Confessions of a Mad Woman

Who had done it? This is a question that arises in the short Japanese story, In a Grove written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The story composes of seven different accounts of the murder of a samurai named Takehiro, whose body has been found in a bamboo grove. Some facts are undeniable to all, while other details are refuted by one or another. Takehiro is dead, and Tajomaru is thought as the perpetrator. In each of the accounts, the victim's wife Masago wishes for the death of her husband. Although each story varies with why Masago would wish her husband dead, the fact that Masago wants to maintain her pride and honor remains consistent throughout all accounts.

In the Japanese culture before World War II, women played a role of items of exchange between families or "borrowed wombs" for the production of sons. During this time period, the Japanese government faced economic troubles despite World War I profits. There were many riots that occurred throughout Japan protesting the economic circumstances. After WWI a great depression fell upon Japan (Wikipedia). Many women were in marriages solely to establish or harden the union between households with common business or interests. The respect to the ancestors is very important for women to maintain the blood relations within their marriages (hanamiweb).

Japanese families are established according to two rules. First, a housewife must defend her home actively. A housewife's role is a guardian or someone who defends her home. She takes care of everything that goes on in her home and outside of her home. She does everything in her power to defend her home and family from a bad reputation. Second, the members of the family must maintain the family history without movement away toward the future. The master or husband should sacrifice his individual freedom for the family. As the father of the house, he must protect his family's reputation (hanamiweb).

In the story "In a Grove," there are some facts that are indisputable by all of the testimonies. The facts that are agreeable are that Takehiro have been found dead, and the main suspect is the thief, Tajomaru. All the participants agreed that Tajomaru led Masago and Takehiro to the bamboo forest, promising them cheap stolen treasures. Tajomaru then tied up Takehiro and raped Masago. The thief leaves with Takehiro's possessions and Masago's horse. Takehiro dies as a result. With three of the most important accounts from Takehiro through a medium, Takehiro's wife, and Tajomaru refuting one another, the reader is left with the question as to who really did kill Takehiro. In each of the accounts, Masago is found guilty by the story teller of wanting her husband dead, although the details hold opposing views.

Despite the differences in the length of Masago's guilt in the murder of her husband, all of the statements rest to one conclusion. The rape of Masago violates her sense of security. This act of violation is not just sexual, but also about power. To a professional thief like Tajomaru, Masago is just another victim that he happens to come across. But to a woman, being sexually violated is the most unbearable experience she can ever endure. It is not just her body that is being abused but also her sense of power and control. Because Masago is attacked in front of her husband, this fuels the fire even more. She can no longer face her husband. Like most victims of sexual crimes, she feels as though it is her fault. The pride and honor that comes with being a woman has been diminished. The three testimonies from Tajomaru, Masago, and Takehiro all suggests some form of guilt by Masago.

Tajomaru's confession paints a very different picture of Masago. He admits to raping her
after he had tied up her husband. He said he had no intention to kill Takehiro, but Masago encouraged him to do so. She asked that either he or her husband die because "it was more trying than death to have her shame known to two men" (Akutagawa 5). Masago announced that
she would marry whoever that survives. To Tajomaru, it was her whom sent a "furious desire to kill him" throughout Tajomaru's body (Akutagawa 5). It wasn't just her words that made him want to kill her husband, but also the look in her eyes. As he gazed into her eyes, he wanted to make her his wife even if it meant killing her husband.

The woman that Tajomaru painted in his testimony is a vicious, cold-hearted individual. According to him, it was the wife that drove him to kill her own husband. In Masago's defense, she had only wanted her husband to have some kind of honor by giving him a chance to defeat the man that violated his wife. She did not intend for her husband to get kill during the fight. She feels much violated being raped in front of her own husband that is why she is very ashamed. The images of a secluded, private wife have been taken away with this violation.

The story of what happened in the grove is also told through a medium, based on the dead husband. According to Takehiro, his wife committed an unforgiving crime against him. After the robber violated his wife, Tajomaru spoke comforting words to comfort her. To Takehiro's amazement, his wife was listening to every lie that the robber was telling her. Tajomaru told her that "once your virtue is stained, you won't get along well with your husband, so won't you be my wife instead?" (Akutagawa 8). Takehiro sat in jealousy as his wife told the thief to take her wherever he went. What astonishes him most was when his wife pointed to him and cried, "Kill him! I cannot marry you as long as he lives" ((Akutagawa 8). The thief untied Takehiro and ran
after his wife. Takehiro felt betrayed by his own wife, so he stabbed and killed himself.

Takehiro's own version paints a picture of his wife as a mad woman. To Takehiro, his own wife drove him to his grave. One can interpret this as although Masago encourages the thief
to kill her husband, she had only done it for her own pride. She could not live with the fact that her husband saw her being raped by another man. She thinks that if her husband dies, no one else would have to know that she had ever been raped. This notion was better than knowing that the man whom she vowed to be honorable to had seen her with another man. Her last cry to have her own husband killed was a cry for help and for her own escape of this crime.

Although both men hold very different views on the wife's part of the crime, Masago has her own version to tie both stories together. She recounts how the thief laughed as he looked at her tied up husband after he forced himself on her. Her husband was most disappointed in her, and the "flash in his eyes was neither anger nor sorrow...only a cold light, a look of loathing" (Akutagawa 6). She got up to go check on her husband after Tajomaru had left. There was nothing in her husband's eyes but hatred. Seeing this, she felt nothing but "shame, grief, and anger" (Akutagawa 6). She was so ashamed that she wanted to take her own life, so he said to him, "since things have come to this pass, I cannot live with you. I'm determined to die...but you must die, too. You saw my shame. I can't leave you alive as you are" (Akutagawa 7).

According to Masago's testimony, she had only killed her husband because she couldn't live with the fact that he knew what had happened. She had only wanted to protect both her husband and herself from their pride and honor that have been torn apart. She tried to kill herself, but could not do it. Because she is unsuccessful in ending her own life, she is "still living in dishonor" (Akutagawa 7). She has been violated in every way that a woman could have. What hurt the most was to see the hatred and reluctant look in her husband eyes.

One might object here that a woman's pride and honor should not be a justifiable reason to wanting her husband dead. As mentioned earlier, a housewife plays a very important role in her family. She must maintain her family's reputation in a high status. In order to do this, she must go out of her way to make sure that nothing bad can be spoken of her family. After being raped, Masago feels like she had dishonored her family by not upholding her role as a wife. She feels like the only way out of her downfall is for her husband to die. She is only acting in self-defense for herself and her family- even if it meant her husband had to die.

All in all, the answer to who killed the samurai is still left unsolved. With so many different testimonies, the truth will never be told. However, many of the stories lead to the guilt of the dead man's own wife, Masago. The legendary thief, Tajomaru, admitted to killing the samurai after Takehiro's own wife begged him to. Takehiro's own account to his wife's infidelity portrays a harsh woman, whose own wishes led to her own husband's death. However, Masago's own version of the event ties her involvement in both of the accounts. As a woman whose mind and body have been violated, Masago feels miserable and powerless. She had been raped in front of the man she had promised to love and cherished. To have her husband look at her with so much hatred in his eyes, her pride and honor as a woman and a wife vanished. She had only acted accordingly to a desperate woman who wanted to maintain her pride after being violated.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa. "In a Grove." Trans., Takashi Kojuma. New York: Liveright Publication Corporation, 1952: 1-9. Black Kymerra, June 28 2008.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3682435/In-a-Grove-by-Ryunosuke-Akutagawa.

Century of Japanese Women. 12 July 2006. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
http://www.hanamiweb.com/century_of_women.html

Taisho period. Retrieved 26 May 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taish%C5%8D_period