Re-Gendering Ishimure Michiko as an Ecofeminist/Hydrofeminist through Her Transcorporeal Novel Kugai-jôdo [苦海浄土; Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow]

Abstract

The late Ishimure Michiko (1927-2018) was a Japanese environmental novelist, poet, and activist, once rumored to be a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her Kugai-jôdo [Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow], the ‘canon’ of Japanese environmental literature, relates stories of human-human and human-nonhuman interactions in Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, situated in the southwestern part of Japan, where Ishimure used to reside. It is here that we encounter Minamata disease: a neurological disease caused by severe mercury poisoning due to contaminated wastewater from a chemical factory. Previous analyses of Ishimure’s works, including Kugai-jôdo, have paid little attention to their gender aspects. In my opinion, this is partially due to the ‘patriarchal’ nature of Japanese ecocritical circles, rendering them unwilling to introduce gender perspectives as an analytical lens. Karen Thornber further theorizes that Kugai-jôdo degenders the degradation of nature. I assert that Kugai-jôdo describes transcorporeal connections between nature (the sea) and the female body (mothers), engendering ecofeminism and even hydrofeminism - an observation which stands in opposition to Thornber’s assertion. This paper shall explore this point of contention and attempt to re-gender Ishimure, demonstrating her bona fides as an ecofeminist and hydrofeminist vis-à-vis Kugai-jôdo.