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 Analysis of author's choices in Twilight Crane

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Twilight Crane’s author Junji Kinoshita (1914–2006) bases this example of contemporary Japanese theater on the Japanese folktale “The Crane Wife.” Yuzuru (Japanese title) was first presented in 1949. Due to increased wartime censorship, he had departed from more traditional historical/contemporary themes and began to develop a new genre of folk plays. Which was poking fun at the corruption that modernization was having on Japanese values, specifically how man’s new found greed is destroying the environment around them. Kinoshita along with others received national awards for the portrayal of this corruption, and in 1952 when the play was again performed, turned the play into a true classic. This national love for the play showed how, at the time Japanese values were placed dearer to the heart than western ones.

Later however, Kinoshita and Twilight Crane would come under fire due to what was viewed as an extreme leftist conservative ideology. In the early 1980’s a school textbook company which had been planning to use the play for an elementary level text succumbed to political pressure to remove the selection--due to both the selection itself and the author’s reputation at the time. Opponents of the play objected to its  “anti capitalist” theme. It came very close to being banned because of all the heat it was getting, but because of press articles and public protest did his play not get banned.

the Meiji Restoration of 1868 came to be identified with the subsequent era of major political, economic, and social change—the Meiji period brought about the modernization and Westernization of the country.  Although the economy still depended on agriculture, industrialization was the primary goal of the government, which directed the development of strategic industries, transportation, and communications. The first railroad was built in 1872, and by 1890 the country had more than 1,400 miles of rail. Telegraph lines linked all major cities by 1880. Private firms were encouraged by government financial support and aided by the institution of a European-style banking system in 1882. Those efforts at modernization required Western science and technology, and, under the banner of “Civilization and Enlightenment” Western culture, from current intellectual trends to clothing and architecture, was widely promoted.  In turn, Japan became a more capitalistic society.

During this period of the “Taisho democracy”, Japan had enjoyed record breaking economic prosperity, with more money to spend, more leisure time, better education, supplemented by the incoming mass media. It undermined traditional values to some extent, overshadowing Japanese values with things like efficiency, independence, materialism, and individualism. The relationship with nature became strained as people focused more on capitalistic gain.  Things that Kinoshita was poking fun at in the original version of the “Twilight crane”. These values easily turned people corrupt, forgetting all about Japanese values, we can see these modernized values manifest in Unzo, Sodo, and Yohyo as they exploit Tsu for her clothe in the version we read.

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The Twilight crane  is a story that follows a couple and the sorrowful end to their relationship. This is  due to external forces pushing a  capitalist agenda to their once modest and loving relationship.  However it also tells a deeper story within the surface one. This second story is an allegory of the exploitation of nature itself and this concept is being portrayed through our characters and their interactions. Twilight cranes contain a lot of symbolism. The  play is  adapted from a Japanese folk-tale by Kinoshita Junji, it’s about a crane who becomes the wife of a mortal man out of love and gratitude for saving her life, but she is later harmed by her husband's greed for money.  Our global issue was “The exploitation of nature due to capitalistic greed”.  Junji uses symbolism, repetition, ellipses, and metaphors to convey the theme of “man’s greed destroys nature”.  Symbolism is prevalent throughout our chosen scene.  In Japanese culture, the crane is a well-known symbol of honor and loyalty.  Tsu represents an honorable and loyal person in that she loves and cares for her husband.  Her loyalty is displayed in lines like “I wanted to stay with you forever, forever but… Yohyo, I want you to keep one of these pieces and treasure it because it is woven with my heart!” Even after finding out that Yohyo peeked on her sewing, Tsu only wants to express her loyalty and love.

Within the play itself there are two main characters and two secondary characters with the background characters being the small children that sing their song. The first story tells of a simple man named Yohyo and his humble wife Tsu their relationship is beautiful and sweet, however trouble begins to brew with the arrival of the two greedy men Unzu and Sodo. These men witness Yohyo with a beautiful piece of fabric that could sell for a lot of money.  The fabric was a gift from  his wife. Unzu and Sodo plot how they're going  to get the fabric to the capital so they can sell it for good money and make themselves rich.  They go to Yohyo and persuade him to sell this beautiful fabric and because they do this it causes a chain reaction to happen causing Tsu to leave Yohyo in a tearful goodbye and leave him devastated that he had lost his love. The underlying story speaks about the aforementioned  exploitation of nature due to greed. Tsu in this context portrays nature and Yohyo, Unzu, and Sodo portray human  greed. In our scene Yohyo waits for Tsu to finish making the new pieces of cloth after he peaked on her making them. When she finally comes out he is happy to see the two clothes were woven beautifully, she finds out that he had peeked on her while she was making the cloth and so she realizes that Yohyo knows her true identity which is a crane. When she finds out  this news she is devastated. We know this because of the ellipses the author, Kinoshita,  frequently uses ellipses to convey emotion throughout the text.

Ex. “Tsu. Yohyo… you watched me weave after all.” (156)

Ex 2: “After all my entreaties, after all our faithful promises … Yohyo, why did you look after all?”  The ellipses give off a feeling of disbelief and disappointment, Since Tsu represents nature, her disappointment can be compared to the betrayal nature succumbs to at the hands of humans.  Nature doesn't ask anything of us, it simply exists. Tsu never asked for anything except love, it was only until Yohyo fell victim to greed and capitalism that she had to sacrifice parts of herself for his selfish desires   and felt betrayed. In this moment Tsu parallels nature. Just like Tsu , nature has been betrayed by humanity because humans have not followed the rule of taking what is needed but not all. Yohyo broke Tsu’s rule and betrayed her by looking into the weaving room. He also just like humanity took more than he should. This greed caused the destruction of their once harmonious relationship just like the greed of humanity caused the inharmonious  relationship it has with nature. As yohyo realizes the destruction his feelings are  portrayed by the author by using repetition. Towards the end of our page, repetition is used frequently

Ex 1: “ Yohyo.  Tsu, hey wait, just wait, i'll go with you, hey Tsu, Tsu!”

Ex 2:” Yohyo.  Tsu, Tsu, Tsu! Where have you gone?  Hey Tsu… hey…hey…Tsu yo, Tsu yo.”

Analysis: The repetition of Tsu's name and “hey” shows Yohyo's panic and regret.  Yohyo realizes the gravity of his actions, he lost his great love with Tsu just because he was tempted by the promise of money. We decided that it would be very important for Yohyo  to display panicked and desperate emotion when reading these lines.