崎山多美の「くりかえしがえし」
Sakiyama Tami’s “Kurikaeshigaeshi” [Over and Over]
JAPANESE TEXT:
Sakiyama, Tami. “Kurikaeshigaeshi.” Kurikaeshigaishi. Tokyo: Sunagoya shobō. 1994. 7–140. Print.
1. Introduction
“Kurikaeshigaeshi” was published in 1994 by Sunagoya Shobō. The novella is about the fictional Hoori Island, a deserted island where unusual secret ceremonies used to be held. When the island became deserted, the ceremony vanished. Yonamine, the narrator and protagonist, works with Motomura, a researcher and former island resident, to publish information about the island’s secret ceremony. As they work together, their relationship deepens, and the meaning of the secret ceremony becomes clear. Based on Sakiyama’s experiences, the story explores the meaning of ritual, the ways of transmitting history, and the possibility of revitalizing an extinct community.
2. Character List
Yonamine 与那嶺
Yonamine (her given name is never mentioned) is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She lives on the Okinawa main island and is thirty-one years old. Working at Photo Forest, a magazine specializin in black and white photography, Yonamine is the editor for a special edition about Hoori Island, a project she has dreamed about doing for years. When she was five, she had a strange experience. From that time, she began thinking about Hoori Island. During college, she joined the photography club, which focused on photographing Hoori Island. During that time, Yonamine became romantically involved with Gushiken Kaoru.
Motomura Shunpei 本村俊平
Motomura lives in Kayō, a section of Gushi Village, which became part of Nago City in 1970. He used to live on Hoori Island and has been the leading researcher on the secret ceremonies of the island. He is also the author of Hoori Island’s People, the first published book about the island. Motomura assists Yonamine in her work on the special edition about Hoori Island, and they develop a strange romantic relationship.
Gushiken Kaoru 具志堅薫
Gushiken was the leader of the photography club that Yonamine joined in college. During that time, he and Yonamine were in a romantic relationship. When they broke up, Gushiken gave her all his negatives and a book by Mircea Eliade. Many years later, Gushiken met a female singer at a club called “Nami.”
Miyara Nanami 宮良七美
Nanami was a priestess on Hoori Island, and her mother was the high priestess. She is now over forty years old. Years ago, she told Motomura about the secret ceremony, in violation of an island taboo, and when the villagers found out, she had to leave the island. Although uncertain, Nanami is probably the singer who worked at the folk song club “Nami” and became friends with Gushiken.
Miyara Uto 宮良ウト
Uto is Nanami’s mother and the last high priestess on Hoori Island. When she died, many of the secret rituals died with her.
Motomura Morimatsu 本村盛松
Morimatsu is Motomura Shunpei’s uncle. He provided much information about Hoori Island but is now dead.
Nakaoji Zenzō 仲尾次善三
Nakaoji is about seventy years old and was a fisherman on Hoori Island. Because he now has dementia, Yonamine has trouble getting information from him. Instead, she talks with his wife.
Zenzō’s wife 妻、おばぁ
Zenzō’s wife tells Yonamine about the time she unexpectedly met Nanami on Okinawa’s main island, many years after Nanami left Hoori Island.
Kayo-chan 加代ちゃん
Kayo-chan is the secretary at Photo Forest and has a friendly relationship with Yonamine.
Yamashiro, Toma, and the Editor-in-Chief 山城、当間、編集長
These are the employees of Photo Forest, including the editor-in-chief, who is also the company president. As the company’s situation deteriorates, Yamashiro quits because he plans to get married and wants a more secure job.
3. Plot Summary
Section 1-2 (8-10)
This section introduces Hoori Island and explains secret ceremonies had been passed down for generations before the island became deserted. When people vacated the island, however, the ceremony died out.
Section 3 (10-2)
Yonamine recalls her connections to Hoori Island: Twenty-six years ago, when she was five, Yonamine saw her grandfather, who was from Hoori Island. However, she later found out that he was already dead. Before the island population declined, her grandfather had left Hoori Island and moved to Koza on the Okinawa main island.
Section 4 (12-20)
When Yonamine was in college, she went to Hoori Island with the photography club, which Gushiken Kaoru organized. Yonamine and Gushiken were romantically involved. When Yonamine was on Hoori Island, she surprisingly found a man at a shrine. The man noticed her and said, “Na…mi…,” but when he saw Yonamine’s face, he ran off.
Section 5-8 (21-46)
Four years after graduating, Yonamine started working at Photo Forest and dreamed of doing a special edition on Hoori Island. Shortly after starting work on the project, she is informed that the company is in danger of going bankrupt. One day, Yonamine went to Motomura Shunpei’s lecture about Hoori Island’s secret ceremony, but Motomura changed his mind and decided to keep the ceremony secret. Just before graduating, Gushiken met a woman who worked at a club called “Nami.” As a result, Gushiken and Yonamine broke up. When they did, Gushiken gave Yonamine all his negatives and a book by Mircea Eliade signed by Motomura. Yonamine decides that returning the book to Motomura will allow her to ask him to help with the special edition on Hoori Island. After two visits, however, Yonamine cannot get Motomura to cooperate.
Section 9 (46-9)
Rumors spread that information about the secret ceremony was leaked. Yonamine heard from Motomura’s Uncle Shigematsu that the villagers suspected Nanami and Motomura were to blame.
Section 10-12 (49-66)
The editor-in-chief hands Yonamine a magazine about Hoori Island. An article in the magazine mentions a phrase from a ryūka, a traditional Okinawan song. Yonamine believes the song is the same one she heard at Motomura’s house. To find out, she visits Motomura’s house for the third time and asks about the song. Motomura tells her that the song is “Hijibushi” and that the woman singing on the tape is Miyara Nanami. Yonamine also convinces Motomura to cooperate in providing information for the special edition on Hoori Island.
Section 13-18 (66-110)
Yonamine visits Nakaoji Zenzō, an older man who lived on Hoori Island but now has dementia. After failing to communicate with him, she talks with his wife and asks about Miyara Nanami. Later, while waiting at Motomura’s house, Yonamine finds a detailed manuscript that describes the secret ceremony. Motomura returns home and takes Yonamine to the sea, where they have sex on a rock off the coast. Back at his house, Motomura tells Yonamine about Nanami and his past. Yonamine returns to the office and realizes that the editor-in-chief has not come to work for eight days. Suspecting that the magazine is in financial trouble, she rushes back to Motomura’s house, hoping to speed up the publication.
Section 19-20 (110-26)
Motomura and Yonamine climb a small mountain. A thatched roof hut reminds Yonamine of the shrine on Hoori Island. Motomura and Yonamine have sex in a way that seems to mirror the secret ceremony. The next day, Motomura tells Yonamine about his guilt about revealing the island’s secrets and then running away. He also tells her about meeting Nanami once after the incident at Koza. Motomura thinks that Nanami wanted to explain the lyrics of “Hijibushi,” which has a significant line about something being repeated “over and over.” After hearing Motomura’s explanation, Yonamine goes back to the office.
Section 21-25 (126-39)
When Yonamine arrives at the office, the editor-in-chief announces that the company will go bankrupt soon and that the special edition on Hoori Island cannot be published. Yonamine goes to Motomura’s house, but he has left, leaving behind the ashes of manuscripts he burned in the yard. After Yonamine returns to the office, Kayo-chan gives her an envelope from Motomura. A note explains that he was waiting for Yonamine but that after discovering that Photo Forest was going bankrupt and that the special edition would not be published, he left. The note also explains he is giving Yonamine his completed manuscript, which is also included. Yonamine returns to Motomura’s house to make sure of his true intention, but he is nowhere to be found.
Commentary:
Background information is provided early in the story, but the plot becomes more interesting in the middle as readers are drawn into the complicated relationship between Yonamine and Motomura. As they struggle to understand the secret ceremony of Hoori Island, they become entwined in a complex relationship that mirrors the ceremony. Another element of suspense in the novella is whether the facts about the ceremony can be discovered and recorded in the magazine. Although Motomura and Yonamine seem to reproduce the ceremony in the woods unconsciously, they fail to understand the meaning thoroughly or to leave behind a published record.
4. Setting
Although “Kurikaeshigaeshi” focuses on Hoori Island, most of the story takes place in Naha and Kayō, where Yonamine and Motomura live on the Okinawa mainland. The fictional island Hoori is located in the eastern Nansei Islands, and from the descriptions, readers can surmise that the island is Aragusuku Island, also called Panari Island. Hoori and Aragusuku are about the same size, and both islands had secret ceremonies.
Aerial view of Aragusuku Island
The time of the story could be more explicit. However, in Nantō shōkei, one of Sakiyama’s collections of essays, Sakiyama writes that the story was based on her experience. From this, readers can surmise that the setting is before 1994. Aragusuku Island became deserted around 1953, shortly after the secret ceremony was discontinued.
Location of Aragusuku Island
Sakiyama writes about Aragusuku Island and its secret ceremony in “Akamata Kuromata no yoru,” an essay in Nantō shōkei. In the essay, Sakiyama explains that the secret Akamata Kuromata Ceremony usually could only be seen by people living on the island but that she had the opportunity to witness it. She explains that two gods appear at an utaki (sacred site) on the island in the ceremony. One of the gods, Kuromata (black man), symbolizes darkness, and the other god, Akamata (red woman), symbolizes the islanders’ passion.
5. Point of View
The entire story is told from the perspective of Yonamine, the narrator and protagonist. Yonamine, however, is extremely passionate while also needing clarification about the meaning of the island, so readers can only sometimes rely on her perspective. Motomura, of course, has more information about the ceremony, but he is reluctant to share that information with Yonamine, so readers are left in the same position as her. In this way, the limited point of view puts the reader in the position of an outsider who must struggle with Yonamine to discover the island’s secrets.
6. Symbolism and Imagery
Plants
In “Kurikaeshigaeshi,” plants often represent a character’s emotion or situation. At the beginning of the story, Yonamine sees kusatobera on Hoori Island. In flower language, kusatobera represents “first love,” “secrets,” or “keeping promises.” Yonamine and Gushiken get involved in a romantic relationship entwined with the secret ritual and their struggle to honor the island’s taboo about the secret. Akō (or “stranger fib”) is another plant that often appears. The tree often appears around Motomura, symbolizing his dark emotions, such as guilt and regret. On Hoori Island, the akō’s stem reminds people of the female genitalia.
Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return
Mircea Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return appears several times in “Kurikaeshigaeshi.” This fascinating book discusses the meaning of rituals in primitive societies, but Sakiyama sees the book as being relevant to understanding Okinawa’s remote communities, too. In the story, Yonamine and Motomura try to record information about the secret ceremony on Hoori Island, but they fail. However, they reproduce the ceremony in an attempt to remember the island. In this way, the book symbolizes the need to re-enact rituals to recreate the community’s meaning.
“Hijibushi”
The word “kase” which appears in the lyrics of “Hijibushi,” has two meanings in Japanese: 1) a tool used to spin yarn, and 2) shackles. The word describes Nanami’s situation of being bound by Hoori Island while also being a priestess who must spin the stories that preserve the island’s culture.
7. Cultural Background
Aragusuku’s Secret Rituals
Aragusuku had a ceremony called Akamata Kuromata in which villagers prayed for a good harvest. Preparations for the ceremony took a week, and the ceremony itself lasted three days. During the ceremony, islanders were prohibited from going out, and taking pictures or recordings and discussing the ceremony were also forbidden. In 1953, the island became deserted, and the ritual vanished. According to “Hisai no haikei,” there are two reasons why the ritual was kept secret: first, the ritual was close to god, and second, the Shuri royal government made the Akamata Kuromata Festival illegal in 1768.
Panariyaki
Panariyaki is the original pottery of Aragusuku Island. Invented about 200 years ago, the pottery is made by mixing in the powder of shells. However, even today, details about the manufacture and history of this pottery are clouded in mystery.
8. Criticism
Gushiken, Arata. “Sakiyama Tami kenkyū: aidentitī gengo no nijūsē o meguru kattō” Okinawa International University Graduate School. 16-25. 2006.
According to Gushiken Arata, Sakiyama’s island stories present two themes related to island life: “spiritual reliance” and “shackles.” These themes are especially evident in “Kurikaeshigaeshi.” Yonamine is intensely conscious of Hoori Island and is ambitious to publish a special edition about Hoori Island. Similarly, Motomura is the author of Hoori Island’s people and aims to reveal information about the secret ceremony while providing academic analysis. In other words, they rely on the island to get ahead in their professional lives. However, both of them fail.
On the other hand, the cancellation of the publication means that the ceremony might still be reproduced in the future. If the special edition had been published, the secret ceremony’s holy efficacy would have been lost, as the taboo would have been violated. One of the reasons the ceremony must be secret is its sexual nature: a woman from the island and the male god engage in a sexual ritual. In a sense, Yonamine and Motomura try to re-enact the ritual. At the end of the story, Motomura leaves the house and the village behind like a shadow surrounded by the forest. Motomura’s absence reminds us of the male god after the ritual. In this way, readers understand that the secret ceremony can still be re-enacted.
9. Themes
Ritual and Oral History
As the title “Kurikaeshigaeshi” [Over and Over] suggests, repetition and reproduction are necessary for ritual and oral history. The novella focuses on Yonamine’s attempt to recreate or preserve the secret ceremony that has already vanished. Motomura and Nanami tried to record information about the ceremony, but the islanders kicked them out. After that, Hoori Island became deserted, and the ceremony vanished. Yonamine and Motomura try to publish information about Hoori Island’s secret ceremony, but the company goes bankrupt before publishing the special edition. Interestingly, as Yonamine and Motomura work together on the special edition, they seem to re-enact the ceremony without being fully aware of what they are doing. Regardless, the ceremony, and by extension, the island community, seem destined to vanish.
The Restrictions of Living in an Island Community
Different people have different impressions of living on a remote island. Some feel the island is their identity, but others feel the island limits their freedom. In this story, Nanami, the successor to the high priestess, breaks the secret ceremony’s taboo and leaks the information to Motomura. Because of that, she has to leave the island, the ceremony vanishes, and the island becomes deserted.
Nanami was the successor of the high priestess on Hoori Island, but she broke the island’s taboo and cooperated with Motomura to record information about the ritual. Nanami cooperated with Motomura on the condition that he return to Hoori Island. Perhaps she was hoping he might become a priest so the island could survive. At the same time, her request makes clear that she is unable to escape the attraction that the island has on her.
The song “Hijibushi,” sung by Nanami, is a Ryukyuan love song. The word kase, which appears in lyrics, has two meanings in Japanese: one is “a tool one uses when spinning yarn,” and the other meaning is “shackles.” Combining these two meanings, readers can understand that Nanami’s role of “spinning” the island’s rituals and maintaining the secret ceremony has also shackled her and prevented her from being free.
When Nakaoji’s wife met Nanami, she didn’t want to talk about Hoori Island or the story of when her mother’s death because she felt her action led to this result. In addition, when Nanami meets Motomura after leaving the island, Nanami says she has nothing to say to Motomura about Hoori Island. Her silence suggests she is still trying to escape the shackles of the island—even fifteen years after leaving the island behind.
10. Discussion Questions
1. Why does Motomura refuse to cooperate with Yonamine at first? Why does he change his mind later?
2. Why does Yonamine want to publish a special edition on Hoori Island? What does she think the publication will accomplish?
3. Why does Yonamine always visit Motomura at night? What does Sakiyama want to suggest?
4. How does Yonamine and Motomura’s relationship change through the story? In what ways does their relationship relate to the island’s secret ceremony?
5. What do the lyrics of “Hijibushi” express?
6. What is Nanami’s role in the story?
7. At the end of the story, does Motomura break up with Yonamine for good? What does the ending suggest?
8. If the special edition on Hoori Island had been published, what would have been the impact on the island and its former residents?
9. What event or events does the secret ceremony try to recreate? What is the true meaning of the ritual?
10. What does Sakiyama’s story teach us about rituals or life in remote communities?
11. Works Cited
Gushiken, Arata. “Sakiyama Tami kenkyū: aidentitī gengo no nijūsē o meguru kattō.” Master’s Thesis. Okinawa International University Graduate School. 16–25, 42–9. 2006.
Hasegawa, Ikumi. “Yamino nakani ukabu shima” [The island floating in the dark]. Tokushu kenshou sengo okinawabunngaku tekusuto heno shikaku. Aug. 1997. 129–35. Print.
“Hisai no haikei” [Background of the Secret Festival]. Apr. 2004. <http://ameotoko.travel.coocan.jp/note004.htm>.
Okamoto, Keitoku. “Shudai toshiteno shima” [Shima as a subject]. Appendix. Kurikaeshigaeshi. Okinawa: Sunako shobō, Mar. 1994. 42–6. Print.
Sakiyama, Tami. “Akamata kuromata no your.” Nantō shōkei. Tokyo: Sunagoya shobō. Oct. 1996. 90–1. Print.
---. “Kurikaeshigaeshi.” Kurikaeshigaishi. Tokyo: Sunagoya shobō. 1994. 7–140. Print.
---. “Machi no hi ni.” 1979. Print.
---. “Shimagomoru.” Tokyo: Bungei shunshu. Dec. 1990. Print.
---. “Suijō ōkan.” Bungakukai. Tokyo: Bungei shunshu. Apr. 1989. Print.
Original report by Kumi Kawai. Edited and revised by Kasumi Sminkey.