Exploring Japanese Literature

Fumiko Enchi’s Masks is a short, yet very powerful novel.  The main character of focus seems to be Togano Meiko, the mother of twins Akio (deceased) and Harume (mentally challenged since birth).  Akio’s young widow, Yasuko, is paid a lot of attention by Meiko as two potential suitors, Ibuki (married) and Mikame (single), show their affection for her.  Meiko forms an intricate plot of revenge where Harume is impregnated by Ibuki, so that Meiko can have a child with Akio’s blood.  There seems to be a stronger force at work here.

I draw that conclusion because of the last paragraph of the novel: “In that moment the mask dropped from her grasp as if struck down by an invisible hand.  In a trance she reached out and covered the face on the mask with her hand, while her right arm, as if suddenly paralyzed, hung frozen, immobile, in space” (Enchi 141).  The mask referenced here is a No mask given to Meiko by a friend of the family, Toé.  This mask in particular is called Fukai, “my father had his own interpretation…he liked to think of it as a metaphor comparing the heart of an older woman to the depths of a bottomless well – a well so deep that its water would seem totally without color” (Enchi 138).  I compared this “bottomless well” to Meiko’s life as her hunger for revenge sank her further into a well that she could not climb out of even if she had wanted to.  When I think of a well I picture looking into the water, which in turn shows my reflection.  If a well is so deep that the water appears colorless, I wouldn’t be able to see my reflection.  This expresses the sense of hopelessness that I think Meiko feels at the end of the novel because even though she has a child with Akio’s blood, she has lost both of her children which were very important to her.

Toé’s father felt that Meiko would appreciate the sadness in the mask’s look, since she had lost her only child.  This mask seems to have a rather strong effect on Meiko.  The mask calls to mind her grief over the loss of both Akio and Harume and the vengeance she had hidden for so long inside of her.  By the end of the novel, I think Meiko has lost herself in her plot for revenge.  The vengeance has overcome her in entirety, which may be why she drops the mask and tries to cover the face.  I almost feel as if she is ashamed of what she has done and the pain she has caused her family.