THE CHRONOTOPE OF ROAD IN THE WORKS OF JIPPENSHA IKKU (TŌKAIDŌCHŪ HIZAKURIGE) AND OKAMOTO KANOKO (TŌKAIDŌ GOJYŪSANTSUGI)

Abstract

In the center of the works studied, Tōkaidōchū hizakurige by Jippensha Ikku and Tōkaidō gojyūsantsugi by Okamoto Kanoko, lies a journey of the characters along the Tōkaidō road. Despite the fact that the two works are of different genres and are more than one hundred years apart from each other, the space of the Tōkaidō road is a common element for them, wherein the ways of expression of the chronotope of the road varies for both authors. The Tōkaidō road in Ikku’s work is a specific “anti- world” — a grotesque, carnival dimension, where sensuous pleasures and humor rule. The dimension here is discrete, the time in this chronotope is linear and “endless”. In Tōkaidō gojyūsantsugi, in opposite, amidst the Tōkaidō road, a “micro-world” of a heroine, a journey into the deepest layers of her soul is taking place. With the heroes of past and present, wandering along the road in reality and in fantasy, the heroine finally finds her own place in the changing world.