ON THE FICTIONALITY OF MURAKAMI HARUKI’S “THE ANTEATER IN MUSASHI-SAKAI: KAHO, PART II”

This paper examines Murakami Haruki’s short story “The Anteater in Musashi-Sakai: Kaho, Part II (Musashi-Sakai no arikui – Kaho sono 2, hereafter referred to as “The Anteater in Musashi-Sakai”2 ) from the perspectives of spatial theory and suburban studies, focusing on the representation of Musashi-Sakai as a “Tokyo suburb.” While Murakami’s previous research tends to emphasize the binary oppositions expressed through the narrative structure of the “real world” versus the “other side”, this paper explores how as the boundaries separating these two dimensions are deconstructed in “The Anteater in Musashi-Sakai”. Through an examination of everyday spaces such as verandas and shopping streets, this paper argues that Musashi-Sakai appears as a stratified space composed of overlapping historical layers and multiple boundaries, in which the extraordinary is embedded within the realities of suburbanization process. Furthermore, by analyzing the narrative’s ambiguous temporal representation, this paper demonstrates that the text constructs a composite space in which different stages of Musashi-Sakai coexist, revealing historical processes while reconfiguring them within a fictional framework.