Study Guide: Ishikawa Jun’s “Jesus of the Ruins” (Yakeato no iesu; 1946)

Lit 365: Morrison Study Guide: Ishikawa Jun’s “Jesus of the Ruins” (Yakeato no iesu; 1946) Terms/Figures/Places  Yakeato generation generation (yakeato (yakeato sedai  焼跡世代) 焼跡世代): “The boy in this short story belonged to a generation of war-orphans numbering approximately 123,000 by the end o f the war in 1945. The child literally defies description because the ‘taxonomy of his kind had yet to be invented.’ The taxonomy that Ishikawa was looking for in 1946 when the short-narrative was composed was shortly to define an entire generation that would come to be known as yakeato sedai or sedai or the ‘generation coming of age amidst the  burned-out  burned-out ruins after the war.’ Ishikawa was born in 1899 and set a literary precedent  when he used the title title phrase to signify signify an orphaned child growing growing up in the  burned-out ruins of metropolitans metropolitans where the immediate immediate black-market economy  signified the struggle for daily survival. su rvival. Ishikawa’s indistinguishable indistinguishable usage of the term  yakeato introduces the possibility possibility of a generation generation that would rise like like a phoenix out of  the ashes of the long long war” (Rosenbaum, 2006, 2; for more, see Legacies see Legacies of the  Asia-Pacific War: The Yakeato Yakeato Generation, Generation, edited by Roman Rosenbaum, Yasuko Claremont (2012), as well as Rosenbaum’s article “Ishikawa Jun and Postwar Japan”).  Yatsushi やつし: yatsusu which means “to disguise,” disguise,” yatsushi is yatsushi is a やつし: From the verb yatsusu which disguised contemporary version of a romantic figure f rom antiquity or classical literature. It involves the inversion of something refined/noble into something  vulgar/plebeian. In this story, the yakeato orphan is described as a sort of yatsushi  of yatsushi   version of Jesus Christ. Christ. Ishikawa Jun discusses discusses this term— term—along with mitate, mitate, haikai , honkadori , and other terms related to Edo-period aesthetics— aesthetics—in his essay “ essay “On the Thought Patterns of the People of Edo” Edo” (1943). Mitate 身立て: 身立て: Mitate is the depiction of one thing through the presentation of  something else. In traditional waka, waka, it is associated associated with a kind of “elegant confusion,” such as when falling cherry blossoms petals are mistaken for snow. In general, the term means “selection” and signifies imagery that combines two completely different subjects, often drawn from high culture and popular culture respectively. In this story, the yakeato orphan is given an added depth through his mitate link through with Jesus.

Kiyomizu hall 清水観音堂: Inspired by the magnificent Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, Ueno Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Kannon-dō was established by Abbot Tenkai Sō Sō jō  jō, who was also the founder of the Kan’ei Kan’ei ji  ji Temple. Built Built in 1631, the temple temple is one of Tokyo’ Tokyo’s oldest, and has miraculously survived battles of civil war and bombing raids. Today, it is recognized as a national treasure. Tōshōgū Shrine 東照宮: Built in 1616, the shrine is one of numerous shrines shrines in Japan dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Edo S hogunate. Until 1868, the shrine was a part of Kan’ Kan’eiji Temple. Ueno black market (yamiichi  (yamiichi  闇市 ): A major site of the black markets that flourished 闇市): in the immediate postwar period, when goods were hard to come by. Dazai Shundai 太宰春台 (1680-1747): Neo-Confucian scholar, born in the province of  Shinano (Nagano prefecture). Entering Entering the service of the daimyo of Izushi near Hy ōgo, he studied under Nakano Iken. Later, having left the Izushi estate, he became a disciple of Ogy ū Sorai. He then entered the service of the daimyo of Ooimi (Shimō (Shimōsa) but soon decided to teach. His favorite subject was economics, and he published a number of   works on the subject, subject, the best known of which which were Keizairoku were Keizairoku (Discussion of  Economics, 1729) and and Keizairokush  Keizairokushū-i (Discussion -i (Discussion of Economics, part two). He wrote more than 50 works. (Louis Frédéric, Japan Frédéric, Japan Encyclopedia Encyclopedia,, 150). Hattori Nankaku 服部南郭 (1683-1759): Confucian scholar, painter, and poet of the mid-Tokugawa period. Born in Kyoto, he studied the Chinese classics under Ogy ū Sorai, then opened his own school in 1716. He is best known for his Bunjinga “scholarly  paintings,” which are in imitation of the Chinese Qing-dynasty style. He helped to popularize Tang poetry, which had an enormous influence on Edo culture. Gap (béance) (Term in Lacanian Psychoanalysis): The French term béance is an antiquated literary term which means a ‘large hole or opening.’ opening.’ It is also a scientific term used in medicine to denote the opening of the larynx. The term is used in several  ways in Lacan’s work. In 1946, he speaks of an ‘interrogative gap’ which opens up in madness, when the subject is perplexed by the phenomena which he experiences (hallucinations, etc.) (Ec, 165– 165 –6). In the early 1950s, the term comes to refer to the fundamental f undamental rupture between man and NATURE, which is due to the fact that ‘in man, the imaginary relation has

deviated, in so far as that is where the gap is produced whereby death makes itself felt’ (S2, 210). This gap between man and nature is evident in the mirror stage [...] The function of the imaginary is precisely to fill this gap, thus covering over the subject’ subject’s division and presenting an imaginary sense of unity and wholeness. In 1957 the term is used in the context of the relationship between the sexes; sexes; ‘in the relation between man and woman…a gap always remains open’ (S4, 374; see S4, 408). This anticipates Lacan’s later remarks on the non-existence non -existence of the SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP. RELATIONSHIP. In 1964, Lacan argues that ‘the relation of the subject to the Other is entirely  produced in a process of gap’ (S11, 206), and states that the subject is constituted by a gap, since the subject is essentially divided (see SPLIT). He also argues that the concept of causality is essentially problematic problematic because there is always a mysterious, inexplicable gap between cause and effect (S11, 21– 21–2). Lacan also uses the term ‘dehiscence’ in a way that makes it practically  synonymous, in his discourse, with the term ‘gap’. Dehiscence is a botanical term which designates the bursting open of mature seed-pods; Lacan uses the term to refer to the split which is constitutive of the subject: there is ‘a vital dehiscence that is constitutive of man’ (E, 21). This split is also the division between culture and nature which means that man’s relation to the latter ‘is altered by a certain dehiscence at the heart of the organism, a primordial. Discord’ (E, 4) (Evans, 72-73) Study Questions  Answer all of the following. following. 1. Describe the narrative structure of the work. Who is narrating the story? What it his

relation to the world he is describing? 2. Describe the scene at the Ueno yamiichi (black yamiichi (black market). What phase of human

history do we seem to be in? What is the relation between past, present, and future? Does the narrator feel that the world has really turned over a “new leaf ”? 3. Describe the woman selling the o-musubi rice o-musubi rice balls. How does the narrator react to

her? What qualities does she seem to embody? 4. Describe the yakeato orphan who appears in the black market. How do people react

to him? How does the narrator react? What powers does he s eem to possess?

5. Describe the incident that takes place in the market. How does the narrator become

involved? 6. What does the narrator narrator intend to do when when he gets to Yanaka? Yanaka? What is the

significance of this act? Explain his interest in Dazai Shundai, Hattori Nankaku, Edo period (particularly Tenmei era), Tang dynasty, etc. 7. Describe the appearance of the orphan the next day. Why does he chase down and

attack the narrator? What does this scuffle symbolize? 8. Discuss the connection between the yakeato orphan and Jesus Christ in terms of the

Edo/Ishikawan concepts of yatsushi  of yatsushi and and mitate (see definition above). 9. Describe the scene at the market the next morning. Discuss the final passage of the

 work: Until only yesterday stands had lined the alleys of the marketplace like a wall. But what about today?  All that remained along along either side of the streets were were the long, empty rows of stalls constructed of flimsy reed screens. Stretching as far as the eye could see, they resembled huge stable equipped with countless  berths and mangers. mangers. But it was a horseless livery. livery. Not a horse was was in sight. Peering still farther inside, inside, one saw an open op en space. It looked freshly swept. It was as if someone had taken a stiff broom and given it a  vigorous sweeping. sweeping. Still, the surface was market by a spot here and there. It was as though something had traipsed across it and left behind its traces. They   were the marks of an unidentified being being that had walked walked upon the face of  the earth and left its telltale imprint. As a matter of fact, the traces looked ever so much like footsteps— footsteps— yea, even hoofprints hoofprints— —that a strange creature, having wandered wandered into the desert, left as its tracks in the sand. 10. Gaps, stains, openings, rips, tears, burn marks, traces, holes, etc. form a cluster of 

recurring images in the work. Discuss the significance of these images.