Girls Will Change the World: The Evolution of the Modern Girl throughout Japanese Literature

Girls Will Change the World:

The Evolution of the Modern Girl throughout Japanese Literature

            The cultural evolution of young women in Japan is something that can be traced throughout its literature. Starting from the modern girl of the 1920’s to the hyper sexualized feminist roles of the late 1960’s all the way to the 21^st century girl who embodies a different world from their parents. The early 20^th century brought about a change in the young women of Japan with the influx of Western cultures and the rise of fashion that no longer restricted them to the same fashions as their mothers. The evolution of the role of women throughout the 20^th century has evolved from homemaker in a patriarchal society, where men dominate, to a working class educated young women. In Japan this change is seen through the evolution of the” Modern Girl,” which was coined in the early 20^th century to establish the cultural trends concerning young women in a new century. In Andrew Gordon’s book A History of Japan, Gordon describes the modern girl and how they were perceived by others. Gordon writes, “Unease continued in the excited discussion, mainly by male writers, of the figure identified as the “modern girl” (modan gaaru, sometimes abbreviated moga). She embodied the exhilaration of Japanese modern times and captured much popular attention from about 1925 through the early 1930s. The modern girl was said to be something new in Japan. She was a stylish follower of fashion, proud of her new slim look.” (155)

 

This phenomenon, known as the modern girl, can be traced through two novels that illustrate how they’re perceived in Japanese culture, each taking place during a different era in Japanese culture. The first of the female characters is the titular character in Junichiro Tanizaki’s novel Naomi, through the eyes of the main character Joji the story takes place in the 1920’s Japan when the modern girl makes her first appearance and how Naomi’s role in the novel changes the life of the protagonist. The second character is from Haruki Murakami’s most famous novel Norwegian Wood, the novel’s protagonist Toru meets Midori an outspoken, upfront, no nonsense young women who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Both novel highlights how young women have changed, but they also create a voice for young women in Japan that isn’t normally vocal.

            It’s through this era of Japanese history that author Junichiro Tanizaki introduces his story of a young woman who changes the life of one man. Joji interactions with women throughout the novel are jarring, but many of the novel’s flashbacks allude to how his relationships with women would be disastrous, since Joji has trouble understanding strong female. The novel foreshadows early on to the horror of being in love with a strong, powerful woman though a flashback into Joji’s younger years. Joji says

“When I was in middle school, we learned about Antony and Cleopatra in a history class. As you probably know, Antony engaged the forces of Augustus in a naval battle on the Nile. Cleopatra followed Antony into battle, but when she saw that things looked bad for her side, she immediately turned her ship and fled; whereupon Antony, realizing that the heartless queen was deserting him, withdrew from the battle at a critical moment and chased after her.” (Tanizaki 49-50)

This doesn’t stop his determination to be in a relationship with the woman he desires though out the novel. Naomi is only 15 years old when they meet and although he doesn’t act sexually towards her he does feel himself being pulled towards her. Joji sees Naomi as someone who is different from the traditional Japanese girl, in how she acts towards others and how she presents herself. “Naomi exceeded the bounds of mere liveliness; she was too rough in everything she did. Her speech, supercilious and lacking in feminine gentleness, was often vulgar. In short she was a wild animal,” (Tanizaki 92). Naomi is a tomboy, she has male friends instead of female friends, and she shapes a different view of young women during this time. Although Joji sees Naomi’s true character, he still attempts to shape her into a well-rounded young woman who he would be able to call his wife.

            The novel Naomi, describes a new and rising young female during the 1920’s a young woman who isn’t the same as her ancestors, who creates an allure to westernized appearance as well as high education. She is no longer bound to the restrictions of feudal society where women are to play their part in their home the modern girl can now work and go to school but they can also have more than one male pursuing them and they can flirt back without it being taboo. Before the modern girl Japanese society was still evolving from the Meiji Restoration when the Emperor was given complete power over the country, which brought societal and political changes to Japan. The evolution of the modern girl was born from the influx of western ideals in Japan which changed how the younger generation saw the world they lived in. Naomi as a character was supposed to become Joji’s perfect wife that he molded from a young age, but Naomi as a modern girl was someone who would create a frightening image to the readers of the time period. “The modern girl in Japan was celebrated and feared mainly for her new sexuality,” (Gordon 157). Naomi encompassed this new sexuality by having relationship with multiple men while being married to Joji, even though they never had sexual relations with one another. Tanizaki was in a way showing the people of Japan the true horrors of the modern girl, the modern girl who was tearing at Japanese society. Naomi wasn’t following what the elders of Japan believed a young woman should follow, they were frightened at losing their cultural identity as western ideals took hold on the younger generation.

            Sixty years after Tanizaki wrote Naomi, another author would introduce a generation to another modern girl one that encompassed the liberated woman of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In Haruki Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood, Murakami introduces the reader to several different types of female characters all who interact with the protagonist of the story Toru. Yet the one that is strikingly similar to Tanizaki’s Naomi is the character of Midori, who introduces herself to Toru as “Midori, Green” (Murakami 52). The name Midori in Japanese means green, and before the translation she would have said “Midori, Midori,” instead of the word green. Yet the color does have significance when it comes to the character of Midori because throughout the novel she is in a way “Green with Envy” over Toru’s relationship with Naoko who is a childhood friend, because she can’t have all of his attention because he’s still in love with Naoko. Midori wants Toru to want her and only her so a competing love interest creates an air of jealousy with Midori. Unlike most female characters Midori says what she wants without thinking about how it would look towards others. She’s curious about men, and what it’s like for Toru to live in an all-boys dorm. She’ll go to watch pornographic movies with Toru with an interest in the subject. She once told Toru “But I want to know. This is pure curiosity,” (Murakami 174). On the subject of who guys see when they masturbate. Do they see their girlfriends or are there pornographic images that they have hidden somewhere in their bedrooms, shows that the new modern girl as curious as the boys. The reason why Midori is different is because she’s not afraid of telling Toru these things, or showing off her jealousy to Toru even when he doesn’t understand her feelings.  The significance of her name and how she acts and reacts are some of the many things that draws on this new modern girl.

The subject of sex as well as Midori’s constant curiosity is something that would shock some readers even though it should be typical for others to ask these questions. This may seem shocking to some but this was the norm of the time and even though the subject comes up with every generation Midori’s curiosity was one part of what it was like for young women during the sexual revolution.  In the article from The Japan Times “From sexual liberation to liberation from sex”, author Michael Hoffman writes,

“Not very long ago, well within living memory, parents found their children’s sexual behavior shocking. Sex was so open, so free, so ubiquitous, so uninhibitedly taken for granted. No hiding, no guilt, no confining it against nature within institutional straitjackets like marriage. This was the sexual revolution, brought about by the youth explosion of the 1960s and ’70s, aided and abetted by scientific advances like the birth control pill, which decoupled sex from reproduction and turned it into recreation pure and simple.”

Midori’s openness about the subjects of sex and masturbation is not meant to be shocking but a reality of a changing time. A liberated woman would be curious about multiple facets of her life and shouldn’t be stopped from asking questions. Yet in a world where people still hide behind the surface they become a different person when they get married and raise their own children. Midori is character that is trying to break a mold that was set for her by the times where women were supposed to be fragile like Naoko, yet in the end Midori’s open attitude and her views on her life is what makes her a strong female character. Like Naomi from Tanazaki’s novel, Midori is an attempt to remind the reader that women aren’t meant to be soft-spoken and submissive but strong and willing to break away from what society believes. Midori is meant to show the readers that not long ago their own parents acted in a different fashion, they weren’t content with being molded into being working class normal people. The same can be said about Naomi and the culture of the 1920’s modern girl, they all want to live freely without the consequence of what society wants them to be.

            These two novels have one thing that’s strikingly similar and yet also jarring. Their common thread is that they’re both written by male authors who lived during the time the novels are set, but the main protagonist for both novels are male characters who are changed by these young women. They are awakened sexually, and speak their minds, which shows that while some would paint them in a harsh light these two authors are trying to show how women change those around them when they are strong outspoken characters. There isn’t much of a difference in the modern girl of these two novels and the modern girl of the new millennia.

“In the early twenty-first century, young people obsessed with cell phones, sending text messages, and pictures rather than listening to their teachers, flaunting their sexuality as well as outlandish fashions and hairstyles, were everywhere to be found. But youths – such as the “modern girls” and “modern boys” of the 1920s – who acted differently from their parents (and upset them in the bargain) have been present throughout Japan’s modern history as they have been around the world,” (Gordon 314).

There is already a new wave of modern girl appearing in Japanese literature and like those before them, they are strong characters who play central roles in the story because they are modeled by those growing up in the 21^st century, but also by those who came before them. They will break the rules of their parents and shock the people around them but in the future like those who grew up in the times of Tanazaki’s Naomi and Murakami’s Norwegian Wood they will evolve into the next generation.

Works Cited

Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa times to the Present. Third ed.

New York: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

Hoffman, Michael. "From Sexual Liberation to Liberation from Sex | The Japan Times." Japan

Times RSS. The Japan Times, 16 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 May 2016. <http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/16/national/media-national/sexual-liberation-liberation-sex/#.VyaD3Ef-VOU>.

Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. Trans. Jay Rubin. New York: Vintage International, 2000.

Print.

Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō. Naomi. Trans. Anthony H. Chambers. New York: Vintage, 2001. Print.