after the quake

The story focuses on the unlikely friendship between a teen runaway named Junko and a middle-aged artist named Miyake. Both characters bond over a shared fascination with bonfires and a profound sense of alienation and emptiness that stems in part from their estrangement from their families. Junko ran away from a hostile environment where authority figures like her teacher and father were mocking and threatening rather than caring and supportive. She alludes to her painful upbringing and lack of a nurturing family when she notes how the bonfire’s “flames accept[] all things in silence, dr[i]nk them in, underst[an]d, and forg[i]ve. A family, a real family, [i]s probably like this” (28). Miyake left behind a wife and two children in Kobe for reasons he does not explain beyond vague references to having been an “idiot king” in his youth (34). Even Keisuke, Junko’s carefree boyfriend, has a contentious relationship with his family and left home after rejecting their expectations for him to take over the family’s sweetshop. Instead of representing security and an affirmation of one’s identity, families in the story are a source of anxiety and trauma. Without a sense of home, Junko and Miyake find solace in their shared appreciation of nature and art and their empathy for each other’s sadness.

The story begins on an isolated beach just approaching midnight, a setting that highlights a time of transition and the characters’ experiences of loneliness and displacement. Miyake describes the small coastal town in Ibaraki as a “navel-lint nothing of a town” (32), a place where people go to get away or be forgotten. The late hour creates a contemplative mood of solitude and silence, as “[t]he winter waves [a]re strangely hushed” (23). Like the softened sounds of the water, Junko and Miyake confide in each other throughout the night, sharing stories about their pasts and their fears that they usually repress in the light of day.

Junko and Miyake reveal to each other their deep sense of emptiness, a feeling that alludes to the national trauma of the country’s recent natural disaster. The setting is a month after the Kobe earthquake, a time when survivors must cope with the deaths and devastation while trying to resume their daily lives. The narrative suggests a similar emotional timeline in Miyake’s latest bonfire building, as he tells Junko that an especially impressive haul of driftwood washed up on the beach after a strong storm. The driftwood is a symbol of displacement and of pieces broken and scattered, but it is also a symbol of beauty, uniqueness, and inspiration. Miyake’s bonfire building is an artform, and his use of the driftwood in this art represents a rebuilding of lives, honoring beauty and resilience. His talent highlights the theme of The Arts as a Source of Self-Discovery and Renewal.

As Junko and Miyake meditate on life, death, and their overwhelming sense of loneliness, the fire comes to symbolize soul searching and perseverance through life’s tribulations. Miyake once told Junko that the fire mirrors her soul and that the “raw” and intense “quiet” feeling she gets from watching the flames reveals that she is essentially a person of peace (31). Junko admits to Miyake that she feels “cleaned out” and “empty” (38), metaphors for feeling dead inside. The confession is a moment of desperate vulnerability that signifies the nadir of her depression but also her willingness to reach out for help from a trusted friend. Miyake and his bonfires become a source of comfort and refuge from Junko’s isolation.

Miyake develops into a father figure who offers the compassion missing from Junko’s family. His offer to “die together” at first sounds like a suggestion of suicide (38), yet as Junko feels the warmth of his embrace and his empathy toward her pain, the ambiguous line also connotes an optimistic promise to be there for her throughout her life. As Junko cries into his jacket with his arm around her shoulder, Miyake’s embrace recalls “[t]he spread of the flames [that] [i]s soft and gentle, like an expert caress, with nothing rough or hurried about it—their only purpose [i]s to warm people’s hearts” (28). Miyake offers Junko an introspective form of living that draws from how one thinks one will die. His perspective is not morbid but motivated by an awareness of his aspirations and fears while he is living. Miyake considers his death to guide what he wants his life to stand for.

Miyake tends the fire throughout the night, burning through the pile of driftwood with each confession of their personal sorrows. The fire mirrors the narrative’s pacing, where the present moment on the beach shifts in and out of the past like the flames that glow and flicker. After telling Junko about his nightmares of dying, “[t]he big pile of extra driftwood [i]s gone […] Miyake had thrown it all in the fire” (36), suggesting a cathartic release. Both Miyake and Junko have unburdened themselves of some of their darkest thoughts. In an allusion to their friendship and his willingness to support her, Miyake declares, “Anyhow, let’s wait til the fire burns out […] We built it, so we ought to keep it company to the end” (40). He personifies the fire as a companion they shouldn’t abandon, and like the fire, he plans to warm and accompany her as long as they live.