17 - Takahashi Takako: Drawing Closer to God Through Literature

Summary

Takahashi Takako is an author who sought to give literary expression to human sin through the depiction of primitive human desire. As a result of her continued focus on sin, she came to discern a territory of true serenity. This process becomes evident when her works are read in chronological order. In all this, Takahashi Takako can be seen as an author who drew close to God through her literary activity.

Introduction

Takahashi Takako (1932–2013) is a writer who delved into the realm of the unconscious and pursued the evil that emerges from it. Among the many Japanese writers who were influenced by Christian literature, such as Mishima Yukio and Endō Shūsaku, Takahashi is notable as an author who contemplated the realm of the unconscious in greater depth. As Takahashi herself later stated, “I wrote novels by plunging into the midst of the unconscious” (Takahashi 1992b, 166); indeed, her creative approach was to draw out various aspects of human nature from the realm of the unconscious. Therefore, it is quite difficult to logically identify a clear Christian approach from a reading of her works since the influences of Christianity are also processed in the unconscious and deep consciousness. However, as Takahashi herself later mentioned, the influence of Catholic literary writers or Christian mystical thinkers and their ideas can be seen in her works. Considering them in chronological order, in the first half of her career one can see the problem of evil depicted from the standpoint of a writer who was influenced by Christian literature, while in works from the latter half of her career one can find depictions of the individual as viewed from within the framework of Christianity and the problem of the relationship between humanity and God which appears in that framework. The writer's awareness is always focused on the deep consciousness within human beings, which Takahashi describes as “the sea inside” (Takahashi 1994, 3: 64) and “the sea of life” (Takahashi 1992b, 183), referring to the locus where human beings meet with God. Contacts with Christian literature Takahashi Takako was born in Kyoto in 1932, and raised in a typical non-Christian family. The indigenous customs of Kyoto, especially the male-dominated nature of the region, were deeply etched into Takahashi's psyche and would haunt her for the rest of her life. She struggled to accept these values that bound and menaced her in the sensual realm, and her resistance to these stagnant customs led her to admire decadent European works that would inspire her own writings. Her increasing familiarity with the works of surrealist, fantastical and decadent European writers, such as Andre Breton and Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues, influenced her early work.