There is an interesting word kareshi (that-him). The word kanojo (that-her) will also illustrate my point but I will refer to the word kareshi here. Kareshi is a third person. The word kareshi has a long history. It is a word which has been used for at least a hundred years. It also appears in a pre-war novel by Nagai Kafu, Tsuyu no atosaki (During the Rains), and refers to boyfriend or lover. For example, when two girls use the term 'kareshi ga dekita (I've got a kareshi)' in a conversation, they are talking about the boyfriend who is in another place. This is not a world of you and me, but a world of the other that precedes them. When I went shopping for clothes as a young man, the shop attendant came and often talked to me in second person, 'What is kareshi looking for?' But the word does not seem to be used in second person nowadays. I attach a great significance to such change. That is to say, 'kareshi' is third person for you and me, and it is 'otaku' that is the term for the world of you and me. I think even if 'kareshi' is used in front of the person, it will end up referring to the other preceding you and me. That is to say, the shop attendant uses the word 'kareshi' to express a certain concern of the fact that an unknown person has come as a customer, thinking that calling him 'you' would somehow go against the system of polite language in Japan. At the same time, the shop attendant wants to speak directly to me, the customer, so he/she uses 'kareshi' in the second person. In this respect, in the use of the word 'kareshi', we see that it is not used to mean 'you' nowadays because a third person as an incomplete stranger might come into the world of you and me. I think that this is not because politeness is disappearing but because people seek more eagerly for a closed world.

　

 From the preceding discussion, I think you can see the meaning of the title of my talk 'self', 'alter ego', 'incarnation'. I added the term 'metamorphosis' this morning and I think you can see what will follow.

 'Self' is the body of the self and this is basically not perceived. It is said in child psychology and developmental psychology that a new born baby cannot perceive its own body and does not have the sense of where its body ends. Rather, what it perceives first is not the self but the outside such as the mother, the mother's breast and voice. The self is determined from the outside. At least human beings begin by not perceiving the 'self'. Developmental psychology argues that the distinction between the self and the other is born gradually. I think that we do not perceive our own bodies even when we become adults. If we perceived our own bodies, it would be very tiring. Of course, we perceive it the least when we are sleeping, but even when we are awake, we do not usually perceive our body itself. If we wanted to feel the body and discover meaning, value and pleasure in it, we would have to engage in sports, dance, sex etc. We feel the body when we are tired while walking, or feel pain by falling over a stone, but otherwise we do not. I don't think animals could cope if they always perceived their bodies because the body is automatically controlled by the brain. The heart moves automatically, metabolism occurs automatically, and what we have eaten just now is automatically digested. We do not command these as actions or feel that we are doing so. Unless unusual things happen, such as the stomach becoming ulcerated and in pain, we do not perceive the 'self'.

　

 However, human beings think about what it means to be the self. So they seek some kind of meaning. Only monks who are enlightened from birth can live without meaning from the time of birth to death. When we try to perceive what we are, we always seek some kind of meaning. We perform gestures and behavior as a part of such attempt. We have been doing all sorts of things to move our bodies, for example, engaging in sports and competitions that were performed in festivals from the past even before sumo was invented. We have also perceived our bodies by playing using the body. Children and chimpanzees, for example, turn round and round, and when they stop, they feel dizzy due to the movement of water in the three semicircular canals. Thus they feel themselves by feeling their bodies sway.

 How is perceiving oneself related to this topic? In relation to bunraku, in particular, we can say that Japanese traditional performing arts employs three methods to perceive one's body. One is mask which is used in noh. One is make-up which is used in kabuki as kumadori. Make-up here includes costume and ornaments. One is technique of using one's body, waza. In kabuki, one perceives one's body by combining the use of masks, make-up, puppets and body techniques and incarnating one's body into something else.

　

 The difference between incarnation and alter ego is as follows. In incarnation, the self is here but the body of the self changes; while in alter ego the body of the self goes elsewhere. For example, in bunraku, though the puppet is linked to one's arm it becomes one's alter ego just nearby. When you buy a character doll, and put it here or there as something that enables you to feel your body, the character doll will not be an incarnation but an alter ego through which one feels one's body as something that has branched off from itself. Perhaps this would be a point of discussion later. It is rather like Songoku's magic of separating the self, and many selves are created.

 In the case of kabuki and bunraku, there is incarnation, but in certain circumstances there is a technique of creating an alter ego. Kabuki has the most developed technique among all performing arts, theater and performance, so I can explain easily in the following example. The role of Ohboshi Yuranosuke is played by an actor called Ichikawa Danjyuro on stage. Ichikawa Danjyuro and Ohboshi Yuranosuke are not completely identical, and metaphorically speaking there is a slight gap or the contours are unstable. Sometimes Ohboshi Yuranosuke comes to the forefront and other times Ichikawa Danjyuro does. They are in the same place and are incarnations, but what comes to the outside are always shifting. For example, the audience does not call out 'Ohboshi Yuranosuke!' to Ohboshi Yuranosuke's gestures, but calls out 'Naritaya!' in other words, 'Danjyuro!' to the act of Danjyuro's performance. At that moment, clearly Danjyuro comes to the forefront for a brief moment and withdraws again to the background. We could say that Danjyuro's performance of Ohboshi Yuranosuke itself becomes a little fluctuated. Within this fluctuation, he does not go as far as creating an alter ego, but demonstrates the skill of representing an alter ego while being an incarnation. Since the audience enjoys this fluctuation in the performance, I don't think we can completely distinguish bunraku as involving alter ego and kabuki incarnation. Let me tell you why I say that kabuki is the most developed in this technique. In fact Ichikawa Danjyuro is a stage name succeeded by a person called Horikoshi Natsuo in official family register. There is a triple layered structure in which Horikoshi Natsuo performs the role of Ichikawa Danjyuro and Ichikawa Danjyuro performs the role of Ohboshi Yuranosuke. When some one calls him 'Danjyuro-san' and he says, 'Yes', he is playing the role of Danjyuro. Sometimes when Koshiro comes to his side and calls him 'Natchan' as a nickname for Natsuo as he used to be called, Danjyuro returns to Natsuo. Therefore, there are times when Horikoshi Natsuo, Ichikawa Danjyuro and Ohboshi Yuranosuke become incarnations by matching completely and fulfill the aim of the acting. At the same time, the fluctuation between Horikoshi Natsuo, Ichikawa Danjyuro and Ohboshi Yuranosuke is a point of appreciation for the audience where kabuki actors display a technique of representing alter egos in the performance. The audience does not expect to see only the appearance of Ohboshi Yuranosuke. When they say, 'Danjyuro was good today', they see Ohboshi Yuranosuke knowing that he is Danjyuro, and there are other instances when they enjoy seeing the moment when Horikoshi Natsuo becomes Danjyuro. Incarnation and alter ego cannot be completely and suddenly separated.

 First there is the 'self' which we do not perceive. In order to get some pleasure or some kind of satisfaction using this self which we do not perceive, we incarnate. Within 'incarnation', we also create 'alter ego' by using powerful methods such as employing puppets. I understand alter egos as appearing in puppet joruri and characters. For example, when Danjyuro is enacting the role of Ohboshi Yuranosuke, or when someone is wearing the costume of a pretty girl character Sailor Moon, they are enjoying being an incarnation and the fluctuation created by being an alter ego. I still have not worked out my ideas completely here.

　

 In conclusion, I want to talk about metamorphosis as 'henshin' ('transformation of body', a word uttered by hero characters when metamorphosing) that used to be on television programs in the past. 'Henshin' involves discovering a new aspect of oneself in the relationship between you and me by becoming an alter ego from an incarnation, and recovering the body. A similar kind of metamorphosis can be seen in certain performances in the world of Japanese traditional performing arts such as kabuki and bunraku. We also use a similar phenomenon of 'henshin' when we enjoy dressing up as characters we like or collect characters.

 I should explain what I mean by being in the relationship between you and me, especially in terms of the world of characters. In western philosophy, it is thought that after losing self-identity, a person lives within differences from others, that is to say live as 'I' which includes others or is recognized by others. Or, there is no meaning in saying, 'I am what I am', and I am only myself in so far as I differ from others in the relationship including others. The relationship of you and me does not include kareshi or a third person, so there are no differences that include others. I don't know whether I am expressing it correctly, but in relationships where there are no others, only the differences between characters are the important issue. That is to say, the point is that there are so many varieties of characters each of which has something different. Here, it is not that 'I' is determined by the entry of the other and the differences from them, but that this is a world of you and me which continues to produce differences without including a third person. I think the nature of people with otaku inclination who like characters has a tendency towards producing only such differences. My conclusion for the present is that whereas European philosophy talks about the world of difference which is established by the other after the disintegration of self-identity, 'Otaku culture' in Japan creates a world of differences without the other.

 End.