Mr Shintaro Ishihara was the Goethe of Japan. I was his pupil, someone in the same profession, and his escort runner. In this chapter, I have woven together more of my private recollections, spanning as long as twenty-plus years, and "my unfulfilled promise" to him. ー Shin Ushijima
(Trigger Warning: This chapter contains references to suicide.)
Chapter 4.4: Can You Write a Novel?
In his book, The Life of a Man Called ”I” (Gentosha, 2022), Shintaro Ishihara once mentioned the suicide of Jun Eto. "He suffered the same stroke as I have now. But deeply deploring the fact that he was no longer what he used to be, he killed himself," Ishihara wrote. Then he declared firmly, "I am reminded of Jun Eto, but I will never blame or kill myself for changing from what I used to be into what I am now." (P 199)
He continued on the same page, saying: "If I did not have this new gadget, a word processor available to me, I might well have killed myself because I have become unable to write by hand." In other words, he could go on living because he was still able to write stories.
Then, what did he really mean when he told me, "If I'm ever driven to die, I'll douse myself with kerosene and burn myself to death." It was true that he reacted sharply against a remark I made, but it didn't seem as though he was completely opposed to suicide. On the contrary, I couldn't wipe away doubts that Mr Ishihara had once attempted suicide as a high school student.
A Stand-in for Ishihara
I always think of the character, Katsuhiko Miyashita, in A Bleak Classroom (灰色の教室, Hitotsubashi Literature, 1954) as the model for Mr Ishihara. When he said that he would sprinkle kerosene on himself if he wanted to die, he did not yet have the option of using a word processor to write stories. Therefore, if he couldn't write by hand, suicide might have been one of his possible options. There is no way I can find the truth now, for these events were a quarter century ago.
Nonetheless, Mr Ishihara sometimes spoke without regard to the specific facts, which I realized very well when we discussed Sei Ito's book, Transformation. (変容, Iwanami Shoten Publishers, 1983). In any event, Mr Ishihara was a novelist, and he regarded his conversations with me as input for his novels. He would have valued his senses more than the facts. I understand that.
But on second thought, his statements actually did seem consistent. Had he been unable to write more stories, he might have matter-of-factly terminated life, just like Jun Eto. But the advent of the word processor made it possible for him to keep writing stories without any trouble, so he had no reason to end his life.
Stories Flooding Out
On the contrary, rather than being suicidal, his mind and brain were flooded with ideas for stories.
So, he took his ideas and wrote a compilation of short stories published under the title Somewhat Violently (やや暴力的に, Bungeishunju Ltd, 2014). Ishihara was 81 years old that year. "It was well received," he wrote in The Life of a Man Called ”I” (p 200), suggesting that he was satisfied with its popularity. Since he had found a way to write stories with a word processor, he had been freed from any reason to terminate his life, despite the aftereffects of the stroke.
But when the doctor, whom Mr Ishihara trusted, later told him, "You have about three months to live," Mr Ishihara confessed, "My nerves were torn apart."
"Death has been reduced to so trivial a matter that I want to throw it out," wrote Mr Ishihara. He was also compelled to add, "My feelings are leaning rather toward Jun Eto's determination to take his life, being sick and tired of his physical decline." (The Road to Death, 死への道程, 2022 at P 129, published after his death in Ishihara's Last Works.) That statement, open to interpretation, could sound grievous, poignant, or even sweet.
Developing the Plot
Returning to the May 10, 2002, conversation in a meeting room at my law firm, Mr Ishihara's new story grew increasingly concrete as our conversation progressed. He was working on Island of Fire (火の島), ultimately published by Gentosha in 2008.
"The president of Company A is not the younger brother, but the older brother. However, the younger brother has taken charge of the parent company. And although he's the president of the parent company, he gets back together with his ex, you know, this 'woman/ex.' What's worse, of all things, he has changed the title of his stock in A Holdings from his name to the woman's name.
"That's the beginning of all the ensuing troubles. The woman's gone missing, and the father of the two brothers was killed in an accident. But it was not just any accident. The problem is, the woman passed the stock in Company A, given to her by the younger brother, into the hands of a yakuza by the name of C. And the stock eventually falls into the hands of a yakuza organization called C-gumi. As a result, Company A winds up being blackmailed.
A Yakuza Story
"Listen, there's another story.
"Company A acquires land from Company B in an exchange. But Company B also demands that Company A pay ￥2 billion JPY ($12.8 million USD) in cash off-the-books. Company A badly wants to acquire the land because it's adjacent to other land Company A owns. However, Company A acquiesces to Company B's unreasonable demand. Then, Company B demands that Company A make a written pledge to pay the ￥2 billion. The managing director in charge of the matter for Company A agrees, but doesn't inform the company.
And then the yakuza C-gumi takes the stage.
C-gumi also infiltrates Company B and naturally latches onto a copy of Company A's written pledge promising 'the payment of ￥2 billion. Then, C-gumi starts to blackmail Company A.
As for Company B, because it has the written pledge, it also starts to demand that Company A allow some people from Company B to sit on the board of A Holdings and to participate in Company A's business operations. Anyway, it's all about a tax dodge involving the illicit off-the-books payment of the ￥2 billion debt, as promised in the written pledge."
A Useful Idea
Mr Ishihara used some of my ideas in building up this part of the story. One was the exchange of lands and payment of the value difference between the two properties involved in the exchange. Sometimes, it happens that the payment of off-the-books funds is promised, even if the amount exceeds the permissible limit for tax purposes of the difference at the time of the exchange. In such instances, the exchange itself may be invalidated, which could cause other problems, etc, etc.
After finishing explaining his stories, Mr Ishihara suddenly said, "Even in your work, if you let a top executive narrate a monologue, your work would add breadth and depth, making the story more human. And then, someone suddenly intervenes at the end. That's where the story deflects and develops even further."
Thus, he gave me useful suggestions.
Find the Table of Contents
(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)
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Author: Shin Ushijima
Ushijima & Partners, Attorneys at Law
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