Tony and His Father’s Distance

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Tony and Shozaburo survive through separate forms of solitude, connected by music and family loss but rarely able to speak intimately.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Shozaburo in Shanghai Shozaburo in Shanghai from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". A Life of Instinct Leaving Japan Shozaburo Takitani leaves Tokyo after a romantic difficulty and builds a life playing trombone in Shanghai.

Shozaburo in Shanghai from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". A Life of Instinct Leaving Japan Shozaburo Takitani leaves Tokyo after a romantic difficulty and builds a life playing trombone in Shanghai.

A Life of Instinct Leaving Japan Shozaburo Takitani leaves Tokyo after a romantic difficulty and builds a life playing trombone in Shanghai. He forms useful relationships but avoids reflection on history. Survival in captivity After the war he is imprisoned by the Chinese Army and narrowly survives execution. Returning to Japan, he finds his family gone and begins again through music.

The Unnamed Infant The Unnamed Infant from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Fatherhood by Default Marriage and bereavement Shozaburo marries a cousin, who dies three days after giving birth.

The Unnamed Infant from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Fatherhood by Default Marriage and bereavement Shozaburo marries a cousin, who dies three days after giving birth.

Fatherhood by Default Marriage and bereavement Shozaburo marries a cousin, who dies three days after giving birth. He cannot understand the scale of his grief and forgets the child in the hospital. A name from a friend An American major suggests the name Tony. Shozaburo accepts it without recognizing how difficult it will make the boy’s life.

Two Solitary Men Two Solitary Men from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Distance as a Family Habit A self-sufficient son Tony is teased for his name and turns toward solitary drawing.

Two Solitary Men from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Distance as a Family Habit A self-sufficient son Tony is teased for his name and turns toward solitary drawing.

Distance as a Family Habit A self-sufficient son Tony is teased for his name and turns toward solitary drawing. Shozaburo tours with his band and keeps his relationships outside the family home. Little shared speech They are not hostile, but neither takes the initiative to open his heart. Their mutual independence becomes the unspoken structure of their relationship.

The Father’s Music The Father’s Music from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Hearing a Difference A rare shared outing Tony and his wife attend one of Shozaburo’s performances.

The Father’s Music from "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman". Hearing a Difference A rare shared outing Tony and his wife attend one of Shozaburo’s performances.

Hearing a Difference A rare shared outing Tony and his wife attend one of Shozaburo’s performances. Tony recognizes the familiar style but senses that it differs from the music remembered from childhood. What remains unsaid He wants to ask his father what changed but cannot explain the question. The music exposes a distance that ordinary conversation never crosses.

The Records in the Empty Room

Inherited Absence A father’s remaining property Shozaburo leaves little beyond cash, an instrument, and a vast jazz collection. Tony stores the records in the room once occupied by his wife’s clothes. Another letting go The records’ smell and presence eventually become unbearable. Tony sells them, leaving himself alone in a house emptied of both generations’ traces.

Before and during the Second World War

In 1947 and the year after

Tony’s childhood and early adulthood

After Tony marries

After Shozaburo dies, two years after Tony’s wife