The Three-Cornered World: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Three-Cornered World" is a literary exploration that delves into the complexities of human relationships and artistic sensibility through its major characters. Central to the narrative is the well-educated narrator, who seeks to reconnect with nature and his artistic essence by escaping the distractions of urban life. He finds inspiration at the Shioda family inn, where he encounters O-Nami, the innkeeper's daughter. O-Nami's tumultuous life, marked by an unfulfilling marriage and subsequent eccentric behavior, captivates the narrator and sparks a unique connection between them. The character of the village barber adds a local perspective, revealing the community's view of O-Nami's unconventional actions and her controversial past. O-Nami's cousin, Kyuichi, represents youthful ambition and the looming specter of war, while her estranged husband embodies the themes of loss and desperation. Together, these characters create a rich tapestry that examines the intersection of art, love, and the human experience in a culturally nuanced manner. The interplay of their stories invites readers to reflect on broader themes of societal expectations and personal freedom.
The Three-Cornered World: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Sseki Natsume
First published: Kusamakura, 1906 (Unhuman Tour, 1927; better known as The Three-Cornered World)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Japanese resort village of Nakoi
Plot: Philosophical realism
Time: 1905
The narrator, a well-educated connoisseur of both Asian and Western arts, literature, and philosophy. The narrator has fled the capital with its mundane distractions and involvements for a hiking trip to put himself in touch with nature and regain his artistic perspective. As he says, “an artist is a person who lives in the triangle which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed from this four-cornered world.” Because the artist lacks common sense, he can approach areas from which the average person shrinks in the worlds of both nature and humanity; there he can find beauty. The narrator spends his time sketching, writing poems, philosophizing about art and life, and soaking up the atmosphere in the Shioda family inn at a small mountain hot spring.
O-Nami Shioda, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy inn-keeper. O-Nami was forced to marry the son of a rich man of the local castle town rather than the boy she preferred. When the couple's money evaporated in a business turndown, O-Nami divorced her husband, returned to her father's home, and engaged in increasingly strange behavior. O-Nami entrances the narrator with her bizarre behavior and frank speech. He is awakened by her singing as she strolls through the garden; later, she enters his room while he sleeps and leaves reminders of her presence. She walks the veranda of the inn in her bridal gown and once enters the bathroom naked while the narrator is having a bath, only to run away laughing. O-Nami takes long walks in the mountains alone, writes poems that respond to the narrator's verses, and verbally spars with him as he tries to find out more about her.
The village barber, a rough-speaking village gossip. He provides the village perspective on O-Nami while he gives the narrator a painful shave and shampoo. He relates that a local monk, Taian, fell in love with O-Nami and expressed his affection in a letter. O-Nami responded by disrupting a prayer service and demanding that the monk publicly make love to her in front of the Buddha. He sees her as crazy and warns the narrator against her.
Kyuichi Shioda, a callow young cousin of O-Nami who does amateur paintings in the Western style. Kyuichi is drafted to serve in the army fighting Russians in Manchuria. He is encouraged to die a hero's death on the battlefield by O-Nami, and he has the mark of death already on his countenance as he says good-bye to the Shiodas and the narrator as they see him leave on the same train that takes O-Nami's husband off to Manchuria to begin a new life.
O-Nami's former husband, once a wealthy young man, now a wandering, beaten tramp who meets her in the mountains to beg for money to go to Manchuria. The narrator, who secretly observes them from afar, fears that O-Nami seeks to kill him with the dagger she carries, a present from her father to Kyuichi.