The Face as Mask in the Works of Kurahashi Yumiko
A Focus on “The Witch Mask” (1985)
Auteurs
In this paper, I analyze the peculiar use of the mask in relation to the face in the works of Kurahashi Yumiko 倉橋由美子. The mask in her literature functions as a metaphor for the construction of identity, and yet it is often distinct from the idea of the mask as concealment. Rather, the passage from mask to face and vice versa acquires multiple nuances as the mask adheres to the face both in a metaphorical sense and as an extra layer of skin. I will concentrate on one short story in particular, which stands out among Kurahashi’s works dealing with the mask: “The Witch Mask” (Kijo no men 鬼女の面, 1985). By reflecting on the extensive use of intertextuality, and by taking the concept of jouissance into consideration, I will explore how the personality of the wearer in “The Witch Mask” is affected and what possibilities this transformation offers in terms of the narrative. In my reading, this work deepens Kurahashi’s meta-level reflection on the act of writing, suggesting new possibilities for understanding the construction of (gender) identity.
Primary sources
ABE, Kōbō 安部公房 (1964): Tanin no kao [The Face of Another] 他人の顔. Tōkyō: Shinchō bunko.
ABE, Kōbō 安部公房 (1973): Hako otoko [The Box Man] 箱男. Tōkyō: Shinchōsha.
ENCHI, Fumiko 円地文子 (1957): Onnazaka [The Waiting Years] 女坂. Tōkyō: Kadokawa Shoten.
ENCHI, Fumiko 円地文子 (1958): Onnamen [Masks] 女面. Tōkyō: Kōdansha.
ENCHI, Fumiko 円地文子 (1984): Kikujidō [The Chysantemum Youth] 菊慈童. Tōkyō: Shinchō bunko.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1961): “Kurai tabi [Blue Journey] 暗い旅”. In: Kurahashi Yumiko zensakuhin [Kurahashi Yumiko’s Complete Works] 倉橋由美子全作品３. Tōkyō: Shinchōsha: 29–171.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1963): “Aru hakaitekina musō [A Destructive Dream] ある破壊的な夢想”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 99–102.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1964a): “Sei wa aku e no kagi [Sexuality as the Key to Evil] 性は悪への鍵”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 151–155.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1964b): “Sei to bungaku [Sexuality and Literature] 性と文学”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 149–150.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1965a): “Yōjo de aru koto [Being a Witch] 妖女であること”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 183–184.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1965b): “Nichiroku [Diary] 日録”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 232–237.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1965c): “‘Tsunawatari’ to kamen ni tsuite [The Rope-walking and the Mask] 「綱渡り」と仮面について”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 206–209.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1965d): “Miko to hīrō [The Medium and the Hero] 巫女とヒーロー”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 177–181.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1966a): “Shōsetsu no meiro to hiteisei [The Labyrinth and Negativity of Fiction] 小説の迷路と否定性”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 285–296.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1966b): “Dokuyaku to shite no bungaku [Literature as Poison] 毒薬としての文学”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Watashi no naka no kare e [For Him inside Me] わたしのなかのかれへ. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 299–304.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1985a): “Kijo no men [The Witch Mask] 鬼女の面”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Kurahashi Yumiko no kaiki shōhen [Kurahashi Yumiko’s Mysterious Short Stories] 倉橋由美子の怪奇掌篇. Tōkyō: Shinchō Bunko: 101–108.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1985b): “Kōkan [The Trade] 交換”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Kurahashi Yumiko no kaiki shōhen [Kurahashi Yumiko’s Mysterious Short Stories] 倉橋由美子の怪奇掌篇. Tōkyō: Shinchō Bunko: 129–138.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1988a): “Aki no jigoku [The Autumn’s Hell] 秋の地獄”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Yume no kayoi ji [The Passage of Dreams] 夢の通ひ路. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 55–62.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1988b): “Jidō no yume [The Dream of Jidō] 児童の夢”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Yume no kayoi ji [The Passage of Dreams] 夢の通ひ路. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 40–46.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1989a) Yume no kayoi ji [The Passage of Dreams] 夢の通ひ路. Tōkyō: Kōdansha.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子 (1989b): “Haru no yo no yume [Spring Night Dreams] 春の夜の夢”. In: KURAHASHI, Yumiko 倉橋由美子: Yume no kayoi ji [The Passage of Dreams] 夢の通ひ路. Tōkyō: Kōdansha: 184–195.
KURAHASHI, Yumiko (1998): The Woman with the Flying Head and Other Stories by Kurahashi Yumiko. Transl. by Atsuko Sakaki. New York: Sharpe.
MAGRE, Maurice (1918): La montée aux enfers: poésies. Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier.
MISHIMA, Yukio 三島由紀夫 (1949): Kamen no kokuhaku [Confessions of a Mask] 仮面の告白. Tōkyō: Shinchō bunko.
Secondary sources
BARNARD, Suzanne, Bruce FINK (eds.) (2002): Reading Seminar XX. Lacan’s Major Work on Love, Knowledge, and Feminine Sexuality. New York: State University of New York Press.
BLIN, René (1960): “La Chanson des Hommes de Maurice Magre”. In: Littératures 8, 51–79.
BULLOCK, Julia C. (2010): The Other Women’s Lib: Gender and Body in Japanese Women’s Fiction. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
BUTLER, Judith (1990): Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
BUTLER, Judith (1997): Excitable Speech. A Politics of the Performative. New York and London: Routledge.
COPELAND, Rebecca L., Esperanza U. RAMIREZ-CHRISTENSEN (eds.) (2001): The father-daughter plot: Japanese literary women and the law of the father. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
CORNYETZ, Nina (1999): Dangerous Women, Deadly Words: Phallic Fantasy in Three Japanese Writers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
DUBOSE BRUNNER, Diane (1998): Between the Masks: Resisting the Politics of Essentialism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
FINK, Bruce (1995): The Lacanian Subject. Between Language and Jouissance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
FOWLES, John (1963): The Collector. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and C.
KATANO, Tomoko 片野智子 (2017): “‘Onna no kamen’ wo yaburu toki. Kurahashi Yumiko ‘Kurai tabi’ to shoki tanpen [Wearing the ‘Mask of Woman’. Kurahashi Yumiko’s ‘Kurai tabi ‘and Early Short Stories] 〈女の仮面〉を破るとき－倉橋由美子『暗い旅』初期短編”. In: Modern Japanese Literary Studies 97(0), 49–64.
KEY, Margaret S. (2011): Truth from a lie: documentary, detection, and reflexivity in Abe Kōbō’s realist project. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.
KONPARU, Kunio (1983): The Noh Theatre: Principles and Perspectives. New York; Tokyo; Kyōto: Weatherhill/Tankōsha.
KRISTEVA, Julia (1982): Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Transl. by Leon Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
MAWATARI, Kenzaburō 馬渡憲三郎 et al. (eds.) (2011): Enchi Fumiko jiten [Enchi Fumiko Dictionary] 円地文子事典. Tōkyō: Kanae Shobō.
MCDONALD, Keiko I. (2006): Reading a Japanese Film. Cinema in Context. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.
MOI, Toril ([1985]2004): Sexual/Textual Politics. Feminist Literary Theory (second edition). London and New York: Routledge.
MORO, Daniela (2015): Writing Behind the Scenes: Stage and Gender in Enchi Fumiko’s Works. Venezia: Edizioni: Ca’ Foscari: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-057-0/ (accessed: 30.01.2022).
MULVEY, Laura (1975): “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. In: Screen, 16 (3), autumn: 6–18.
NOGAMI, Toyoichirō 野上豊一郎 (2009): Nō to wa nani ka. Nogami Toyoichirō hihyō shūsei (2) [What is Noh? Collection of Essays by Nogami Toyoichirō] 能とは何か。野上豊一郎批評集成 (下). Tōkyō: Shoshi shinsui.
NOGUCHI, Hiroko 野口裕子 (2003): Enchi Fumiko no kiseki [Enchi Fumiko’s Trajectory] 円地文子の軌跡. Ōsaka: Izumi Shoin.
NG HOCK-SOON, Andrew (2009): “Confronting the Modern: Kōbō Abe’s ‘The Box Man’ and Yumiko Kurahashi’s ‘The Witch Mask’”. In: Criticism 51 (2): 311–331.
ORBAUGH, Sharalyn (1996): “The Body in Contemporary Japanese Women’s Fiction”. In: SCHALOW, Paul Gordon, Janet A. WALKER (eds.): The Woman’s Hand. Gender and Theory in Japanese Women’s Writing. Stanford: Stanford University Press: 119–164.
PARKES, Graham (1987): “Facing the Mask: Persona and Selfin Nietzsche, Rilke and Mishima”. In: Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 20(3), summer: 65–79.
PETTY, John E. (2011): Stage and Scream: The Influence of Traditional Japanese Theater,
Culture, and Aesthetics on Japan's Cinema of the Fantastic. Master’s Thesis, University
of North Texas.
PULVERS, Solrun Hoaas (1978): The Noh Mask and the Mask Making Tradition. Master’s Thesis,
Australian National University.
RESTIVO, Gustavo (2013): Jouissance & The Sexual Reality of the (Two) Unconscious. Ph.D. Dissertation, Aukland University of Technology.
RHINE, Marjorie (1999): “Glossing Scripts and Scripting Pleasure in Mishima’s ‘Confessions of a Mask’”. Studies in the Novel 31 (2), summer: 222–233.
SAKAKI, Atsuko (1992): The Intertextual Novel and the Interrelational Self. Kurahashi Yumiko, a Japanese Potmodernist. Ph.D. Thesis, University of British Columbia.
SAKAKI, Atsuko (1998): “Introduction”. The Woman with the Flying Head and Other Stories by Kurahashi Yumiko. Transl. by Atsuko Sakaki. New York: Sharpe: xiii–xxii.
SAKAKI, Atsuko (1999): “(Re)canonizing Kurahashi Yumiko: Toward Alternative Perspectives for “Modern” “Japanese” “Literature”. In: GABRIEL, Philip, Stephen SNYDER (eds.): Ōe and Beyond: Fiction in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press: 153–176.
SAKAKI, Atsuko (2018): “Atsuko Sakaki on ‘The Trade’ By Yumiko Kurahashi”. In: The Scofield 3(1): 179–180.
SCHWARZ, William Leonard (1927): The Imaginative Interpretation of the far East in modern French literature, 1800–1925. Paris: H. Champion.
TSËELON, Efrat (2001): Masquerade and Identities: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Marginality. London and New York: Routledge.
WALKER, Michael (2005): “Exhibitionism/Voyerism/The Look”. In: Hitchock’s Motifs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press: 164–178.
YASUTOMI, Shin’ya (2006): “The Tale of the Flesh-Adhering Mask”. Transl. by Mark Blum. In: BLUM, Mark L., Shin’ya YASUTOMI (eds.): Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 182–195.
