Book Talk: Naomi

I have recently found myself on a binge of old Japanese novels and came across one of the stories that inspired my work a great a deal. The novel is called "Naomi" by Tanizaki. To briefly summarize it before going into more detail, Naomi is story about a man named Joji who sees the titular Naomi working as a hostess. He is overwhelmed by her "Eurasian" features and befriends her before moving her in with him and eventually marrying her. Along the way he is forced to come to terms with the fact that Naomi is more than a face, and his inability to raise a child has created a destructive human being who uses him to live an extravagant lifestyle.

One of the key points of the novel centers around the Pre WWII obsession Japanese society had with Western customs. While the book mocks the Japanese' obsession, it oddly parallels the modern fetishism of Asian ethnicity. Joji finds general uninterest with Japanese society, idolizing the Western movie stars and their extravagance in contrast to his very traditional surroundings. His obsessions cause him to target in on a young girl working as a hostest in a cafe simply due to her looks. Specifically, he believes her to look like Mary Pickford (Madame Butterfly, Ben Hur) and finds extreme fascination with how her name is spelled the same as the Western name Naomi (Note: The Japanese name is said "Nah-oh-mii" as opposed to the English "Nay-oh-mii", with most Japanese spellings utilizing the character for "beauty"  while in English and Hebrew it means "pleasantness". Both of which have meaning in terms of Naomi herself).

Joji slowly befriends the girl and upon learning of her life of poverty, he asks her family if he may foster Naomi and send her to English and music lessons and rear her to be a socialite. The parents, happy to have one less mouth around, agree to the fostering. Joji tries to create a dream world where he can lavish Naomi with gifts while monitoring her growth and behaviour in a manner that is outstandingly creepy. After taking Naomi to the beach, he becomes more and more obsessed with the 15 year old girl's body and takes to washing it every night in the tub and recording diaries about her physical developments. He encourages her do whatever she wishes and to create her own fashions to set her apart from the"drab Japanese" and catch the eyes of the Westernized socialites, and repeatedly has his delusions crumble before him when he does get to compare Naomi in person with these individuals and finds that she does not measure up to them at all. His biggest disappointment comes when he tries to teach her English. It is unknown whether Naomi has a learning problem or simply knows that she'll get anything she wants regardless so she doesn't even bother, but she does not seem to grasp anything Joji teaches her (despite the fact that her English tutor insists that she performs well in lessons). Joji decides that Naomi is stupid and will never mix with the Western intellectuals. He then turns his focus on cultivating her body rather than her mind, which he has given up as a lost cause. Though Joji's narrations present Naomi as being dismissive of his attitude towards her intellect, her actions make it clear that she is not only highly intelligent, but that she intends to use this against Joji as time passes. Eventually, once Naomi turns 16, the two profess their love for each other and secretly go through the customs to become married. Not wanting their marriage public, they carry on "living like friends". Naomi begins to trash the house and refuses to do any chores, forcing Joji to hire several maids. She also refuses to cook and orders out all of her meals. Joji tolerates all of this, until he catches her talking with a boy her own age in their garden. Enter Hamada and Ma-chan. Hamada is a pimply boy with a crush on Naomi who attends the same music school she does. The meeting with Hamada leads to the meeting with the second boy, Ma-chan, when Naomi claims Hamada was only visiting to invite them to join the dance club at her school. Joji complies and becomes instantly enamored by the Russian dancing instructor so much so that he breaks his budget to continue on with lessons for months. In the meantime, Naomi gets close to a instrument player named Ma-chan. Naomi insists to Joji that they're all just good friends, which Joji goes along with, even allowing the boys to stay over one night. It all goes to hell, however, when Joji finds out that Naomi has been sleeping with both Hamada and Ma-chan behind Joji's back. Joji initially throws Naomi out for this, but as she slowly returns every day for her possessions, his obsession with her consumes him and he eventually caves in and agrees to spend all of his money on her and never to meddle with who she spends time with ever again in exchange for her staying with him.




As I said before, there is an interesting dichotomy between the two versions of Naomi's name. The Japanese "Beauty" is obvious, as the girl is pretty and attracts loads of admirers both in front of Joji and behind his back. The other one, however, pleasantness, is ironically the Western term and is the complete antithesis of Naomi. She is a complete pig, saturating the apartment with filth and wearing her filthy kimonos until they tear or become far too soiled. Her unrestrained rearing leads to her expelling extremely brash and tactless dialogue in inappropriate situations, which embarrasses Joji and prompts men to think of her as a lower class harlot. And her manipulation of Joji is downright horrible. Now, calling out her flaws does not mean I am an advocate for Joji's behaviour. He is downright disgusting. But his bad behavious does not condone hers. She can leave and go and be with anyone else, but she repeatedly returns to this pathetic creature to manipulate him further so that she can have whatever she wants without consequence. We see very little affection from her towards Joji, while she never hesitates to stand up for Hamada or Ma-chan. There's no sign she actually loves him at all. And again, it's a sign of her intelligence that Joji dismisses that she's able to pull of elaborate ruses to hide multiple affairs right under Joji's nose, and have him physically take her to where she needs to be to cheat on him. She is a mastermind, and she knows that Joji thinks she is too stupid to ever orchestrate the betrayals she racks up.

Joji is Tanizaki's way of showing the disillusionment of Western culture, and portraying his own people as stupid Joji being taken over the vicious harpy of Western civilization. It is as though he sees the men around him as comically stupid in their choices, and predicted a state of decline and depression for those willing to follow it.

While the core of the novel is a very sensitive topic (pedophelia, though not considered quite as such in it's day), it is still a wonderfully engrossing tale of two utterly horrible human beings using and abusing each other to obtain some sort of deep desire; Joji to "own" a beautiful Western trophy wife, and Naomi to experience riches and have relations with whomever she pleases. It is to be looked at through similar lenses as Lolita and not to be considered a proclamation of truth and acceptable actions. It also gives the reader a look at Japan in a pivotal period between maintaining tradition and idolizing the cultures they will be at war with in a decade's time, after which Western culture will almost entirely dictate the evolution of it's society from there on out.