『微笑』における殺人光線の意味 －栖方で表象される日本の行方－

Abstract

The Meaning of the “Death Ray” Depicted in The Smile-The Whereabouts of Japan Represented in Seiho- Shin, SeoYeong The Smile of Yokomitsu Riichi (1898–1947) was published a year after his death. As his final work, The Smile unfolds as a novel reflecting on the pre-war period, following his earlier work The Shoes of the Night. In The Smile, the original state of Japanese society in chaos after the war can be understood through the characters “Seiho” and “Kaji.” Yokomitsu, who always questioned binary oppositions represented by the principle of the excluded middle(tertium non datur) in his works from Ryoshu to Smile, tried to tell the story of Japan’s way of existence through the character of Seiho, who is divided and destroyed. Like the protagonists of Yokomitsu’s series of novels, Kaji suffers within an irreconcilable binary framework, confronting the harsh reality of war through the character of Seiho. Yokomitsu finds in Seiho’s smile a dream that transcends the contradictions of the excluded middle, encompassing the immorality of war, the desire for Japan’s victory, the hope for the development of new weapons, and the fear of those weapons falling into the hands of other nations. Yokomitsu hoped, as when Kaji first met Seiho, for the day when Japan would return to its true essence, moving away from its war-driven identity.