ENCHI FUMIKO: A STUDY IN THE SELF-EXPRESSION OF WOMEN by HIROMI SODEKAWA B.A., Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 1980 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN THE REQUIREMENTS MASTER PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF FOR THE DEGREE OF OF ARTS i n THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES We Accept t h i s thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA A p r i l 1988 ©Hirorai Sodekawa, 1988 In p resen t ing this thesis in partial f u l f i lmen t o f t he r e q u i r e m e n t s fo r an advanced d e g r e e at t h e Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a , I agree tha t t h e Library shall make it f reely available f o r re ference and s tudy . I fu r ther agree that pe rmiss ion f o r ex tens ive c o p y i n g o f th is thesis f o r scholar ly pu rposes may b e g r a n t e d by the head o f m y d e p a r t m e n t o r by his o r her representat ives. It is u n d e r s t o o d that c o p y i n g o r p u b l i c a t i o n o f th is thesis fo r f inancial gain shall n o t b e a l l o w e d w i t h o u t m y w r i t t e n pe rm iss ion . D e p a r t m e n t o f jr^Sf/JU/x The Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a Vancouver , Canada Pa te J*rP. /9r?t DE-6 (2/88) Abstract This thesis examines four major works of Enchi Furaiko i n terras of themes, s t y l e , and plot development. In these works, Enchi created three "types" of female characters: the vengeful woman, the lovable woman, and the e l d e r l y woman facing death and aging. She attempted to show how i t was possible for these women, a l l repressed by a society, to release themselves from suppression to express t h e i r hidden, r e a l selves. In exploring these issues, Enchi drew heavily on her knowledge of the Japanese c l a s s i c s , especially The Tale of Genji and late Edo f i c t i o n (including Kabuki), creating a l i t e r a r y world i n which the c l a s s i c a l and the modern, the past and the present were conflated. Unable to express t h e i r true selves within the constraints of a repressive s o c i a l order, her characters seek self-expression and Eros through the intervention of mediumistic, s p i r i t u a l , and supernatural forces. In Enchi's works, when the characters released s p i r i t s united with t h e i r Eros, they r e a l i z e d t h e i r essential femininity. An analysis of four of Enchi's major works c l a r i f i e s these themes and Enchi's l i t e r a r y world. Chapter One examines The Waiting Years, the work which established Enchi's reputation as a powerful n o v e l i s t . Though marred by a lack of realism i n the supportive characters, The Waiting Years succeeds i n portraying a "vengeful woman" who expresses her essential femininity through revenge. A well-controlled, repressive s t y l e , influenced by that of The Tale of Genji and late Edo f i c t i o n , reinforces the theme of revenge and repression. In contrast to th i s vengeful woman, Tale of the Mediums, which i s analysed i n Chapter Two, deals with the "lovable woman." This type of woman uses her s p i r i t force to express her suppressed love. This chapter attempts to explain how Enchi employs complicated s t y l i s t i c devices and a plot i n which h i s t o r i c a l facts and f i c t i o n , present and past, and i l l u s i o n and r e a l i t y are conflated, i n order to describe an idea l love. Tale of the Mediums, which can be c a l l e d Enchi's work of Heian l i t e r a t u r e , creates a highly sophisticated and even a s l i g h t l y a r t i f i c i a l l i t e r a r y world. Chapter Three focuses on the novel, Wandering Souls, which i s part of the larger t r i l o g y also c a l l e d Wandering Souls. In t h i s work, the heroine i s neither a vengeful nor a loving woman. Although she i s involved with men, love, and sex, she i s forced to face the r e a l i t i e s of aging, death, fear and loneliness. These harsh r e a l i t i e s force her to release her hidden s e l f from the forces of socia l suppression and from the b a r r i e r of her public s e l f . Her self-expression takes place through the fusion of r e a l i t y and i l l u s i o n , i n a world associated with that portrayed i n The Tale of Genji. The Mist i n Karuizawa, Enchi's most mature work, i s the subject of Chapter Four. A l l of Enchi's major concerns are brought into focus i n t h i s work. Using an imaginary c l a s s i c a l work as the center of the novel, Enchi develops two additional narrative l i n e s to create a sophisticated, layered p l o t . The heroine i s an el d e r l y woman facing aging, death, fear and loneliness, and her s e l f - l i b e r a t i o n takes place i n an i l l u s i o n a l world created through reference to the Japanese c l a s s i c s . In t h i s work an ancient high priestess symbolizes the essential q u a l i t y of femininity, the unity of s p i r i t force and Eros, and through a supernatural re l a t i o n s h i p with t h i s priestess, the novel's protagonist also r e a l i z e s her essential femininity and l i f e force. This thesis, through the four works that are examined, can be considered an attempt to shed l i g h t on the question how Enchi's women characters express t h e i r hidden, r e a l selves; i t also attempts to assess Enchi's place as a modern Japanese writer. - i i i -Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One The Waiting Years . 15 Chapter Two Tale of the Mediums 42 Chapter Three Wandering Souls 69 Chapter Four The Mist i n Karuizawa 96 Conclusion 124 Notes .128 Bibliography 129 - i v -Acknowledgeraents I wish to express ray sincere gratitude to ray supervisor, Dr. Kinya Tsuruta, f o r h i s generous guidance and encouragement. I am also indebted to Professor Takahito Moraokawa who gave me many useful suggestions, and to Kim Adams and Ann Pr i c e , whose e d i t o r i a l assistance was invaluable. -v-Introduction To l i v e , I have to write. The pain of w r i t i n g , l i k e that of a heavily-laden horse climbing sorrowfully^ up a slope without making a sound, seems to prove that I am a l i v e . (238) (translation mine) This view of w r i t i n g was expressed by the heroine of The Mist i n Karuizawa (Saimu f£U, 1975-76), but i t also describes the way i n which the author, Enchi Fumiko ( F l i l f i X - F j 1905-86), regarded w r i t i n g . For Enchi, who dedicated her l i f e to w r i t i n g , l i f e and art were intimately linked, but as the above quotation indicates, her career was by no means smooth or easy. Enchi's f u l l talent developed i n her l a t e r l i f e . I t was only i n 1957, at age f i f t y - t w o , that she f i n a l l y established her p o s i t i o n as a writer. That year, she won the Noma l i t e r a r y p r i z e — o n e of the most prestigious i n Japan—for her novel, The Waiting Years (Onnazaka ^C^, 1949-57). From that time on u n t i l her death i n 1986, she produced a series of high-quality short s t o r i e s and novels, f o r which she won several additional awards. C r i t i c s generally regard Enchi as one of the most important modern Japanese wri t e r s . In p a r t i c u l a r , her modern Japanese tr a n s l a t i o n of The Tale of Genji (Genji raonogatari ^ . R ^ f l l , eleventh century) by Murasaki Shikibu (970's-early 1000's) contributed greatly to the Japanese l i t e r a r y world. Despite her fame i n Japan, Enchi Fumiko remains largely unknown to Western readers. Only three of her numerous works have been translated into English, and as yet almost no i n t e r p r e t a t i o n or analysis of her writings e x i s t s i n Western languages. Thus, a biographical sketch may be help f u l to acquaint Western readers with the general events of Enchi's l i f e and work. - 1 -I t i s possible to i d e n t i f y f i v e main conditions of her l i f e which most s i g n i f i c a n t l y affected her writing career: her father's influence; her educational background, esp e c i a l l y the influence of the Japanese c l a s s i c s ; her b r i e f leaning as a dramatist toward communism; her unhappy experience i n marriage and love; and her delicate health. Together these f i v e elements exerted a tremendous impact on Enchi the write r , and while discussing her biography, I w i l l refer to each. Enchi Fumiko was born i n 1905. Her father, Ueda Kazutoshi, earned the epithet "Patriarch of Modern Language Studies" i n Japan. He studied l i n g u i s t i c s i n Germany and returned to Tokyo Imperial University to establ i s h the d i s c i p l i n e of Japanese l i n g u i s t i c s based on modern Western c r i t i c a l theories and methodologies. Fumiko was deeply loved and morally supported by her great father and i n fact seems to have developed something of an "Electra complex," which she probably retained f o r most of her l i f e . Enchi encountered the Japanese c l a s s i c s at an unusually early age, i n her preschool days. She was frequently taken to the Kabuki theatre by her parents and enjoyed hearing her paternal grandmother t e l l various s t o r i e s from eighteenth-century Edo f i c t i o n . With t h i s basic knowledge of the Japanese c l a s s i c s , she started to read The Tale of Genji when she was only ten. Extremely d i f f i c u l t f o r Japanese readers of any age, t h i s work would be a daunting challenge f o r a ten-year-old. But through these ea r l y experiences, Enchi absorbed the Japanese c l a s s i c s and c u l t i v a t e d a precocious s e n s i t i v i t y and i n t e l l i g e n c e . During her high school days, she was captivated by the romanticism of Edgar A l l a n Poe, Oscar Wilde, Nagai Kafu (1879-1959) and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (1886-1965). In 1922, a f a t e f u l exposure to theater art through a lecture delivered by dramatist Osanai Kaoru (1881-1928) plunged her into Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, and contemporary Japanese - 2 -playwrights. When she was seventeen, Fumiko became d i s i l l u s i o n e d with the prescribed education at her women's high school, and a f t e r four years she quit the school, one year short of graduation. Her father was steeped i n Westernized l i b e r a l thought, so he permitted her withdrawal and engaged a B r i t i s h missionary and several prominent college professors to tutor her i n English, French, and the Japanized Chinese c a l l e d Karabun. She continued the lessons u n t i l her marriage at age twenty-five. In t h i s way, Enchi was able to become a modern author who synthesized the s e l f -acknowledged influences of past and present as well as Eastern and Western l i t e r a t u r e . In 1925, when she was twenty years old, she made her l i t e r a r y debut with a play, Hometown (Furusato 1926), which won f i r s t prize i n a contest sponsored by the drama magazine, Kabuki ( ^ ^ f j ^ ) . Following the publication of several more works, her play, A Busy Night i n Late Spring (Banshun soya Bfe#i§-$£j 1928), was staged i n 1928 at the prestigious T s u k i j i L i t t l e Theater. After she became a n o v e l i s t , Enchi's early t r a i n i n g as a dramatist continued to condition her wr i t i n g , influencing such elements as the dialogue and the settings of her novels. Before her marriage, Enchi was attracted to communism, which fascinated many Japanese i n t e l l e c t u a l s at the time. In fact, A Busy Night i n Late Spring, which dealt with a contrast between a conservative a r t i s t and an i d e a l i s t i c s o c i a l i s t , was published i n a prol e t a r i a n l i t e r a r y magazine, Women's Art (Nyonin geijutsu itKzczffi) - However, because her father was wise enough not to object strongly to her i n c l i n a t i o n toward the communist movement, she did not become deeply involved. Her father perceived that she was not e s s e n t i a l l y a s o c i a l a c t i v i s t , and t h i s i n s i g h t proved correct. Through her l i f e , although she touched on c e r t a i n s o c i a l problems i n her works, Enchi's main interest was always directed toward the inner workings of human beings. After her marriage, she gradually - 3 -d r i f t e d away from the communist movement. Fumiko married newspaperman Enchi Yoshimatsu i n 1930. Their married l i f e was never happy, although they had one daughter and were never divorced. Some of Enchi's best and most r e a l i s t i c works describe the s t i f l i n g atmosphere of a home i n which a career-oriented couple lead separate l i v e s under the same roof without any r e a l intimacy. We can see t h i s e s p e c i a l l y i n the t r i l o g y , What Robs the Vermilion (Ake wo ubaumono 1955-56), The Wounded Wing (Kizu am tsubasa j ^ ^ g , 1960) and The Rainbow and Ashura ( N i j i to shura &I i n 1935. But, because of t h e i r heavy, i n t e l l e c t u a l s t y l e , her early novels were not well received. The years between about 1937 and 1953 brought Enchi misfortune i n her health, f i n a n c i a l s i t u a t i o n and career. In 1937, her father died. In 1938, she suffered from mastitis and Had to have a breast s u r g i c a l l y removed. During the war, she l o s t her house and most of her fortune, including a substantial l i b r a r y . In 1946, at age forty-one, she suffered from uterine cancer and hovered on the brink of death for four months, af t e r a hysterectomy, an operation which deepened her sense of her impaired femininity. From then on, t h i s anxiety over her femininity was ref l e c t e d i n her works, quite often as a half-mocking self-image revealed through her heroines, one of whom said, for example, "I am no longer a woman. Just a weird monster, neither male nor female" (368) 1. But eventually Enchi r e a l i z e d that women were s t i l l women even though they might have l o s t c e r t a i n physical female a t t r i b u t e s . In f a c t , she discovered a woman's passion might become even stronger i n such a si t u a t i o n , though that passion would no longer emerge i n a healthy way, but rather with a ce r t a i n pathological energy. This physical misfortune forced her to think deeply about the issues of women's l i v e s and led her to explore new themes as a writ e r . In her subsequent works, descriptions of sex became increasingly audacious. For about f i v e or s i x years a f t e r the operation, she experienced - 5 -writer's block and wrote only l i g h t stories for g i r l s to bring i n some money. She continued to write novels, but these were continually rejected by publishing companies. Compared with her easy and successful debut as a dramatist, Enchi the novelist remained i n a slump for a long time. But she did not give up. In 1954, at age forty-nine, she was awarded the Women' Writers Pri z e for a short story, "Poor Days" ("Hiraojii t s u k i h i " Z> h H ) . After that, with her work on The Waiting Years, her talent bloomed. This i s probably because even i f she had experienced "poor days" as a writer, she maintained pride and confidence i n her writing a b i l i t y , as well as i n the l i t e r a r y i n t e l l i g e n c e she had acquired and cu l t i v a t e d over such a long period of time. I t was, I would argue, the above-mentioned f i v e elements—her father's influence, her love for the Japanese c l a s s i c s , her b r i e f leaning as a dramatist toward communism, her unhappy - experience i n marriage and love, and her delicate health—which interacted to produce the novelist Enchi Fumiko. During her l i f e , Enchi produced over t h i r t y - f i v e novels, more than one hundred and f i f t y short s t o r i e s , and a ten-volume t r a n s l a t i o n of The Tale of Genji. In her e a r l i e s t works, such as "Poor Days" and The Waiting Years, Enchi dealt with suppressed or oppressed women, who s t o i c a l l y endured t h e i r painful l i v e s . In her next group of novels, she generally created mysterious women, who re a l i z e d t h e i r hidden, re a l selves by employing t h e i r mediumistic a b i l i t i e s . Such works include "Enchantress" ("Y6" 1956), "Love i n Two Lives: The Remnant" ("Nisei no en: shui" — t t © H fnit , 1957), Masks (Onnamen tcM, 1958), The Orange Blossoms (Hanachirusato jtWiM, 1957-60), Tale of the Mediums (Namamiko monogatari t£ £ £ $Jf§, 1959-65), and A Variation of Komachi (Komachi henso / J\fflr^fg , 1965). Most of the works from t h i s period r e f l e c t her knowledge of and i n c l i n a t i o n toward the Japanese c l a s s i c s , e s p e c i a l l y The Tale of Genji and Edo f i c t i o n or Kabuki. - 6 -Enchi's t h i r d group of novels includes such works as the t r i l o g y , Wandering Souls, (Yukon $fi&, 1969-70), The Mist i n Karuizawa (Sairau ?£fg, 1976), and Chrysanthemum C h i l d (Kikujido M&M, 1982-83). In these, Enchi dealt with characters facing aging, death, loneliness and fear, mainly e l d e r l y women struggling to express t h e i r femininity by using t h e i r supernatural powers. I l l u s i o n , dream and an atmosphere of enchantment often run through these works. The influence of the Japanese c l a s s i c s i s s t i l l evident, but i t i s more subtly assimilated than i n her previous works. In the following essay I w i l l focus on four of Enchi's major works: The Waiting Years, Tale of the Mediums, the t r i l o g y Wandering Souls and The Mist i n Karuizawa. These I think not*only demonstrate Enchi's central concerns as a writer , but insofar as they span the entire period of her career, they reveal the development of her st y l e and wr i t i n g a b i l i t y . They are, i n addition, among her best known and well written wroks. What then are Enchi's concerns i n these works? According to the well-known art h i s t o r i a n , John Berger, because of t h e i r s o c i o l o g i c a l and h i s t o r i c a l experiences, women have come to understand themselves as women i n terms of two constituent yet always d i s t i n c t elements: they see themselves at one and the same time as "the surveyor" and "the surveyed," or i n other words, as subject and object simultaneously (415-16). I t seems that Enchi has the same dichotomized view of women, though she does not e x p l i c i t l y use the terms surveyor and surveyed. She i s concerned with a number of conceptual poles as they relate to women's selves: n a t u r a l -s o c i a l , inner-outer, subjective-objective, private-public, and r e a l s e l f -disguised s e l f . Enchi believes that women possess a true s e l f , which i s natural, inner, subjective, private and r e a l . That s e l f i s innate and independent of the opinions of others, so men have no access to i t . However, the other s e l f — t h a t which i s s o c i a l , outer, objective, - 7 -public and d i s g u i s e d — i s acquired and dependent upon how i t appears to others and ultimately to men. Probably because Enchi was herself a repressed woman, her primary concern was with the f i r s t of these, with the woman's rea l s e l f , which i s usually hidden, or suppressed by society. In her works she t r i e s to cast l i g h t upon t h i s suppressed female s e l f i n various ways. She i s es p e c i a l l y interested i n what happens when, for any number of reasons, the inner s e l f becomes released from suppression and takes on the character of a kind of pathological " s p i r i t force" which acts without r e s t r a i n t , sometimes taking s p i r i t u a l possession of others. In other words, Enchi's main theme i s how the re a l s e l f of a repressed woman comes to a t t a i n l i b e r a t i o n . At the time of release, the hidden, r e a l s e l f , so long suppressed, acquires a twisted, d r a s t i c power, so much so that society i s l i k e l y to perceive i t as dangerous. Therefore, the repressed woman's s e l f which Enchi deals with i s regarded by many c r i t i c s as a form of e v i l karma or obsession always latent within woman—a view colored by Buddhist teaching. Enchi's reputation as an author with an expert a b i l i t y to depict t h i s e v i l feminine karma or latent obsession i s s o l i d l y established. However, she has often claimed that rather than some pot e n t i a l e v i l l u rking only within women, i t i s a hidden part of the inner world of a l l human beings that she i s attempting to write about. I t i s true that Enchi deals with the private obsessions of both men and women, and she does not evaluate those obsessions as good or e v i l . However, she believes that these obsessions are p a r t i c u l a r l y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of women because women have been p a r t i c u l a r l y suppressed by society. By focusing on the suppressed s e l f of the female, Enchi explores c e r t a i n fundamental issues, such as the very meaning of what i t i s to be female, male and human. How then does Enchi understand t h i s hidden force which for her constitutes essential femininity? In one word, I would argue that she - 8 -sees t h i s power as a kind of " s p i r i t f o r c e " — a force of f r u s t r a t i o n , unresponsive to the i n t e l l e c t , to morals or common sense, and a force over which the woman has no control. When the private s e l f has been thoroughly suppressed and i t s desire f o r self-expression reaches i t s peak, t h i s s p i r i t force i s awakened and stimulated to take concrete action i n the external world. Quite often t h i s action takes on a sexual character. At th i s stage, the woman's s p i r i t force and her Eros are united; by expressing her inner s e l f , she recovers her whole s e l f and becomes integrated. This state i s associated with that of s p i r i t possession as experienced by a s p i r i t u a l medium. Thus, the figure of the medium fascinates Enchi. As long as we l i v e i n t h i s world, she believes, we t r y to control our own inner selves, but sometimes we lose control and i n t h i s sense each person possesses a potential s p i r i t force. The phenomenon of s p i r i t possession i n Japan has been peculiar to woman since ancient times. According to Nakayama Taro, t h i s i s because women usually had a more sensitive and h y s t e r i c a l d i s p o s i t i o n than men, and so had more raediumistic p o t e n t i a l . I t was f e l t that a medium who served a god should be a woman, since she was supposed to marry him. Further, from medieval times on, f o r the p r a c t i c a l reason that job opportunities for women were extremely l i m i t e d , serving a god as a medium was one of the rare jobs f o r women (72-73). Therefore, i n Japan, the job of medium has been reserved for women. I t i s here, e s p e c i a l l y i n the unity of Eros and s p i r i t force found i n the medium, that Enchi sees the essential q u a l i t y of femininity. And i n the end, Enchi considers the medium who represents t h i s femininity as a source of l i f e , which men cannot defeat. What led her to formulate t h i s idea? The clue to t h i s seems to l i e i n Enchi's "An Account of the Shrine i n the F i e l d s " (Nonoraiyaki IT 1^3) i n which she presents her unconventional i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of the Rokujo lady - 9 -i n The Tale of Genji through the eyes of the heroine of Masks (Onnamen J£C®> 1958). The Rokujo lady i s the b e a u t i f u l , i n t e l l i g e n t , and sophisticated widow of a former crown prince. She becomes Genji's paramour as a re s u l t of his strenuous courting. She i s very elegant and d i g n i f i e d on the surface and also has high self-esteem and a strong inner s e l f . Because of her jealousy, her s p i r i t takes leave of her body to attack and f i n a l l y k i l l Genji's wife, Aoi. Even a f t e r the Rokujo lady's death, her s p i r i t plays an important role i n the events leading up to the decision of Genji's l a t e r wife, the Third Princess, to become a nun. Therefore, the Rokujo lady i s generally considered to be a jealous, v i n d i c t i v e woman. Commentators see i n her a c l a s s i c i l l u s t r a t i o n of the e v i l karma c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of a l l womankind. However, Genji i s tolerant and forgiving of her behavior, and indeed seems to have p a r t i c u l a r regard for women of strong character such as the Rokujo lady. Enchi defines the Rokujo lady as a female archetype, one who i s the object of man's eternal fear, i n contrast to the archetype of the woman who i s the object of man's eternal love, represented by Fujitsubo, Genji's mother-in-law, and Murasaki, Genji's most beloved consort. Fujitsubo and Murasaki are "women who dissolve t h e i r whole beings i n the anguish of forgiving men, and thereby create an image of eternal love and beauty i n the hearts of the men they love" (52) 2. Enchi believes that the Rokujo lady "possess[es] a s p i r i t of such l i v e l y i n t e n s i t y that she [is] incapable of surrendering i t f u l l y to any man" (50). Inhibited by an a r i s t o c r a t i c upbringing, she "turns unconsciously to s p i r i t possession as the only available outlet f o r her strong w i l l " (51). Because Enchi herself i s a repressed woman, she i s more interested i n the suppressed female s e l f and i t s revelation i n the Rokujo lady. The state of such a female s e l f , when i t i s released from repression to become a s p i r i t u a l presence, i s the state of unity between s p i r i t and Eros. And t h i s condition i s associated with that of a - 1 0 -s p i r i t u a l medium i n the state of possession. I think that Enchi finds t h i s type of strong female inner s e l f inaccessible to men, and thus she uses the Rokujo type and s p i r i t mediums often. Therefore, an understanding of the Rokujo lady and the s p i r i t mediums or shamanesses provides a key to unlock the secrets of Enchi's works. My thesis w i l l attempt, by means of textual i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , to examine how Enchi's protagonists express t h e i r r e a l selves and a t t a i n release or l i b e r a t i o n from suppression. For t h i s purpose, I w i l l analyze each work i n terras of four major elements: characters, s t y l e , structure, and the influence of the Japanese c l a s s i c s . I w i l l also discuss the influence of the Western languages and l i t e r a t u r e s on Enchi's w r i t i n g . The influence of the Japanese c l a s s i c s i s strongly related to Enchi's main theme of feminine release, and so i s p a r t i c u l a r l y important i n understanding her works. In p a r t i c u l a r , Edo f i c t i o n , including Kabuki and The Tale of Genji, affected her at a fundamental l e v e l . In the Edo period (1603-1868), especially i n the l a t e r years, there arose a culture of grotesque decadance, dense sensuality and masochism i n the confined world of the Japanese f e u d a l i s t i c society. Strong emotions, suddenly released from repression and often accompanied by bloody images, were often expressed i n Edo f i c t i o n and Kabuki. We can f i n d s i m i l a r tendencies i n Enchi's works, espe c i a l l y i n her e a r l i e r writings. This s t y l i s t i c tendency I w i l l r e f e r to as the Edo-fiction grotesque or masochism. What of the influence of The Tale of Genji? Judging from the fact that Enchi translated i t into modern Japanese, we can e a s i l y imagine how much t h i s work fascinated her. She borrows some c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the female characters and of the protagonist, Genji, and some s i m i l a r p l o t s , techniques and s t y l e i n her own works. Most s i g n i f i c a n t i s the Rokujo lady, who gives Enchi an insight into the essential q u a l i t y of femininity, the unity of s p i r i t and Eros. As has been mentioned, Enchi establishes two archetypes of women: the woman to be loved by men, and the woman to be feared by men. In The Waiting Years, the heroine i s a fearsome woman, and i n Tale of the Mediums, the heroine i s lovable. This black and white dichotomy i s , of course, based on a male point of view, even though Enchi's purpose i s to write about an independent female s e l f . In Wandering Souls and i n The Mist i n Karuizawa, however, the heroines are neither vengeful nor lovable women, and I would argue that i n these works Enchi moves toward a more balanced depiction of women as human beings. In her l a t e r works, the l i b e r a t i o n of Enchi's heroines i s connected with the Rokujo lady's form of self-expression, her soul's wandering o f f , and the Heian court world. Enchi seems to conceive a fantasy world, or even a source of salvation i n the l i t e r a r y world of The Tale of Genji. She seems to have a desire to escape from her i n c l i n a t i o n toward Edo culture even though emotionally rooted i n i t . Therefore, i n her l a t e r works, the Edo-fiction s t y l e tapers o f f , while her i n c l i n a t i o n toward Genji continues. In her l a s t two works, women's inner selves are expressed by the fusion of unconsciousness and consciousness, and the fusion of i l l u s i o n and r e a l i t y . Through the heroines of those works, readers are led to the other world, which i s related to the Heian court era. In contrast to the great influence of the Japanese c l a s s i c s , Western languages and l i t e r a t u r e s did not greatly a f f e c t Enchi, although some c r i t i c s point out the Western influences i n her works. Indeed, Enchi often uses foreign loan words, c i t e s foreign authors' words and poems, mentions names of the protagonists of Western novels, touches on Western a r t s , and so on. Esp e c i a l l y i n her l a t e r works, such as Wandering Souls and The Mist i n Karuizawa, i n which a fusion between i l l u s i o n and r e a l i t y takes place, she employs Western references as one element to express the co n f l a t i o n of East and West. However, these a l l u s i o n s are b a s i c a l l y - 1 2 -decorative. The influence of the West remains s u p e r f i c i a l i n her works. As for Enchi's characterization, since she i s fascinated with the f i c t i t i o u s worlds of Edo f i c t i o n , or Kabuki and The Tale of Genji, her characters are based on prototypical characters drawn from other f i c t i o n a l works. As a r e s u l t , except f o r a few heroines who seem to be p a r t i a l l y i d e n t i f i e d with the author, they do not possess a strong sense of r e a l i t y as human beings. In other words, Enchi creates her l i t e r a r y f i c t i o n on top of other f i c t i o n s , and t h i s i s why her l i t e r a r y world i s more or less a r t i f i c i a l . This a r t i f i c i a l q u a l i t y i s also related to the fact that there are not many scenes from nature i n her works. Even though she describes natural scenes, quite often nature functions merely as a backdrop. This may have something to do with the urban environment she was brought up i n . However, i n her l a t e r works, there are more natural scenes, and Enchi's way of dealing with them becomes a b i t more "natural." Since she has a great deal of knowledge about Japanese c l a s s i c s , Enchi's vocabulary i s r i c h . In general, her s t y l e i s well-controlled and rather firm, for she often uses Chinese loan words and phrases which give to her w r i t i n g a q u a l i t y of r e s t r a i n t and an academic a i r . To balance t h i s , she also occasionally uses c o l l o q u i a l vocabulary. Once i n a while she i n j e c t s daring and sensual expressions i n the midst of a well-mannered s t y l e , which function to shock the reader. Kamei Hideo c a l l s t h i s tendency "discordant aesthetics" or hacho no b i (®£|lJ