The Two Tales of
By Marina Kato & Misshel Keyani
Our Story
We have acknowledged that women in history have been hidden, even in modern times. We would like to focus on the life of Takahashi Oden to see how a devoted wife could be turned into a "poison woman", or dokufu. The complexity of gender roles and social order is one of the reasons why such a fantasy can be now portrayed as the truth.
This study of Takahashi Oden’s historical and fictional legacy was not solely about the misinterpretation of the story. This research gives light to the constant effort that society makes in order to preserve or create a sense of social acceptance that Takahashi Oden did not quite fit in. What is discovered here is not a criticism against the society’s blindness to Takahashi Oden’s life in Meiji Japan. The theme that runs through such studies exist in our postmodern society today – the erasure of history and the passive acceptance of information without any doubt.
As a result, the truth stays in the shadows and eventually gets lost in time.
Let us explore the life of Takahashi Oden through the two tales and what it leads us beyond.
some quotes From Yasha Monogatari
With this destruction of the bad and triumph of the good, the enlightenment of the realm advanced all the farther; the masses shouted banzai, and all ended happily.
On the Death of Takahashi Oden
from The Lies and Connivances of an Evil Woman: Early Meiji Realism and "The Tale of Takahashi Oden the She-Devil"
Mark Silver