Analysis Of 'The Story Of Seijuro In Himeji'

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Recommended: Importance of children's literature

Brooke Seeser
Take Home Final
Professor Heitzman
14 May 2014
Yoshiwara
Yoshiwara is a red light district in Japan. This red light district in particular is described in the story Child’s Play. The main characters in this story live on the border of Yoshiwara. Shota, Nobu, and Midori grow up playing all together in the area. Midori’s older sister works in the red light district, and eventually Midori has to grow up and begin to work in Yoshiwara herself. At first she is very uncomfortable with all the attention she gets. Her new career ruins her friendship with Shota and Nobu because she feels awkward around them and feels the need to be grown up and not a child anymore.
Merchant Class
The merchant class in the Edo period of Japanese history became a wealthy class. In the short text entitled “The Story of Seijuro in Himeji” within the collection Five Women Who Loved Love, Seijuro is the son of a merchant. The family is rather wealthy, and many women are interested in Seijuro. One day, Seijuro decides to throw a wild party in which numerous women expose themselves. Seijuro’s merchant father witnesses some of the party and disinherits his son. Seijuro then decides to try to get his act together to be accepted back into his merchant family. He gets a job and falls in love with a young woman named Onatsu. The pair end up attempting to run away together, but their attempt fails. Seijuro ends up in jail, and Onatsu ends up locked up. Onatsu is then accused of stealing gold pieces from her father under Seijuro’s orders. Because of this rumor, Seijuro is put to death. Onatsu hears about his death and goes crazy.
5-7-5-7-7
The Man’yoshu was one of the earliest texts using tanka poetry form. Tanka poetry which is written as 5-7-5-7-7 is ...

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...fferent body. I think it scares her a little, but she is also somewhat happy to continue her lineage. It seems like she wanted an able child to keep her family name alive. She did not care if she had to sacrifice her disabled daughter in order to gain an heir. On page 123, the servant tells Mieko how dangerous it is for Harume to be carrying a child. Mieko ignores Yu’s warnings and lets the pregnancy go on. The way that Mieko and Yasuko take to the baby makes it seem like they really want it to be Akio or at least a part of him. On page 140, Yu states that the baby looks just like Akio. Yasuko then says, “Once mother has made up her mind, there’s no stopping her” (Fumiko 140). She goes on to explain how much she loves the baby and how much he looks like Akio. All of this leads me to believe that they conjured Akio’s spirit to the baby and he lives on through that.

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