Kafka on the
Shore
Haruki
Murakami
Author – Haruki Murakami
Born January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan.
Studied drama at Wasaeda University in Tokyo, where
he met his wife Yoko.
Used to own a coffee shop and jazz bar with his wife
from 1974-1981.
Began writing fiction when he was 29.
Known mainly for his surrealist and magical realism
works. Considered to be a highly influential figure in
postmodernism.
Received the Franz Kafka Prize for Kafka on the Shore
(Har har).
Very politically outspoken against violence. He is also
an avid marathon runner.
He donated nearly $130,000 to the victims of Japan’s
earthquake and tsunami, as well as the subsequent
Fukushima disaster.
Other Works, Influences
Murakami is strongly influenced by
Western culture, including Kurt
Vonnegut and Franz Kafka (duh). He
also is an avid fan of classical and
jazz music, which shows in the work.
Has written a dozen novels, including
Hear the Wind Sing (1987), The WindUp Bird Chronicle (1995), and
recently 1Q84 (2009). Murakami has
also written many short stories.
Kafka on the Shore is partially
inspired by Oedipus, containing
many of its core themes and
principles.
Context
World War II: Although this is written
significantly after the war, much of
the novel was written in response to
the violence of WWII as well as the
Japanese government’s coverups of
war crimes and atrocities.
According to Murakami, Kafka on the
Shore was also written partially in
response to the poison gas attack in
1995 on the Tokyo Subway.
Setting:
Most of the novel takes
place in two locations
in Japan: Nakano
Ward of Tokyo, and
Takamatsu, Japan.
Many scenes also take
place in the wilderness,
particularly the
mountains. The precise
location of wilderness
scenes is intentionally
left ambiguous.
NOTE
There are TWO main narratives in Kafka on the
Shore. They relate to one another, but are very
divided for most of the story.
For the sake of coherency, I’m splitting up the
characters and synopses into two sections,
“Kafka” and “Nakata”. I’m also introducing the
characters first, because some of their
characteristics are important to know for the
sake of the plot.
Characters: Kafka
Kafka Tamura: The main protagonist, Kafka is a troubled 15-year-old
boy who runs away from home. His father tells him of an Oedipal
prophecy that he will sleep with his mother and older sister, both of
whom abandoned him as a child. Kafka is very intelligent and
physically fit, but prone to brooding and is quite introverted.
The Boy Named Crow: Kafka’s alter-ego, who occasionally takes his
place in narration when Kafka is uncertain or needs help. His narrative
is told in second-person present perspective, often in boldface. (Note:
Kafka means ‘Crow’ in German).
Miss Saeki: The main manager and keeper of the Komura Memorial
Library. She is very intelligent, but also characterized as deeply sad
and not entirely present, spending much of her time alone writing
something. Despite her being middle-aged, Kafka falls in love with her
and spends much of the tale internally conflicted over her. While it is
implied that she is his mother, like much of the tale, this is left to the
interpretation of the reader.
Oshima: A handsome, intelligent young man who works for Miss Saeki.
He’s a hemophiliac, and must be very careful not to get injured. Part
way through the book, it is revealed that Oshima is legally female,
though physically genderless due to what may be a birth defect. He
identifies as a gay man, however. Oshima mainly acts as a friend and
guide to Kafka, helping him with his internal conflicts.
Sakura: A woman in her twenties that Kafka meets on the way to
Takamatsu. She befriends Kafka and looks after him as if he were her
brother. Whether or not she is his actual sister or merely a symbolic
representation is left to the interpretation of the reader.
Characters: Nakata (here’s
where it gets weirder…)
Nakata: A mentally handicapped man, having developed mental
deficiency after a mysterious accident in his childhood during World
War II. He serves as the story’s secondary protagonist, and is the
harbinger of many of Kafka on the Shore’s magical realism aspects. He
has the ability to speak with cats (which he loses part of the way
through), and to make the sky rain various forms of wildlife (fish at one
point, followed by leeches). After killing Johnnie Walker, he feels a
sudden need to hitchhike to Takamatsu and find a mysterious artifact
he refers to only as “the entrance stone”. His narrative is told in thirdperson past perspective.
Hoshino: A truck driver whom Nakata meets while hitchhiking. Out of an
unfulfilled need to help his now-deceased grandfather, Hoshino takes a
liking to Nakata and impulsively quits his job in order to help him.
Despite the surreal and paranormal events that surround Nakata,
Hoshino is not easily fazed and tends to take each event in stride. As
Nakata’s narrative develops, Hoshino actually begins to take over as
the secondary protagonist.
Johnnie Walker: A mysterious, somewhat mythological figure (modeled
after the whiskey idol). He claims that he needs to collect the souls of
cats by brutally slaying them in order to create a flute that steals the
souls of humans. He appears toward the beginning, requesting that
Nakata kill him. When Nakata does, he is believed to be dead, but
reappears near the end in The Boy Named Crow’s narrative. It’s very
likely that he is supposed to be a representation of Kafka’s father, as
both are killed in similar ways and locations and are heavily implied to
be the same person during one of the closing scenes.
Colonel Sanders: Like Johnnie Walker, a somewhat mythological figure
(this time modeled after the KFC guy), though he explicitly claims to be
“neither a god not a Buddha”. Hoshino encounters him on the streets,
working as a pimp. Sanders eventually helps Hoshino locate the
“entrance stone” and gives Nakata and Hoshino a place to stay while
they try to figure out what the stone is for.
Synopsis: Kafka
Kafka Tamura, a troubled 15-year-old boy, runs away from home, stealing some money
from his father and boarding a bus for southern Japan.
He meets a girl named Sakura on the way, who takes a liking to him, giving him her
number in case he runs into trouble.
Kafka checks into a hotel under a presumed name and wanders around town. He
eventually discovers the Komura Memorial Library, meets Oshima, and settles into a daily
routine of visiting the library to read.
One night, Kafka wakes up near a shrine, completely covered in blood. He panics,
believing that he may have blacked out and hurt someone, so he finds a public restroom
and cleans himself off. He calls Sakura, who lets him stay with her.
During the night, he sleeps with her. Feeling guilty, Kafka leaves the next morning and
returns to the Komura Library to hide. He tells Oshima what happened to him the previous
night.
Oshima decides to look after him, helping him buy food and offering to let him stay in a
family cabin in the woods. Kafka takes him up on the offer. He spends four days in solitary
reflection before Oshima returns, offering him a job and a place to stay at the Library.
More Kafka Synopsis…
On the way home, Oshima explains some things about the mysterious Miss Saeki, the manager of the
Library. She found true love as a child, but her fiancée was killed during a student protest, leaving her a shell
of her former self. She was well-known for writing and performing of a hit single entitled Kafka on the Shore,
which is part of the reason Oshima took an interest in helping Kafka.
Saeki disappeared after her success, living off of royalties, then abruptly returned to become manager of
the Komura Library, which her fiancé's family owned and dedicated to his memory.
The next morning, Oshima gives him a news article that reveals Kafka’s father, world-renowned sculptor
Koichi Tamura, was found stabbed to death in his apartment. The police suspect Kafka and are searching
for him, although he has a solid alibi. Kafka is also worried about the incident where he woke up covered in
blood, and worries that somehow he is actually responsible for his father’s death despite their distance.
Another article talks about fish raining from the sky (a reference to Nakata’s tale) near Kafka’s house.
That night, Kafka sees a ghost of a girl in his room. She’s sitting at his desk, staring at a painting of a boy
standing by the ocean. The painting is, coincidentally, entitled Kafka on the Shore. She is seemingly
unaware of Kafka’s presence, and soon disappears. The next morning, Kafka feels the need to listen to Miss
Saeki’s song, and asks for a copy from Oshima.
That day, upon seeing Miss Saeki, Kafka realizes that the fifteen-year-old girl he saw in his room was a ghost
of her. He also realizes he has fallen in love with both versions of her—the living and the dead.
Even More Kafka Synopsis…
Kafka listens to Kafka on the Shore. Many of the lyrics reference Nakata’s part of the story,
“Little fish rain down from the sky… search for the entrance stone” (227-8), as well as
referencing the Sphinx from Oedipus. He’s enamored with the song, especially two
chords in the refrain, and ponders its meaning.
That night, he sees the ghost yet again. Upon his request, Oshima gives Kafka sheet music
for Kafka on the Shore so he can study the two chords that intrigue him. He has a
conversation with Miss Saeki, who appears to be hard at work writing something
important. She tells him that he reminds her of someone she used to know, and mentions
that once she wrote a book on people who survived lightning strikes. This reminds Kafka of
something, but he cannot precisely remember what. He continues to obsess over the
song that evening.
Kafka remembers that his father once survived a lightning strike. He tells Miss Saeki this,
wondering if perhaps she interviewed him about it. He has come to suspect that perhaps
Miss Saeki is his mother, and asks if she has any children. She doesn’t answer him
definitively.
That night, rather than the ghost, Kafka opens his eyes to find the living Miss Saeki in his
room, in a trance-like state. They end up having sex, but Kafka is overwhelmed with
confusion and shifts to The Boy Named Crow’s perspective. The next day, he goes to talk
to Miss Saeki, but she doesn’t appear to remember what happened.
GUESS WHAT? More Synopsis
Oshima picks Kafka up to return to the cabin. The police have apparently traced Kafka to his current location, so he has
to go into hiding.
Kafka spends his time at the cabin thinking about who he is, and about Miss Saeki. He decides that, despite Oshima’s
warnings, he has to wander into the woods to find out something about himself.
While he brings plenty of supplies, he soon abandons them and simply begins wandering, not caring if he gets lost.
Kafka spends much of the time discussing who he is and what his purpose in life is with Crow, but his alter-ego abandons
him part-way through the dialogue.
Out of seemingly nowhere, he encounters two WW-II-esque soldiers in full battle gear standing in the forest. They inform
him that they’ve been waiting for him, and that the entrance (stone) has opened. He begins to follow them into the
woods.
The soldiers, after a long hike, take him to what appears to be a town forgotten by time. While Kafka doesn’t see
anyone, it is seemingly inhabited (it’s implied later to be some sort of limbo between life and death) They take him to a
house and inform him that this is where he is to live.
After settling in a bit, a girl appears at the house. It’s the fifteen-year-old version of Miss Saeki, but she doesn’t seem to
have any recollection of who she is. She fixes him breakfast and leaves.
The narration suddenly cuts to The Boy Named Crow’s perspective, who has taken the form of a crow. Near the
entrance where Kafka met the soldiers is Johnnie Walker, from Nakata’s tale. He tells Crow that he’s made the flute to
steal human souls, and challenges Crow to stop him. Crow attacks the man, ripping out his eyes (Oedipus reference!)
and goring his face, but it doesn’t seem to have much of an effect, as Johnnie Walker just laughs at him.
The Last KAFKA synopsis bit..
Kafka encounters the real, middle-aged Miss Saeki, who has died (as described in
Nakata’s narration). She informs him that she has burned up all of her memories (also
tying into Nakata’s tale), but wants to talk to him before she forgets everything.
Kafka asks Miss Saeki if she truly is his mother, but her answer is intentionally (infuriatingly)
ambiguous. He tells her that he forgives her for abandoning him as a child. She says
goodbye, and wanders off, disappearing.
Kafka decides he cannot remain in the town, and has to return before the entrance
closes. He encounters the two soldiers and thanks them for their help, and manages to
stumble back to the cabin.
Oshima’s brother, a man named Sada, comes to pick Kafka up. Sada asks him if he saw
the two soldiers in the woods, taking Kafka by surprise. He then offers to give Kafka surfing
lessons, which he considers.
Back at the library, Kafka packs up his stuff and thanks Oshima for all he’s done, smiling.
Oshima gives him a copy of Kafka on the Shore (the song) to keep, as well as the painting
version, commenting that it’s the first time he’s ever seen Kafka smiling.
Kafka boards the train back to Tokyo, ready to face “a brand-new world” (467).
Synopsis: Nakata
We are introduced to an old, mentally-handicapped man (Nakata) having a
conversation with a black tomcat. He tells the cat that he’s looking for a young tortishell
named Goma, and wonders if he’s seen her, but he hasn’t.
Later, Nakata encounters two cats named Kawamura (whom he can barely understand)
and Mimi, a prim and proper Siamese. She tells him to go look in an abandoned lot for
Goma, as many cats gather there and someone has been kidnapping them.
At the lot, Nakata encounters a large black dog, who commands him to follow. He’s
eventually taken to an apartment, where he encounters a man named Johnnie Walker
(dressed as the whiskey guy).
Johnnie Walker, while enigmatic and charismatic, is clearly pretty crazy. He informs
Nakata that he is in possession of Goma, but unless Nakata is willing to kill him, he will kill
her.
In a rather gruesome scene, Johnnie Walker takes Kawamura (one of the cats from
earlier) out from a bag, and eviscerates him, cutting off his head. Nakata watches,
bewildered, as Walker then takes out Mimi. However, before he can harm her, Nakata
grabs a knife and stabs Johnnie Walker repeatedly, killing him, before passing out.
Nakata continued…
Nakata wakes up back in the lot (this is paralleled with Kafka waking up by the shrine covered in blood),
with no evidence of what happened. Nearby are Mimi and Goma, but he is unable to communicate with
either of them.
He returns Goma to her owners, then goes outside to turn himself in for murder. The police officer does not
take him seriously, assuming he’s senile. Nakata then informs the officer that he should bring an umbrella the
next day, because it would rain fish.
The police officer obviously doesn’t believe him… and is completely bewildered when it rains fish the next
day.
Nakata gets a sudden sense that he has to travel south and find what is called “the entrance stone”. He
hitchhikes with several people before encountering a truck driver named Hoshino, who takes a liking to him.
Hoshino decides to drop his job and help Nakata out, because Nakata reminds him of his deceased
grandfather.
After several chapters involving travel…The two arrive in Takamatsu (where Kafka is staying). Nakata falls
asleep for a long time at the hotel, so Hoshino goes out and wanders around. On the streets he encounters
a man named Colonel Sanders (who is quite literally dressed as the KFC guy), working as a pimp. He sets
Hoshino up with one of his girls, and afterwards helps him to locate the entrance stone.
The entrance stone turns out to be… a stone (shockingly). The stone is very heavy and draining on Hoshino
as he takes it back to the hotel and lays it by Nakata’s head.
Yet more Nakata…
The next day, Nakata and Hoshino go to a public library to try and figure out what to do next. Nakata can’t read, so he
looks at a picture book filled with cats around the world while Hoshino does most of the research.
Hoshino later enters a coffee shop out of impulse and settles down. He finds he actually really likes the classical music
that plays in the background. Hoshino thinks about all of the new experiences he’s had ever since encountering
Nakata. He discusses classical music with the coffee shop owner (who is totally a self-insert of the author, just saying).
Back at the hotel, Hoshino gets a call from Colonel Sanders, who informs him that the police are searching for Nakata in
connection to the murder of Kafka’s father. He informs them that he has an apartment they can stay at to hide from
the police until they figure out what to do with the entrance stone.
They arrive at the apartment, and Nakata tells Hoshino that he must open the entrance stone by turning it over. Much
to his dismay, Hoshino finds the stone to be suddenly impossibly heavy, and must use all his strength to move it. He
barely manages to turn it over, but the entrance is now open in Kafka’s tale.
After settling into the apartment, Hoshino rents a car and drives around Takamatsu with Nakata, who’s searching for a
particular location. They end up getting lost, but stumble upon the Komura Memorial Library, which is apparently what
Nakata was looking for. (As a note, this is at the point where Kafka is wandering through the forest in his narrative).
The two spend some time in the library, Nakata looking at picture books while Hoshino decides to research Beethoven.
Hoshino discusses Beethoven’s life with Oshima. Before they leave, however, Nakata suddenly stands up and walks up
the stairs to Miss Saeki’s study. He tells her he wants to talk to her about the entrance stone; she seemingly knows what
this is and asks Oshima and Hoshino to leave the two to talk about it.
More Nakata, wow…
Nakata and Miss Saeki discuss many things, including memory and desire.
Miss Saeki reveals that she opened the entrance stone a long time ago in
order to preserve her happiness, but was ultimately punished for it in the end.
Miss Saeki gives Nakata the huge volume she’s been writing throughout the
novel, explaining that it’s a memoir of her life. She asks him to burn it so that
she can be free. Nakata accepts it, and the two leave.
Later, Oshima goes up to check on Miss Saeki, and finds her lying dead on
her desk, seemingly of heart failure.
Nakata and Hoshino find a dry riverbed in the mountains and burn Miss
Saeki’s files, as per her request. They return to the apartment to sleep. The
next morning, Hoshino finds Nakata dead, having passed away in his sleep.
Hoshino’s understandably sad about this, but realizes that his job isn’t done,
and that the entrance has to be closed again at the opportune moment. He
spends some time in the apartment reflecting on who he is and what he is
supposed to do. He wanders out onto the balcony and calls down to a cat
outside… and is surprised when he can understand its reply perfectly.
At this point it’s basically
Hoshino…
The cat informs Hoshino that something malevolent is going to appear
and try to stop him from closing the entrance stone. In order to prevent
this, Hoshino will have to kill whatever it is that appears.
Early in the morning, Hoshino hears a rustling sound from Nakata’s room.
Grabbing a hammer, he wanders in and discovers a strange white
worm has crawled out of Nakata and has begun to crawl toward the
entrance stone. He attacks it with the hammer, but it heals
instantaneously.
Using all of his strength, Hoshino returns to the entrance stone and
manages to flip it over, almost dying in the process. He then takes the
hammer and manages to kill the worm.
Sitting back in exhaustion, Hoshino reflects on his experiences. He’s
grown and changed a lot ever since he met Nakata, and feels ready to
lead his life and try new things. He calls the police to remove Nakata’s
body from the apartment and sets off on his own.
Themes and Motifs (as you can
see, there are a bunch…)
Loss + Reclamation of Innocence (Coming of Age)
Sexual + Personal Identity
Taking on of Alternate Forms
Reincarnation
Out-of-Body Experiences
The Value of Memory
Multiple Explanations for Everything
The Line Between Paranormal and Ordinary
Death of the Past, Birth of the Present
Living While Dead
Higher vs. Lower Intelligence
Crows and cats appear quite frequently, both as characters (sort of) and in more symbolic senses.
Alternate Forms (Out-of-Body
Experiences, Reincarnation)
The Boy Named Crow is an obvious one. Kafka takes on this
alter-ego in order to confront overwhelming experiences. “I
turn into a theorizing black crow” (398).
Kafka is very heavily implied to be a reincarnation of Miss
Saeki’s former love, the one who was killed in the student
protest, “She nods. ‘You were there. And I was there beside
you, watching you. On the shore, a long time ago. The wind
was blowing, there were white puffy clouds, and it was always
summer.’” (441).
When Kafka wakes up covered in blood, a possible
interpretation is that he murdered his father. While this is
physically impossible, Nakata performed a very similar act of
stabbing on Johnnie Walker. It is implied that perhaps Kafka
had an out-of-body experience, taking over Nakata’s actions
and forcing him to stab his father.
Multiple Explanations
Just about everything in this novel has an alternate
interpretation. Was Miss Saeki actually Kafka’s mother,
or merely a symbolic representation? Who exactly
was Johnnie Walker, and what did he represent? The
author himself has actually stated that the
overwhelming ambiguity is intentional, and that he
wanted above all to “create a riddle” when he wrote
Kafka on the Shore.
This serves as something of a commentary on real life.
Our perceptions are based very much on our own
circumstances. Nakata murdering Johnnie
Walker/Kafka’s father may seem like a mysterious
cold-blooded murder to an outsider’s perspective,
but to Nakata the situation appeared very differently.
Death of the Past, Birth of the
Present
It is only after Nakata dies that Hoshino is inspired to truly seize
his life. He states this outright, but it is also implied when he
inherits Nakata’s ability to converse with cats.
Miss Saeki’s entire character arc centers around this idea, “‘My
life ended at age twenty. Since then it’s been merely a series
of endless reminiscences, a dark, winding corridor leading
nowhere’” (392). She is reminded of her past life when she
meets Kafka, but it is only when she dies that she feels truly at
peace, and Kafka truly begins to seize his future. As Kafka may
be a reincarnation of her former love, this directly addresses
the issue of inheriting the future.
This theme is actually exemplified in the shifts between point of
view. While Nakata is a representation of the past and its trials,
Kafka represents the present and the possibilities of the future.
Literary/Rhetorical Devices
Multiple Perspectives! Kafka’s is in first-person present, Crow’s is in
second-person present, and Nakata/Hoshino’s is in third-person
past.
Imagery: “A canopy of trees towering above thick ferns, vines
trailing down, gnarled roots, lumps of decaying leaves, the dried,
sloughed-off skins of various bugs. Hard, sticky spiderwebs. And
endless branches– a regular tree branch universe. Menacing
branches, branches fighting for space, cleverly hidden branches,
twisted, crooked branches, contemplative branches, dried up,
dying branches- the same scenery repeated again and again”
(396).
Symbolism and metaphor are both described explicitly in the
novel, almost to the extent of leaning on the fourth wall:
“Miss Saeki looks up, surprised, and after a moment’s hesitation,
lays her hand on mine. ‘At any rate, you– and your theory– are
throwing a stone at a target that’s very far away. Do you
understand that?’ I nod. ‘I know. But metaphors can reduce the
distance.’ ‘We’re not metaphors.’” (294).
A lot of the novel focuses on personal interpretation and multiple
explanations, meaning that some things may be considered
metaphors or symbols.… or are “just a cigar”, as Freud would say.
Johnnie Walker, for example, may be the symbolic representation
of Kafka’s father, but may also just be a crazy figment of Nakata’s
imagination.
Kafka on the Shore lyrics
You sit at the edge of the world.
I am in a crater that’s no more,
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.
The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard,
Little fish rain down from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.
Thinking of the pendulum that moves the world, it
seems.
When your heart is closed,
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx,
Becomes a knife that pierces your dreams.
The drowning girl’s fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes–
At Kafka on the shore.
[Refrain]
