Post by Justin Yu on Sept 17, 2015 19:19:58 GMT
Sakaguchi Ango's "In the Forest, Under the Cherries in full Bloom" was a fictional account about the past in which the sakura blossoms drove people mad. Ango's main character, the mountain bandit, chose the mountains near the sakura trees as his residence and his trap for unsuspecting travelers. As strong and bloodthirsty as he was, even the bandit strayed clear of the blooming trees. How could such a fleeting, beautiful Spring phenomenon bring such unease? The answer is in the question.
Sakura blossoms are beautiful, short-lived phenomenon in the Spring and bring many visitors to them in the areas they are planted. But, as stated before, these blossoms are very short. Sakura stand as a testament to the transient nature of the seasons and of life. And this transience has led to the association of the blossoms to both beautiful and swift death. This connection is particularly shown in 春のじせい or "Spring Death Poems," in which the Sakura are associated with fleeting life. This association led some people to avoid lonely Sakura blooms as in Ango's short story. All travelers including the hardy bandit avoided the lonely blooms as they feared the "infinite emptiness" of the falling petals (Ango, p 205). And yet their was one character who was not particularly scared of the Sakura blooms: the beautiful woman.
The beautiful woman was willing to go to the blooming trees when the bandit went and held no actual care to the petals when they were walking through them (although she was too busy being choked to death through some part of it). The willingness to enter through the Sakura was probably due to her strong connection to what the blossoms stood for. The woman had beauty akin to the Sakura petals as well as a strong connection to both death and the emptiness created by the sakura. This was foreshadowed by Ango in his description of the woman after she orders the murder of the other wives. After the deed, the bandit looked at her and "felt a wave of uneasiness" that he could ignore as "her beauty had sucked the soul right out of him" (Ango, p 191). And she continued to show her resemblance to the fleeting Sakura as she continuously ordered the swift beheadings of many mansion heads and priests. As the bandit continued to do these deeds, he began to feel emptier and emptier, much like the emptiness of the Sakura blossoms. It was because of this that he even wished the sky to fall to end the infinite emptiness. If it was not completely certain she was a metaphor for the forest, when the bandit was carrying her in the forest, the woman changed into a demon in the bandit's mind.
Although the accounts of the beautiful woman were grotesque at times, the overall story was pretty enjoyable to read. Ango's colloquial writing style (or at the least more colloquial than the other stories) created a story that did not require multiple reads to understand why the Sakura blossoms were scary. As a question, who was the old wife/maid supposed to represent?
Sakura blossoms are beautiful, short-lived phenomenon in the Spring and bring many visitors to them in the areas they are planted. But, as stated before, these blossoms are very short. Sakura stand as a testament to the transient nature of the seasons and of life. And this transience has led to the association of the blossoms to both beautiful and swift death. This connection is particularly shown in 春のじせい or "Spring Death Poems," in which the Sakura are associated with fleeting life. This association led some people to avoid lonely Sakura blooms as in Ango's short story. All travelers including the hardy bandit avoided the lonely blooms as they feared the "infinite emptiness" of the falling petals (Ango, p 205). And yet their was one character who was not particularly scared of the Sakura blooms: the beautiful woman.
The beautiful woman was willing to go to the blooming trees when the bandit went and held no actual care to the petals when they were walking through them (although she was too busy being choked to death through some part of it). The willingness to enter through the Sakura was probably due to her strong connection to what the blossoms stood for. The woman had beauty akin to the Sakura petals as well as a strong connection to both death and the emptiness created by the sakura. This was foreshadowed by Ango in his description of the woman after she orders the murder of the other wives. After the deed, the bandit looked at her and "felt a wave of uneasiness" that he could ignore as "her beauty had sucked the soul right out of him" (Ango, p 191). And she continued to show her resemblance to the fleeting Sakura as she continuously ordered the swift beheadings of many mansion heads and priests. As the bandit continued to do these deeds, he began to feel emptier and emptier, much like the emptiness of the Sakura blossoms. It was because of this that he even wished the sky to fall to end the infinite emptiness. If it was not completely certain she was a metaphor for the forest, when the bandit was carrying her in the forest, the woman changed into a demon in the bandit's mind.
Although the accounts of the beautiful woman were grotesque at times, the overall story was pretty enjoyable to read. Ango's colloquial writing style (or at the least more colloquial than the other stories) created a story that did not require multiple reads to understand why the Sakura blossoms were scary. As a question, who was the old wife/maid supposed to represent?
