June H > Recent Status Updates

Protagonist learns that Mariye returned home safely. They meet and Mariye shares her account of what happened during the 4 days she was missing. She snuck into Menshiki’s home and met the Commendatore while in hiding. The Idea helps her stay hidden and plan an escape.
“You will know when the right moment comes in. As in, ‘Aha, now is the time!’ You are a brave, smart girl, my friends. Just stay alert.”

Donna Anna takes the protagonist to an opening reminiscent of the Mt Fuji wind cave his little sister Komi found. He crawls in and feels stuck. His sister voice tells him to think of something real/concrete. He thinks of their cat and his Peugeot car. A tentacle grabs his ankle (a Double Metaphor?). He continues forward and falls into the pit in the woods; the hole he came from is gone.

The faceless man/ferryman takes the penguin charm from P as payment. P takes the ferry across the river and leaves the jetty.
“Now each of your actions will generate an equivalent response, in accordance with the principle of connectivity.” - Ferryman
P follows a path away from the riverbank and to a forest. He approaches a woman with a lantern. She is Donna Anna, daughter of the Commendatore.

Ch 54. The protagonist stabbed and killed the Commendatore. Long Face appeared. P tackled him and threatened to murder him if he did not say how to find Mariye. Long Face called himself a Metaphor, a lowly one. He gives P info and is released. Long Face mention P’s sister’s name, Komichi. P travels down an odorless, tasteless river and finds a tall man devoid of feeling.

Ch 51. Protagonist visited Tomohiko Amada with Masahiko. The Commendatore appeared. He says that P must stab him in order to find Mariye Akikawa. P kills the Commendatore just like the painting.

“You have the strength to wish for what you cannot have. While I have only wished for those things I can possess.”
Menshiki to the protagonist

Ch. 47. Protagonist and Menshiki find a penguin charm in the pit. Shoko confirms it belonged to Mariye; P says he found it in the studio. P and Menshiki stay up together. P goes to bed and is visited by the Commendatore. The Idea gives P a hint to Mariye’s whereabouts but warns that several sacrifices may be required.
“Someone will call me this morning and invite me somewhere. I must not decline.”

“Did you think about your time in prison when you spent that hour alone down in the pit?”
“Yes. I need to return to that experience once in a while - it’s my starting point, so to speak. Where the person I am today was formed. It’s easy to get soft when life is comfortable.”
- Menshiki talking about his time in Tokyo prison

Ch 45. Shoko calls protagonist to say Mariye is missing. Protagonist thinks there’s a connection between her being missing and his completed painting of The Pit in the Woods. He calls Menshiki to come over.

“Even if we had been able to divide the records, we could never have separated the memories attached to them. I had to leave them all behind.”

Ch 44. Mariye visits protagonist at his home. She suspects Shoko and Menshiki are romantically involved. She worries he is using her aunt. She wants to look inside the well. She says maybe he shouldn’t have opened it.
“Maybe they shut up something inside, and put heavy stones on top to make sure it didn’t get out,” she offered.

“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today is all we have right now.”
-Masahiko

Ch. 40. Protagonist finds Tomohiko Amada in the studio.

“Being linked to someone by blood doesn’t mean you have similar gifts.”
- Masahiko speaking about his father

Mariye visits protagonist’s house. She questions Mr Menshiki’s intentions with his aunt. She knows protagonist dug up the shrine. She also admits she heard the the bell ringing before. He discovers the bell is missing from his studio.

Ch 34. Menshiki meets Shoko and Mariye. He asks protagonist if he sees any resemblance btwn him and Mariye.

Finished part 1. Protagonist had first painting session with Mariye and meets her aunt, Shoko Akikawa. Menshiki calls that night for an update. Divorce papers were received mails them. He recalls how he and Yuzu met. She replies with a thank you for signing. P has a dream he’s the man with the white Forester; he follows his wife and a man to a love hotel. P strangles her. He orders “don’t paint me anymore!”

“Perhaps that incident in Vienna was one reason he made a clean with his career as an artist of Western paintings and converted to Japanese-style painting. He might have wanted to decisively separate himself from the self he used to be.”

Menshiki shared rumors of a scandal involving Tomohiko Amada.
“Rumor had it he fell in love with an Austrian woman and got mixed up with an underground resistance group comprised largely of college students, who plotted to assassinate a high-ranking Nazi official.”
Amada was rescued and brought back to Japan.
“So the Commendatore in the painting Killing Commendatore might represent that Nazi official.”

“Instead of a stable truth, I choose unstable possibilities. I choose to surrender myself to that instability. Do you think that’s unnatural?”
-Menshiki

Ch 25. Menshiki requests protagonist to paint a portrait of the girl whom he thinks is his daughter.
“…She’s made a life for herself. If I suddenly appear on the scene announcing that I’m her real father, even if I could prove it scientifically, will that solve anything? The truth will actually confuse things. And it’s not going to make anyone happy. Including me”

“The question then is whether or not an idea can be treated as an autonomous entity or not, right?”
Menshiki

Ch 21. The bell sound is in the studio, sending a message. ‘If this keeps up, then I’ll never get to sleep and my life will be totally upended.’ Protagonist sees the Commendatore, ~2ft tall person. It says the forms he can take are limited to if there’s a necessity for it. It was stuck in the pit but has no memory. It rang the bell. It was invited to Menshiki’s dinner party.

Ch. 20. Protagonist begins painting the Man with the White Subaru Forester. Visited by his friend Masahiko Amada. They talked about his ex wife. Amada says if they hadn’t split he wouldn’t have discovered a new painting style. “…if you’re going to walk down a road, it’s better to walk down the sunny side, right?”
Protagonist wakes up at 1:35 to the bell ringing.

Ch 19. Protagonist recalls sexual encounter in Miyagi while he was driving post divorce. Presently, his new “gf” arrives and shares her intel on Menishiki. Spent time in Tokyo Prison and purchased mountaintop mansion from ppl who didn’t want to leave. Must have offered money and pressured them to leave.
Protagonist ponders why he would want that house so strongly.

The protagonist guesses “Fool on the Hill” was written by John Lennon. Fact checked it’s actually Paul McCartney. Was this to show the protagonist can be fallible?

Ch. 18. Menshiki comes over and requests being left alone in the underground chamber for 1 hr. Says “I can’t start any longer here. It might be too dangerous.” (P. 197) but doesn’t explain what it is. Menshiki sees the painting and is pleased, though the protagonist admits he did it for himself and not for the client.
“It was you who did this painting… but you also discovered it… you unearthed it…”

‘What you must discover, can you see, is what Mr. Menshiki has that is not here.’
-the strange voice

Ch 17. Protagonist notices his stool was moved, changing the perspective of the painting. Also heard a strange voice giving him suggestions on what was missing from the painting. He’d forgotten Menshiki’s white hair. Finished, he said it’s no portrait but rather a painting he’d done for his own sake.
“I couldn’t predict if Menshiki would accept this painting as his portrait.” (Pg. 191)

Finished ch. 16. Protagonist makes progress on his painting, adding colors like green and orange. Menshiki calls and asks about his progress, if he’s having a good day. Menshiki says
“By unearthing that underground chamber like we did yesterday, we must have lost something, and gained something. What did we lose? What did we gain? That’s what concerns me.” (pg 181)