Resumo de The Crested Kimono - Matthews Masayuki Hamabata

The author, Matthews Masayuki Hamabata (or ?Matto? when he is in Japan, ?Matt? when he is in US), is a third-generation Japanese-American. He discusses his difficulty, as a Japanese-American, of defining his self-identity, especially when he goes to Japan as an adult in 1977 and 1979 to study the culture while he was a grad student at Harvard. The difficulty arises from the fact that Matto appears Japanese physically but is not a master of the language or culture.

Matto notes that when he tries to act completely Japanese, people are put off and label him an outsider and an ?incomplete? Japanese. However, if he acknowledges that he is an outsider, then people slowly let him ?in? to the culture. For instance, he told a cab driver in perfect Japanese where he wanted to go. When the cab driver responded and Matto did not understand correctly, the cab driver seemed annoyed that this American had pretended to be Japanese. Matto realized that his best route was to manipulate his dual identity as a Japanese-American; that is, he would speak in English when first meeting people (so that you receive the hospitality accorded to guests), and then gradually start speaking Japanese, so his identity slowly changed from ?guest? to ?insider? status.

Matt discusses the distinction in Japanese culture between ?inner self? (honne) and ?surface reality? (tatamae). Unlike Americans, Japanese do not regard the latter as any less important or ?real? than the former.

The Japanese have a strong sense of duty, and one of Matt?s older female acquaintances tried to pressure him to marry some of her friends by saying that if he did not do so, Matt would be fukoo (undutiful to one?s parents). After that point, to avoid future pressures to marry, Matt emphasized his boyish nature by referring to himself with the ?I? pronoun boku, which is boyish.

Matto notes that there is a ?kin network across industry through women;? that is, women who are related (i.e. are cousins) have husbands who own various industries that deal with each other, due to the relation between the women. Family enterprise are created and recreated as women interact with other women.

Matto discusses the concept of ie (family) in Japanese society as a patriarchal system and the process of omiai (matchmaking in which the wife becomes part of the husband?s stem family) of the Okimoto family?s eldest daughter, Reiko. Reiko is young and smart, and her parents want her to marry a muko-yooshi (a man who will agree to take the Okimoto name and then be adopted as a son by marriage) since the only son is quite irresponsible. In the end, the usually obedient Reiko falls in love (not with a muko yooshi) and marries into the Hayashi family, against her parent?s wishes. Her mother, Mrs. Okimoto, is disappointed but feels sympathy for Reiko?s new life as a oyome-san (new wife to the future head of household). Because she was one herself,, Mrs. Okimoto knows that the oyome-san faces suspicion as an ?outsider.? She lacks not only love but power?as a newcomer, she is strapped by strict obedience to her mother-in-law and must fend for herself. It takes time before she gains power and becomes mistress of household.

Matto describes the distinction between romantic love and Japanese marital love, using the example of his Japanese-American friend, Mitsuko. Ren?ai (the passionate love Mitsuko had felt for her former American boyfriend, George) left her breathless and afraid; the deeper she fell in love, the lonelier she felt?she felt disconnected and unfulfilled. After George broke her heart, Mitsuko agreed to an arranged marriage to a Japanese man, and they learned to love, in a way. At first she felt the love was out of giri (duty), which made her sad. She tried to find oneness with her husband, but only found conflict; she later realized she was pushing too hard. Love in marriage, the meeting of society?s expectation, was different from ren?ai, which was passionate, sexual, natural. With the birth oof their child and development of parental love, the artificial and natural, the societal and instinctive, became one. After awhile, Mitsuko seemed to care less about whether her husband even came home at night; it simply did not bother her since the bond they shared was not passionate, but rather a shared, considerate love out of duty for their daughter. In parental love, Mitsuku felt secure and fulfilled for the first time in her adult life.

The happenings of the families that Matto describes show us that social life is created precisely because passion, in all its human variety, exists. The individual?s desire to influence the course of his or her own destiny, the need to love and be loved, are given form by, and in turn, shape, the culture and social structure of the ie.

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