Trauma, Dissociation and Re-enactment in Japanese Literature and Film Japanese literature and film have frequently been approached using lenses suchaslanguage,genreandideology.Yet,despiteasuccessionofmajorsocial traumas that have marked, and in many ways shaped and defined much of modern Japan, Japanese fiction and cinema have not often been examined psychoanalytically. Inthis book,DavidStahlconducts in-depthreadingsand interpretationsof a setof Japanese novelsandfilm. By introducing themethodologyof trauma/ PTSD studies, Stahl seeks to provide abetter understanding of the insights of Japanese writers and directors into their societies, cultures and histories. In particular, by building on the work of practitioner-theoreticians, such as Pierre Janet and Judith Herman, Stahl analyses a number of key texts, including Kawabata Yasunari’s Sleeping Beauties (1961), Enchi Fumiko’s Female Masks (1958) and Imamura Sho-hei’s Vengeance is Mine (1979). Consequently, through using concepts of social trauma, dissociation, failed mourning, revenge and narrative memory, this book sheds new light on the psychologicalaftereffectsandtransgenerationallegaciesoftraumadepictedin Japanese works. Trauma, Dissociation and Re-enactment in Japanese Literature and Film will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Literature and Cinema, as well as those interested in Japanese History and Trauma Studies. David C. Stahl is Professor of Japanese Literature and Cinema at Bin- ghamton University. His research interests are trauma/PTSD studies and artistic representation of social trauma and its aftereffects. Routledge Contemporary Japan Series For a full list of available titles please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Rou tledge-Contemporary-Japan-Series/book-series/SE0002. Fukushima and the Arts in Japan Negotiating Disaster Edited by Barbara Geilhorn and Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt Social Inequality in Post-Growth Japan Transformation During Economic and Demographic Stagnation Edited by David Chiavacci and Carola Hommerich The End of Cool Japan Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture Edited by Mark McLelland Regional Administration in Japan Departure from Uniformity Shunsuke Kimura Japanese Media at the Beginning of the 21st Century Consuming the Past Katsuyuki Hidaka Intercultural Communication in Japan Theorizing Homogenizing Discourse Edited by Satoshi Toyosaki and Shinsuke Eguchi Local Politics and National Policy Multi-level Conflicts in Japan and Beyond Ken Victor Leonard Hijino Trauma, Dissociation and Re-enactment in Japanese Literature and Film David C. Stahl Rethinking Japanese Studies: Eurocentrism and the Asia-Pacific Region Edited by Kaori Okano and Yoshio Sugimoto Trauma, Dissociation and Re-enactment in Japanese Literature and Film David C. Stahl K ~~o~;J~n~~~up ORKYOR LLONODONNLODNDOONN Y LONDONANDNEWYORK Firstpublished2018 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2018DavidC.Stahl TherightofDavidC.Stahltobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedbyhim/herinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting fromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation withoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested ISBN:978-1-138-73325-1(hbk) ISBN:978-1-315-18770-9(ebk) TypesetinTimesNewRoman byTaylor&FrancisBooks Contents Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 1 Trauma/PTSD studies theory 11 2 Kawabata Yasunari’s Thousand Cranes 28 3 Enchi Fumiko’s Female Masks 89 4 Kawabata Yasunari’s Sleeping Beauties 141 5 Imamura Sho-hei’s Vengeance is Mine 185 Conclusion 219 Index 225 Acknowledgements This book, and a forthcoming companionvolume, havebeen in theworks for overadozenyearsnow,andneitherthey,normyfirstbookonO-okaSho-heiwould have been possible without the instruction, support, challenging, collaboration, and encouragement of Keiko Mochizuki and Wilbur Fridell at UC Santa Barbara, Robert Epp, Tom Suzuki and William LeFleur at UCLA, Edwin McClellan, Edward Kamens, Hugh Stimson, and Cathy Caruth at Yale, Iguchi Tokio and Kawashima Itaru at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and colleagues and friends such as Mike Rich, Susanna Fessler, Angela Yiu, Dennis Washburn, Stephen Snyder, Richard Torrance, Alan Tansman, Philip Gabriel,CarolGluck,DougSlaymaker,SteveRabson,BillWaldron,TomMoran, Neil Waters,LegerGrindon,GuntramHerb,NickKaldis,MikePettid,Rumiko Sode, Roberta Strippoli, John Chaffee, Mark Williams, Rachael Hutchinson, Leith Morton, Patricia Welch, Karen Thornber, Kyle Ikeda, and Meera Lee. Institutionally, I am deeply thankful to Binghamton University for its gen- erosity in granting the sabbaticals and research leaves I utilized to devote sustained attention to this book project, as well as the friendly, informative, and helpful staffs at the Binghamton, Cornell, and Yale university libraries. I would also like to take this opportunity to express gratitude and appre- ciation to my graduate and undergraduate students over the years who not only assisted me in developing, testing, and refining the trauma/PTSD meth- odology and readings of the specific Japanese novels and films I teach reg- ularly, but also showed me how effective this interpretive framework can be for analyzing and interpreting other traumatic artistic narratives. In addition, all of the people at Routledge with whom I have had the pleasure of working have been truly wonderful, and I am especially indebted to Asian Studies Publisher Stephanie Rogers, her new Editorial Assistant, Georgina Bishop, the anonymous reviewers of my book proposals and manuscript who provided me with such valuable comments and constructive criticism, my copy-editor Felicity Watts, and many others who helped to bringthisbookthroughtocompletion.IalsowishtothankMichelleDickson atTaylorand Francis for arranging permission toreusematerialinChapter5 that originally appeared in Japan Forum, and Carmen Baumschlager of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere for her kindness and assistance in helping Acknowledgements vii me secure permission to reproduce a detail of Gustav Klimt’s Girlfriends (Water Serpents I) on the book’s cover. I would also like to express my profound and enduring gratitude and indebtedness to Irene, my beloved wife of thirty years who supported and bore with me as I spent long days, months, and years absorbed in reading, thinking, and writing, our son Dan and daughter Heidi who have brought and continue to bring usso much joyand happiness,and ourextendedfamily and friends both living and departed who have enriched our lives immen- sely and patiently talkedwith me through the years about Japanese literature and film,traumaandPTSD,warandatrocity.Inclosing,Iwouldliketoexpress specialappreciationformylatemother,Mona,whosupportedandencouraged me every step of the way from the beginning. This page intentionally left blank Introduction Japanese literature and film have frequently been approached in terms of his- tory,language,genre,style,aesthetics,school/movement,tradition,modernity, postmodernity, identity, gender, and ideology, but they have only rarely been examined psychoanalytically in terms of trauma/PTSD studies.1 Given the succession of traumas that have marked, and in important ways shaped and defined much of Japanese history and experience over the last 150 years, this should give us pause. How can we account for such critical neglect? What effect does it have on our ability to understand and appreciate Japanese lit- erature and film in general, and Japanese writers’ and directors’ insights into—and critiques of—their societies, cultures, histories, and politics in particular? Skepticismandresistancetowardpsychoanalyticapproachestounderstanding and appreciating Japanese literature and film are traceable to long-standing institutional and disciplinary bias. While some assume it to be illegitimate to utilize these particular “western” interpretive frameworks to analyze “east- ern” phenomena, little objection is raised concerning the application ofother such theories (i.e., Marxist, Foucauldian). Scholars inclined to exclude or marginalize psychoanalytical approaches are apt to overlook the fact that exposureto,studyof,andstrugglessurroundingwesterntheories,institutions,and practices—including psychoanalysis—are inseparable from the modernization process itself.2 Meera Lee and Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto have drawn special attention to these critical matters and their problematic consequences. According to the former: Since the mid-1980s, many theorists, philosophers, and practitioners in Europe and North America have attempted to integrate psychoanalytic theory into colonial studies and social theory … Nevertheless, we have not seen a serious importation into studies of East Asia as of yet … Because psychoanalysis was invented by Europeans does not limit its application to a particular people … This implicates the underlying eth- nocentric claim that psychoanalytic theory may not be pertinent to the study of Asian culture—a claim that unconsciously reproduces the divi- sion between East and West within the very institutions that have been