Ōe Kenzaburō Reading Companion Web Pages

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 1 (Wake / 死者に), p 1 in Eng trans — "expectation"

"expectation" is 「期待」

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 1 (Wake / 死者に), p 5-6 in Eng trans — Sarudahiko (Sarutahiko) and Amenouzume (Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto):

Since Mitsu breaks down into tears when recalling the story of Sarudahiko, it seems that we should pause to look more closely at that story. Ōe appears to present him as a brave sole confronting adversity alone.

Sarudahiko is the only one of the great deities (大神) who is of earth, not heaven. That sets him apart and seems relevant to our novel, perhaps.

Sarudahiko is known for his red-face (and red-bottom, in other words, like a monkey, see Nihon shoki 2:17, Aston 77) and this, obviously, is relevant to our novel.

Sarudahiko goes out to confront the female deity Ame-no-Uzume, who has arrived to clear the way for the descent of the great Piko-po-no-ninigi-no-mikoto (that is his short name!) who himself has been commanded by Amaterasu to descend to the earth and rule it. (See Kojiki 1:38, Philippi 137-38) Sarudahiko is at the cross-roads and his resistance is softened by Ame-no-Uzume baring her breasts and showing her genitals. (She did this earlier, to bring Amaterasu out from her cave. See Matsumae Takeshi, "Origin and Growth of the Worship of Amaterasu" Asian Folklore Studies 37.1 (1978) 1-11.) Ōe's "negotiations" is a good summary of that event. (It is not recounted in Kojiki but is at Nihon shoki 2:17, Aston 77).

After "Piko" establishes authority on the land, Ame-no-Uzume gathers the fish to also pledge loyalty: "Are you willing to serve the offspring of the heavenly deities?" Then all of the fish said as one: "We will serve." Among [them, only] the sea-slug did not say anything. [This, to me seems reminiscent of MEMUSHIRI, the rice-ball scene.] Then Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto said to the sea-slug: "This mouth, a mouth which does not reply!" [This might be relevant to the recurring 本当のこと言おうか refrain.] Using a dagger, she slit its mouth. For this reason, even today the mouth of the sea-slug is slit." (Kojiki, 1:40, Philippi, 143.)

Ōe's drawing a connection between Sarudahiko and the sea-slug is a very interesting reading of the Nihon shoki passages (or perhaps later representations of the myth). It is not the obvious interpretation but it does resonate (Saurdahiko seems to have drowned into the ocean, found rebirth there under different names, but returns from the ocean, and has perhaps become Ame-no-Uzume's husband. Very confusing.)

Pictures:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eEUSTnnfHCc/TMDrlEg9SNI/AAAAAAAAA6k/FafiIZoDGr8/s1600/sarutahiko_x800.jpg
http://www.univie.ac.at/rel_jap/w/images/c/ca/Uzume_sarutahiko.jpg

Info about the myth:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/524582/Sarudahiko
This entry emphasizes the redness of his face and the phallic nature of his nose.

*The wiki on Sarutahiko seems "wrong" to me (as in not similar in primary characteristics to the Sarudahiko manifest in Ōe's mind). It is probably written by aikido enthusiastis and represents their take on this god.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 1 (Wake / 死者に), p 13 in Eng trans — "Late one night in June"

There were riots through May and June to oppose the renewal of the U.S. - Japan Security Treaty. The treaty was nevertheless ratified on June 19, 1960. From the Zengakuren folks themselves, recording the history of that riot:

Upsurge of the 1960 Ampo (Japan-US Security Treaty) struggle

The 1960 Ampo struggle was sparked by the battle in November 27, 1959, in which Zengakuren rushed into the Diet (Parliament) ground, overcoming the brake of JCP [Japan Communist Party]. The movement against the revision of Japan-US Security Treaty gained momentum by the impact of this struggle and reached its climax on June 15 1960 when 5.8 million workers and students rose up for protest actions and 11,000 demonstrators surrounded the Diet building. 1,500 militant students out of general mobilization of 15,700 forced their way through one of the gates and a student of Tokyo University, sister KANBA Michiko, was killed during the clash with the riot police. In spite of this struggle the revised Ampo (Japan-US Security Treaty) was ratified by the Diet at midnight on June 19, 1960, while workers and students surrounded the diet building. As a result Kishi administration fell down. Socialist Party and Communist Party put their power into settling the matter within a framework of parliamentary discussion and procedure with an intention to suppress a huge upsurge of people's angry movement. At the same time, the great struggle of coal miners in Miike, in Kyushu of southern Japan, against mass dismissal was also defeated under the reformist union leadership.

(History of Zengakuren: http://www.zengakuren.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/No.1_Report__History_of_Zengakuren2.pdf)

Michiko Kanba's death continues to be a rallying point. Try searching her. Here's a recent, local example: "Student perspective: Change is in our hands" in OaklandNorth by Ayako Mie, posted March 3, 2010 4:26 pm.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 1 (Wake / 死者に), p 14 in Eng trans — "Shall I tell you the truth?"

"Shall I tell you the truth?" (本当のこと言おうか)— This will be key throughout this text. It comes from a poem. See Chapter titles, Chapter 8, Truth Unspeakable, for the poem and original Japanese phrase. You don't need to read this now, necessarily, but you will have to eventually so you might want to take a peek. This is at the heart of the theme of the work.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 1 (Wake / 死者に), p 18 in Eng trans — "silent cry"

"silent cry" is 「沈黙のうんちなる叫び声」

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 2 (Reunion / 一族), p 36 in Eng trans — Dewey

John Dewey, American philosopher and advocate of democracy, who died in 1952.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 2 (Reunion / 一族), p 37 in Eng trans — Citroen

Here's an old Citroen from 1955:

http://carblueprints.info/blueprints/citroen/citroen-traction-avant-15cv-6h-1955.gif

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 3 (lorem / 一族) — "Remember the madman called Gii, Mitsu?""

Gii in Ōe's 1999 work, Somesault:

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 63 in Eng trans — John Manjiro: see below (p 204)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 67 in Eng trans — [About the priest] "He'd married a teachr from the primary school, ..."

This anecdote seems vaguely aligned with Gail Highttower's unfortunate personal story in Faulkner's Light in August, Chapter 3.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 79 in Eng trans — the musician at the end of this chapter

While reading 'A Silent Cry' I was inspired to look into the musician who's record Mitsu and Taka's sister owned and is playing on p79 right before the end of the chapter. His name is Dinu Lupatti, a man hailed both for having very high technical skill at the piano and a genuine style in his playing. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease soon after WWII and played his last concert, despite severe illness, knowing it would be his last before he soon died in 1950. The piece in 'A Silent Cry' is one of the Chopin waltzes from his final concert. He played all twelve of these waltzes except for #2, which required more energy than Lupatti had at the time.

Here is Dinu Lipatti's 1950 concert performance of the waltz mentioned in the text:

Chopin - Dinu Lipatti (1950) Waltz No 1 in E flat Op 18

And a page from the musical score:

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 83 in Eng trans — Brigitte Bardot

Being someone interested in the fashion industry, I am glad there's the mention of Brigitte Bardot in Ōe's books! ... There's the famous Bardot neckline—a neckline that exposes both shoulders, often on knit sweaters. ... According to this website (http://www.nndb.com/people/815/000023746/) she is a French actress, and arguably the film industry's first sex kitten. She started out modeling at the age of 15, and branched into acting around the age of 18.

The film that made her famous internationally was the role of a nymphet in Vadim's controversial ... And God Created Woman (1956, imdb). "She embodied a natural yet innocent sexuality that was a precursor to the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s." She was also known for her many affairs with men, suicide attempts, racist comments, and support for animal rights.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 83 in Eng trans — expectation

"past expecting anything" is 「何も期待」

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 84 in Eng trans — "Self-service Discount Dynamic Store"

"Self-service Discount Dynamic Store " is in English and all caps

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 4 (Dreams / 見たり), p 87 in Eng trans — "easy stool"

"easy stool" is 楽便品

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 5 (Emperor / スーパー), p 99 in Eng trans — "member of the establishment"

This is a 60s way of talking about authority figures with conservative views and vested interest in the status quo

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 5 (Emperor / スーパー), p 100 in Eng trans — "football"

While I have left "football (フォットボール)" in my translation of the title, I am leaning towards thinking that what Ōe refers to is what Americans would call rugby, although American football was known to Japan at this time. (That is, when the novel was written.) Soccer is lesslikely of the three possible sports because, I think, it has always been called サッカー. However, if we just focused on narrative content, not nomenclature, then soccer is a reasonable choice. American football has a nicely absurd ring to it, though, and it is true that this work imports other unexpected aspects of America and, additionally, Ōe does not eschew the absurd. Seems risky to go there, though. All three sports were in Japan by the 1960s. None were in Japan in the 1860s. Ultimately, it might be that Ōe has left this ambiguous, or, alternatively, that it doesn't really matter if we decide which sport it is.

"they won't so much as look at a football" is, more literally "they probably wouldn't even kick a single ball" (かれらはボールひとつ蹴らないだろう)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 108 in Eng trans — The Sōseki work Natsumiko is reading

Natsumiko is referring to Natsume Sōseki's "Shuzenji Diary (修禅寺日記)." (thanks Virginia!)

And I would like to add that I see some parallels between Sōseki's lamenting the changing values of Japan after the Meiji Restoration and the priest's lamenting that the village has become decadent. A further connection I see in this vein is between Sōseki's concern about Western-style individualism and Bird's (sic) self-awareness of his egoism.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 106 in Eng trans — "when the ying suffers"

"Ying" is a typo for "yin"

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 108 in Eng trans — self-mumification by monks

The self-mummification of the Japanese monks mentioned on p.109 is known as Sokushinbutsu (即身仏). According to Wikipedia:

"For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another 1,000 days, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful. If the monk had been successfully mummified, they were immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing. Usually, though, there was just a decomposed body. Although they were not viewed as a true Buddha if they were not mummified, they were still admired and revered for their dedication and spirit. As to the origin of this practice, there is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned, and that were later lost in China."

(thanks Virginia!)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 116 in Eng trans — "[the young priest] was the same man who had managed to live down all the different stories, ..."

"[the young priest] was the same man who had managed to live down all the different stories,including a malicious rumor that he was sexually importent, that flew arbout the valley following his wife's elopement."

This passage seems reminiscient of the Gail Hightower story in Faulkner's Light in August.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 118 in Eng trans — the young men were kicking the football around ...

This is an example of narrative content that would seem to suggest that we are talking about soccer, not rugby, if we have a specific sport in mind at all. 黙りこんだ若者たちが胸苦しいほどにも真剣にボールを蹴っている。really evokes an image of soccer.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 6 (Strange Sport / 百年後), p 119 in Eng trans — Battle of Leyte Gulf

The battle mentioned on p. 119 refers to the "Battle of Leyte Gulf," considered to be the largest naval battle of WWII, and possibly even the largest in history. It was a battle between combined forces of American and Australian forces against Imperial Japan. It took place in the sea near Philippine islands such as Leyte and Samar from October 23 to 26, 1944. US had previously invaded Leyte to isolate Japan from its colonies in Southeastern Asia, and to cut Japan off its oil supplies. The Japanese Navy lost. The battle was also the first battle in which Japanese carried out organized kamikaze attacks. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf] (thanks Virginia!)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 7 (Procession / 念仏通り), p 126 in Eng trans — Nembutsu dance "I learned from an article by a well-known folklorist ..."

It is not difficult to find examples on this dance online. (Here's one.) Also, some of the basics of the dance are given in Elisabeth Moriarty, "Nembutsu Odori," Asian Folkore Studies 35:1 (1976), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1177647.

No notes yet for Chapter 8 (Truth Unspeakable / 本当のこと).

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 9 (Freedom / 追放), p 176 in Eng trans — "Schopenhauer said, didn't he, that you can squash a fly, ..." Schopenhauer's flies

"Whether the fly now buzzing round me goes to sleep in the evening and buzzes again the following morning, or whether it dies in the evening and in spring another fly buzzes which has emerged from its egg, this in itself is the same thing. But then the knowledge that presents these as two fundamentally different things is not unconditioned, but relative, a knowledge of the phenomenon, not of the thing-in-itself. In the morning the fly exists again; it also exists again in the spring. For the fly what distinguishes the winter from the night?" The world as will and representation, vol. 2 Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J Payne trans.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 9 (Freedom / 追放), p 179 in Eng trans — "It was inscribed with the character 'Mitsu.'"

This is 光: aki / mitsu / hikari are all possible pronunciations of this Chinese character when it appears in personal names. Notice the overlap with his Ōe's son, Hikari.

No notes yet for Chapter 10 (Imagination / 想像力),.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 11 (Power of Flies / 蠅の力), p 205 in Eng trans — "... So I found myself to be my wife's husband and grandson, ..."

Regarding the newspaper article described in the letter, this is a famous, possibly true and possibly fictional situation that's been immortalized in song. Hear the Ray Stevens version here, along with a diagram of the situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw) And Wikipedia has an article about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_My_Own_Grandpa (thanks Lisa!)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 11 (Power of Flies / 蠅の力), p204 in Eng trans — John Manjiro (Nakahama Manjiro)

Manjiro is easy to research on the Web.

When reading a bio of Ibuse Masuji written, I am pretty sure, by Mark Jewel though his name is now off the site, I came across this:

After the Manchurian Incident of 1931, traditional fiction experienced a resurgence in popularity and Ibuse’s individualistic style attracted widespread attention. Both Sazanami gunki (Ripples on the Water: A War Chronicle, 1930-1938) and Jon Manjirō no hyōryūki (John Manjirō, the Account of a Castaway, 1937) portray the lives of ordinary people caught up in the workings of fate; the latter story was awarded the Naoki Prize in 1938. (http://www.jlit.net/authors_works/ibuse_masuji.html)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 231 in Eng trans — "Taka, you're a crazy murderer!"

「鷹、おまえは気狂いの人殺しだ。」[Mitsu] Taka, you are a crazed murderer!

「おれははじめて蜜に、正当に理解されたという気がするよ」[Taka] This is the first time I feel that I have been correctly understood by Mitsu.

「だめだ！だめだ！なぜ、みんな鷹を救おうとしないんだ！これは事故じゃないか！」[Hoshio] No! No! Why doesn't anyone try to help Taka! It was an accident!

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 239 in Eng trans — "It wasn't true what you said, Taka."

This italicized portion is in katakana in the original

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 241 in Eng trans — "Mitsu, why do you hate me so much?"

「蜜、きみはなぜそのようにもおれを憎んでいるんだ？」[Taka] Mitsu, why do you hate as much as that?

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 242 in Eng trans — "Mitsu, why do you resent me so much?"

This is, in the original, an exact repetition of the earlier "why do you hate me so much?"

「蜜、きみはなぜそのようにもおれを憎んでいるんだ？」[Taka] Mitsu, why do you hate as much as that?

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 243 in Eng trans — "split pomegranates"

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 12 (Despair / 希望のうち), p 244 in Eng trans — "I told the truth"

——— オレハ本当ノ事ヲイッタ This is set off as a single line in the original.

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 13 (Retrial / 再審), p 246 in Eng trans — "I awoke in exhaustion and despair."

"despair" is 絶望 in the original

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 13 (Retrial / 再審), p 247 in Eng trans — "the aged horse chestnut"

This is definitely referring to Antoine Roquentin's philosophical encounter with a chestnut tree in Jean-Paul Sartre's existential novel Nausea (1938).

"All at once the veil is torn away, I have understood, I have seen.... The roots of the chestnut tree sank into the ground just beneath my bench. I couldn't remember it was a root anymore. Words had vanished and with them the meaning of things, the ways things are to be used, the feeble points of reference which men have traced on their surface. I was sitting, stooping over, head bowed, alone in front of this black, knotty lump, entirely raw, frightening me. Then I had this vision."

The scholar (Thomas E. Wren, philsophy professor) writes about this:

"This is amazing passage shows how the main character in Sartre's novel, whose name is Roquentin, comes to realize that brute reality is just that, brute and hence ultimately inaccessible to the intellect (which approaches things in terms of categories like "tool" that are features of the intellect, not the things themselves)."

The complete Sartre passage and the full comments by Wren are at: "The Chestnut Tree: The Experience of Contingency" From J-P. Sartre's Nausea (La Nausée, originally published in 1938)

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 13 (Retrial / 再審), p 251 in Eng trans — "wretched little sexpot"

"wretched little sexpot" is 哀れな肉体派の小娘 in the original

万延元年のフォットボール The Silent Cry (Football in the year 1860)

Chapter 13 (Retrial / 再審), p 270 in Eng trans — "he'd succeeded in achieving self-integration, in securing for himself an identity given consistency by ..."

"identity" is in English in the original