The Child-Motif on Once and Forever from Kenji Miyazawa

            We will be focusing on the child archetype in Miyazawa’s stories derived from the Jungian perspective. The child-motif is important because it is a recurring archetype in Miyazawa’s myths besides his appreciation for nature. The archetype of the “child,” these archetypes either help us appreciate nature like in “Kenju’s Wood,” and “Night of the Festival,” which is to give back to nature. We realize that the “child” is born out of myth and “represents the strongest, the most ineluctable urge in every being, namely the urge to realize itself. It is, as it were, an incarnation of the inability to do otherwise, equipped with all the powers of nature and instinct, whereas the conscious mind is always getting caught up in its supposed ability to do otherwise.” We also recognize that the “child” is clearly powerful. [The child’s] “power is revealed in the miraculous deeds of the child hero, and later in the athla (‘works’) of the bondsman or thrall (of the Heracles type), where, although the hero has outgrown the impotence of the child,” he is still in a menial position.

           According to Jungian theory, “the child is born out of the womb of the unconscious, begotten out of the depths of human nature, or rather out of living Nature herself. It is a personification of vital forces quite outside the limited range of our conscious mind; of ways and possibilities of which our one-sided conscious mind knows nothing; a wholeness which embraces the very depths of Nature. It represents the strongest, the most ineluctable urge in every being, namely the urge to realize itself. It is, as it were, an incarnation of the inability to do otherwise, equipped with all the powers of nature and instinct, whereas the conscious mind is always getting caught up in its supposed ability to do otherwise. The urge and compulsion to self-realization is a law of nature and thus of invincible power, even though its effect, at the start, is insignificant and improbable. Its power is revealed in the miraculous deeds of the child hero, and later in the athla (‘works’) of the bondsman or thrall (of the Heracles type), where, although the hero has outgrown the impotence of the “child,” he is still in a menial position. The figure of the thrall generally leads up to the real epiphany of the semi-divine hero.” Which is why Kenju is so devoted to planting the trees of the wood he created and why Ryoji has this irresistible urge to help the mountain man in one of the stories.

            Two explicit examples from two of Miyazawa’s stories are from “Kenju’s Wood,” and “Night Of The Festival.” Kenju shows the child motif that he “paves the way for a future change of personality. In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality,” due to the wood that he grew as a young boy where people now enjoy the wood fervently. Jung also states that “One of the essential features of the child motif is its futurity.” In Kenju’s case, it is the future of generations to come as they appreciate nature in his wood. In Jung’s case, Kenju can be the child hero of enlightenment knowing that the future generations have taken advantage of the wood that he had grown.

            Now, in light of “Night of The Festival,” Ryoji is truly the child hero because he saves the man of the mountains who is being beaten by the other children and is actually the God of wind because we know that the man of the mountains gives him firewood and chestnuts in return. “The urge and compulsion to self-realization is a law of nature [which is to save the mountain man,] and thus of invincible power, even though its effect, at the start, is insignificant and improbable. Its power is revealed in the miraculous deeds of the child hero, and later in the athla (‘works’) of the bondsman or thrall (of the Heracles type), where, although the hero has outgrown the impotence of the “child,” he is still in a menial position. The figure of the thrall generally leads up to the real epiphany of the semi-divine hero,” which makes Ryoji a semi-divine hero because Ryoji as we can see is still in a menial position after helping what seemed to be a tortured divinity who essentially is the mountain man.

            “Jung’s key essay on myth is the psychology of the child archetype, where he uses myths of the child to set forth his overall theory of myth. Typically presenting his theory by distinguishing it from Freud’s, Jung contends that the figure of the child in mythology symbolizes not, as for Freud, the actual child but the archetypal child. Further, Jung contends that the figure of the child points not merely back to childhood, as for Freud, but also on to adulthood,” which shows in “The First Deer Dance” in Miyazawa.

            “One of the essential features of the child motif is its futurity. The child is potential future …. It is therefore not surprising that so many of the mythological saviours are child gods. This agrees exactly with our experience of the psychology of the individual, which shows that the “child” paves the way for a future change of personality. In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality,” which shows in Kenju. We can infer that Kenju’s innocence unconsciously shows in the future personalities of the children that play there in future tense where after Kenju dies, his legacy lives on through future children and the wood.

            “The child somehow symbolizes a specific archetype on the one hand and, even more, the whole personality in its development from primordial unconscious to ego consciousness to self on the other. Thus the mythic child is less human than divine. While remaining literally a child, the mythic child symbolizes the lifelong process of psychological maturation. Child myths depict children as both youngsters and future adults. The child is truly father to the man,” such as in “The Red Blanket” where there is a Snow Child who helps a small boy.

                                                            Works Cited

            Segal, Robert A. “Jung on mythology.” (1998).