No Longer Human

While he does not completely fit the role of antagonist, Horiki appears during several pivotal moments in Yozo’s life, ruining the few positive situations that he finds himself in. Horiki is a Tokyo native. To Yozo, who grew up in the countryside, Horiki is the perfect guide to an unfamiliar city. Though Yozo does not fully approve of Horiki’s behavior, he still follows him into a world of alcohol, prostitutes, and pawn shops. Horiki’s appearance belies his dissipate, lecherous personality: He is clean-cut and almost always wears a neat suit and tie. However, Horiki lives in a run-down two-story apartment and is protective of his meager possessions; he is a deeply devoted son, evidenced by the reverence he shows his mother when she brings him and Yozo jelly.

In many regards, Horiki can be considered Yozo’s best friend, even if he uses Yozo and is frequently cruel to him. Yozo reflects, “When the two of us met face-to-face it was as if we metamorphosized into dogs of the same shape and pelt, and we bounded out through the streets” (140). Yozo also suspects that on the inside, Horiki is just like him: unfit to be considered human. Despite their kinship, the men ultimately despise each other—their “friendship” being one of constant, mutual degradation. Horiki does not miss any opportunity to insult Yozo, reopening old wounds and sending him down the path of alcoholic benders and adulterous flings—only to chide him later. Horiki’s cruelty toward Yozo reaches its peak when he casually shows Yozo’s wife, Yoshiko, being raped. This is essentially the end of their friendship. Yozo is overcome by hate and rage for Horiki—even more so than for Yoshiko’s rapist. Despite this, Horiki seems to be conspiring with Flatfish, the madame of the bar, and possibly Yozo’s brothers for the sake of Yozo’s health. Horiki’s final appearance in the novel is when this very group decides to send Yozo to a psychiatric hospital following his second attempt to die by suicide.

Though he only plays a minor role in the novel, Takeichi plays a symbolically vital role in Yozo’s life. Yozo describes Takeichi as a runt: He is the smallest boy in Yozo’s high school class and considered unintelligent. Despite this, Takeichi is one of the few people to see through Yozo’s clownish veneer when he suspects Yozo’s fall during physical education was purposeful. Takeichi soon becomes Yozo’s first friend, if only on the surface; Yozo believes friendship will prevent Takeichi from telling others his secret. Takeichi makes two “prophetic” pronouncements for Yozo’s life that come to haunt the latter as an adult: The first is that Yozo will become a man that many women fall for, and the second is that Yozo will become a great artist. Takeichi introduces Yozo to the idea of “ghost portraits,” something that will both fuel Yozo’s artistic ambitions and haunt him later in life. Though Takeichi only appears in the second notebook and Yozo never sees him again after high school, these prophecies make Takeichi one of the most influential secondary characters in the novel.

Yoshiko is a 17-year-old girl whom Yozo marries following his time living with the madame of the bar in Kyobashi. Yoshiko is trusting to a fault. She takes whatever Yozo tells her at face value and continues to trust him even as his alcoholism and drug addiction intensify. Her trust anchors Yozo and allows him to live a semi-normal life—but is shattered when she is raped by a neighborhood shopkeeper. Ironically, this results in Yozo losing his trust in her. Their relationship is never the same; after Yozo attempts to die by suicide a second time, he wants to be far away from Yoshiko, though she continues to care for him until he is committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Tsuneko is a waitress-hostess at a bar that Yozo discovers during one of his alcoholic nights in the Ginza district in Tokyo. He is immediately drawn to both her kindness and melancholy. Tsuneko is from Hiroshima, is two years older than Yozo, and has a husband in prison. After a one-night-stand, Tsuneko confesses to Yozo that she is miserable. Yozo finds her to be a companion in misery and even feels sympathy for her; the night they spend together is one of the only times in which Yozo feels happy. However, his fear of intimacy drives him away. The two do not see each other for a month, during which Tsuneko’s melancholy deepens. Yozo and Horiki visit her bar, and the latter acts disgusted at her air of poverty. Tsuneko and Yozo form a suicide pact. She drowns; Yozo lives and is charged with being an accomplice to her suicide.

Shizuko is a single mother who works for a publishing company that Horiki illustrates for. She and Yozo meet when the latter shows up unexpectedly at Horiki’s house, disrupting her appointment with Horiki. Shizuko takes an immediate liking to Yozo and takes him in; Yozo describes himself as a “kept man” during this period of his life. Shizuko takes care of Yozo and even helps him obtain a position drawing cartoons for a children’s magazine. They practically live as husband and wife for a time, and Yozo becomes close with Shizuko’s daughter, Shigeko. However, Yozo’s fear of intimacy leads to alcoholism, and he ultimately abandons Shizuko and Shigeko—believing that he will ruin them if he were to stay. Despite this, Shizuko believes in Yozo, thinking he is driven to drink because he is too good.