Kokoro & Taboo

Kokoro is split up in to three parts, each containing a different part of the story. The first is mostly around the student’s relationship with Sensei, while the second focuses on the student and the third focuses on Sensei. All of these sections contain Freudian concepts particularly relating to Totem & Taboo.

Parts 1 & 2- Sensei as a “father” to the student

A la Totem and Taboo, the idea of “father figures” is very strong in this novel. Particularly in the first part of the novel (where it focuses on their relationship together) and the second part of the novel (where it focuses on the student’s familial relations) we see a strong connection as if Sensei was a father to the student. Even in the first couple pages, we see a compulsion by the student to be one with Sensei – one day, as he’s watching him at the beach he “had a sudden urge to follow him” (6). I think this sentence really encompasses a lot of the book here in the beginning – as the student learns from Sensei, he craves to know more about him and just wants to “follow” his lead. As they develop a closer relationship, the student claims that Sensei’s ideas “inspired [him] more than [his] teachers” (29). In part two, when he goes home to tend to his father and family, the connection he has to his real family are weaker than his connection with Sensei. He even sees himself a little above his family and parents in terms of knowledge – giving advice & expressing ideas that Sensei relayed to him, particularly regarding his father’s illness. All the while when he is at home, he still thinks of Sensei pretty constantly – writing to him for a job and updating him on his situation. When his father is on his deathbed, at the end of part 2, he quickly takes the train to Sensei (believing him to be dead) – the most important father figure, it seems, was him. 

Part 3 - The Sensei and K’s fight for the girl

Sensei describes, in depth, about the circumstances that led him to suicide in his extensive letter to the student. He explains how his love for Ojōsan developed, and his dismay when K confesses his love for her as well. This leads to another Totem & Taboo concept of mutual sexual desires leading to division in brotherhood. Sensei is extremely distraught when K confesses his love to him, and what follows ends up being a competition for the winner (in Sensei’s eyes) of Ojōsan. At one point, Sensei describes his “savage” like behavior – as he “grabbed K but the scruff of the neck and demanded to know what he would do if I tossed him into the sea” (177). His unrestrained feelings ultimately end up in him asking Ojōsan to marry him – as he wanted to “act before K did” (208). The burden on K is too much to bear to see his love go away – and he commits suicide. Brother fought brother to the death.