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Paper short abstract

Imōto (Younger Sister, 1910) by Yosano Akiko (1878–1942), often read as endorsing the patriarchal yōshi system, instead stages competing male and female voices. Drawing on Bakhtin, this paper reads its polyphonic tension and narrative disharmony as a critique of patriarchy.

Paper long abstract

Yosano Akiko’s Imōto (Younger Sister, 1910) addresses a central concern of Meiji-period fiction: inheritance and family succession in modern Japan. Critical reception of the short story has largely framed it as supporting the patriarchal inheritance system of yōshi. This paper challenges that reading, arguing instead that Akiko’s narrative voice shifts from a socially sanctioned, monophonic patriarchal form to a polyphonic structure that foregrounds women’s responses to inheritance and marriage, inviting a gendered interpretation that has not been sufficiently acknowledged.

To develop this argument, the paper draws on the concept of polyphony, originally a musical term referring to the coexistence of multiple independent voices or melodies, and later adapted to literary theory by Mikhail Bakhtin in his analysis of Dostoevsky. I argue that polyphony offers a productive framework for reading Imōto, as Akiko constructs a narrative in which multiple viewpoints coexist and interact rather than being subordinated to a single authoritative perspective. Through this structure, the story articulates tensions between patriarchal norms and women’s subjective experiences.

The analysis focuses on how Akiko distributes narrative attention across the central characters involved in the yōshi system, revealing divergent emotional and ethical responses to its demands. While male perspectives remain present, the text increasingly foregrounds women’s voices, exposing the constraints placed on them within a patriarchal family system. These voices do not resolve into harmony; instead, the narrative culminates in a state of disharmony that disrupts the apparent stability of inheritance and succession.

The paper has two aims. First, it clarifies how polyphonic narration can illuminate the formal strategies used by Japanese women writers working within restrictive cultural and literary contexts. Second, it identifies the specific modes of polyphony at work in Imōto, demonstrating how ambiguity and narrative tension function as a critique of patriarchy, particularly of the yōshi inheritance system. By ending in narrative dissonance rather than resolution, Imōto underscores the importance of a gendered reading for understanding both its form and its social critique.