Post by Kyra Benjamin on Nov 5, 2015 5:49:09 GMT
This story went in a direction I was not expecting, but didn’t go as far as I thought it would once it made that turn. The love in this story although you could see it was really subtle in that Victorian era “the love that dare not speak its name” manner. Maybe it’s the nuance of the story especially since in his method, Mangiku as an onnagata (I’m not sure if the applies to kabuki as whole) expresses emotion through bodily gestures and not so much the spoken word; but his love was not concretely and openly stated and Masuyama’s was only made slightly more known in my opinion. Also, maybe because he’s the protagonist and has been around Mangiku the longest, I feel kind of bad for Masuyama up until what he did at the end.
I interpret an onnagata being the illicit child between dream and reality in two ways. The first is in the sense of love and homosexuality. Masuyama said that when in Mangiku’s harem people felt more aware of their own masculinity and that there was not another man in there and Masuyama says that being in dressing rooms similarly surrounded by actual women he felt nothing like that. Although knowing that they are of the same sex, people who see the onnnagata feel the attraction and sensation as if they were the opposite. In this sense you could say that although a male, Mangiku as a “true onnagata” is an alluring object of desire that embodies the ideal woman, the dream. The reality, though, is that actualizing these desires of yearning for another man is difficult and maybe unacceptable. But an onnagata kind of makes this dream possible despite the reality.
tl;dr Everyone is gay (dream) but you’re not allowed to be gay (reality), but the onnnagata being a man in the form of a woman is a loophole of sorts and this sidestep of the rules is illicit. (But I don’t know how Japan handles homosexuality and this is void if it is not handled negatively.)
My other interpretation of this is in a social sense; there is a defined role and sort of hypermasculinity men must adhere to in Japanese society, they are expected to look and behave a certain way (reality). This probably for some places an intense amount of pressure and as they say the grass is always greener, so there are probably some who desire to be relieved of the role/be a woman (dream). A true onnagata as Masuyama said keeps the act of being a woman both on and off stage, but I don’t think their being a male or at least their position/rights as man is denied, so you could say they have the best of both worlds. This is illicit though because they don’t fit directly into either role and things that can’t be definitely discerned are not usually well received. Like how Kawasaki developed ill feelings towards Mangiku because he couldn’t figure him out.
Question: Masuyama joined the world of kabuki to free himself from his obsession and “taste genuine disillusionment.” Do you think he actually freed himself and does he regret this decision?
I interpret an onnagata being the illicit child between dream and reality in two ways. The first is in the sense of love and homosexuality. Masuyama said that when in Mangiku’s harem people felt more aware of their own masculinity and that there was not another man in there and Masuyama says that being in dressing rooms similarly surrounded by actual women he felt nothing like that. Although knowing that they are of the same sex, people who see the onnnagata feel the attraction and sensation as if they were the opposite. In this sense you could say that although a male, Mangiku as a “true onnagata” is an alluring object of desire that embodies the ideal woman, the dream. The reality, though, is that actualizing these desires of yearning for another man is difficult and maybe unacceptable. But an onnagata kind of makes this dream possible despite the reality.
tl;dr Everyone is gay (dream) but you’re not allowed to be gay (reality), but the onnnagata being a man in the form of a woman is a loophole of sorts and this sidestep of the rules is illicit. (But I don’t know how Japan handles homosexuality and this is void if it is not handled negatively.)
My other interpretation of this is in a social sense; there is a defined role and sort of hypermasculinity men must adhere to in Japanese society, they are expected to look and behave a certain way (reality). This probably for some places an intense amount of pressure and as they say the grass is always greener, so there are probably some who desire to be relieved of the role/be a woman (dream). A true onnagata as Masuyama said keeps the act of being a woman both on and off stage, but I don’t think their being a male or at least their position/rights as man is denied, so you could say they have the best of both worlds. This is illicit though because they don’t fit directly into either role and things that can’t be definitely discerned are not usually well received. Like how Kawasaki developed ill feelings towards Mangiku because he couldn’t figure him out.
Question: Masuyama joined the world of kabuki to free himself from his obsession and “taste genuine disillusionment.” Do you think he actually freed himself and does he regret this decision?