the family structure and class antagonism in “the paper artist”

by sam hazard

In “The Paper Artist”, E.K. Ota tells the story of Muneo Mizukami and the strain he puts on himself and his family after he disowns his daughter for marrying outside of her socioeconomic class. This strain eventually leads to a crumbling of the Mizukami family and a subsequent self-evaluation on Muneo’s part as he recognizes how he let his own feelings of superiority ruin his relationship with his daughter. Outside of its strengths as a family drama, Ota’s piece also serves as a reflection of class division and economic-induced isolation in contemporary Japanese society. In fact, much of Ota’s narrative seems to be rooted in the story of postwar Japan and the conditions created by its economic restructuring under western-influenced capitalism. As such, the story of Muneo putting his daughter, his wife, and ultimately himself through this emotional turmoil can be seen as not just as an exploration of him as a man, but also as an embodiment of how capitalist notions of class, family, and lineage have manifested in neoliberal Japan.

The titular paper artist, Muneo, is introduced as not just a very successful man in his own right, but also someone who takes great pride in coming from a prestigious family where “talent ran through the hands… capable of indefatigable precision long after others were exhausted”, including his father, who was “a well-known heart surgeon in Kyoto” (Ota 83). This prestige also extends to Muneo’s marriage to his wife, Masako, who is the daughter of a government official in Tokyo. As Ota establishes the occupations and backgrounds of Muneo and his family, she gives us insight into the family’s wealth and place in society. The class position of the Mizukami family is then put in conflict after Muneo and Masako’s daughter Mana announces she is having a baby with Charlie, an American man whom Muneo derides as “a foreigner, a foolish one…low-class and without prospect” (Ota 80). It is here, in the story’s opening page, where Ota make direct reference to the underlying dynamics of class antagonism and xenophobia in contemporary Japan. It seems to suggest that by establishing this dynamic early on in the story, Ota is attempting emphasize how these kinds of conditions and power structures present in Japan influence the attitudes of the characters in her story.

The xenophobia and classism that Muneo displays while arguing with Mana is not a unique nor recent phenomenon within post-war Japanese society. Despite of the defeat of the Axis-aligned imperial power in 1945 and the subsequent view of Japan as a rapidly modernized state, issues such as racism, xenophobia, and class antagonism were still embedded, to some extent, within Japanese government and society. Though there had nascent socialist movement in Japan in the early 20th century, with many seeing “the transitions that Marx and Engels posited from slave to feudal to bourgeois to socialist society not only plausibly [matching] Japan’s past and present but also [providing] a vision for the future”, Japan would ultimately redevelop along the lines of capitalism and align with the United States during the Cold War (Hein 415). Though Japan would go on to serve as an example of the success of capitalist doctrine, with the nation’s rehabilitation into a global economic power from the 1950s to the 80s, later economic crises, such as the crash of the Asset Price Bubble and the subsequent recession of the 1990s, led to a dramatic increase in economic disparity. Consequently, issues “such as competition for the same resources, tensions within a single internationalist capitalist economy, or friction over immigration” should not be seen as a resurgent wave in Japan, but rather underlying contradictions rooted in Japanese labor policy that western allies were all too willing to ignore throughout the Cold War (Hein 413).

Following the economic troubles of the 1990s, Japan would begin to adopt a neoliberal approach to their economy, which is generally defined as a free-market system heavily in favor of deregulation. Though most associated with western leaders, namely Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, neoliberalism was also an ideology exported by these powers abroad. As such, it is perhaps not all that surprising that Japan would adopt these policies in the 21st century, most notably under the administration of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Outside of being a reaction to the economic crises Japan face, the nation’s move towards neoliberal reforms has often been described as “a new spin on older culturalist and neo-nationalist arguments” as Japan has, since the 1990s, been “simultaneously criticised for not being nationalistic enough” while also “being too narrowly nationalistic” (Gagne 68). With these policies that favored corporate power over labor rights firmly established as a means to rebuild Japan’s economy, as well as trying to appease a wide field of political groups, it becomes more apparent how these contradictions would form in Japanese society and only create further divides, especially along economic lines.

With this context, much of this economic history can be seen in Ota’s story and how the different members of the Mizukami family react to the situation they find themselves in. While Muneo’s elitism and knowledge of his own class have already been established, it is interesting to see how his wife, Masako, despite coming from a similar background as him, assumes a far more sympathetic and nuanced reaction to Mana’s marriage. Seemingly in reference to the economic turmoil Japan faced, Ota details how Masako’s “family, though wealthy once, had fallen on hard times when she was a child…frugality had become her prevailing reflex, fueled by the understanding that all you have could be stripped away in an instant” (Ota 90). Perhaps it is because of this understanding Masako has of the unreliability of one’s position in society that she is far more accepting of Mana’s choice of partner than her husband. Muneo’s concerns about continuing his family’s legacy not only defines his expectations for Mana’s role as a prospective wife and mother, but of the kind of man she is expected to marry. Despite his main motivation in dissuading Mana from marrying Charlie being his fears that the marriage will condemn his daughter and grandchild to economic uncertainty, it is in fact Muneo’s disownment of his daughter that makes this fear become reality. As such, Muneo’s duty to control his daughter and secure her place in life is illustrated as being as contradictory as the process of neoliberalism itself.

The driving force of conflict in Ota’s story, Muneo’s need to control his daughter and ensure that she secures the family’s position in society, is not alien to the Marxist critique of the modern family structure. In his seminal 1884 work, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and State, Friedrich Engels posits that the definition of a “family structure”, in tandem with labor, has evolved throughout the ages to best match the “social institutions, under which the people of a certain historical period and of a certain country are living” (10). Engels argues that while past, feudalist ideas of family and marriage are adapted to better suit a capitalist society, the general function of tying family to economic production is more or less unaltered. Most relevant to Ota’s story is the point detailing how the previous form of “purchase marriage”, wherein the marrying off of one’s daughter is meant to strengthen the economic situations of two  families and ensure the secure inheritance of property, has not been entirely eradicated but instead only “more and more intensified” as it now applies not just to a man’s daughter, but also to prospective suitors who too “have a fixed price…not according to [their] qualities, but to [their] wealth” (Engels 95). This concept regarding the transactional nature of marriage and a prospective husband being judged based on his class and ownership of property is very clearly seen in how Muneo treats Mana, Charlie, and their child.

It is perhaps, though, alienation that best defines the story of Muneo Mizukami. In his pursuit of making sure his daughter will not sully his family’s name by betraying her class and status, Muneo effectively exiles Mana, corroding their relationship. Though Mana and her mother still maintain a bond, even to the point of meeting in secret while Muneo is away, the damage that Muneo has dealt hangs heavy over the Mizukami household. As he travels the world to attend exhibitions of his art, this sense of isolation is further explored as Ota details how Muneo’s trademark “stoic silence” is little more than a façade to hide his fear of speaking and “betraying his awkward English”, once again giving insight into his own insecurities and revealing just how alone he feels (95). When a former employer of Mana’s recognizes Muneo’s surname and reaches out to him, informing him that his daughter had been killed in a car crash. As the woman expresses her condolences, she remembers how she watched Mana “persevere through many hardships with grace and courage” and did her best as a single mother after ending her relationship with Charlie (Ota 97). The story’s conclusion, with Muneo taking custody of his granddaughter, Rina, not only represents a change in his worldview but perhaps also represents hope for the future of Japanese labor and class dynamics.

Outside of telling the story of the Mizukami family and how Muneo’s desire to teach his daughter a lesson tears them apart, E.K. Ota builds a very in-depth analysis of the intersections between the family structure, economic conditions, and social alienation in Japan. By analyzing the story through a Marxist lens, readers can come away with a better understanding of the characters’ decisions as reflections of their material conditions. As Muneo lets the socioeconomic background of Japan influence his views on class and the family, he not only abandons his daughter and drives a wedge between him and his wife but also furthers isolates himself. By the time he realizes the consequences of his ways, it is too late for Mana forgive him, but he is given a second chance through taking in his granddaughter, Rina. While acting as a meditation on how capitalism and neoliberalism have affect Japan in the 20th and 21st centuries, Ota’s story is not entirely cynical. The shift in family dynamics and perspective of the world demonstrated by Muneo’s indicate that one is not absolutely bound by their class identity or nationality but has the power to defy the systems imposed on them.

Works Cited

Ota, E.K. “The Paper Artist.” Ploughshares, vol. 48, no. 3, Fall 2022, pp. 80-100.

Hein, Laura E. “Free-Floating Anxieties on the Pacific: Japan and the West Revisited.” Diplomatic History, vol. 20, no. 3, Summer 1996, p. 411-440. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1996.tb00273.x.

Gagne, Nana Okura. “‘Correcting Capitalism’: Changing Metrics and Meanings of Work among Japanese Employees.” Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 48, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 67-87. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1381984.

Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Trans. Ernest Untermann. Project Gutenberg, 1884, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33111