Diary of a Mad Old Man: Analysis of Major Characters
"Diary of a Mad Old Man" explores the intricate dynamics within a wealthy Tokyo family, centering on the character of Tokusuke Utsugi, a frail seventy-seven-year-old patriarch grappling with physical ailments and existential concerns. His preoccupation with death leads him to seek a burial site in Kyoto, while his fantasies about his daughter-in-law, Satsuko, reveal a complex interplay of desire and manipulation. Satsuko, a former chorus girl involved in an affair with Utsugi's nephew, utilizes her charm to extract gifts from Tokusuke, highlighting her contentious role in the family. The narrative also features Jokichi Utsugi, Tokusuke's disinterested son, and the familial tensions that arise, particularly between Tokusuke and his daughters, Itsuko and Kugako, who struggle with their father's indifference and Satsuko's unscrupulous behavior. Nurse Sasaki plays a critical role as Tokusuke's caregiver, providing both physical support and emotional companionship. This intricate web of relationships reveals themes of power, dependency, and the often fraught nature of familial love, inviting readers to reflect on the burdens of aging and desire within the context of family loyalty and betrayal.
Diary of a Mad Old Man: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Jun'ichir Tanizaki
First published: Futen rojin nikki, 1961–1962, serial; 1962, book (English translation, 1965)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The early 1960's
Tokusuke Utsugi, the seventy-seven-year-old patriarch of a well-to-do Tokyo family. Impotent, toothless, plump, and continually pained by neuralgia, backaches, and circulation problems, Utsugi is attended at home by a full-time nurse. Long fascinated by visions of his own death and funeral, he journeys to Kyoto to select a fitting burial place. He is increasingly preoccupied with masochistic fantasies involving his daughter-in-law, Satsuko. For her small and grudging favors, he pays with ever more expensive gifts. Even after a series of debilitating seizures in the winter, Utsugi looks forward to spring, the construction of a swimming pool, and walks in the garden with Satsuko.
Satsuko Utsugi, a beautiful former chorus girl. She has been married to Utsugi's son for ten years, and they occupy the second floor of Utsugi's Tokyo house. Although she is the mother of a six-year-old son, Satsuko devotes her days to shopping, classical flower arranging, films, boxing matches, and an adulterous affair with Utsugi's nephew, Haruhisa. Motivated by greed or by emotional generosity, she offers her father-in-law kisses for gifts such as a car, a designer scarf, a purse, and a cat's-eye ring. She is regarded by her sisters-in-law as spiteful, sarcastic, lying, cold, and manipulative and is disregarded by her husband.
Jokichi Utsugi, the only son of Tokusuke. A successful thirty-six-year-old businessman away from home a considerable amount of the time, he is seemingly little interested in his wife and family.
Itsuko, Utsugi's widowed daughter. She lives in the Nanzenji district with her two grown sons, Kikutaro and Keijiro, and has never gotten along well with her father.
Kugako, Utsugi's daughter. When the eldest of her three children wishes to marry, Kugako asks her father for a short-term loan of twenty thousand yen. He refuses her. Not long afterward, Satsuko extracts three million yen from him as the price of a kissing session. Family resentment of Satsuko escalates.
Nurse Sasaki, Utsugi's live-in attendant. She sleeps in the bed next to him all but one or two nights a month. She tends to his incessant pains and administers his medications.