Organizer: Andra Alvis, University of California, Berkeley
Chair: Van Gessel, Brigham Young University
Discussant: Jingyuan Zhang, Georgetown University
The panel explores the Ajase complex, a psychoanalytic theory derived from the Buddhist legend of Prince Ajase. In contrast to Freud's Oedipus complex, it focuses on the relation between mother and child. Keigo Okonogi will open with a brief history of the theory, developed by Japanese psychoanalyst Kosawa Heisaku. He will then examine the mother-child bond of the Ajase complex from two perspectives: first, current research on mother-child relations in the international psychoanalytic community; and second, the social and historical specificity of motherhood in Japan.
Muriel Jolivet's paper also addresses the social context of the bond between mother and child-specifically, between mother and son. Focusing on the 1992 television drama "Zutto anata ga suki datta," she argues that we can discern in the protagonist Fuyuhiko a type of "Anti-ajase" figure. This Anti-ajase will be examined in light of men's studies issues in Japan, particularly mazakon ("mother complex") and otokorashisa no yamai ("the diseases of masculinity").
Finally, Andra Alvis raises questions of narrative and the Ajase complex. After noting a protagonist similar to Fuyuhiko in Yasuoka Shotaro's 1959 novel Kaihen no kokei, she rereads the Ajase legend to suggest it paradoxically contains the stories of both Ajase and his alter-ego. On closer examination, her argument continues, these apparently contradictory representations of Ajase's bond with his mother resemble fantasies occurring in the mourning process as described by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. She concludes with the speculation that mourning for the mother constitutes the central theme of a distinctive Ajase "family romance."
A Brief Overview of the Ajase Complex
Keigo Okonogi, Keio University
In 1932, Kosawa Heisaku (1897-1968) left Japan to study at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Vienna. During his stay, he presented to Sigmund Freud his theory of the Ajase complex, derived from the Buddhist legend of Prince Ajase.
In contrast to Freud's Oedipus story, which examines the bond to the father, the Ajase legend (as retold by Kosawa) centers on the mother-child relationship. Ajase's mother, Queen Idaike, at first ardently desires to conceive; however, she later attempts to kill her newborn son when an oracle predicts he will one day murder his father. On reaching adolescence and learning of this attempted infanticide, Ajase is overcome with rage and retaliates with a murderous attack on Idaike. The Queen, however, forgives her son. Ajase then forgives her in turn, and the two are reunited in mutual harmony.
Two principal themes emerge from the story of Ajase as told above: the mother's ambivalence towards giving birth to a child, and the child's resentment towards the circumstances surrounding his or her birth. (I will refer to the latter as mishoon, or "prenatal rancor.") These themes are clearly lined to universal issues of classical psychoanalysis: for example, the child's discovery of the exclusive emotional and sexual relation between the parents. We may note issues related to recent work on maternal ambivalence as well. However, the two themes are also rooted in the complex socio-historical reality of mother-child relations in Japan-notably, in the tradition of mabiki or "thinning out," the community practice of infanticide.
Ajase and the "Diseases of Masculinity"
Muriel Jolivet, Sophia University
Aired in 1992 on Japan's TBS television, "Zutto anata ga suki datta" (I've always loved you) was an extremely popular-and extremely controversial-television drama. Intriguingly, the protagonist Fuyuhiko suggests in some way an anti-Ajase figure. Like the prince of Buddhist legend, Fuyuhiko possesses an intense love-hate relationship with his mother, a relationship that culminates in an attempt to kill her. However, whereas Ajase wishes to kill Idaike because she has shown her separateness (love for her husband by attempting to abort the child whom an oracle predicts will kill the King), Fuyuhiko attempts to kill his mother for the opposite reason: he cannot extricate himself from a suffocating relationship with her. Furthermore, if the Ajase story offers a "happy ending," a reconciliation between mother and child, the television drama suggests that Fuyuhiko's unhappy relationship with his mother will have tragic repercussions in the life of Fuyuhiko's own son as well.
The above analysis of Fuyuhiko will be placed in the context of current debates within men's studies in Japan, particularly a series of seminars given by psychiatrist Saito Satoru on the topic of otokorashisa no yamai, or "the diseases of masculinity." I will discuss both Saito's views on the controversial issue of mazakon, or "mother complex," and his analysis of the family dynamics through which an intensely ambivalent bond between a Japanese mother and her son is often transmitted intact to the following generation.
The Ajase Family Romance
Andra Alvis, University of California, Berkeley
Okonogi Keigo's article "Ajase to Oresutesu" (Ajase and Oresutesu, 1980), suggests the possibility of a distinct Ajase "family romance" (a story in which the family dynamic operates as plot). His analysis of the Buddhist legend, influenced by the work of psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, describes Ajase's mental integration of Idaike as both a "bad mother," who would kill Ajase to save her husband (a mother of separateness), and a "good mother" devoted to her child (a mother of connection). The story recounts Ajase's successful integration of ambivalent feelings toward his mother-feelings engendered by the discovery of a parental relation that excludes the child.
Like Ajase, the hero of Yasuoka Shotaro's novel Kaihen no kokei (A View by the Sea, 1959) struggles to integrate ambivalent feelings towards his mother. However, the maternal images that figure in Shintaro's memory reverse the above formulations. The "bad mother" is one of connection, narcissistically identified with her son; the "good mother," a mother of separation, who reaffirms her ties to the father.
Rereading then suggests the Ajase story contains both sets of maternal figures: two "bad mothers"-one of separateness, one of connection-followed by two corresponding "good mothers." Noting that the ordering and imagery of these conflicting representations are reminiscent of the mourning process as described by Klein, I will offer a new Kleinian interpretation of the story. The Ajase family romance articulates a process of mourning for the mother, lost to the child with the acceptance of an exclusive, and excluding, parental bond.