World-Forming Animals：Animal Imagery and the Critique of Nationalism in Michiko Ishimure’s Ten no Uo

Ishimure Michiko’s Ten no Uo, the third section of her literary environmental trilogy Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow, is often regarded as a form of reportage, and it remains understudied. This article focuses on the representation of animals in Ten no Uo and analyzes two types of animal metaphor present in the text. The first metaphor is negative, wherein people are likened to ants, illustrating the political dehumanization of individuals. When contextualized as serial contributions to the magazine Tenbo in the socio-political landscape of 1970s Japan, this metaphor underscores Ishimure’s concerns and criticisms regarding the resurgence and intensification of nationalism during that era. Conversely, the second metaphor is positive. For instance, the author likens youths participating in the self-negotiation movement to cocooned larvae, implying their potential to metamorphose into butterflies—symbolizing growth, transcendence, and renewal. By reviewing Ishimure’s contemporaneous essays as an integrated whole, this analysis posits that she perceives animals as possessing world-forming attributes, and that her work suggests that human rationality is not inherently superior to animality. This article contends that Ishimure learned primitive beliefs about animals from the fishermen of Minamata and endeavored to use these beliefs to transcend Japan’s modern emperor system. In contemporary mass society, an emphasis on the agency of both animals and humans not only deconstructs anthropocentrism but also advocates for a transition toward a more diverse multispecies politics, particularly in response to the homogenizing pressures of conformist social structures.