Conflicts in drawing Karayuki-san (Book review: Kazue Morisaki., Karayuki-san: Ikoku ni Urareta Shojo-tachi (Karayuki: Girls sold to foreign countries), Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc., 2016)

This book was first published in 1976 under the title "Karayuki-san", and was published in 1980 in a paperback edition under the original title. Later, in 2016, a new edition was published with the subtitle "Girls Sold to Foreign Countries" added to the title, which has remained the same to this day. As the subtitle of the new edition tells us, 'karayuki-san' means women who went to work overseas before the war^*1.

In the past, I wrote a review of a non-fiction novel similar to this book dealing with Karayuki-san, "Sandakan Hachiban Shokan: Teihen josei shi josho (Sandakan 8th brothel: history of women on the bottom)" by Tomoko Yamazaki (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo 1972.5)^*2. Therefore, reading Kazue Morisaki's work was a task to be undertaken in the future. This is for two reasons.

One is that Yamazaki sought Morisaki's advice as a pioneer in the field of research on Karayuki-san in her investigation of her^*3. Another is that Hayase Shinzo, a specialist in Southeast Asian history, compares Yamazaki's and Morisaki's works on the subject of Karayuki-san, commenting that "Yamazaki's work was outstanding in that it was written within an 'era', but Morisaki's work was the one that transcended 'time' and remained"^*4.

 

 

In any case, in my mind, Morisaki was engraved as the leading author on Karayuki-san, and I listed "Karayuki-san" as one of the books to read. In the meantime, I heard of Morisaki's passing^*5. With regret that I had not read it during her lifetime, I finally picked up this book. Perhaps in anticipation of the growing re-reading momentum, I received a second printing of the newly revised edition of the book, which was published on 30 July 2022, just after he passed away.

My candid impression after reading the book is that it was a disappointment. Maybe I had too high expectations of Hayase Shinzo's review. I thought Yamazaki's work was overwhelmingly more "a work that will remain beyond its 'time'". The most important reason for this is the feeling of an unbridgeable distance between Morisaki and Karayuki-san.

The book consists of five chapters, each with its own title heading. The descriptions are a mixture of the author's interviews and field observations, quotations from the laws and regulations of the time, newspaper articles and books, and the author's own views. The descriptions are scattered and difficult to summarise, but a summary can be made as follows.

'Furusato wo deru musume-tachi (Daughters leaving their hometowns)', which looks at the reality of their departure from the country as Karayuki-san. 'Kuni no yoake to murabito (The dawn of the country and the villagers)', which describes Karayuki-san as a result of relations with Russia. 'Kusari no umi (The sea of chains)', which refers to Karayuki-san to Europe and the US, and to the territorialised Taiwan and Korea. 'Doukoku no tuchi (The land of wailing)', which portrays Karayuki-san from Korea to Manchuria. 'Okuni Kotoba (Language of the country)', which features the story of the courageous life of Karayuki-san in the South Seas. It concludes with "Yoin (Trailing note)", which can be regarded as an afterword.

While the story is based on the historical time flow from the Meiji era to the early Showa era and shows Karayuki-san living in different historical backgrounds, there is also a Karayuki-san who appears across the chapters. This Karayuki-san, called Okimi-san, becomes the adoptive mother of Morisaki's friend. Another core of the book is Okimi-san, who is a familiar person who forms a pillar of Morisaki's experience of the Karayuki-san, which is not hard to imagine.

However, throughout the entire story, there is not the slightest sign that Morisaki has had a face-to-face dialogue with Okimi-san. For this reason, the works of Morisaki are inferior to the works of Yamazaki, in which the realism of a direct dialogue with Karayuki-san, who eats and sleeps together with her, is deeply conveyed. Morisaki's sensitive attitude towards Okimi-san may, on the one hand, indicate his conflict in describing her. However, on the other hand, it makes us feel as if she is only trying to combine the way of life of Okimi-san, whom she came to know through her friend, with the laws and regulations of the time and newspaper articles, like a patchwork.

Reading this book, it is possible to evaluate it in terms of the light it sheds on the existence of Karayuki-san. However, it must be said that it is not a complete work. Above all, it is difficult to believe that Yamazaki's work was born from the advice of Morisaki, who wrote this book. Let us now touch on the process that led to the writing of this book.

Morisaki mentions Oyoshi-san, who appears at the end of this book in "Okuni Kotoba", once written in Gakugei Shorin's "Abandoned Citizen" as "The Life of Karayuki-san"^*6. This is in reference to a piece included in Document Nihonjin, Volume 5: Abandoned Citizen, which was published in 1969, some seven years before the publication of this book^*7. So, I decided to look through this one piece in order to find out Morisaki's origins.

 

 

I thought for sure that this one story had been reprinted in "Karayuki-san", but when I read and compare the two, I notice that it has been considerably altered. The synopsis is the same, but the writing style is so different that it is hard to believe that it was written by the same person. After reading the whole story in one sitting, I finally came to an agreement that Yamazaki, after reading this one story, sought advice from Morisaki, which may have led to a series of Yamazaki's works.

This piece will be written in response to the given subject of 'abandoned citizen'. Abandoned citizen refer to those who have been discarded by the state without rescue. For Morisaki, the subsidiary line of abandoned citizen provided an opportunity to think about the state for Kalayuki-san. In this piece, Morisaki creates an image of Karayuki-san as an abandoned citizen, a woman who, despite the will of the state, stands on the back of the state and can be seen as a hope in despair.

There is some more to this piece, which was added to and included in the book "Onna no keifu: uchinaru josei shishi", edited by Nobuko Kono, published in 1973. In the 'Commentary for Dialogue', the editor, Nobuko Kono, says: "The existence of "Karayuki-san" has a weight that cannot be removed from women's history"^*8. It can be seen that one of Morisaki's works was treated like a bible as women's history became more and more active.

 

 

Thereafter, she wrote an essay entitled 'The World Embraced by Karayuki-san' for the June 1974 issue of the monthly general magazine 'Gendai no me (Contemporary Eyes)'^*9. Although this was before the publication of "Karayuki-san", it was filled with many elements of "Karayuki-san". It is not clear when Morisaki had been asked to write "Karayuki-san", but it shows that she has been researching Karayuki-san steadily.

Morisaki's writing on Karayuki-san follows this process. This book was an opportunity for Morisaki to summarise the results of the research into Karayuki-san that he had been carrying out since his first piece. The major difference between this book and the first one, in which Karayuki-san did not so much attract attention, is that Yamazaki's work, which was inspired by a piece of Morisaki's work, and on which he gave advice when requested, had already been published, and the existence of Karayuki-san as the 'bottom' of society was being questioned by the public.

Already mentioned above, the first piece has been substantially revised and incorporated into this book. Comparing the two texts, it is immediately noticeable that the reference in the first one to the autobiography of Iheiji Muraoka, a well-known pedant, has been deleted in this book. If we recall, Iheiji Muraoka was one of the people Yamazaki thoroughly researched, the results of which are included in Yamazaki's "Sandakan Hachiban Shokan" ((Sandakan 8th Brothel). Morisaki mentions Iheiji Muraoka in only a few places in the first piece earlier, but the fact that he does not mention her at all in this book suggests that Morisaki had Yamazaki's work in mind when she wrote this book.

If one considers that Morisaki in this book was trying to take a different approach to the Karayuki-san than Yamazaki, this explains why he brought up the laws and regulations and newspapers of the time in this book. Morisaki's first piece and Yamagazaki's work, is a case study, mainly based on interviews, and is a part from the whole of Karayuki-san. On the other hand, using newspapers and other media, the whole can be understood to some extent. In fact, Morisaki discovered the term 'smuggled women' meaning Karayuki-san in newspapers and carefully collected articles to compile a table entitled Place of origin of smuggled girls^*10.

Reviewing the composition of "Karayuki-san" once again, it is clear that Morisaki has paid attention to changes in the political situation and the improvement of the legal system as time passed, and has attempted to depict the changes that accompanied these changes, including the port of departure and the destination of Karayuki-san. In other words, it is a complete history of the Karayuki-san. Morisaki's gaze on Karayuki-san seems to have been based on the image of a strong and resilient woman who found hope in despair and stood up for the nation, which she discovered in her writings about Karayuki-san as an abandoned citizen.

However, Morisaki's original experience of Karayuki-san, her friend's adoptive mother, was a very different image from the one she had in mind. It seems to have been extremely difficult to extract hope from the hopelessness of her life. As a result, ironically, she is reminded of what Yamazaki calls the 'bottom woman'. There, Morisaki's distress, or conflict, can be seen all through. The difficulty in reading this book can be found in this.

In the smallest details, the work of Morisaki, who advised Yamazaki, is full of suggestions from his field research. Morisaki's use of the term "Singappa" meaning Singapore, which she collected in Amakusa, made a particularly strong impression on me, having been involved in Fujian, Taiwan and Southeast Asia for many years. This is because the word was familiar to me. Singapore is written in Chinese characters as 新嘉坡, but the pronunciation differs according to dialect. The pronunciation of the word in the Chinese dialects can be written in the alphabet, using the reviewer's ear, as "Singappo" in Minnan Chinese and "Sengappo" in Cantonese.

It can be recalled, this means that the Singappa that Morisaki collected locally is from a dialect of Chinese. Morisaki does not mention this in depth^*11, but if this speculation is correct, it can be pointed out that Singapore was a British colony at the time when the Karayuki-san stayed there, but in the areas where they lived, the Chinese dialect would have been spoken more than English. Perhaps the fact that the language would not be collected today teaches us the importance of keeping a record of research.

It is time to start concluding up. In the beginning, I mentioned two reasons for picking up this book. I have already talked about the relationship between Morisaki's advice and Yamazaki's works, so I would like to mention Hayase's review of the book. First, I would like to thank Hayase for his text, which recommended Morisaki's work as a must-read book for Karayuki-san and led him to read it. However, I have to question the fact that he gave what could be seen as superior or inferior ratings to Morisaki's and Yamazaki's works.

I think, after reading both Morisaki's and Yamazaki's works, that they are inseparably linked. Without Morisaki's work, Yamazaki's work would not have been born, and without Yamazaki's work, Morisaki's this book would not have taken this style. It is also impossible to ignore the fact that Morisaki's first piece was given the subject of abandonment. It is precisely because Karayuki-san was labelled an abandoned citizen that Morisaki tried to find an image of Karayuki-san that would show the spirit of a Japanese citizen abroad. Conversely, Yamazaki attempted to portray a side of herself as a woman at the bottom, in contrast to Morisaki's image of Karayuki-san. How can their works, which have such a relationship with each other, be ranked as superior or inferior?

If ones can assign a superiority or inferiority to both works, that is where the thinking stops. This is because if there is something to appreciate let go of, then we cannot find anything more to do. Given such an evaluation, a new image of Karayuki-san cannot be expected. In fact, even after around 50 years since Morisaki and Yamazaki's works were questioned by the public, no works or studies that deviate from Morisaki's or Yamazaki's viewpoints have appeared, which should be an implicit indication of this^*12. What should be considered before assigning superiority or inferiority to their works is the fact that two works with opposing viewpoints were created at the same time. Unless this fact can be examined and relativised from all angles, new horizons will not open up.

I found this book difficult to read. If you find it difficult to read this book, I recommend that you also read 'Aru Karayuki san no issyou (a Karayuki-san's Life)', which is Morisaki's first work on Karayuki-san, and 'Karayuki-san ga idaita sekai ( The world that Karayuki-san embraced)', which contains the essence of this book. Because there is a different Morisaki world there from the one in this book.