Sakaguchi Ango “Under Cherry Tree in Full Bloom”

Sakaguchi Ango was an essayist and poet, his writing was marked by atrocities of the Second World War. He was twelfth from all thirteenth siblings. His father was a politician, a poet and a journalist and founder of a newspaper. He died when Ango was 18 years old. He started to write work as a teacher, he graduated University at the age of 25 mastering in Indian philosophy. During the war he wrote, spoke openly about political changes, the war itself. His mother died in the middle of the ongoing Second World War. He wrote mostly mysteries, farces. All his stories are short but rich in notion. A novel “Under Cherry Tree in Full Bloom” was published gradually in a form of essays. The plot of “Under Cherry Tree in Full Bloom” tells the story of a criminal, who all his life did not fear of anything, the fear was his companion and friend, they always united in misfortunes. Now he is scared to death, the fear is hyper-strong, overwhelms him to the winters bones. He has lots of wrong things done, he murdered the husband of a very beautiful woman and made her his wife, to her surprise she is not the only one, in the mountain cottage, the man has seven other wives.

“...From the moment he killed the husband, the bandit felt there was something weird going on. This time wasn't like the others: something was strange, though he couldn't tell what. But he was not one to dwell on things ...”

Full of rage and hatred he forces him to kill the women – agrees to leave only one to become a maid.

“...He leaped at the wife in a single bound and cut her down where she stood. But he had no time to catch his breath. ‘Now this one!’ screamed the woman. ‘Kill this one next!’ ...”

He feels over-dominated by the woman – the strange woman he married “The charred shred of an idea stayed within him: She mustn't find out what I am thinking “. 

He wants to go to Kyoto, yet, she wants to go with him, as well, she tempts him, and teases him, telling him;

“... with Your strength you could surround me with the stylish things of the capital that I crave...”

Eventually, he agrees and takes her with him, she loves smart and posh clothes, she adores looking splendid and beautiful, posh. All things she posses were stolen, the luxury he is having is fake and illusion. It doesn't matter to her, she simply wants more and more and much more;

“...She was impossible to please …”

“...And she would In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom 11 scream at him if he so much as touched her kimono with his hands caked in mud or dripping with the blood of animals. Her kimonos were her life, it seemed, and protecting them her mission. The space around her had to be spotless, and the house kept in order. Nor could she be satisfied, like the others, with a simple rob and narrow sash. She wanted lots of kimonos and many sashes – sashes she could tie in strangely shaped knots, with the ends dangling down for no good reason ...”

When they return back home, he feels something strange had happened, he knew his wife, his choice he made became his curse, he carries her on his back but something forces him to turn and look at her, and then he is petrified;

“...The man saw that clinging to his back was a huge-faced old woman with purple skin. Her mouth gaped open from ear to ear, and her hair was a frizzled mass of green. The man began to run. He tried to knock the demon from his back, but the strength of her grip increased. Her hands dug into his neck; his eyes were growing dim. He was wild now. He pulled the demon’s hands apart with all the strength he had, and as his neck slipped out of her grasp, he felt her slide down his back and tumble to the ground ...”

The demon he wanted to kill appeared as a young vulnerable woman, the Evil or Devil is transient, changes it structure may be transparent or simply vanish in the air. The symbols tells the story itself, petals of cherry tree symbolizes rebirth, hope, and time which passes by, the petals will fade away, the same way the fear went away and left the man weak and full of doubts;

“... The woman had vanished, leaving petals in her place. And as he reached out to part the mound of petals, his hand, his arm, his body vanished. The space filled with petals and with frigid emptiness, nothing more ...”