Fragrant Spaces between Words: Prolonging Shōjo Liminality into Adulthood in the Poetry of Yonezawa Nobuko

Marianne Tarcov

doi:10.5195/jll.2019.77

Abstract

This essay argues that, in 1920s Japanese Symbolist poetry and perfume advertising, women inhabit a space of ambiguity, where bodily experience is elevated as the highest form of creativity and knowledge. Yonezawa’s poems prolong the liminality of the shōjo, or girl, archetype into adult womanhood, thereby transgressing the border between womanhood and girlhood. In her poetry, Yonezawa uses fragrance to portray the inherent sexuality of poetic creation, creating a feminine, sexual creative voice. Yonezawa uses the idealized homosocial relationships found in shōjo culture to imagine a world determined by the creativity and community of women. The relationships between women feature ecstatic sensory pleasure and shared poetic inspiration, brokered by the sense of smell.

Highlights

Symbolist poet Ōte Takuji (1887–1934), who worked as a professional copywriter for a cosmetics company, wrote the preceding passage in a 1931 essay called “On ‘The Expression of Perfume’: Idle Chatter” (‘Kōsui no hyōjō’ ni tsuite: Mandanteki-na muda-banashi), first published in a commercial periodical by his employer, Lion Corporation
This journal is published by the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press
Married to dentist Yonezawa Masatami in 1918 and publishing under her married name, Yonezawa prolongs the liminality of the shōjo into adulthood, and she uses the sense of smell to add a sense of corporeality and sexuality

Summary

Introduction

Symbolist poet Ōte Takuji (1887–1934), who worked as a professional copywriter for a cosmetics company, wrote the preceding passage in a 1931 essay called “On ‘The Expression of Perfume’: Idle Chatter” (‘Kōsui no hyōjō’ ni tsuite: Mandanteki-na muda-banashi), first published in a commercial periodical by his employer, Lion Corporation. This article examines commercial scent, including perfume and incense, in the work of the Japanese Symbolist poet, Yonezawa Nobuko (1894–1931). For Symbolist poetry, the sense of smell plays a key role in imagining and subverting the relationship of bodies to the world and to each other.

Results

Conclusion