The Wild Geese by Mori Ōgai

First published:Gan, 1911-1913 (English translation, 1959)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of plot: 1880

Locale: Tokyo

Principal characters

• Okada, a medical student
• Otama, a beautiful and innocent girl
• Otama’s father,
• Suezo, a moneylender
• Otsune, Suezo’s wife

The Story:

Okada, a medical student at Tokyo University, is viewed by his fellow students as an exceptionally balanced young man. A good student, an athlete, and a man who knows how to relax in his free time, he lives a well-ordered life free from any kind of obsession. When he is not studying, he likes to go for walks, and he often stops to browse in the local bookshops, looking for the historical romances that are his preferred reading.

Once, during his evening walk, Okada notices an attractive young woman entering a small house that seems to be an oasis of calm in a generally noisy neighborhood. He thinks little about it at the time, but when he passes the house two days later, he sees the woman in the window, and she smiles at him. After that, he always looks for her when he passes by and begins to feel that in some way he and she are friends. One evening, he spontaneously takes off his cap and bows to the woman, who smiles warmly in return. From then on, Okada bows to the woman whenever he passes her house.

The woman’s name is Otama, and she is the daughter of a candy dealer who sells his wares from a stall. Otama’s mother died giving birth to Otama, and the girl is being reared by her father, who adores her. She grows to be a beautiful, charming, and obedient young woman in whom it is difficult to find fault. Otama’s father refuses various proposed matches for Otama because he does not want to lose his daughter, but ultimately he permits her to marry a police officer. The police officer forces the issue because he desires Otama, and the father is afraid to refuse the somewhat frightening prospective son-in-law. As it turns out, the police officer already has a wife and children, and Otama’s marriage breaks up when that information comes to light. Although it is obvious to everyone that Otama did nothing wrong, the incident makes it almost a certainty that she will never receive a decent proposal of marriage.

A local man named Suezo learns of the disaster that befell Otama and her father. Suezo began his career as a servant working for medical students at Tokyo University. Most of his time was spent running errands for the students. Suezo, however, had no intention of remaining a servant all of his life, and he began to lend small amounts of money to students who were in need, making a small profit on each transaction. Over a long period of time, he becomes wealthy. He dresses in fine clothes and dreams of living in even greater comfort. As his financial status improves, Suezo becomes dissatisfied with his wife. Although she does a good job of caring for the children, Otsune is undeniably ugly and argumentative. Suezo begins to believe that he deserves the companionship of a better kind of woman. He tells himself that, since he never frequents geisha houses or wastes his money gambling, he has every right to indulge himself by having a mistress.

Remembering how beautiful Otama is and her skill in playing the samisen, Suezo decides that he will use a go-between to propose that Otama become his mistress. He knows that her prospects are limited, but he decides to improve his chances of success by concealing the fact that he is a usurer, since that means of livelihood is despised in Japan. He courts Otama and finally wins her by offering to provide generously for her father. The girl accepts his proposal primarily because she believes that it is her duty to see that her father will be cared for.

Suezo installs Otama, along with a maid, in the small house in which she lives when Okada first sees her. He also rents a house nearby for her father. All goes fairly well until Otama learns from a fish seller that Suezo is a usurer. She is upset that he tricked her, and she decides that she will never again be so trusting and naïve.

After Otama first sees Okada, she begins to fantasize about him, viewing him as a romantic savior. She tries to think of ways in which she can meet him. As she thinks more and more about Okada, Otama begins to be less attentive to Suezo, and even her father notices that she has changed. One day, Okada walks toward Otama’s house and finds the place in an uproar. A snake crawled up the eaves of the house and into a cage that held two linnets that Suezo gave Otama. The snake kills one of the birds. A crowd of women and children gathers, and one of the women asks Okada to help. With the help of a young boy, Okada kills the snake before it can kill the other bird. Otama helps Okada wash the snake’s blood from his hands, but, in spite of her desire to do so, she cannot bring herself to speak to him at length. After that, however, she begins to think about Okada even more.

Otama finally decides that she will speak to Okada when he passes by. For the occasion, she has her hair done and wears makeup, which is something she usually does not do. That evening, however, Okada is walking with a friend (the novel’s narrator), and Otama is unable to speak to Okada. The friend notices that Okada is visibly disturbed at the sight of Otama, who looks even more beautiful than usual. Later, Okada and the narrator meet a friend, Ishihara, who points out some wild geese at the far end of a pond. Ishihara urges Okada to try to hit one of the geese with a stone, but Okada is reluctant to hurt the geese. Okada finally agrees to throw a stone because he knows that if he does not, Ishihara will attempt to kill one of the geese. Okada intends only to make the geese fly away, but his stone strikes and kills one of the birds. Ishihara later retrieves the goose, intending to cook and to eat it. The three students walk back to their boardinghouse, and Okada carries the dead goose under his cloak. When the trio come near Otama’s house, they see her there waiting for Okada, but because Okada is with his friends, Otama is again unable to speak to him. She never has another opportunity to meet Okada. The next day, he travels to Germany, where he goes to work translating Chinese medical texts into German.

Bibliography

Johnson, Eric W. “ Ōgai’s The Wild Goose.” In Approaches to the Modern Japanese Novel, edited by Kinya Tsuruta and Thomas E. Swann. Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1976. An excellent examination of the novel. Particularly good regarding the problem of the narrator and the difficulties of interpreting the novel’s symbolism.

Kato, Shuichi. “The Age of Meiji.” In The Modern Years, translated by Don Sanderson. Vol. 3 in A History of Japanese Literature. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1979-1983. Contains a section that examines Mori’s life and works. Provides interesting historical background.

Keene, Donald. “Mori Ōgai.” In Fiction. Vol. 2 in Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984. A fine study of Mori by a foremost American expert on Japan. Includes a brief examination of The Wild Geese.

McDonald, Keiko I. “The Wild Geese Revisited: Mori Ōgai’s Mix of Old and New.” In Inexorable Modernity: Japan’s Grappling with Modernity in the Arts, edited by Hiroshi Nara. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2007. Describes how the novel reflects the intermingling of Japanese tradition and Western concepts of modernity that occurred in the Meiji period. Analyzes the novel’s depiction of Otama as reflecting the conflict between feudal ideas about women and the struggle for freedom in the “new” Japan.

Powell, Irena. “In Search of Logic and Social Harmony.” In Writers and Society in Modern Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. Contains a brief but informative section on Mori and his work. Especially useful for placing the author and his work in a societal perspective.

Rimer, J. Thomas. Mori Ōgai. New York: Twayne, 1975. A thorough study of Mori’s life and work that includes much information about The Wild Geese.