Diary of a Mad Old Man
Chūōkōron-sha | |
Publication date | 1961 |
---|---|
Published in English | 1965 |
Diary of a Mad Old Man (Japanese: 瘋癲老人日記, Hepburn: Fūten rōjin nikki) is a 1961 novel by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965). Written and published shortly before the author’s death in 1965, it is recognized as an important late work.[1][2][3]
Plot
Utsugi Tokosuke is a 77-year-old invalid, recovering from a stroke that has paralyzed his hand. He lives in Tokyo with his wife (unnamed), son Jokichi and daughter-in-law Satsuko, in a large house in surroundings of wealth and comfort. His married daughters Kugako and Itsuko, and their young children, visit him occasionally, though he is cold toward them. As the book progresses, it becomes clear that Tokosuke is erotically obsessed with his daughter-in-law Satsuko, although he is impotent. In return for various expensive gifts, Satsuko permits him to kiss parts of her body, particularly her lower legs. The book culminates as Tokosuke plans to have Satsuko’s footprints carved in stone upon his tomb when he dies. The book contains numerous descriptions of medical procedures and treatments, and ends in a series of short accounts given by his private nurse, doctor and daughter Itsuko. Tokosuke is still alive at the end of the book, and it is unclear whether his funerary plans have been carried out.
Themes
Foot fetishism
An interest in depicting foot fetishism emerged early in Tanizaki’s work, for example in the short story ‘Fumiko’s Feet’ (1919), which, like Diary of a Mad Old Man, features an aging (60-year-old) man in thrall to the lower extremities of a 16-year-old girl.
Modernization of Japanese women
In the period after the First World War a new type of modern young woman, the
Vicarious sexuality
Tokosuke, due to his impotence, derives sexual pleasure from the idea of Satsuko having an affair with Haruhisa, Tokosuke’s nephew. It is implied that Satsuko is allowed this sexual freedom by her husband Jokichi, who may be pursuing affairs himself. This strikes a marked autobiographical note: Tanizaki allowed his wife Chiyo to carry on at least one affair, with the writer Haruo Satō.[7] This situation appears in more than one other work by Tanizaki, for example the novels Kami to hito no aida (Between Men and the Gods, 1924) and Kagi (The Key, 1956), in which an old professor is complicit in his wife’s adultery as a stimulant to his own sexual desire.
Publication
1961 original Japanese publication.
1965, tr. Howard Hibbert, Alfred Knopf, New York.
1966, tr. Howard Hibbert, Secker and Warburg, London.
Film adaptations
A Japanese adaptation was made in 1962 as Fūten rōjin nikki,[8] and an English adaptation as The Diary of a Mad Old Man (1987).[9] Kazuo Ishiguo, who scripted The White Countess, drew significantly on the novel for the 2005 film.[10]
References
- ^ Ito, Ken Kenneth. Visions of Desire: Tanizaki's Fictional Worlds. Stanford University Press (1991). ISBN 0-8047-1869-5
- ^ Mansfield, Stephen (August 8, 2020). "'Diary of a Mad Old Man': This quick read reveals the realities of lust". The Japan Times.
- JSTOR 40120735.
- ^ Fetishes and Philanderers: A Translation of Two of Tanizaki's Early Works. Lee, Christina Y., 2018, https://dl.tufts.edu/concern/pdfs/6t053t621
- ^ Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West. Columbia University Press (1998). ISBN 0-231-11435-4.
- ^ "Hōnen-in".
- ^ "Tanizaki Jun'ichiro".
- ^ "Fûten Rôjin nikki (1962)". IMDb.
- ^ "Dagboek van een oude dwaas (1987)". IMDb.
- S2CID 211966614– via Wiley Online Library.