Single Sickness and Other Stories by Masuda Mizuko

Introduction

ix Introduction • Masuda Mizuko (1948–) first came to the attention of Japan's literary community when her novella, "Posthumous Ties" (Shigo no Kankei, 1977), was shortlisted for the Shincho Prize for New Writers. The noted critic Akiyama Shun enthusiastically welcomed Masuda's debut. Her writing, he declared, "marked the appearance of an entirely new individuality."1 In "Posthumous Ties," Masuda probed with fierce intensity the relationship of the individual to the group, in this case, the relationship of a female student to a group of male student activists on a college campus. The tensions arising between the individual and the community—between self and other(s)—would become a central thematic thread running throughout Masuda's subsequent writing. In the following six years, between 1978 and 1983, Masuda received a total of six nominations for the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for "Key to a room for one" ("Koshitsu no kagi," 1978), Sakuradormitory("Sakuraryō,"1978),"Twosprings"("Futatsu 1 Akiyama Shun reaffirmed his endorsement of Masuda's writing in the kaisetsu he wrote for the paperback edition of the short story collection Futatsu no haru, which includes "Posthumous Ties." See "Kaisetsu," Futatsu no haru. (Fukutake bunko). Tōkyō: Fukutake Shoten, 1986, 298–306. x ~ Introduction no haru," 1979), "Until the memorial service" ("Ireisai made," 1979), "A little prostitute" ("Chiisa na shōfu," 1981), and "A modest night scene" ("Uchiki na yakei," 1983). Since then she has been the recipient of numerous literary awards: the Noma New Writers Award in 1984 for Free Time (Jiyū jikan), the Izumi Kyōka Prize in 1986 for Single Cell (Shinguru seru), the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Award in 1992 for Dream Bug (Yumenmushi), and the Itō Sei Literary Prize in 2001 for Moonviewing (Tsukuyomi). Masuda Mizuko was born on November 13, 1948, in Tokyo into a middle-class family, the second of three children. She grew up in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo, and the physical geography and civic space of the city—especially the area around the Sumida River—figure largely in her writing, as background locales and as representations of mind-states and being. From the time she was a child, gender issues appear to have had a strong impact on her. As a self-proclaimed tomboy, she was active in track and field and other sports, and considered herself no different from her older brother, but upon entering middle school, she experienced what she has characterized as her first major setback (zasetsu)—being forced to wear a skirt. It was part of her new mandatory school uniform. No matter how much she protested about the skirt, no one would take her seriously and she was labeled a "peculiar girl." Later she would confess that for some reason as a child she had simply assumed she would grow up to be a man. The realization that this wasn't going to happen came to her as a huge disappointment. "I simply couldn't believe that I didn't have the right to choose my gender," she wrote in Flight from Womanhood (Onna kara no tōsō, 1986).2 Masuda's rebellious streak persisted well into adolescence. Although she was successful in gaining admission to a prestigious 2 Masuda Mizuko. "Onna to iu mono wa ...," Onna kara no tōsō. Tōkyō: Kayōsha, 1986, 27–31. INTRODUCTION ~ xi high school, she became so disillusioned with the competitive atmosphere that she dropped out after only one year. Not long after, she resumed her education at a different school, this time as a part-time student. By now she was writing poetry. Before she turned eighteen, she had published her first poem. Masuda went on to study at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Tōkyō Nōkō Daigaku), where she majored in biology, specializing in plant immunology. Her decision to study science was an interesting choice, especially given the fact that she was already writing and publishing poetry and had from an early age demonstrated strong leanings towards literature, history and philosophy, areas in which she read voraciously and eclectically. When, in an interview with Kōno Taeko, she was asked why she chose to study science rather than the humanities, Masuda explained that she had always been fascinated by the mystery of life (seimei) and felt that science was the best way to understand its fundamental essence.3 What did it mean to be alive? What did it mean to be a...