Hototogisu (Nami-ko): The Third Book

        The third book of Nami-ko opens with no shortage of melodrama, as Tokutomi Roka paints a scene of blood, gunpowder, and carnage on Takeo’s warship. The chapter opens with Takeo shown lamenting, “(a)s never a day passed without thinking of her, so it must be with her, too. Did they not pledge to live and die together?” followed by a dramatic and action-packed battle between the Chinese and Japanese navies. Takeo’s guilt over his pledge to die with his now ex-wife keeps the reader at the edge of their seat as the battle rages on, casting a dark shadow on what may become of Takeo’s fate. Roka further creates suspense by ending the chapter with Takeo having been wounded, drifting in and out of consciousness as he watches “crimson vapor wreathe before his closed eyes” as he is lifted up by a fellow sailor. It is not until the next chapters that the reader is reassured that Takeo’s earlier mourning was not foreshadowing an early demise. 

        As the raging battle dramatically reflects Takeo’s state of mind, the contents of Nami’s heart are mirrored in the vengeful return of the tuberculosis that is consuming her. With Takeo no longer by her side, cruelly cast away by her Mother-in-Law, Nami awaits death’s embrace. However, to Nami’s dismay, even death is not on her side as she manages to miraculously recover from her would-be fatal disease. Knowing that Takeo still loves her but is unable to be her husband, she regards her return to good health as a curse worse than death, wondering, “was life still worth living to one who was suffering from an incurable disease, and was yearning after an impossible love?” Faced with such torment, she prepares to throw herself into the sea, recused in the nick of time by an anonymous grasp, leaving the reader with a cliffhanger similar to that of Takeo’s earlier near-death. 

       Color theory, as in other melodramas, is used to represent the fight between good and evil. The color of white, whether it be the full moon beaming down on Nami as she says a last goodbye to her loved ones, the shawl that Takeo places around her shoulders, or the chrysanthemums placed on her grave, symbolizes Nami’s unmarred purity, especially bright in contrast with the wicked intentions of her Mother-in-Law.