Kitchen
Context
Donald Keene on Japanese Aesthetics and Kenko’s Essays in Idleness
! Kenko was a poet and Buddhist monk, wrote Essays in Idleness around the year 1330
! 243 sections of eccentric, sedate and gemlike assemblage of thoughts on diverse topics
! Conviction that the world is steadily growing worse - persistent pessimism
! Zuihitsu - “follow the brush” - jotting down thoughts as they come to you - resembles the writing
style of Kitchen and Yoshimoto
! “A house should look lived in”
! Seems to always be saying that we should enrich our lives with beauty
! 4 characteristics of Japanese aesthetics:
○ Suggestion: appreciate beginnings and ends as well as climactic moments
■ Opposite to Western culture
○ Irregularity: “uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting,
and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.”
■ Tendency towards asymmetry, in calligraphy, ceramics and flower arrangements
○ Simplicity: minimalism, avoiding extravagance, “wise men are rarely rich” - “the intelligent
man, when he dies, leaves no possessions”
■ Also in cuisine - values the taste of natural ingredients, spices are rarely used, unlike
other Asian cultures
■ Current popularity of Japanese food: trend of congruence of contemporary American
and traditional Japanese tastes
○ Perishability: wear and tear gives objects a mysterious quality - impermanence is beauty,
“the most precious thing in life is its uncertainty”
■ Example: chopsticks and cherry blossoms, which flower for only three days
, Part 1 - Kitchen
The role of the exposition
! Introduces narrative voice, characters, setting, historical and social context, establishes themes and
motifs of the novel
! Narrative voice: calm, soothing
! Stream of consciousness - speaks about death before she even introduces her name
! Central theme: kitchen - the word is repeated 11 times
! Themes of loneliness, family, time
! “The place I like the best in this world is the kitchen” - non conforming in 1980s society
! First person narrative voice - character
! Motifs connected to Japanese beauty: irregularity - everything is dirty but the tea towels are “dry and
immaculate”
! “(ting! ting!)” - graphic novels, manga
! “Lean up against” the refrigerator - moral support, keeps her standing
! “Stars are glittering, lonely” - theme of loneliness
! Kitchen becomes more than a setting, a character
! “When my grandmother died the other day” - out of place, zuihitsu
! Non linear
! “Linus” - American culture + “futon” - Japanese culture
! “I just drifted, listless” (lacking energy) - motif of water - “my head swimming”
! Kitchen is more than just a setting - metaphor of rest, comfort
! Plot point: looking for another apartment after her grandmother’s death
! Rising action
! “Dingdong” onomatopoeia - zuihitsu, graphic novels
! “I zoomed in for a closeup on his pupils” - cinematic language
! “White light” vs “black gloom”
! Yuichi’s sadness - theme of masculinity in Japanese culture
! “Flowers were not allowed to wilt” opposite of perishability
! “Long limbed young man” fluid, unusual but pretty
! Yuichi: young, pretty, helpful
! Mikage’s description of Yuichi’s apartment and kitchen - she is fascinated by objects
! Draws upon globalisation - “Silverstone” “German made” - economic boom
! “I fell in love with it at first sight” love of places, of belonging, of yourself
! Love is always displaced on objects
Context
Donald Keene on Japanese Aesthetics and Kenko’s Essays in Idleness
! Kenko was a poet and Buddhist monk, wrote Essays in Idleness around the year 1330
! 243 sections of eccentric, sedate and gemlike assemblage of thoughts on diverse topics
! Conviction that the world is steadily growing worse - persistent pessimism
! Zuihitsu - “follow the brush” - jotting down thoughts as they come to you - resembles the writing
style of Kitchen and Yoshimoto
! “A house should look lived in”
! Seems to always be saying that we should enrich our lives with beauty
! 4 characteristics of Japanese aesthetics:
○ Suggestion: appreciate beginnings and ends as well as climactic moments
■ Opposite to Western culture
○ Irregularity: “uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting,
and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.”
■ Tendency towards asymmetry, in calligraphy, ceramics and flower arrangements
○ Simplicity: minimalism, avoiding extravagance, “wise men are rarely rich” - “the intelligent
man, when he dies, leaves no possessions”
■ Also in cuisine - values the taste of natural ingredients, spices are rarely used, unlike
other Asian cultures
■ Current popularity of Japanese food: trend of congruence of contemporary American
and traditional Japanese tastes
○ Perishability: wear and tear gives objects a mysterious quality - impermanence is beauty,
“the most precious thing in life is its uncertainty”
■ Example: chopsticks and cherry blossoms, which flower for only three days
, Part 1 - Kitchen
The role of the exposition
! Introduces narrative voice, characters, setting, historical and social context, establishes themes and
motifs of the novel
! Narrative voice: calm, soothing
! Stream of consciousness - speaks about death before she even introduces her name
! Central theme: kitchen - the word is repeated 11 times
! Themes of loneliness, family, time
! “The place I like the best in this world is the kitchen” - non conforming in 1980s society
! First person narrative voice - character
! Motifs connected to Japanese beauty: irregularity - everything is dirty but the tea towels are “dry and
immaculate”
! “(ting! ting!)” - graphic novels, manga
! “Lean up against” the refrigerator - moral support, keeps her standing
! “Stars are glittering, lonely” - theme of loneliness
! Kitchen becomes more than a setting, a character
! “When my grandmother died the other day” - out of place, zuihitsu
! Non linear
! “Linus” - American culture + “futon” - Japanese culture
! “I just drifted, listless” (lacking energy) - motif of water - “my head swimming”
! Kitchen is more than just a setting - metaphor of rest, comfort
! Plot point: looking for another apartment after her grandmother’s death
! Rising action
! “Dingdong” onomatopoeia - zuihitsu, graphic novels
! “I zoomed in for a closeup on his pupils” - cinematic language
! “White light” vs “black gloom”
! Yuichi’s sadness - theme of masculinity in Japanese culture
! “Flowers were not allowed to wilt” opposite of perishability
! “Long limbed young man” fluid, unusual but pretty
! Yuichi: young, pretty, helpful
! Mikage’s description of Yuichi’s apartment and kitchen - she is fascinated by objects
! Draws upon globalisation - “Silverstone” “German made” - economic boom
! “I fell in love with it at first sight” love of places, of belonging, of yourself
! Love is always displaced on objects
