at ing this, Arens proposes to regard cannibalism the small port, describing how her vanilla ice not as a plain reality, but as a figurative marker cream turned reddish from her lip stick, and used to distinguish the realm of culture from how her full lips lost their color and seemed cu that of savagery. In trying to demonstrate how riously vulnerable (8). Another passage talks civilized they are, people invariably stress how about a feast that later causes food poisoning. different they are from the barbarians. That's The foodstuffs the inn keeper offers in apprecia exactly what's going on, Arens argues, when tion of bringing his drunken wife to the clinic people point to others and call them "cannibals." the night before come in a black plastic bag Arens writes, "the assumption by one containing "dark stuff, red stuff, flabby stuff, group about the cannibalistic nature of others long stuff, or different stuff like that" (56). "The can be interpreted as an aspect of cultural- women's lips were all wet," Shokichi observes, boundary construction and maintenance" (145). "they ate a lot of pork, and drank a lot of In short, people tend to show off how civilized awamori" (58). Recovering from food poisoning, they are by saying, "There live cruel cannibals Yoko and Wakako eat the fish soup, with their over beyond our land." That is to say, the ac red lipstick "glossy with oil" (95). Equally inter cusation itself—"They are cannibals"— doesn't esting is the passage about how Miyo, together describe any fact to that effect, but simply re with the inn keeper's wife and a nurse, eats the veals that the accuser is strongly prejudiced squid ink soup with their mouths completely against those being accused. This insight ap black (98). The story is indeed full of descrip plies not only to tribal prejudices, but also to tions of women devouring their foods. ethnic or sexual prejudices at large. In fact, a The dinner on the second day deserves large number of records also blame those so special attention, served with the pork dishes cially disadvantaged of being cannibals. Thus, that later cause the food poisoning. Interest colonial rulers have often called rebellious na ingly enough, Wakako calls the feast "the last tives man-eaters, and also in the primitive pa supper." triarchal societies, men suspected women and The women's lips were all wet, and they ate children to live on human flesh while men were a lot of pork, and drank a lot of awamori. away. Almost all records of cannibalism, Arens They became noisy, and frequently laughed says, claim that this damned habit belonged to loudly. Shokichi felt it strange to see the those with less intellect or strength (26). Keep women with such slim bodies could eat and ing the symbolic significance of cannibalism in drink that much. Rib bones and leg bones mind, we now easily understand why. from the pork soup began to pile up high,

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falling from the dishes and rolling on the Yoko asked Shokichi. table. The women poured the soup down "Oh, yes." their throats along with the pale, eerie- "My belly is full now. I wonder if their god looking oil floating on top. Yoko put her just made me pregnant." finger into the awamori glass and stirred the "You always eat too much," said Miyo. ice. Miyo sucked the meat down, mumbled, "You see how easy it is to get pregnant this and skillfully spat white bones out of her way. Don't you feel happy?" mouth. (58-59) "I'd rather not get pregnant no matter how

This both humorous and eerie scene de much I have fun with men." (59-61) scribes the women's repressed sexual desire, while First, as the women discuss the noble pig laying a subplot for the group food poisoning. serving itself up as food for others, the symbolic Symbolically, this passage performs an act of distinction between eater and eaten is momen discrimination against women. It is interesting tarily removed, elevating the topic from eating to note that Shokichi —the only man in the to sex. Up to this point, the topic of their con feast —is secretly feeling worried, being afraid versation seems to aspire to the ideal partner that women might become upset because he is ship between man and woman based on mutual eating only the seaweed and the radish. The devotion. passage highlights a social and cultural distinc Actually, though, it doesn't. The conver tion of a reluctant bystander over the eager can sation abruptly changes direction when Wakako nibals. The resultant food poisoning from the begins telling others not to leave "even a drop banquet serves as a symbolic sanction against the of juice"—suggesting perhaps seminal fluids — savage women. and at the same time the distinction between More important is the fact that this "last eater and eaten becomes firmly reconfirmed, supper" scene is filled with images of cannibal highlighting the subjective role of women as ism and sexual intercourse. Let us take a look sexual aggressors as they go on having a bel at a rather long passage. lyful or becoming pregnant. "This pig provides their own body so that we Furthermore, on the fourth morning, when can live. You know how precious that is? Shokichi is consuming the squid ink soup at the You can't do that, can you?" said Wakako. clinic, Wakako laughs at Shokichi and claims he "Providing the body sounds like man and resembles the black-nosed pig, clearly identify woman," Yoko said. ing him with the object of consumption. "That's why we should leave nothing over, If there were a pig god, he would be some even a drop of juice." one advantageous to the women—an entity who [....] would completely gratify their sexual and culi "Is this pig male or female?" wondered Yoko. nary appetites. Miyo's last words— "I'd rather "Which one do you prefer, Yoko?" asked not get pregnant" — clearly indicates her self

Wakako. ishness. Getting pregnant not only suggests the "Male, of course. I feel like eating more that bourgeois happiness they unconsciously search way." for, but also implicitly demands that the women "We would be eating our kind, if it's fe take full responsibility for their sexual conduct. male," Wakako laughed. A selfish woman of huge sexual appetite, Miyo "Pigs got their own god, don't they?" doesn't consider pregnancy to be an ideal state.

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Her true personality as nymphomania is sug ing his joys and sorrows, we shed tears. If we gested in Yoko's question— "Do you ever re view him from far away, his joys and sorrows fuse men?" (39) —or in Miyo's own confession: will seem to amount to trifling or laughing "Just by looking at your shoulder, Shokichi, I matters. Tragedy demands from audiences an feel very aroused" (72). Wakako's words—"We aesthetic fusion with main characters, while would be eating our kind" — hide weariness the comedy requires a certain psychological dis about exploiting men, which she fears will tance from them. eventually lead them to infighting over men. In Pigs Revenge the author keeps readers a "The women's eyes were glaring, and their comical distance away from the female charac lips, having lost lip stick, had a dull, oily gloss ters. For that reason, we may certainly find it around them" (61). In fact, the three women— humorous as we watch the women fight over Miyo, Yoko, and Wakako—are now competing Shokichi. What's interesting, here, is that this against each other over Shokichi, their only humorous tone is made possible by Shokichi's man. Thus, the "last supper" scene effectively refusals to share food or bed with any of the employs a cannibalistic motif in order to de women. This physical distance between Shokichi scribe the anxiety of the women over happiness and his women is directly responsible for our and sex. psychological distance from the story's world. The "last supper" may remind some read That, in fact, explains why Pig's Revenge doesn't ers of the communion Jesus Christ held with his neatly fit into the categories of tragedy or com disciples immediately before his death. At this edy. most famous supper in history, Jesus "took In the case of tragedy, the protagonist bread, and, having said the blessing, broke it and commonly experiences a form of fusion with gave it to the disciples with the words: Take this something he has abhorred as he realizes that and eat; this is my body'" (Matthew 26.26). He the hateful thing or person is, in fact, himself. also raised the cup after supper, saying, "This In the famous Greek drama, for example, Oedi cup is the new testament in my blood, which is pus is appalled as he discovers that his worst shed for you" (Luke 22.20). With its central nightmare has come true: He had murdered his theme of sharing bread and wine, Jesus' last own father and married his mother. supper no doubt serves as a model for Kilgour's In contrast, the comic stage approves of "communion" which is, again, about a healthy differences among all living things —especially coexistence between eater and eaten. In stark those between men and women—and the world contrast, the "last supper" of the women in Pig's is experienced as an exquisite symphony played Revenge is characterized by a cannibal greed for in a wonderful diversity. A man meets a woman, consuming everything —a vice against which and they are united after certain twists and Kilgour sends out a warning. The women's turns of events. Jane Austen, for example, con "last supper" thus parodies the communion of cludes her Pride and Prejudice (1813) with a Jesus and his disciples. marriage between Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. They marry because she The story's pathos and Mr. Darcy are polar opposites, thus per As is often said, comedy is a tragedy viewed fectly complementing each other. The tragedy, from a distance. When we emotionally get too therefore, leads to a disastrous fusion while close to, or identify with, the protagonist, shar the comedy aims at a fruitful alliance.

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Which dramatic effect, then, does Pig's Re wish to welcome the advances of Miyo and venge aim for? As mentioned earlier, Shokichi Yoko, whom he seems to have no interest in, but always tries to remain a neutral bystander in even when Wakako, a woman whom he really the middle of the excessive consumption he likes, comes to his room in the middle of night, witnesses at the women's feast. This is clear as he fails to have sex with her. At first, Wakako we look at the numerous scenes concerning eat responds to his caresses many times with soft ing on Maja Island. Overwhelmed by the bu sighs, but as he sees her seemingly fall off to limic women, Shokichi shies away from the sleep, Shokichi too falls to sleep himself. "A dishes the women prepare during the trip to timid man, Shokichi couldn't go any further" the island. On the ferry, he experiences a vio (92-93). lent seasickness while the women are having At the end of the story, Shokichi remem fun eating baked sweet potatoes: He feels "his bers what had happened during the past few stomach twist and turn, and [feels] something days, and he "felt a surge of affection for the gushing out of his chest through his throat" women. They seem ridiculous, but they are try (10). He cannot bring himself to eat well at ing their best to survive" (103). "A surge of the first banquet on the first day. Early that affection" here betrays the sexual distance evening, he withdraws to his room "as if to Shokichi manages to keep from the women, sug shake the protests from the women" (40). gesting that his desire for them is now replaced Shokichi can't eat the pork dishes prepared by a certain religious enlightenment. For him, on the second day, either. At the pork feast, he however, the women still seem "ridiculous," and thinks the women "are always eating," and is this also implies that he is standing on a moral worried "if he can really give a ritual prayer higher ground, looking down on them as they on behalf of the women." He is depressed: "He are "trying their best to survive." This psycho doesn't have much appetite and can only eat logical distance allows Shokichi to feel a form the radish and seaweed in the pork soup" (59). of affection towards the women, but this feeling On the third day, looking at the plastic bag doesn't even seem to approach the sexual atten containing the inn keeper's catch from the pre tions men commonly reserve for women. It vious day, he finds the fish "eerie with its seems the feeling here is akin to the sort of love scales glossy in drab white, its back darkish, we may feel for animals or other lower life and its belly grossly pale" (70-71). Shokichi forms in the food chain. He is in fact doing his also feels no appetite for the fish soup pre best not to place himself on the same ground pared for the fourth morning. "The bowl was where the women stand. He might be satisfied full of floating meats. Among them, he saw to have experienced a certain religious growth, pieces of the ashen skin with chain patterns but his newly acquired attitude towards the He could not help imagining diarrhea bacteria women will, no doubt, prove off-putting for seemingly stuck on the fat, which would be them who have been demanding physical relief deadlier than the ones on the pork" (94-95). from Shokichi the man. An awkward man, There is no doubt Chokichi is uncon Shokichi is not ready to deal with the desperate sciously trying to avoid the perverse world of advances the women are making. This issue of the three women. In fact, he doesn't seem inter Shokichi's impotence is key to appreciating the ested in having a physical relationship with any work's pathos, as well as its major theme: the of the three desirable women. He may not sense of sorrow and loneliness among Okinawan

— 76 — Hitoshi Hamagawa: Eiki Matayoshi's Pig's Revenge: The Dismemberment of a Community intellectuals. no doubt constitute an inner Orient. The story, thus, moves on while leaving in tact the psychological distance between the can Shokichi as a Pseudo Psychic nibalistic women and the innocent bystander By keeping his distance from the women, Shokichi. This distance gradually assumes a Shokichi gains the status of an intellectual form of an aesthetic scheme without which the leader who symbolically rules his community. story would completely lose its humorous tone. His newly acquired symbolic status is exempli The greatest aesthetic scheme devised in fied in his "unheard-of" act of making his own Pig's Revenge is that the novel neither accom sacred mound (107). Shokichi is given the task plishes the disastrous fusion common to trage of reloading the displaced mabui (soul) into dies, nor does it achieve the fruitful alliance Wakako because he has always been interested usually expected in comedies. If the author had in the yuta (Okinawan shaman). When a stray chosen to unite Shokichi with Wakako in the pig suddenly enters Miyo's bar, he acts like a end, the story would have been a commonplace yuta and manages to make everyone feel safe. tragedy or comedy. If, on the one hand, But here is an embarrassing truth behind Shokichi had been described as being emotion Shokichi's heroic action. ally inseparable from Wakako, completely shar The ritual of reloading mabui (soul) is usu ing in her horrors and pains we would have had ally performed in Okinawa by the tradi a tragedy. If, on the other hand, he had been tional psychics called yuta. Shokichi has shown as a man desperately in love, struggling always been very interested in them. [... ] to fill her emotional emptiness or to heal the He skipped classes and frequented the uni wound of her heart, we would have had a versity library where he pored over books straightforward comedy, instead. about survey interviews with the yuta and Matayoshi didn't include any of these the real case studies about reloading the motifs in his tale. This is because he intends to mabui. But, Shokichi had no idea about explore both the tragic and the comedic ele what to do or how to do it right then. To ments of storytelling. Throughout this story, him, the psychics' accounts seemed too illu readers keep a comic distance from the women sive, not at all simple, and their stories wildly while experiencing a tragic identification with incoherent. There was no way Shokichi could the protagonist, Shokichi. For that reason, Pig's offer the same performance. (16) Revenge turns out to be a work both uplifting It is very interesting to note that Shokichi and mildly depressing. This is the very mecha learns about the yuta only through library nism that enriches the story's pathos. This books, and doesn't really understand, or is even tragicomic scheme assures a form, of intellectual less able to practice, their rituals. His lack of kinship between readers and Shokichi while di first-hand experience significantly parallels the vorcing their sympathy from the female charac same sort of ignorance among Okinawan intel ters in the novel. Matayoshi's approach draws lectuals who have always understood and man his audience uncounsciously into schemes of aged their local politics and events only through discrimination and objectification of women as the knowledge and skills they had acquired these female characters in his story represent from modernized mainland Japan or the West. the supposed backwardness of Okinawa. Thus, Symbolically, such a cognitive approach gives the feminine elements of Okinawa in the novel rise to ambivalent relations between the subject

— 77- Okinawa Christian University Review No.2 (2005) of and the object under observation, in which Revenge" and is "personally an important work the two are constantly thrown into turmoil, at providing a basis" of the latter work. "It's an im once being identified and separated. Histori mature work," he admits, but he goes on to say cally, that is since its modern emergence, that "the seed can be higher in nutritious value Okinawa has had to respond to some conflicting than the tree or the flower" (142). A close read demands: On the one hand, the intellectual elite ing reveals that this novel not only serves as in Okinawa actually belong to the society they "a point of departure" (142) for Pig's Revenge, observe, and on the other hand they must al but also stands in perfect contrast with the later ways attempt to divorce themselves from that work—it being the perfect negative, as in pho society since their observations, conclusions, tography, of Pigs Revenge. and attitudes are borrowed from foreign lands. Tree-Climbing Pigs is the polar opposite of In fact, similar forms of conflict characterize Pig's Revenge in terms of narrative structures. the development of modern novels in Okinawa For instance, the main character of Tree-Climbing introduced after the disposition of The Ryukyuan Pigs is Shoko or Masako, a woman, whose name Kingdom. Modern literature in Okinawa, on the uses the same Chinese character "IE" (read as one hand, has played the role of contributing "sho" or "masa") as in Shokichi, a man, of Pig's elements of "good old" culture and customs to Revenge. The story is told in the third-person mainstream modern literature and discourse of objective point of view with her as the main mainland Japan where these features had sup character, describing a chain of troubling events posedly been lost. On the other hand, Okinawan that occur as her father tries to sell a banyan writers have also struggled to show that they tree to a resort developer. The intruder in her too, as modern men, shared similar sorts of so community, in this story, is an old woman phisticated psychological dilemmas with their named Kamado who has returned from Bolivia. Japanese counterparts and, just like them, were Shoko patiently deals with the old woman as capable of maintaining the will to surmount she causes a series of problems pretending to be those difficulties. In short, the most significant a yuta. Shoko convinces her to relocate the wor political and social mission handed to modern ship spot together away from the banyan tree Okinawan writers has been to spell out the mes area to a remote uninhabited island, thus trying sage that Okinawans, just like other Japanese, to maintain the symbolic order of her commu were perfectly capable of perceiving and de nity. The scene in the novel in which a pig tries scribing their own culture and customs in the to stick its nose between Shoko's legs seems to same objective manners. Just as it has been in suggest that the pig is a masculine symbol as it mainland Japan, the theme permeating Okinawan is in Pig's Revenge (57). Here, however, we must literature has been the mode of modern self not forget that the intruder in this story is not a hood. man, as in Pigs Revenge, but the old woman Kamado. Tree-Climbing Pigs tells a story of how Conclusion this old woman "milks" the unsuspecting, pious Although it's not generally well known, folks to her own advantage. Shoko's house is Eiki Matayoshi wrote a fascinating novel called equipped with a pig pen and is running a small Tree-Climbing Pigs (Ki Nobori Buta) immedi public restaurant commonly known as "Pig ately before his Pig's Revenge. According to the Restaurant." The scenes of eating, unlike those author himself, the novel "inspired Pig's in Pig's Revenge, are described in a humble and

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peaceful mood. the human community presented in the novel. Most interesting is the middle part of the The story is thus filled with the senses of aliena story where Shoko dreams about a group of tion and powerlessness that have been shared pigs around the banyan tree. In the dream, the among the political and cultural leaders of images of the pigs gradually overlap those of Okinawa who, deeply imbued with foreign the neighbors in her town, suggesting that pigs, Orientalism, could not help feeling alienated in

here, represent the community which she is a the midst of their own homeland. member of. In the novel's conclusion, Shoko's Finally, Pig's Revenge manages to evoke a effort ends in vain as Kamado sets fire to the pig healing laughter among the readers because pen that belongs to Shoko's father, leaving sev they also share the same form of Orientalism as eral of the poor animals dead —an event that that which permeates the novel. Their sense of seems to foretell the collapse of the community alienation and consolation, in fact, forms the op as a whole. While Pigs Revenge digresses into posite sides of the same coin. In the bucolic de comic relief at the end, Tree-Climbing Pigs is per nouement, for instance, Wakako proposes that meated by some indescribable fear and sorrow. the other women not fight over Shokichi be Putting the quality of the work aside, we must cause he "belongs to the gods" (120). Here, we conclude that the latter work is a far more seri tend to overlook the fact that through these ous study, than the former, of the Okinawan so words, Wakako tries to hide her frustration and ciety which is now undergoing massive disappointment over the night of her failed sex changes, and in that very sense, Tree-Climbing ual advance to Shokichi. In an earlier scene, Pigs may prove "higher in nutritious value" in Wakako says that her "technique of refusing deed, to borrow the author's own words. men is superb," claiming "the trick is to make As with Tree-Climbing Pigs, Pig's Revenge the man feel superior" (39). Therefore, her studies the situation of Okinawan society as it is words of deifying Shokichi, here, must be under being engulfed by tsunamis of modernization. stood as being spoken with vengeance, carrying The two stories dramatize clashes between the a hidden message that she is the one who re intellectual force for modernization, which is fuses Shokichi, a non-practicing male. She may personified in Shokichi, and the indigenous de be expecting that as far as she can keep his ego sires of the community, which are represented inflated, this harmless man would behave in by the scandalous women. Both novels repre way that is advantageous to her as well as to the sent a communal future as a mixture of both an other women. In short, Shokichi, being a pseudo open-minded, creative positivism and a violent, yuta, is a pig god at best. This is why we cannot destructive cynicism. Sadly, however, what help thinking this happy ending is a hastily- dominates Pig's Revenge is something other than patched scheme, a form of deus ex machina de creative energies or spirits of enterprise. Scat signed to save the narrative from the same total tered on the pages, for instance, are pitiful im breakdown as that found in the human relation ages of disease-stricken pigs being torn apart ships depicted in the novel. In fact, Tree- into poisonous pieces of meat. There we find, Climbing Pigs, in which Matayoshi doesn't under cover of humor, sad figures of men and employ such technical devices, end in the dark women who, though drawn to each other, end episode of arson by crazy Kamado, predicting a up consuming one another in deadly conflicts. A disastrous breakup of the entire community. deep psychological fissure indeed runs through Yet, readers are likely to see Pig's Revenge

•79- Okinawa Christian University Review No.2 (2005) as superior to the previous work, Tree-Climbing writers are translated from the original by the writer of Pigs. That is because we are also unconsciously the present essay. searching for a cathartic reading of the novel. Works Cited It's vital to note that the word "mukui" in the title could both be understood as revenge or reward, remarkably demonstrating that our reading could just go one way or the other. Un suspecting readers naturally search for a reward in the story while suppressing a troubling truth xtt^m mvm^i **#**. -ma^c in the novel about their disintegrating society. Arens, W. The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology & Anthropophagy. New York: Oxford UP, 1979. No one is ready to believe that Okinawa can be Kilgour, Maggie. From Communion to Cannibalism: An represented by the sorry pigs being cut to Anatomy of Metaphors of Incorporation. Princeton: pieces. Princeton UP, 1990. The unenviable task of literary criticism, Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 1979. however, is to pay careful and constant atten Willcox, Bradley J., D. Craig Willcox, and Makoto Suzuki. tion to every detail during the terrible dismem The Okinawa Program: How the World's Longest-Lived berment. People Achieve Everlasting Health—and How You Can Too. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2001

Note All quotations from Matayoshi and other Japanese

— 80 — HitoshiHamagawa:EikiMatayoshi's Pig'sRevenge: TheDismembermentofaCommunity

文吉栄喜 ｢豚の報い｣-共同体の解体

浜 川 仁

要 旨 小論では､又吉栄喜著 ｢豚の報い ｣ (以下 ｢報い ｣) に､沖縄 人による沖縄人に対するオ リエ ンタリズムを探 り 出 してい きたい｡沖縄 は､琉球処分以来 日本本土 を通 して､または外国か ら直接先進国の文物 を受け入れて きた｡ その中で､沖縄人の思想や価値観 も大 きく変わって きた｡財界や政界のエ リー トたち､特に文化思想的影響 に直 にさらされた知識人たちは､郷土に対 し極めて両義的な感情を抱 くようになっていった｡この羨望 と軽蔑の入 り混じった感情が､｢報い｣の中では､食事 を余る女性たちを観察する主人公正吉の精神態度 を特徴づけている｡ 又書の ｢報い｣に見出 されるのは､この ように沖縄の後進性 を象徴する､他者 としての女性であ り､正吉 によっ て代表 される有識者たちの孤独 と疎外感が､この作品か らは渉み出ている｡彼ら知的 リーダーたちは､近代 の沖 縄 に生 まれ､そこで生 きなが ら､認識の上ではいつのまにか外 にはみ出 して しまい､そこか ら沖縄 を ｢発見 ｣ せ ざるをえなかったと論ずる｡

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