Quote:
Originally Posted by sun surfer
I'd like to ask - Was there any significance or symbolism in the girl in Japan having western eyes?
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I did feel a significance to this - especially when this story coincided with the opening up of Japan to the West.
It was almost as if the woman was offered as the treasure of Japan - the heart if you like. And the Western eyes symbolised the fear of Japan in opening itself to the West as well as the possible hopes of the West to which it was being opened.
I could go further and find extrapolated significance in the character's eventual failure to acquire that of which he dreamed and alternatively, the village's eventual evacuation and destruction.
I'm probably talking through my "proverbial", but I think there is some merit in approaching the story from this perspective whether right or wrong.