The most fascinating modern male artists in Japan, however, have dedicated themselves to obsessive portrayals of ambiguities of "male masochism," in a variety of political registers. Perhaps the best known example is _In the Realm of the Senses/Ai no Corrida_ (1976), directed by Oshima Nagisa. Two reviews of the film:
***** What is _In the Realm of the Senses_ really about? Oshima began from a real-life case in 1936 involving a woman who castrated her lover in an act not of violence, but passion. The historical moment, alluded to in the film and explicitly announced only in its last seconds, is crucial, marking an important date in the rise of Japanese militarism.
>From this, some commentators take the film as a cautionary allegory:
"individualistic" sex obsession leads these underground lovers away
from the political "big picture" that surrounds and determines them.
Kichi and Sada become exclusive, possessive, withdrawn -- and thus,
as Oshima put it, "eternal prisoners of the societal structure". Yet
the film displays far more curiosity than condemnation. _In the
Realm of the Senses_ is an extraordinary meditation upon the
physicality and emotional power of sex.
The director once declared: "I believe that through union with another individual one is attempting union with all of humanity and all of nature". The film shows this striving for such union, but also its inevitable breakdown -- and its ambiguously ecstatic conclusion.
<http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/2000/11/30/FFXLK90V3GC.html> *****
***** The film is set in 1936 and is based on an actual historical event, referred to in the end titles. But reports of this sensational event were suppressed at the time; when NHK newsreaders began to report it, the government censors cut off NHK radio transmission. The militarism and ultranationalism of the time intrude into the film in only one brief scene when Kichi (the star stud temporarily AWL from sexual service) goes for a walk in the street, oblivious of a passing military parade cheered on by flag-waving youngsters. It is hard to read this scene in political terms, even harder to see it as a political protest. Kichi is so self-absorbed, so pre-occupied with his private life, that he has no interest in the public sphere; therefore he cannot function as an active political agent. One may read the scene as saying that if young men devoted their energies to making love, they would not be interested in going to war. But it could equally be saying that total immersion in private life is politically irresponsible for it precludes political activism. Maybe the scene is included just to remind viewers that this was the time of militant nationalism and imperialism, and that the behaviour of Sada and Kichi was aberrant, transgressive of dominant values but quite beyond public concerns. If one gives attention to Kichi's body language, one notes that here he is dejected and brooding, not at all proud or confident, offering no optimistic alternative to militarism. He is in another world altogether. It is not necessarily posited as a better world, for he will soon voluntarily embrace his fate as will the young soldiers, will give his life for the satisfaction of a stronger power, the desire of a woman. Like the soldiers, he is destined for death.
<http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12/senses.html> *****
If Oshima's art sprang from the Left, Tanizaki's did from the Right. Here's a letter that Tanizaki wrote to Matsuko, perhaps his last beloved:
***** I do apologize that I did not cry when you told me to cry the other day. I now know that I have the stubborn streak of a Tokyo man, which I must rectify. From now on I will cry any time you tell me to cry. Believe me, I will do anything that will amuse you. A dozen or more servants used to be at your command. I promise you that you will live happily just like before, as I alone will do the work of many servants, like the maids and butlers you had. I ask you to be selfish with me until you are completely satisfied. Ask me to do the hardest thing and you will find me serving you so you will be pleased. But please understand that it was an innocent misunderstanding the other day. Other than that, the more you behave willfully toward me, the more I am blissful, feeling that you care for me. The more you act selfish to me, the nobler you look, revealing your high lineage. I would be content if you cut me down with your sword as a samurai would to an insolent farmer. What I have for you is not love, but devotion and a sense of worship akin to a religious sentiment. I have never experienced this feeling in my life. In Western novels, I see noble ladies dominating men, but I never thought I would see a lady like you. As I am allowed to be near you, I have no further ambition or desire in this life. I will never step out of my station so I ask you to keep me as your servant. Should I fail to please you, you can treat me as harshly as you want to, but I am deathly afraid of you saying to me, "I have no longer anything to do with you, and there is the door.". . . I pray you will get into a better mood. I wish you could see me now to know how I am praying to you.
October 7
To my mistress, from Jun'ichirô *****
The language of feudalism (e.g., nobility & servitude, arrogant samurai and insolent farmers), however, is revealing of not so much Tanizaki's particular fantasy of masochism as the feudal origins of the modern concept of Romantic Love/Courtly Love in general -- the times when "marriages had nothing to do with love" and castles were little islands of comparative leisure and luxury in the barbarous countryside, with many men and few women in them. Cf. C.S. Lewis, _The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition_, 1936. In addition, Tanizaki's self-abasement had much to do with his ambivalent response to the domination of the West -- his worship of all things "modern and Western" together with his desire to recuperate all things "traditional and Japanese" (e.g., see the allusion to Western novels in the letter above). The West is remade by Japan, which in turn is dominated by its own partial creation: "Though it was written a few years after Tanizaki left Yokohama for the Kansai, _Naomi_ can be considered a Yokohama piece. Jôji, the protagonist, takes over from a poor family in downtown Tokyo a teenage girl with Western features, brings her up to be a Western-looking beauty in the Pygmalion fashion, and ends up being completely dominated by her" (Kinya Tsuruta, "Tanizaki Jun'ichirô's Pilgrimage and Return," _Comparative Literature Studies_ 37.2 [2000], <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/comparative_literature_studies/v037/37.2tsuruta.html>).
Then again, masochism is all theater, stylized & exaggerated, which makes it uncertain -- at least in fantasy -- who actually has the upper hand.
Lastly, it should go without saying that "male masochism" had little to do with men actually losing power over women. The most common use to which "male masochism" is put is to justify a hierarchy of men over men, as in the military. See Mishima's defiantly absurd embrace of anachronism -- his yearning for a society of noble men, homosocial & homoerotic, as celebrated in Plato's _Symposium_. By the time he committed suicide in 1970, he had become laughable -- ridiculed even by men of Jieitai. Good for Japan that Mishima (in his own words) "came out on the stage determined to make the audience weep, and instead they burst out laughing." And yet, Japan's rejection of Mishima's reaction (an aestheticized devotion to the idea of "Japan" he, perhaps the most Westernized among Japanese novelists, invented himself) had nothing to do with its commitment to democracy:
***** The political timing was crucial. In November 1969 the emperor's government had agreed to a new treaty, which ratified Japan's continuing occupation by American troops. Ten years before the Iranian revolution Mishima provided the most powerful rejection of westernisation by swaggering Pax Americana. Its most powerful image in Mishima's pages is the description (in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) of a full-bellied American bribing a subjected Japanese to walk on a girl's stomach for the price of two packets of cigarettes. Japan, Mishima said three months before he died, was a victim of the green snake - coiled as evil serpents are, irreversible and deadly. Japan's death was Mishima's own.
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,513906,00.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>