Abe Kobo was a
literary genius, a perfect writer whose plays, novels, lyrical poems were read
by everyone and put on stage. The way he wrote and the way he described each of
his characters gave him an international acclaim and fame, lots of literary
awards and prestige. He was simply one of his kind. His main literary genres
were fiction and drama, but we mustn’t forget he was a very versatile person,
he wrote an electronic music, he directed plays he wrote, he dealt with high
tech, he was omnipresent everywhere where technological innovations were
portrayed. He loved technology, he loved being up-to-date. He hated injustice
and suffering, therefore even though he had never become a medical doctor – he
had a great interest in medicine and medical science. His characters are
reasonable, individuals who are against crime, war, suffering and pain, they
blindly believe in order, law and reason of its sake. His novels do not reflect
the typical Japanese ones, nonetheless, they are interesting, most of them
absorb Western patterns – modernity of perception, opposite to Japanese. His
fascination of Western world didn't blind him completely, he loved Japan , and
consequently put his traditional Japanese play in theaters. He revolutionized it. In his plays he tried to show and visualize how difficult interpersonal
relationships might be, how difficult is to reach the mutual understating and
harmony, how unfulfilled sexual desire leads to emotional abyss … in the theaters all these were very difficult issues to talk to, to show around. His
language has to reach to general audience, has to be simple enough to be read.
Kobo loved people, he didn't allow himself for diversification – this social
group is good, the other one inferior – in his perception all were “equal”-
naturally equality doesn't mean – parallel at all, some will quarrel that equality has got some stages – more or less equal, more or less privileged,
more or less gifted – but still “equal”. He always tried to challenge the
audience by the controversy of the topics he showed or by its simplicity – that
might have been taken as an ignorance. Again – it was all the matter of
perception … . Abe dealt with existentialism, harsh reality of human existence,
the system – the communism that ruled Japan – forced some certain sets of behaviors, certain fragility of writing, sensitivity and shrewdness – by
metaphors writers avoided censorship. Without a cloud of doubt he didn't like
the system, he violated against socialism, the system that imprisoned people,
didn’t allow them for decent living. The freedom is forbidden, the freedom must
be disguised, otherwise the individual will ease to exist. Abe was a genius,
but, he was not alone – his creativity was enhanced by his wife whom he
respected and love till the rest of his life – Yarnada Machi not only designed
the covers of his plays, books, but also helped him to write and help him to
create masterpieces, her imagination was immerse, without limits – it went
beyond the system she had to live in. I do imagine myself a communist Japan,
the censorship, the plays, the words the authors fight for, the imagination to
present a lie in disguise, I also lived in the system of limitations and
endless propaganda, as was Japanese people, the archaic Japan of Meji era was
so yearned for … modernity and system
changed it, it was so hard to follow. The sexuality and sensuality of the
relationship and marriage were his favorite topics, the understanding, the forgiveness, agreement, and truthfulness built it, according to Abe, all of
them were essential. The existence of the human being in post-war Japan is
marked by the stigma of lost of traditional Japanese values in the name of
western patterns, by the stigma of lost war, Japan surrendered itself, lost
Emperor, it eased being an empire, the nuclear bombs drops changed Japan
forever, the futuristic literature emerged, its symbol is well-known –
Godzilla. The self-being shaped the human life, the “self”- stood for being
lone, alone, selfish, alienated, self-cantered and hostile … Abe’s characters
reflects all these adjectives. His language is traditional, even though, he doesn't present traditional topic, the body language speaks for itself … the body
had got language, the body avoids being censored. It must be mentioned –
Japanese language (alike, English or French) changed, yet, Japanese the most,
it is obvious why it happened, Japan was an isolated for centuries, so was the
language and its cultural origins, the XIX and XX century changed the grammar, lexical and
phone structure, namely, the written and spoken forms of Japanese language were
unified and simplified. It is how Japanese language looks like today. Therefore
there is a different perception of the narrator and the reader, the plot and
the writer who creates it. It is more dynamic, more rhythmical, more vivid. The
live presented in his novels is different, it is an urban life, which is fast,
the pace of life makes the distance between people in love, the life forces
them to priorities what is more or less important, what is the most important,
the technology which meant to bring people together – does opposite, check
people’s credibility and their independent thinking. People live among certain
community, within a system they try to cheat. His novels are very picturesque, the
countryside is rape and juicy, the cherry trees stunning, the Fuji Mountain Japan
is rough, severe, edgy and plain. Very often the main characters of Abe novels
are the dreamers, who dreams of a new life, of a new hope and a second chance
to start their existential ongoing, the big cities appears as a “dream land”
which helps to achieve dream goals, the trip (often overseas) is a light at
the end of the tunnel – it also gives hope and new something – “something
unknown” doesn't mean better …. Fortunately or not people catch the catch and
migrate, start new life in a new place. The modernism that appeared represents
freedom; freedom of choice, freedom of decision – making (I will move from
place to place), the city represents law and order, the modern city of Japan
represents the system – socialism. His drama plays focus on individual, unhappy
characters which have to stand against the norms, against the whole society ( the
perfect example of an alienation and the attempts of escapism from the hopeless
situation, standing against the community is the novel “The Woman of the
Dunes”). His characters to live and to thrive must find their own way of how to
live in a hostile world, they created a language they speak, unfortunately, they
talk, but don't understand what they want to convey. The language is like a
shield, it protects, it alienates people one from another, it stands against
the order, the cities which created spaceships between people. Abe’s characters
fight with the order, more they fight, more they lose. Order is like sand from
“The Woman of the Dunes” it is omniscient and undefeated, it is everywhere.
Allegory rules the leading themes of his novels, it is an interaction between
the writer and the reader. His plays are coded, he was a member of Japanese
Communist Party for a very long time, when he was finally expelled from it, he
more openly violated against the system, he supported the Hungarian independent
movements, was prejudiced and blocked. He withdrew from social life and become
isolated. Abe believed that the
isolationism and problems with interpersonal relationships lay directly in
human psycho, technology partially is responsible for that, weak mentality
which gave up made people victims of technology – the consequences are as
follows – people are lost and confused, they lost their identity, they are
looking for certain values which seemed to disappear long time ago. Existentialism
in Abe’s novels touches the complexity of choice – taking responsibility of
what had been said, done – in order to acclaim an order; mental, social
stability, a place in the society or even aside of it. Always the main
character faces some obstacles to achieve social order, always he comes across
some burden far too heavy to move on … the protagonist destiny is hopeless,
powerless and constant violations of social rules. The most important for protagonists
is a sense of duty.
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