Meeting with Takakazu Horiuchi

Yozo's encounter with Masao Horiki at an art class in Hongo, Tokyo, is a pivotal event that sets him on a path of self-destruction. Horiki, a graduate of a private art school six years Yozo's senior, approached Yozo one day when they barely knew each other and asked to borrow five yen. Yozo, unable to refuse, gave him the money, and Horiki immediately dragged him to a nearby café, declaring the loan a pledge of friendship. This marked the beginning of a relationship that would prove catastrophic for Yozo.

The Nature of the Friendship

Yozo quickly recognized Horiki as a "genuine city good-for-nothing," a man entirely removed from the activities of ordinary human beings, much like himself. However, a fundamental difference separated them: Horiki operated without any awareness of his own farcicality or the misery it caused, while Yozo was acutely conscious of his own clowning and the dread that drove it. Yozo despised Horiki, seeing him as fit only for amusement, yet he found himself drawn to him because Horiki's incessant, nonsensical chatter relieved Yozo of the need to perform his own exhausting clowning. Horiki's loquacity ensured there were no uncomfortable silences, and Yozo could simply let the stream of words flow past him, occasionally commenting with a smile. This dynamic allowed Yozo to relax his habitual vigilance, but it also made him vulnerable to Horiki's influence.

Initiation into Vice and Politics

Horiki became Yozo's guide to the underside of Tokyo life. He taught Yozo how to drink, smoke, visit prostitutes, and navigate pawnshops, all with a practical efficiency that minimized expense and maximized pleasure. Yozo, who had been terrified of even boarding a streetcar or entering a restaurant alone, found in Horiki a protector who handled all transactions and eliminated his anxiety about money. Horiki also introduced Yozo to a secret Communist meeting, which he treated as just another Tokyo sight. Yozo attended the Reading Society regularly, finding the members' earnest discussions of elementary Marxist theory uproariously amusing. He performed his clowning for them, becoming popular and indispensable, though he felt no genuine commitment to their cause. The irrationality of the movement appealed to him more than its logic, and he found the atmosphere of underground activity curiously soothing.

The Unraveling of Yozo's Life

As Yozo became more deeply entangled with Horiki, his life spiraled downward. He neglected his studies and his painting, spending his days drinking and his nights in bars. His father's house in Ueno was sold, and Yozo moved to a gloomy lodging house in Hongo, where he was immediately beset by financial worries. Horiki's influence led Yozo to pawn his belongings and send desperate telegrams home for money. The friendship culminated in a love suicide with a married woman, Tsuneko, which left her dead and Yozo saved. After this incident, Yozo was expelled from college and taken in by Flatfish, but Horiki continued to appear, often borrowing money or dragging Yozo back into drinking. Even after Yozo married Yoshiko and tried to reform, Horiki returned, like a "bird of ill-omen," to reopen old wounds. It was Horiki who, during a drunken evening on the roof of Yozo's apartment, discovered Yoshiko being violated by a shopkeeper and deliberately showed Yozo the scene, an act that Yozo later identified as the decisive incident of his life, splitting his forehead with a wound that would throb forever. Horiki's final appearance came when he accompanied Flatfish to take Yozo to a mental hospital, offering a gentle smile that shattered Yozo's remaining will and led him to submit passively to confinement.