While Yoshimoto Banana's writing deals with social issues such as abuse, religious cults and family breakdown, the author has said many times that she doesn't want to make these issues burdensome for her readers. In her writing, Yoshimoto refuses to make victims of her characters and, instead, she explores their ability to heal and be healed as well as their spiritual growth. An important point to consider is that unlike Yamada Amy, Murakami Ryu, Murakami Haruki, Shimada Masahiko and, more recently Kanehara Hitomi, Yoshimoto does not write explicitly about hard-core sexuality or drug use. Instead, she can be compared with Jung in her substitution of spirituality for sexuality. And while her characters are isolated, they learn to live through their senses and food, especially in the early writing, takes the place of sex.
Before we look at how food is viewed in Yoshimoto's writing, it needs to be pointed out that there is an absence of sex generally in shojo literature, a genre that includes novels such as Hashimoto Osamu's Momojiri Musume (Peach-Bottomed Girl) through to Kanai Mieko's Indian Summer and Yoshimoto's Tsugumi. This genre is filled with nostalgia and, as it appeals to both male and female readers, Saito Minako has argued that it represents the breakdown of traditional gender roles or even the breakdown of Japan's corporate society. Yoshimoto's early shojo novel Tsugumi, is about the 'perfect shojo who will never grow up'. Tsugumi has been sick since birth and has strong anti-social behaviours but nevertheless is part of a group of teenage girls who obsessively watch their favourite TV series together. When it comes to an end, Maria, Tsugumi's cousin says, 'I found myself in the grips of a wrenching sadness. I was only a child, but I knew the feeling that came when you partyed with something, and I felt that pain.' These feelings have been described dismissively by some critics as being part of a pre-Oedipal state filled with nostalgia, a state which privileges a childhood past over an adult future but, Yoshimoto's characters are often caught up in circumstances over which they have no control, which in this case includes Maria's parents' divorce and Tsugumi's illness. Rather than show them being damaged beyond repair, Yoshimoto focusses instead on their ability to heal themselves. This is not by growing up and leaving their adolescent world behind but by embracing it. Of course, they cannot stay in this worle forever but Maria says of this time '... those days were blessed.' Inspirational stuff! This is a literature of self-help not adolescent complaint or despair!
In place of sex, food becomes a significant element in the lives of Yoshimoto's characters. It allows them to express and to take pleasure in a non-sexual way. In the novel Kitchen, the kitchen
itself can be seen as an ‘enclosed’ space or else a ‘secret room’ within which
Mikage, the protagonist, tries to find a new self. It becomes a place of refuge for Mikage after the death of her grandmother. Later she joins the staff of a master chef and it becomes a workplace. Therefore, Kitchen is not only the title of the novel, but also refers to the
secret place in which Mikage’s new sense of self is developed. Mikage herself
says: "Dream kitchens… I will
have countless ones... Alone, with a crowd of people, with one person – in all
the many places I will live. I know that there will be so many more (43). Therefore the kitchen can be seen as liberating and leads to the empowerment of Yoshimoto's characters.
Cooking is a passion for Mikage. Yoshimoto describes the thrill that she experiences in the kitchen when Mikage says: "I was not afraid of burns or scars; I didn't suffer from sleepless
nights. Every day I thrilled with pleasure at the challenges tomorrow
would bring. Memorising the recipe, I would make carrot cakes that
included a bit of my soul. At the supermarket I wouild stare at a
bright red tomato, loving it for dear life. Having known such joy, there
was no going back" (59). In this way the kitchen is reclaimed as a place of creativity instead of being seen as a symbol for the oppression of women chained to the kitchen sink by domesticity. Interestingly, however, Yoshimoto rejects this view of the kitchen in a subsequent novel Amrita where Sakumi says of the kitchen: "It's wrong for mothers, daughters, and wives to be imprisoned there forever. The kitchen is not only a place where we can create wonderful borscht, but it's also a breeding ground for malice and kitchen drinkers" (34). In this way, perhaps, Yoshimoto avoids being polemicised as a 'feminist' writer.
While food can be seen as a substititute for sex or an outlet for creativity it is also reassuring. In the short story 'Moonlight Shadow' Sakumi is taken by Hiiragi to the place where her boyfriend Hitoshi died. Afterwards they eat tempura together and she says "It's delicious... So delicious it makes me grateful I'm alive" (125). In Amrita, Sakumi gets a fever and she is comforted by Saseko who brings her homemade sandwiches. Sakumi says "On top of everything else, the sandwiches were incredibly delicious" (181). Sakumi who is on holidays in Saipan, has a part-time job in a bakery in Tokyo called Berries which she describes as being a "like a lighthouse amid the skyline of the dark suburban streets. People never came from far away, nor did we ever have so many customers that we ran out of bread, so I never felt hurried by the lines" (239). Whilst this idealised description of the bakery is entirely unsexualised, towards the
end of Kitchen, Mikage recalls:
When was it that Yuichi
said to me, “Why is it that everything I eat when I’m with you is delicious?”
I laughed. “Could it be
that you’re satisfying hunger and lust at the same time?”
“No way, no way, no way!”
he said, laughing. “It must be because we’re family” (Kitchen, 1988, English translation 1993, 100-1).
This quote shows that while food may be seen to have taken the place of sex, there is an awareness that the human appetite can also be seen as being sexual. However, the main tendency in Yoshimoto's writing is to avoid the sexualisation of food and instead to focus on its healing and comforting properties.
Finally, as well as exploring close adolescent relationships and the joy of food, sounds are also used to punctuate the text to evoke certain moods in the reader. In Yoshimoto's novel N.P. Saki calls Kazami to tell her that she is going
overseas and Kazami can hear the sounds of the airport in the background. Later,
when Shoji’s bone clicks in the little box at the beach she says ‘The sound
echoed in my ears for a moment, just as the rhythm of the surf stays with you’
(175). Dave Kehr, in a comparison of Western and Japanese animation, writes
that while Western animators try to create a ‘convincing illusion of life’
Japanese animators attempt to evoke a particular mood through the use of colour
or a single expressive gesture. Yoshimoto’s writing
incorporates all of these techniques in her writing. It is this sense of a
shared textual pleasure with her readers (rather than sexual pleasure) that is
the hallmark of the enclosed shôjo
world. This ‘separatist literature of inner space’ that is most clearly realised in Kitchen defines the first phase of Yoshimoto’s career.
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