21 pages • 42 minutes read
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaThe Nose
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaFiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1916A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Mirror
At first glance, Zenchi Naigu appears to be drawn to mirrors because of his own vanity. Early on in the story, the narrator describes how he would pause in his chanting in order to contemplate his own face with “feverish intensity” (53), trying out different poses to make his nose less prominent. And, after the shortening procedure is complete, Zenchi signals his pleasure with the result by looking at himself once again: “The face of the Naigu inside the mirror looked at the face of the Naigu outside the mirror, eyelids fluttering in satisfaction” (55-56). In both cases, the mirror is less a sign of self-absorption than it is a tool for shaping his identity. The image in the mirror confirms the conclusions that Zenchi draws from other sources, such as his sense of touch (he strokes his nose repeatedly, regardless of its length), his own beliefs about himself, and the reactions of other people. Seeing is believing, and Zenchi is only able to verify his identity as either a long- or short-nosed man once he sees himself in the mirror.
Moreover, the mirror has a long history as a symbol in Zen Buddhism. Rather than indicating vanity, as it might in a Western context, the Zen mirror is frequently used as a figure for the mind itself and its relationship to reality. That relationship can be simply reflective, or, more frequently, distorted due to some imperfection or dirt on its surface. The mirror, that is, conceals as much as it reveals. In “The Nose,” the mirror is a catalyst for delusion, in that Zenchi believes what he sees about himself when he looks into it. He fails to realize the ways that his attempts to control others’ perception of him are bound to fail and produce further suffering. The mirror is, significantly, absent at the end of the story. Zenchi experiences the “all-but-forgotten sensation” (57) of taking a deep breath with his full length of nose and realizes in a flash that it has grown back. He verifies this not by looking in the mirror, but by touching it with his own hand, and allowing it to be caressed by the morning breeze.
The Wooden Slat
The wooden slat does double duty in “The Nose.” It first appears during mealtimes in the temple, where a page uses it to hold up Zenchi’s nose when he eats. Later, during the period when Zenchi is sporting a shorter protuberance, the stick reappears as a prop in the hands of that same page, who is using it to tease a dog.
Since the story takes place in a Buddhist monastery, it is likely that this object is a repurposed keisaku, or “awakening stick.” In certain schools of Zen Buddhism, the keisaku is held by the teacher or person responsible for the meditation hall, who can use it to strike the backs of meditators as a way of facilitating awareness in meditation. (Generally, the keisaku is used only when the meditator requests it; only in limited situations in certain Zen sects would the master initiate its use.)
Part of the ridiculousness that Zenchi’s nose forces him to accept, then, is the practice of using a ritual object that belongs in the meditation hall for the purpose of keeping his nose out of his rice. However, that use is ultimately less problematic than Zenchi’s using it to hit the page out of anger. The keisaku is not supposed to be an instrument of punishment. That Zenchi uses it in this way emphasizes just how toxic his short-nosed personality has become. Even if the stick was not originally a formal keisaku, the fact that it had been used to save Zenchi from embarrassment should have been enough to prevent it from being transformed into a weapon. Either way, it ends up serving an awakening function for Zenchi himself: Though he hits the page, the Naigu is the one who has the insight about his behavior.
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By Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
