Post by Justin Yu on Nov 6, 2015 20:41:35 GMT
“The Izu Dancer” represented a change in thought on the stratification of Japanese society. Through the interactions between the main character, a university student from Tokyo, and the poor “performance-beggars” from Oshima, the young student reached a sort of enlightenment in removing the class distinction between himself and his friends.
The main character is a student who temporarily left college for a sort of “identity moratorium,” in which he traveled south of Tokyo along the Izu peninsula. It is hinted in the story that he is considered to be well-off based on the first interactions between himself and the performers as well as the 50 sen tip he left the old lady from the teahouse (an extremely large sum given the reaction of the old lady). As such he wasn’t on equal terms with Eikichi and the women at the start of their interactions. They were considered “performance beggars” by society and lived by traveling and performing at restaurants and inns along the way (Kawabata, p 144). And yet that mattered little to the main character as they became traveling companions on the way to Shimoda. Originally the main character was after their company because he fancied the dancer of the troupe
but after he realized her age and got closer to the group as friends, he began to see them more like equals. The group began to ask for his company along the road and even invited him to visit them in Oshima when they understood that the main character "was no longer conscious of the fact that they belonged to that low order"(Kawabata, p140). This removal of class distinctions allowed the main character to bond with the group and brought him much sadness when he had to return to school.
The main character is a student who temporarily left college for a sort of “identity moratorium,” in which he traveled south of Tokyo along the Izu peninsula. It is hinted in the story that he is considered to be well-off based on the first interactions between himself and the performers as well as the 50 sen tip he left the old lady from the teahouse (an extremely large sum given the reaction of the old lady). As such he wasn’t on equal terms with Eikichi and the women at the start of their interactions. They were considered “performance beggars” by society and lived by traveling and performing at restaurants and inns along the way (Kawabata, p 144). And yet that mattered little to the main character as they became traveling companions on the way to Shimoda. Originally the main character was after their company because he fancied the dancer of the troupe
but after he realized her age and got closer to the group as friends, he began to see them more like equals. The group began to ask for his company along the road and even invited him to visit them in Oshima when they understood that the main character "was no longer conscious of the fact that they belonged to that low order"(Kawabata, p140). This removal of class distinctions allowed the main character to bond with the group and brought him much sadness when he had to return to school.