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Romanticism In Tattooer

Decent Essays

Much of the post-romantic literature in Late Meiji Japan openly went against the strict and traditional Meiji Civil Code. Romanticism became widespread at the hand of Kitamura Tokoku, a poet who took his own life just like his romantic literary heroes. Unable to be with his true love and tied to an unhappy marriage under the Meiji Civil Code, he took his own life and sparked a wave of suicides of many young people in similar situations. The freedom to love and tensions between obligations to the nation and individual desires became important issues that were addressed by many influential authors, including Tanizaki Junichiro and Natsume Soseki. Freudian psychology is a large theme in much of Tanizaki Junichiro’s works, and “Tattooer” is no exception. Written in 1910, “Tattooer” revolves around a masochistic tattoo artist in the Tokugawa era who transforms a young, timid geisha in training into someone more confident and powerful. The pro-feminist attitude does not correspond to the Meiji Civil Code, which treats women as property (Handout #6). The tattooer sees past the girl’s shyness, and shows her pictures of masochistic females in which she discovers her “secret self” (Tanizaki 165). This indicates that she was unconsciously suppressing her true nature to meet the expectations of society. “Terror” also touches upon this issue in a slightly different manner. The main character, who has railroad phobia, is forced to ride an electric car to register for his conscription

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