Uchida Hyakken's Mijika-yo: Through the Analysis of Original Story “Kamisori-gitsune” and “Sinpi-teki na kyouhu”

Abstract

Uchida Hyakken wrote “Shinpi-teki na kyouhu” (‘mysterious fear’) in his diary. This essay examines how the term was represented in his novel Mijika-yo by making a comparison with its original story, “Kamisori-gitsune”. “Shinpi-teki na kyouhu” is an idea that expresses a kind of ‘fearful fantasy’, yet reflecting a sense of realism, which was often avoided in contemporary discourse about ‘children’. The term “Shinpi-teki na kyouhu” matured over the course of years and came to fruition in Mijika-yo. With the use of first-person narrative in the present tense, sensual descriptions, and emphasis of the feeling of guilt, this novel characterizes the narrator ‘I’ as the projection of fear. Toward the end of the story, ‘Shinpi-teki na kyouhu’ filled with a fox's vague image was described vividly as the experience of ‘I’.