Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/169

 Nowadays since women are self-aware, once they have made up their minds to do something, they just go ahead and do as they please."

Tokio proudly lectured Yoshiko on his views relating to this controversy, "It's time women should be aware. It's no good for a woman still to be so weak-minded as to depend too much on others. As Sudermann's Magda said, if a woman is so lacking in courage as to allow herself to be transferred immediately from the hands of her father into the hands of her future husband, she is worthless. As one of Japan's newly awakened women you must think and act on your own initiative." Tokio advised her along these lines, and further explained his point of view by taking as examples Ibsen's Nora and Turgenev's Elena to illustrate how Russian and German women had an abundance of volition and emotion. Then, Tokio paused a moment and further cautioned Yoshiko by saying, "But, when I speak of self-awareness, it also includes self-examination. That is, I don't mean that you can indiscreetly persist in your own ways. You must be prepared to take upon yourself all responsibility for whatever you do...."

This lecture by Tokio sounded more meaningful to Yoshiko than anything else, and her esteem for him increased. It seemed to her that his teaching was more liberal and authoritative than that of the Bible.