Perspectives

Late playwright Inoue's works transform pain of living into reasons to truly live

Yoko Kato (Mainichi)

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama stepped down after it mishandled the issues of politics and money and the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. There must be some readers who during the solemn daylight hours lamented that politics in real life is not "the art of the possible," while at night after a few drinks, made the futile suggestion that the air base be relocated to Hyokkori Hyotanjima (Bottle Gourd Island). I myself overheard this being muttered by different people on two separate occasions.

These grumblings, of course, are a reference to the television program "Hyokkori Hyotanjima" aired on NHK between 1964 and 1969. The program was a masterpiece of puppet theater created by then up-and-coming writer Hisashi Inoue -- who passed away suddenly on April 9 -- in collaboration with Morihisa Yamamoto, a children's book author. Inoue later said that they had tried to employ any and all techniques used in musicals.

Some readers may find it ill-advised to lump the issue of U.S. bases, a symbol of Okinawa's hardships, in with a puppet show. But first, I ask that you reflect on these words that Inoue is said to have repeated: Treat difficult things simply, simple things deeply, deep things with joy, and joyful things with seriousness. Consider also the fact that Inoue's unfinished play, "Ki no Ue no Guntai" (The Troops in the Trees), portrays the fierce fighting that took place in Okinawa during World War II. The tipsy comments linking U.S. bases in Okinawa with Hyokkori Hyotanjima may not have been completely off the mark.

After losing his father at the age of five, Inoue was brought up at a Christian orphanage. His novel, "Yonjuichi-ban no Shonen" (The 41st Boy), was based on his experiences there. The tale takes place in the northeastern city of Sendai, which overflowed with children orphaned by the war. The children at the orphanage create distinctions and build hierarchies based on the misfortunes they bear. Burning with jealousy, they do all they can to bring down others who are the slightest bit more fortunate than they. The story's protagonist, who is 41st in line to wash his clothes, learns the hard way that what is distributed equally is not love or happiness, but misfortune.

Inoue once said in an interview that comedy and laughter differ from sorrow and angst, two emotions with which human beings are innately equipped. He concluded that this was why laughter was the most highly valued of all human acts. Since it was the fate of humankind to feel pain just by living, Inoue made the decision not to cry, but to laugh.

Born in 1934, Inoue undoubtedly bore witness to untold numbers of people who died with regrets. It was the writer's childhood that created the backdrop to the sorrow that could always be felt at the core of his plays, which generated laughter from the comedy inherent in the words themselves.

"Chichi to Kuraseba" (The Face of Jizo) was the Inoue play that likely won over more fans than any other of his works. A decade after it was performed for the first time by the theater troupe Komatsuza in 1994, the play was adapted into a film starring Rie Miyazawa and Yoshio Harada.

The story takes place three years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Mitsue, the female protagonist played by Miyazawa, is a young woman who lost her father and many of her friends to the bomb. Her dead father (played by Harada) appears before her as a ghost, and the play takes place entirely as dialogue between father and daughter in the Hiroshima dialect.

Mitsue has been traumatized by an honest but cruel question posed by the mother of a friend who died from the atomic blast: "What are you doing alive? Why are you alive when my daughter isn't?"

Having read countless memoirs by atomic bomb survivors, Inoue realized that the pain felt by many who survived came from the guilt of having been given the chance to live while others died. Through the words of Mitsue's father, Inoue sought to relieve survivors of their pain.

"Go on living so that the world will remember that tens of thousands of people have had to say goodbye like that and it's inhuman."

Mitsue's father comes back to the world of the living to encourage his daughter to be happy, to let herself fall in love. Inoue sought to offer a cycle of reincarnation in which the dead do not cause pain in the living, but rather help the living to truly live.

The last of Inoue's plays performed before his death was "Kumikyoku Gyakusatsu" (Suite Slaughter), portraying the life of writer Takiji Kobayashi. In an interview in 2003, Inoue explained how he conceived of the play. "Takiji Kobayashi's 'To Seikatsusha' (The Life of a Communist Writer) is one of my favorite books," he said. "The relationship between the Tokko special police forces and an illegal party member can be read as the tale of 'Kurama Tengu.' The police are Shinsengumi (a police force in the late Edo period) members and the illegal party member is an Imperial loyalist."

"Kurama Tengu" is a story about the interaction of the souls of those in pursuit and those being pursued. In the stage performance of Inoue's play, as well, the changing relationship between the policemen played by actors Ryuji Yamamoto and Hajime Yamazaki, and Takiji, played by Yoshio Inoue, became a significant theme. The detectives are taken aback when Takiji carefully reads through and corrects the documents that they have written. They eventually find themselves under Takiji's spell, letting him escape their grip numerous times.

In a memorable scene made even more striking by Yoshio Inoue's deep voice, Takiji talks about the preciousness of words. He says that if you put everything you have into your writing, the words will naturally appear as irreplaceable images on your heart's film projector. And that, as long as we use those images as a guide in moving forward, we will find a way. This was Inoue's parting message to us. (By Yoko Kato, professor of Japanese history at the University of Tokyo)

Click here for the original Japanese story