Hototogisu • Nami-ko

Plot Summary:

Hototogisu is a best-selling Japanese melodrama published by Tokutomi Kenjiro in the early 20th century.  

This is a story set in the Meiji-era that examines the conflicting nature of new social norms and historical tradition. Two noble families must re-evaluate the marriage of Takeru and Namiko, who, although brought together by love, are tragically stricken with Namiko's diagnosis of tuberculosis and the ill-will of other family members.

Familial Pressure -- 

In the publication But There's Your Mother and Your Work, Ken Ito discusses the difference between katei and ie, one reflecting a newer belief that prioritizes warmth and domesticity within a family, and the latter perceiving family as an institution. This is a key factor to the melodrama within Hototogisu. 

Tradition has it that the daughter-in-law shall move into the husband's home to care for the home with the mother-in-law. Despite maintaining tradition and caring for the home, Namiko is disliked by her new mother, Madame Kataoka who envies the love that Namiko and her son share for each other. Knowing this, Namiko still chooses to live with her and desperately tries to please her. Nami, described as "a flower blooming in perpetual shade," is given a cold shoulder to the woman who's respect she'd like to attain the most. Perhaps she dreams of living in a katei, through the warmth of love, with the gentleness of her own father and husband.

Catherine Russell mentions in Insides and Outsides: Cross-cultural criticism and Japanese film melodrama that the "unspeakable realm of desire is an emotionally charged expression of national identity... and is displaced into a discourse of excess." Namiko and Takeru are happily in love, yet it is this very desire for each other that almost feels taboo and conflicts with the idealistic katei and obligation-driven ie. Namiko is often described through her sentimental actions toward Takeru's possessions. In the chapter "On their Honeymoon," it writes,

"The young wife smiled without replying, as she carefully brushed the coat that her husband had taken off, and after having furtively touched it with her lips she placed it in the closet."

There is melodrama within the description of an act that serves as a metaphor for each other's intense desire. It is what is left unsaid that gives voice to the characters deepest feelings and relationship. 

This brings me to my second major point:

The Drama in Realism--

This novel was such a success of its time because of how realistic it felt and resonated with its audience. Peter Brooks calls this the "moral occult," or "the domain of operative spiritual values which is both indicated within and masked by the surface of reality." Although good and evil exists within the narrative, it's possible to sympathize with each character because the narrative makes each character seem very human. Takeru is a symbol of all that is  "good." He saves his cousin, Chijiwa, from public humiliation when he discovers Chijiwa had stolen from him. Chijiwa is practically his foil and would represent the "evil," driven by the desire to make money and be part of a noble family. However, this novel does not paint Chijiwa to be inhumane -- rather, we can sympathize with him when the novel explains the story behind his motives. (As an orphan, he was "forced to realize the sadness of his [own] condition.")

Another example can be pulled from Madame Kataoka's decision to go behind her son's back and divorce Takeru and Namiko. Although this may paint her to be the "evil" within the narrative, she is still quite human and there is melodrama in understanding the motives of her actions. Madame Kataoka is the older generation of the novel, and is more likely to follow traditional customs than her son, a representative of the younger generation. Her motivation to carry out the divorce is driven by her fear of losing the ability to care for her bloodline, her ie, which is what she believes to serve her purpose in life. She tells Takeru in "The Heart of Nami-san,

"Think not only of Nami, but of yourself, head of a family, and of your child... the heir to your name and property... all... all dying of consumption... The house of Kawashima being extinguished!" 

As readers, we are prone to side with the lovers who want nothing more than a happy marriage, yet the narrative becomes all the more melodramatic when we are unable to get what we want because of the "reality" of the situation.