Yozo and Shizuko's cohabitation relationship

Yozo's cohabitation with Shizuko, a journalist who takes him in after his suicide attempt and his flight from Flatfish's house, is a period of dependency, domestic routine, and artistic stagnation that deepens his sense of shame and isolation. This relationship, which begins as a refuge from the consequences of his past, becomes a cage of material reliance and emotional paralysis, marking a critical phase in his descent into self-loathing and addiction.

Origins and Circumstances

After the failed suicide with Tsuneko and his subsequent confinement under Flatfish's resentful guardianship, Yozo runs away from Flatfish's house with no clear plan. He visits Masao Horiki, who is initially dismissive, but a woman visitor—Shizuko, a journalist from a magazine publisher—arrives. Learning that Yozo lives in Okubo, near her office, she takes an interest in him. Shizuko, a twenty-eight-year-old widow from Koshu with a five-year-old daughter named Shigeko, offers him shelter. Yozo thus begins "the life of a kept man," moving into her apartment in Koenji. Shizuko supports him financially, and her decisive intervention—arranging a conference with Flatfish and Horiki—severs Yozo's remaining ties to his family, formalizing his dependence on her.

Daily Life and Domestic Routine

In the Koenji apartment, Yozo's days are marked by a hollow domesticity. While Shizuko works at the magazine publisher, Yozo stays home with Shigeko, who soon calls him "Daddy." He draws cartoons, initially for Shizuko's children's magazine, and later for other publishers, producing work he considers beneath him. The apartment itself becomes a symbol of his entrapment: a kite caught in the telegraph wires outside the window, "blown about and ripped by the dusty spring wind," mirrors his own helplessness. He drinks heavily, often heading to outdoor booths near the station as soon as Shizuko returns home, and his drinking escalates to the point where he pawns her clothes. His routine becomes a cycle of drinking, drawing, and sleeping, punctuated by moments of maudlin song and self-pity.

Yozo's Emotional State and Shizuko's Role

Throughout the cohabitation, Yozo's internal world remains one of profound dread and shame. He is plagued by the memory of his lost "ghost pictures"—the self-portraits he painted in high school—and feels a "heavy sense of loss, as if my heart had become empty." He craves money for drink and cigarettes, and his dependence on Shizuko only deepens his depression. He confesses to her, "I want to buy my drinks and cigarettes with my own money. I'm a lot better artist than Horiki," but his words are taken as jokes. Shizuko, for her part, is a strong-minded woman who manages the practical complications of his life, but her care does not alleviate his misery. He feels that his gloom and depression grow only more intense, and he often weeps when thinking of home. His fear of human beings persists, and he is aware that the more he is liked, the more he fears people, a process that eventually compels him to run away.

The End of the Cohabitation

The relationship ends when Yozo, after a two-night drinking spree funded by pawning Shizuko's underrobes and sashes, returns home to overhear Shizuko and Shigeko happily playing with a white rabbit. He sees them as a self-sufficient unit—"a humble happiness. A good mother and child"—and feels that he is an intruder who might destroy them. He prays for happiness "once, only once in my whole lifetime," but instead of entering, he shuts the door softly and goes to the Ginza, never returning to the apartment. He then moves directly to a bar in Kyobashi, telling the madam, "I've left her and come to you," initiating another period of dependency. The cohabitation with Shizuko thus ends not with a confrontation, but with Yozo's silent, self-abnegating flight, a pattern that defines his relationships with women.

Significance

The period with Shizuko represents a crucial stage in Yozo's life of shame. It is a time when he is given a chance at stability—a home, a steady income from cartooning, and the affection of a woman and child—yet he is unable to escape his internal torment. His inability to trust or to feel genuine connection, his reliance on alcohol, and his compulsion to flee from happiness all solidify the trajectory that leads to his later addictions and institutionalization. The relationship underscores the novel's central themes: the impossibility of genuine human connection for someone who dreads human beings, and the way that kindness and care can become another form of bondage for the person who feels unworthy of them.