In the last three installments (parts 15, 16, and 17), we have addressed characters—the “Tokyo native” and “Osaka native”—that originate collectively (in Tokyo’s and Osaka’s societies).

We noted that characters which have communal origins are not visible until they step outside of their communities. For example, the “Tokyo native” character is “normal,” and thus invisible, within the Tokyo dialect using society. Smart, or perhaps flashy, “Tokyo native” characters first become visible only when they step outside of their community.

However, this essence, which “is normal within one’s own community, and visible from without,” is not peculiar to characters which have communal origins. Let’s think back to the beginning of this series.

Humans are social animals that spend each day among groups. We survive among these groups by making judgments about one another. Not only do we make arbitrary judgments about others, for example “this person is a ‘rich kid’” or “that person is ‘nice’,” we live our lives swinging between joy and depression due to the judgments handed down on us by others.

Such “judgments of us as people,” which can safely be called the greatest concern for the majority of us, are unaccustomed to intention (parts 2 and 3). For example, the person we call a “rich kid” is simply behaving “normally,” but is perceived as a rich kid when observed by others. Similarly, the “nice” person is just behaving “normally,” but his/her behavior is perceived as nice by others. The subjects themselves are consistently acting “normally;” they have no intention of making others think they are “rich kids” or “nice.” Well, actually, they may have such intentions, but these intentions must not be visible to others.

In part 3 we talked about a male character in Junichiro Tanizaki’s Sasameyuki (vol. 2) whose intentions are detected to his detriment. Sachiko dismisses Okubatake as “unpleasant” because he “intentionally” speaks slowly in an effort to project a “rich kid” character.

In Sasameyuki there is one more character who incurs low opinions of others due to his intentions being detected. Shoukichi was the first to visit Sachiko after a flood occurs, taking great trouble to rush to Ashiya from Osaka without even bringing his luggage. Furthermore, upon seeing that Sachiko is safe, he says tearfully, “My dear girl, I am so glad.” These can only be the actions of a “nice” person, but Sachiko is given the impression that this “man who was usually so chatty, and talked animatedly” was “speaking in a fabricated voice, as if he had intentionally blocked up his nose.” Although he was relieved at seeing the younger woman safe, this is no excuse for Shokichi to blatantly alter his voice to sound tearful.

The quite feasible argument that he was “altering his voice in order to express his feelings to the other person” is far from perfect. This is precisely why we must consider “character,” which is alien to intent, separately from “style” which the speaker can intentionally change to suit the occasion, in observing the communication we use and words we exchange every day. The “rich kid” and “nice” characters we looked at above have their origins not in communities, but in individuals.

Thus, this essence, which “is normal within one’s own community, and unintentionally transmitted, and only visible from the outside” applies not only to characters with communal origins, but to those with individual origins as well. Of course the word “within” differs depending on whether one is speaking of “within an individual” or “within a community,” but both are fundamentally similar.