Feminism in Japanese Literature
Minako Oba’s renowned short story The Smile of a Mountain Witch addresses the intersection between gender and ethnicity. Oba uses the story as a medium to reveal the societal expectations imposed on Japanese women in a patriarchal society. The mountain witch, our poor protagonist, tries to adapt to changing ideals set by those surrounding her. Throughout the story, she takes on multiple highly gendered roles, includi an obedient daughter, a submissive wife and an affectionate mother. Her needs to fulfill others’ expectation shows that her self-worth depends on what others think of her.
Female speech is seen as a subversive force in Japanese traditions and legends. In the Japanese myth about Izanami, Izanami speaks before her husband when performing the ritual for giving birth to her child, which causes her child to be dysfunctional and “cast out to sea (Hansen, 154). Izanami’s tragedy shows the danger of uncontrolled female speech. The protagonist’s ability to read mind and blurt out things on her mind is an example of unrestrained female speech. As the protagonist learns the social expectation that women should not blurt out whatever is on her mind and only says what pleases others, she starts to restrain herself from saying whatever she desires. She “became quieter” because she realized that “when [she] say whatever is on [her] mind, people give me unpleasant looks, so [she] decided not to speak out any more” (Minako, 197). Her suppression of her true self and only speak whatever others want to hear is a symbol of obeying social orders and restraining her true nature.
The protagonist’s struggle is shared by many women. Because the patriarchy is modelled on Confucianism ideology, man is seen as the centre of a family and society often requires women to serve men. In The Analects, women are often compared with servants. Likewise, in Onna Daigaku, Kaibara Ekken advocates women to submit to their husband. Nowadays, workplace participation of women still remains low compared to that of men. According to the Japan Times, even after the introduction of the equal employment opportunity law, working women still complain about the glass ceiling as they “occupy a mere 9 percent of managerial positions in private-sector firms”. Many Japanese women also leave their jobs because of maternity and start to assume a caretaker role in families. The protagonist in Minako’s story is often swayed by her husband’s impulse and predilections. For example, the protagonist’s husband expects her “to be a substitute for his mother” and she willing agree to this request because she thinks that “woman was gratified by the man” (Minako, 199). The worth of the protagonist is determined by those surrounding her instead of herself. She “assumes whatever behavior was expected of her … not only towards her family, but toward anyone by whom she wanted to be liked.” She is always trying to please those around her, especially her husband.
The story is “about the resentment and dreams of many generations of women” (Oba, as cited in Hansen).
If you are a mountain witch, how would you like to spend the rest of your life?
