Torikaebaya Monogatari - Reception

Reception

The reception of the tale has been mixed, depending on the society's view of sex and gender. The Mumyozoshi censures only Shi no Kimi, who should have been satisfied with her faithful and attentive (if female) husband. Meiji period critics were particularly repulsed by the tale, calling it part of the decline of the aristocracy, and due to this reputation, it received little study even as recently as 1959. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Morioka Tsuneo, Michihiro Suzuki (鈴木弘道, Suzuki Michihiro?), and Sen'ichi Hisamatsu studied the tale's ethical aspects, attempting to rehabilitate the work from its reputation. More recently LGBT critics have prized the tale for its portrayal of lesbianism, centuries before the Class S genre, although Gregory Pflugfelder does not see the tale as being "lesbian", as he finds it problematic to apply modern labels to older texts.

Torikaebaya has been described as a "sensationalist", "sprightly" and entertaining tale, but to Willig and Gatten, it is questionable as to whether the tale is intended as a farce, as during the period such issues were considered very grave and the results of bad karma in a former life. Gatten believes the tale to begin farcically, but says the characters grow out of their initial stereotypes to gain enough "psychological depth" to solve their difficulties, and the tale becomes a "realistic treatment of Heian sexual roles". Rohlich says that Torikaebaya is "clearly not meant to be comic", despite the plot deriving largely from "ironic misunderstandings" about the switch, "all else" in the tale, such as the relationships and the pursuits are "familiar stock-in-trade" from the monogatari genre. The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature says that Torikaebaya has several "delightful comic touches", such as the Chūnagon being thoroughly surprised when her wife Shi no Kimi becomes pregnant. Torikaebaya is also detailed in terms of its references to the effects of the weather, and the Chūnagon's morning sickness. Hayao Kawai considers the "alchemy" of the tale to be the "double existence" of the siblings, which drives the plot from beginning to end. Rohlich loses interest in the latter half of the tale after the siblings switch back.

The Companion considers Torikaebaya to deal with issues of sex, sexuality and gender "more profoundly" than William Shakespeare or Ben Jonson. The princess's acceptance of the male Naishi no Kami as a female and a lover has been variously described as either that she is very sheltered, or that sexual relationships were common between court ladies at the time. Although the tale has been regarded as immoral, Gregory Pflugfelder says that ultimately, the tale conforms to traditional roles. The father of the children initially considers their condition to be preordained as "retribution" for something they did in their past lives, as part of a Buddhist worldview. Pflugfelder says that in the original text, the siblings' condition is not labelled definitively — where Willig adds "confusion of sexual identity", the original text says merely "such a condition". The tengu were considered at the time to be evil, and the enemies of Buddhism.

Anthony J. Bryant describes the encounters between Saishō and the Chūnagon, and the Emperor and the former Chūnagon as rape. Margaret Childs believes that in love relationships in ancient Japan, showing vulnerability was highly prized and erotic, unlike in modern American society. She believes that for both sexes, nurturing was "a fundamental component of love". Thus, when a woman expresses distress at a man's overtures, she becomes erotic to him. Childs contrasts the different ways that Naishi no Kami, Shi no Kimi and the female Chūnagon resist the overtures of Saishō. Naishi no Kami, the only successful resistant, resists by remaining cold and "impassive". Saishō becomes distressed, but Naishi no Kami remains unmoved. Although it is important to the plot that Naishi no Kami should not be discovered as a man, Childs believes that Naishi no Kami's tactic would have been considered plausible by the audience. Shi no Kimi, on the other hand, is initially frightened of Saishō, and so he "assaults" her, and then afterwards comforts her. He coerces a servant into letting him into Shi no Kimi's quarters. Eventually, as Saishō shows his own vulnerability through their encounters, she becomes attracted to him. Saishō found Chūnagon attractive, both through 'his' own beauty and because Chūnagon reminds Saishō of Shi no Kimi and Naishi no Kami. One evening as they were talking, and Chūnagon was "affectionately" listening to Saishō's love problems, Saishō embraces Chūnagon, and tells the Chūnagon that he loves 'him', thinking she is a man. The Chūnagon becomes angry with Saisho and tells him off, but Saishō only becomes more fervent in his embrace, and discovers the Chūnagon is a woman. Chūnagon then loses her courage - though she remains cold, she no longer actively resists him.

The ending has been called "surprisingly dark" by The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, although it does not expand on this line of thought. Gatten describes the ending as being happy, and The Companion notes that the former Chūnagon achieves great things as Empress, as the Yoshino Prince predicted. The many children of the siblings at the tale's close, noted in the Mumyōzōshi, are seen as a sign that all is as it should be.

Some of the Chūnagon's affairs with women have been compared with those in The Tale of Genji, but with different results, as the Chūnagon is a woman. Torikaebaya Monogatari has many allusions to The Tale of Genji and Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari, so much so that Gatten suggests its genre should be considered something like the honkadori in a waka, where an older poem is alluded to in a poem.

The character of the daughter is focused on in the story much more so than the character of the son, and her characterisation is considered an argument for a female author of Torikaebaya. Her public persona as the Chūnagon fits into the androgynous beautiful hero type of the monogatari, like Hikaru Genji or Yamato Takeru, rendering it especially ironic when Saishō, smarting after having been refused by Naishi no Kami, wishes his beautiful friend the Chūnagon was a woman. Rohlich describes the Chūnagon as unique amongst monogatari figures, as not even The Lady who Loved Insects is as eccentric as the Chūnagon is. Rohlich considers the Chūnagon to be a modern successful career woman, whose talents are "frustrated" by her unexpected pregnancy. Even after she returns to living as a woman, she uses her experience as a man to control her emotions, unlike other ladies of the court, who easily give into despair. After the Chūnagon gives birth, she is conflicted between escaping Saishō, and her love for her baby, which Kawai characterises as a conflict between "being herself" and "being a mother". She chooses independence. Kawai says that although her desire for independence is "normal" to a modern Western audience, in Heian Japan it was an "extremely difficult" decision. After she becomes Empress she meets her child by chance in the court and cannot tell him that she is his mother. She is overcome with emotion, but tells him that she knows his mother and that his mother loves and misses him.

The characterisation of the tale has been criticised by Shūichi Katō, who describes the characters' reactions as "hackneyed", and their characters as "not clearly defined". Katō describes the story as "unreal", and decries the "scenes of perverted sexuality" throughout the story.

Hayao Kawai says that he is not aware of an equivalent tale to Torikaebaya in Japan or in other languages, but he can draw a parallel between the Chūnagon and a tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses of Iphis and Ianthe. Iphis, (a unisex name) is raised as a boy from her infancy, and when she comes of age, her father arranges a meeting with Ianthe. The two girls fall in love, but Iphis is torn as she believes she cannot marry Ianthe as Iphis is physically female. She prays to Isis and is transformed into a man. Iphis and Ianthe happily wed. Kawai considers Iphis's suffering to be similar to that of the Chūnagon, but that the Chūnagon becomes a true woman without the aid of a miracle. Kawai considers the Sadaijin's dream which reveals the tengu's curse to be a moment of harmony between the "exterior reality and the interior reality".

In other tales with transvestite themes, transvestitism is used as a deliberate ploy to gain some advantage, but in Torikaebaya the characters do not intend to engage in shenanigans.

Kawai says that many different kinds of love relationships are shown in Torikaebaya, between siblings, parent and child, and lovers. He considers it "remarkable" that jealousy does not figure in these tangled webs of love. Kawai describes the siblings as "bisexuals" — when the Chūnagon is cuckolded, although she feels sorry for herself, she can also feel "compassion" for her wife, who is in an unusual marriage. When the Chūnagon is hidden away in Uji by Saishō, Saishō returns to Shi no Kimi, and the Chūnagon briefly feels jealous, but she uses her experience as a man to attain some emotional distance. She resolves to escape Saishō after having her child, and "pretends to love him passionately". The Emperor, although dismayed that the former Chūnagon (or, as he thinks, Naishi no Kami) is not a virgin, he does not confront her about her previous lover. Kawai says this is another way jealousy is avoided in the tale. Saishō does not understand what happened to the former Chūnagon, and he quizzes his new wife, the younger Yoshino Princess about the matter fruitlessly. To preserve his home’s harmony, he gives up trying to locate the former Chūnagon. To Kawai, this "reflects his lack of jealousy". For Kawai, a modern audience may disrespect Saishō and the Emperor for not seeking out the truth above all else in these matters, but Kawai thinks that the author believes that jealousy is a "dissonance" in love, and a slight "dissonance" is preferable, as it heightens awareness of the "beauty" of the work. In his view, Saishō and the Emperor putting aside their jealousy prevents the work from having too much "dissonance". Kawai says that by changing one's point of view, for example, becoming like the opposite sex as the siblings do, "useless conflicts" can be sidestepped. He regards "bisexuality" as a counter to "violent feelings of jealousy", as it enriches a relationship and leaves jealousy no foothold.

Kawai regards the author's intent in Torikaebaya as pursuing an aesthetic, rather than writing "a sentimental story spiced with erotic scenes". Kawai suggests that the author of Torikaebaya sought to improve on the aesthetic of The Tale of Genji by imbuing their characters with "the virtues of each sex". By showing love scenes between two men or two women, albeit with one partner playing the role of the opposite sex, Kawai believes the author attempted to show that "a man is lovelier when his feminine side is revealed" and also that "a woman becomes more beautiful when she shows her masculine side". When the Chūnagon repairs to Uji to have her baby by the suggestion of Saisho, she is overcome by depression. When she reaches Kohata, where she might escape notice, she decides "to reveal she is female". She takes out her flute, which she had owned since childhood, and begins playing it for the last time. She was very sad, and she played "splendidly, the sound was indescribable". This scene is an allusion to Genji, where two lovers escape to Uji. In that scene, young men play the flute, as it is a traditionally male instrument. Kawai finds the image of a young man, who is becoming a woman, to be a 'unique moment of transition'.

Kawai describes Torikaebaya as being similar to Honoré de Balzac's Séraphîta, about an angelic androgyne who is loved by both a man and a woman, who each believe the androgyne to be the opposite sex to themselves. For Kawai, like in Séraphîta, the "union" of masculinity and femininity in the siblings is "something divine", although it is not as clear in Torikaebaya as it is in Séraphîta. Pflugfelder describes the siblings as "quasi-divine", drawing a parallel with the Dragon King’s daughter from the Lotus Sutra, who by her devotion to Buddhism transforms into a man and begins to teach the Dharma. Kawai notes that the siblings cannot be "properly united as they are not lovers or spouses".

Pflugfelder regards the siblings' switches as an example of gender performativity, he notes that each of the siblings will have to re-learn courtly manners in their birth gender, but that their performances as the opposite gender were "convincing", and suggests that in Japanese, gender roles are spoken of with modifiers that make gender seem "mutable" or "superficial".

The heroine of Ariake no Wakare is similar to Himegimi, and like Himegimi, she has romantic relationships with other women.

Although it may seem strange that the siblings pass, Nishimura points out the male-role actors in the Takarazuka Revue. He also notes that Heian-era clothing had many layers, which Cavanaugh says in the tale is revealed to both "identify gender and mask sex". Torikaebaya has been noted as placing great importance on clothes in the narrative compared to other Heian monogatari. When the siblings dress in the garments of their sex, their gender changes to become that of their sex.