Reading Notes W12: Fusako, Part B

Fusako: Memoirs (400-408)

  • Kushi Fusako is known for, "Memoirs of a Declining Ryukyuan Woman" (1932), her only work (400)
  • she was visiting a friend who had just returned from a family funeral on their home island
  • her friend wanted to bring her mother to Tokyo and help her start a business in selling Oshima tsunami cloth but said, "The problem [was] her tattoo" (402)
  • tattoos have caused suffering in almost every Ryukyuan family
  • even if a woman can save enough money to send several sons to a higher school, she is destined to be left behind in her hometown until she dies all because of the tattoos on the back of her hands (402)
  • in worst cases, grandmothers died not knowing of names of their grandchildren
  • "the more their sons succeed, the more strictly mothers have to be confined to their "homes,' where they are given a tiny bit of freedom and supported by whatever petty allowance their sons care to provide" (402)
  • Ryukyuan intellectuals aren't as bold as Koreans or Taiwanese who live in Japan
  • Ryukyuan's can't help but share the loneliness of being Ryukyuan, "a loneliness that echoes in our hearts like the sound of the sanshin"
  • sanshin- a type of samisen, a 3 stringed instrument resembling a banjo
  • "yet we never speak of this plaintive sound. If one of us broaches the subject, we avert our eyes, coldly, like two cripples passing on the sidewalk" (402)
  • Kushi meets with her uncle and mentions how awkward and short the conversation was
  • she once visited his office after finding that address in the telephone directory, but he had politely forbidden her to come again
  • it didn't bother her because she never planned on to rely on him
  • at home he kept 3 maids, an elderly handyman, and a piano
  • one day 5 years ago he suddenly returned to Ryukyu
  • 30 years had passed since he disappeared shortly after being discharged from the army somewhere in Kyushu, and people even suspected he died (404)
  • poverty constantly threatened her family
  • since her uncle hated to stay in his owns home, he lodged with Kushi's family
  • Kushi had gone to live in the countryside, where she worked as an elementary school teacher
  • when her mother took her uncle around to the relatives announcing his return, he was welcomed everywhere with stained, sagging tatami and chipped teacups
  • at first his relatives had been captivated by his success in life and eagerly sought his company, only to have him reject them, refusing in his disgust even to let them see him off at the pier
  • Kushi only knew about his return until she heard her mother complaining about him (406)

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