The Bridge of Dreams by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
"The Bridge of Dreams" is a novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that explores complex themes of memory, desire, and familial relationships through the lens of a young boy named Tadasu. The story unfolds in a tranquil setting at "Heron's Nest," a traditional Japanese home in Kyoto, where Tadasu experiences the loss of his mother at a young age. Following his father’s remarriage to a young woman who resembles his deceased mother, Tadasu grapples with deep feelings of attraction and guilt toward his stepmother, which he later seeks to understand in a confessional memoir.
As Tadasu navigates his conflicting emotions and familial dynamics, the narrative delves into the impact of childhood memories and the psychological complexities of his relationships. The tension escalates with the unexpected pregnancy of his stepmother and the subsequent death of his father, leading to a turbulent adulthood marked by a three-way relationship with his new wife and stepmother. The novel culminates in a shocking turn of events that forces Tadasu to confront unresolved feelings and the haunting nature of his past. Through its intricate storytelling, "The Bridge of Dreams" offers rich insights into the human psyche and the intricacies of love and loss within a Japanese cultural context.
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The Bridge of Dreams by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
First published: "Yume no ukihashi," 1959 (English translation, 1963)
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1920's
Locale: Kyoto
Principal Characters:
Otokuni Tadasu , the narrator and son of a well-to-do familyTsuneko , his stepmother, who takes his mother's place and nameHis father , a reclusive patron of the artsChinu , his motherSawako , his wife
The Story
Tadasu is a young man who loses his mother at age five. When his father remarries three years later, the boy is encouraged to rekindle his Oedipal relationship with his young new stepmother. He is both obsessed and guilt-ridden about his attraction to her, so he tries to understand his feelings in the form of a confessional memoir, which he writes years later.
Tadasu's memories of his real mother are those of a young child: her bosom and the feminine smell of hair oil. She suckles her son, as many Japanese mothers do, longer than Western mothers, and this forms a close erotic attachment. They live a quiet, secluded, and comfortable life in a traditional Japanese house called "Heron's Nest" with a large garden in the suburbs of Kyoto. (Virtually the entire story takes place in this tranquil villa.) His father seldom ventures out to his bank, enjoying the garden and its pond, concentrating his attention on his wife Chinu.
This domestic tranquillity is shattered when Chinu dies suddenly from an infected womb early in a pregnancy. The family mourns her loss for nearly a year. Then Tadasu's father brings home a young woman who plays the koto for them. She gradually becomes a presence in the household, so Tadasu is not surprised when his father announces his intention of marrying her. Only much later does he learn that his stepmother was apprenticed as a geisha at age eleven and bought by a cotton merchant at age fifteen; they divorced when she was eighteen, and two years later she married Tadasu's father. Tadasu never discovered how they met.
Tadasu suspects in his memoir that his father wanted the new wife to look and act like his lost mother, and in fact Tadasu has difficulty recalling where one left off and the other began because the two women resembled each other so much. One evening his new mother calls him into her room and cuddles him as his mother had, opening her kimono and letting him play with her breasts. He sucks her nipples, but of course there is no milk. Tadasu finds it more and more difficult to remember his real mother's face and voice, or the touch and smell of her body, as he substitutes his new mother.
Years later, when Tadasu is about nineteen, his stepmother unexpectedly becomes pregnant. His father becomes morose as he remembers his first wife's death, although the baby is born without incident. When he returns from school one day two weeks after his brother's birth, however, Tadasu is shocked to discover that he has been sent out to the countryside for adoption. Neither parent seems bereaved, and they explain that Tadasu is the only child they need. Upset, Tadasu tries to find his baby brother but gives up and becomes resigned to the situation.
A few days later, there is an incident that haunts Tadasu for years to come. His stepmother is lactating, but with no child to suckle, she uses a milking device to relieve the swelling. Tadasu accidentally comes across her in their garden pavilion. Now nearly a man, he is embarrassed at her nakedness but impulsively accepts her offer to taste her milk, nursing for half an hour, then running off guilt-ridden. He is disturbed by his actions and tries to understand why she put herself into such a position. He thinks his father may have encouraged it to draw the two closer together, however shameful their actions might be. Despite his guilt, he later is drawn back to her.
Tadasu soon discovers that his father is suffering from a terminal illness, tuberculosis of the kidneys. His stepmother devotes herself to his care as the disease steadily disables him. Before he dies, his father plans a marriage for Tadasu with the daughter of their gardener, a most unsuitable arrangement in the eyes of their relatives, who suspect that Tadasu and his stepmother have committed incest. They also suspect that his father wants the marriage to cover up this situation.
Soon after his father dies, Sawako, the gardener's daughter, begins paying regular visits to Tadasu and his stepmother, and a three-way relationship forms. Eventually the marriage takes place but without enthusiasm on Tadasu's part. During and after his honeymoon, he makes sure his new wife does not become pregnant. The three seem to settle into a quiet life in the small world of the Heron's Nest, but it is shattered by the sudden and suspicious death of Tadasu's stepmother.
One evening when his new wife is massaging Tsuneko's legs, a centipede crawls on her drowsy form and bites her. She dies of shock a few hours later. Tadasu is horrified by this sudden turn of events. He harbors unexpressed feelings that his wife may have deliberately placed the poisonous insect in her mother-in-law's bed, feelings that have motivated him to write his memoir. His unconfirmed suspicions and lack of love for Sawako lead to an expensive divorce and the sale of the Heron's Nest. He seeks out his young brother, who reminds him of his dead stepmother, and there the memoir ends, the two living together in 1931.