51 pages • 1 hour read
Yu Miri, Transl. Morgan GilesTokyo Ueno Station
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 1-42Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 1-20 Summary
The novel begins as a first-person narrator describes a sound they hear, and they can’t figure out where it is coming from. The narrator then talks about the exhaustion of life and reveals that everything is over, presumably meaning they are no longer living. They explain that they are standing outside the Ueno train station watching the throngs of people come and go. The mysterious sound haunts them; the narrator says it has “lived” with them since “back then.” They are caught by the word “lived,” but the scene cuts off with the announcement of a train arriving.
The narrator says they were born in 1933 in Fukushima Prefecture and were one of seven children. The narrator is at the park across from Ueno station and details the people who live in the park, including a man who is asleep with his legs around a collection of aluminum cans and a prostitute who has her child with her. At this point in the novel, the identity of the narrator is unknown, but it is later revealed that he is a man named Kazu. He discusses the unhoused lifestyle he was used to. He talks about how visits from the imperial family meant that those who lived in the park were driven away and how many of the unhoused people in the park came from northeastern Japan during the postwar period, initially looking for work. He also describes how the restaurants and convenience stores in the area set aside food for the unhoused population and how missionaries would come and distribute food after singing hymns. As he narrates, he overhears conversations from people passing through the park, such as a little girl asking her mother for a treat and then rejecting it and two old women making small talk.
Kazu then discusses his children, Yoko and Koichi, and says he first came to Tokyo in 1963. He lived apart from his family and saw his children only sporadically. Kazu recalls a time when Koichi got upset because he couldn’t understand they were too poor to go on a helicopter ride. Kazu has a moment of overwhelming emotion but gets distracted by two ladies chatting nearby as they observe a photograph. Kazu mentions he never took photographs, but he “was always surrounded by people, places, and times gone by” (17). He then ponders the past, the future, and the linear or circular nature of time.
Kazu then chronicles his younger years, noting that he was too young to serve in World War II. He left school after he finished elementary school and worked at a fishing port. From there, he traveled around finding whatever work he could, primarily agricultural jobs. He mentions how, when he went to work in Hokkaido, there was a large earthquake in Chile—presumably the 1960 Valdivia earthquake—that killed 11 people in Kiritappu, a wetland in Hokkaido.
After several years of dividing his time between jobs, Kazu notes that his family’s financial needs increased. So, in late December 1963, Kazu ultimately landed in Tokyo to do construction as the city prepared for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Pages 21-42 Summary
Kazu describes the conditions of his work and that, though it was a construction job, much of the work he and his coworkers performed was intensive, physically demanding labor by hand. Though the job was difficult, he made decent money, much of which he sent home to his family.
The narrative shifts back to the present, and there is a dialogue between an unhoused man and woman. Kazu notices that the man is wearing a jacket that once belonged to him, and the woman also seems familiar to him. Both have a cynical outlook on the current economy. They discuss a recently deceased man named Shige, who, it turns out, was a friend of the narrator’s. Shige was “an intellectual,” and he also had a great heart. Kazu mentions that Shige at one time had taken to caring for an abandoned kitten and even sacrificed food for himself to feed to the animal. Kazu details some of the conversations he had with Shige, many of which involved historical events, particularly around Ueno: how the Giant Buddha at a nearby temple lost its head multiple times due to fires and earthquakes; how a radio tower in Kazu’s hometown sent the international telegraph about the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake; and how, after the then-emperor saw the crowds of people seeking refuge in Ueno Park after the earthquake, he gifted the park to the city, which changed its official name to “Ueno Imperial Gift Park” (30).
Kazu mentions that he once saw Emperor Hirohito, in 1947; then the dialogue between the man and woman resumes. Kazu becomes distracted by a debate on the radio about “the accident in March last year” (31) and the safety of nuclear energy, and then he hears a lawnmower. He notices various natural things and says that they made him feel lonely when he was alive, but they can’t anymore because he no longer exists and sensations are fading away. It begins raining and the rain reminds him of the day his son, Koichi, died.
The scene transitions to February 23, 1960, with an announcement of the crown princess’s birth of a son. This is the same day that Kazu’s wife, Setsuko, gives birth to their son Koichi. As Setsuko is in labor, Kazu goes to find a midwife, crying because he knows they can’t afford one. He then describes the state of life for his family prior to leaving to go find work. He was from a poor family, as was Setsuko. Eventually, he and his wife, along with their son and daughter, would also live in poverty. He mentions the cyclical nature of poverty and discusses how difficult it is to break once one is in it. He notes that he no longer remembers whether debt collectors took away their possessions before or after Koichi’s birth and that he named Koichi with the same first character as the prince’s name.
Pages 1-42 Analysis
The narrative begins as Kazu speaks abstractly about a specific sound that he does not recognize and is unable to define. This sound serves as a framing device, as the novel also concludes by referencing this sound. That Kazu is unable to identify the sound suggests that he has never heard it. As the novel progresses, the sound becomes tied to the circumstances of Kazu’s death, suggesting that the sound is related in some way; however, whether it is the sound that one hears after death, a metaphorical representation of thoughts of suicide, or something else entirely is up to the reader to decide.
Since Kazu is dead, his perspective is one of a ghost or a spirit from the afterlife. He makes many observations and overhears several conversations before it is explicitly revealed that he is dead. Much of his narration details the lives of the unhoused population of Ueno Park, who are mostly ignored by passersby. As a ghost, Kazu, of course, is also ignored; this parallel illustrates the theme of Invisible Poverty in Japan.
Kazu’s mental state also becomes clear when he alludes to his death, setting up the themes of The Influence of Poverty on Mental Health and The Impact of Grief. Kazu says, “There was never a time when I was not tired. Not when life had its claws in me and not when I escaped from it. I did not live with intent, I only lived. But that’s all over now” (2). Kazu’s exhaustion, it is later revealed, stems from both a constant state of intense labor to provide for his family as well as the weight of grief after the loss of his wife and son. Kazu also comments, “It ripped me to shreds, but the sound wouldn’t die. I couldn’t catch it, and trap it, or lead it far from me. I couldn’t close my ears to it, and I couldn’t get away. Ever since then, that sound has lived with me. Lived…?” (3). This is the narrative technique of implication rather than explication. The comments here by Kazu lead the reader toward drawing a conclusion rather than simply providing the reader with definitive proof that Kazu is a ghost. In fact, it is unclear whether Kazu himself knows he is a ghost. He is often disoriented, and while he is able to accurately identify where he is and that he is dead, reality is distorted to him.
This section also introduces an important thematic concern: Invisible Classism in Japan and the Power of Circumstances. Kazu mentions that he lost his home while alive. He discusses some of his friends and acquaintances who likewise had no homes. At random times, he interrupts his own narrative to provide snippets of conversations that he overhears others having. These people are of a different social class, as evidenced by the content of their conversations. For example, one such conversation goes like this:
Are the hydrangeas in bloom now, do you think?
Oh, not yet.
And the Japanese oaks?
They’re not in season either.
Things have changed around here a bit, haven’t they? I’m sure that wasn’t a Starbucks.
Yes, it’s gotten a bit chic, hasn’t it (9)?
The conversation reveals trivial concerns of those speaking and a sense of leisure. This is juxtaposed with descriptions of people living in cardboard huts and sleeping on park benches. The contrast draws attention to the differences between those who have the simple ability to have any sense of leisure at all and those for whom leisure is but an abstract concept. The passersby pay absolutely no attention to the unhoused people nearby, making them seem just as invisible as Kazu.
Kazu offers a glimpse into how people without homes are treated by the rest of society when they are noticed: “Whenever a member of the imperial family was due to visit one of the park’s museums or galleries, a mass eviction would occur; we would be forced to take down our tents and be driven out of the park” (6). This plays an important role toward the end of the novel as well, and it highlights how Japanese officials within the novel deal with their unhoused population. They keep unhoused people out of the sight of the elite, as though the sight of people living in cardboard tents and sleeping on park benches is an offense to their sensibilities. It also suggests avoidance of the problem: an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality. Kazu also hints at the unfairness of his own situation and that of many others. He says, “Fifty years had passed; parents and siblings had died, and the family homes we should have returned to had disappeared for those of us who passed our days in this park” (6). Kazu is referring to the duration of time following the end of World War II when Japan sought to redevelop their economy. The resulting growth in the nation’s economy created vast wealth, but it also created misfortune for those members of the working class who, like Kazu, sacrificed so much and received so little in return.
Along with these descriptions of class disparity, Kazu draws several parallels between himself and the imperial family. He talks about seeing the emperor in person and describes how his son was not only born on the same day as the imperial prince but also intentionally named with the same first character. The juxtaposition of Kazu, whose family was too poor to afford a midwife and who lost his possessions to debt collectors, and the imperial princess, who gave birth in a comfortable hospital, illustrates the vast gap between socioeconomic classes. These comparisons also imply that success is a matter of circumstance; Kazu makes it clear that poverty is not something willingly chosen and that the only difference between the imperial family and his own is the coincidental circumstance of their births.
Lastly, Kazu makes several references to major historical events in these pages. He describes his conversations about history with Shige, who, Kazu suspects, may have been a teacher before he lost his home. Many of these events revolve around Ueno and the surrounding areas, as well as Kazu’s hometown and the places he traveled for work. Specifically, Kazu makes many references to major earthquakes, like the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile and the 1925 Great Kanto Earthquake. Kazu also overhears a radio conversation referencing the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. These repeated references show Kazu’s subconscious fixation on earthquakes and natural disasters and foreshadow the ending of the book, in which Kazu watches his granddaughter die in the 2011 disaster.
