Essay: Unheroic Hero

Enoshima

The tale of Yamato really stuck out as being very male-centric.  Many times, it is the women who are doing huge deeds, yet they tend to get little to no credit for their efforts.  Yamato is seemingly the hero of the tale, but it seems that the women are the ones that have most of the qualities and virtues that would be desirable.  Often, he seems foolish and rash.  In fact, the tale refers to him as reckless.  Not only that, but almost as soon as the story starts, it calls Yamato “fickle.”  For a tale that is supposedly about his heroic deeds, it oddly admits his shortcomings.  Though the tale admits this, it still overlooks the women continuously.  

The siren, for example, uses her mind to best the “hero.”  Of course, she gets no credit for this.  The siren in the story actually tricks Yamato.  Though she is most definitely an antagonist, it is completely skimmed over that she outsmarted him in a sense.  Her cleverness is never mentioned.  Instead, it is mentioned the Yamato finally realizes that she has been using him. It is almost as if he is getting credit for being duped.  

Even more so than the siren, there is Tacibana.  She is so extremely devoted to Yamato, yet he treats her horrible, once again demonstrating how much a hero he is not.  The three most commonly used words in regard to Tacibana are devoted, faithful, and brave.  Somehow, though, Yamato seems to be the one labeled a hero and the one to get most of the glory.  She saves Yamato numerous times until she finally dies for him, sacrificing her life for his.  It is not until the end of the tale that he starts to respect her and treat her right.  Unfortunately though, it was too late.

The tale of Yamato from the Japanese Mythology unit