No Longer Human

Yozo is expelled from college because of his involvement in Tsuneko’s suicide. He spends his days at Flatfish’s house, and though his family doesn’t contact him, it becomes clear to him that his brothers periodically send small amounts of money to Flatfish. Flatfish also forbids Yozo from leaving the house—he’s afraid, Yozo can tell, that he’ll try to kill himself again. Yozo, however, feels far too exhausted to do such a thing. Still, he yearns for alcohol and cigarettes, which are more or less the only things in life that he misses.

One night, Flatfish invites Yozo downstairs to have dinner with him and his son. It’s a nice meal, which surprises Yozo. But then Flatfish starts asking him about his future—what does he want out of life? What is his plan? Flatfish says he’s more than willing to help Yozo get started on a productive path, if only Yozo will tell him what he wants to do. Yozo, however, feels unable to answer. He has no idea what he wants to do, nor can he discern what Flatfish wants for him. He wishes Flatfish would simply tell him to do something like enter school in the spring term (he notes, in retrospect, that this is exactly what Flatfish wanted). As it stands, he’s unable to say anything, which only angers Flatfish. 

Eventually, Yozo says that he’d like to work as a painter. Flatfish can’t believe his ears. He laughs and looks at Yozo scornfully, and his look tells Yozo everything he needs to know about the worst, lowest aspects of adult life. The next day, Yozo runs away from Flatfish’s house—not because he’s embarrassed by his conversation with Flatfish, but because he doesn’t want to burden him any longer. He leaves a note saying that he’s simply going to Horiki’s house and that Flatfish doesn’t need to worry.

Yozo doesn’t actually intend to go to Horiki’s house. And yet, once he’s wandering through the city, he can think of nowhere else to go. He therefore ends up going to Horiki’s house, where Horiki greets him with apathy and disdain. While he’s there, a woman comes to visit Horiki. She works for a magazine that commissioned an illustration from Horiki, who wants to get rid of Yozo so he can focus on his conversation with her. At one point, a telegram arrives from Flatfish, causing Horiki to angrily ask what Yozo has dragged him into. He orders him to return to Flatfish immediately, not wanting to be associated with any kind of scandal.

The woman from the magazine offers to take Yozo home. Her name is Shizuko, and she lives alone with her five-year-old daughter, Shigeko. Her husband died a few years ago. She likes the sadness coming from Yozo, praising him for being sensitive. From that day on, he lives with Shizuko and her daughter, leading the life of a “kept man.” At first, he doesn’t do much, other than spend time with Shigeko and gaze out the window at a ripped kite that has gotten tangled in some telephone wires. The kite makes him smile as he watches it blow in the wind without actually going anywhere.

Yozo starts drawing cartoons for Shizuko’s magazine. It’s not a good magazine, but they pay him for the cartoons. Meanwhile, Shizuko loves living with Yozo, saying that the sadder he seems, the more women gravitate toward him. He accepts these compliments, but he’s depressed about his current situation. He decides he wants to run away from her, but he realizes that he depends on her too much to do so.

Yozo becomes so depressed that Shizuko organizes a meeting with him, Flatfish, and Horiki. They all decide that Yozo should no longer be in touch with his family and that he should marry Shizuko. In the meantime, his cartoons become very popular, giving him enough money to buy alcohol and cigarettes. He develops what he thinks is a relatively close relationship with little Shigeko, but one day she emotionally eviscerates him by casually saying that what she wants more than anything is to have her “real” father back. Yozo realizes that he once again let his guard down only to be wounded by an unexpected comment.

These days, Horiki has started speaking to Yozo in an incredibly condescending manner. This is because he participated in the meeting about Yozo’s future, so now he sees himself as something of an authority figure in his relationship to Yozo. He tells him how to behave, talking about what’s acceptable in society. This comment makes Yozo think about the general idea of society—what, exactly, is society? He figures that it must be the “plural of human beings.” He has spent his entire life thinking about what society does and does not approve of, and now he begins to see society as more than the “plural of human beings.” Society, he thinks, is an individual. 

As soon as Yozo starts thinking of society as an individual, he feels less shy and apprehensive than normal. He’s more capable of doing what he wants. But that doesn’t mean he finds happiness. To the contrary, he spends his days in a state of deep depression, drawing cartoons for the many magazines that now pay for his silly, pointless drawings. In the evenings, he goes out and gets as drunk as possible, coming home late and speaking rudely to Shizuko, though she never takes the bait. She remains calm and levelheaded, refusing to let his antics upset her. Realizing that Shizuko and Shigeko will be better off without him, Yozo leaves for good.

After leaving Shizuko, Yozo goes to a bar in the Kyobashi neighborhood, where he tells the bartender who manages the bar that he left Shizuko for her. This is all he needs to say for her to let him drink at the bar and sleep in the upstairs apartment. A year goes by. Yozo is still frightened of human beings and drinks heavily, all the while drawing cartoons for a number of magazines, some of which are pornographic. At one point, though, a young woman tries to get him to stop drinking. Her name is Yoshiko, and she’s 17. She works in a tobacco store across the street from the bar.

When Yoshiko tells Yozo to stop drinking, he doesn’t understand why he should do such a thing. But he also declares that he wants to kiss her, and she doesn’t object. Shortly thereafter, he falls into a manhole while walking home drunk one night. Yoshiko helps pull him out and mends his wounds, again saying that he drinks too much. He then declares that, starting tomorrow, he won’t drink any alcohol—if, that is, Yoshiko agrees to marry him. He means it as a joke, but she agrees, so they plan to marry (as long as Yozo stops drinking).

The next day, Yozo gets drunk. He tries to tell Yoshiko that their arrangement has to be called off, since he’s drunk, but she doesn’t believe him. She knows, she says, that he wouldn’t break his promise like that. He insists that he’s drunk and that he doesn’t deserve to kiss her, but she refuses to believe him. Suddenly, the fact that Yoshiko is a virgin overpowers Yozo, and he decides then and there that he really will marry her, since he has never slept with a virgin before and wants to know what it’s like. That night, they have sex. They get married shortly thereafter. Yozo doesn’t end up experiencing much joy from having sex with Yoshiko, but he notes that the decision to marry eventually brings him great suffering. He realizes that sorrow doesn’t just go away after a spur-of-the-moment decision.