Back

Abekkusu (Uchida Shungiku) - Why Don't you dance? (1987)

Unfortunately, while I do "own" this cassette tape, my copy of 'Why Don't You Dance?' has not yet arrived and, therefore, I have not had the (hopeful) fortune of listening to it. Now, it might strike you as odd that I am writing an article about a singer whose songs I have not even heard (at least, not yet). But I am not wishing to discuss such aspects of her work; I am interested in her person --you should also note that I only learned of the following things after purchasing the tape.
If you are an English speaker I urge you to watch the following video --which is where I derive my knowledge from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4BV9k63yjo
Firstly, I would like to preface by acknowledging that I realise Uchida is an unfortunate victim of systems beyond her control --although, out of respect, I wish to avoid discussing her childhood even though it almost certainly had an impact on her decision making as an adult.
I would also like to reprimand Amanda Seaman for glorifying mental illness and hailing Uchida as a feminist, anti-patriarchy revolutionary. I will also confess that I didn't watch her entire presentation --just the first 20 minutes. Uchida holds an apparent cognitive dissonance with regards to marriage: one half of her believes it is an outdated, oppressive construct; the other half believes it is acceptable to marry and divorce four times. If it was simply a matter of marrying the wrong person or even being a crazy lady that no man desires to stay around with for long, I could understand, albeit disapprovingly. However, Uchida has taken her contempt for marriage to the upper echelons of insanity by giving birth to three bastard children during three of her marriages. If one is to protest marriage, I believe it should be expected of one to not marry in the first place, and, if one ignores that advice and proceeds regardless of logic, I think it is also fair to expect that one should not voluntarily hurt others in the process --in this case: ex-husbands and the resultant children.
Being a traditionalist, I do not wish to discuss the 'patriarchy' in further depth since, while I accept it exists in certain facets of society, I find the belief that it is inherently bad as odd, and claiming women as a whole are oppressed in western societies is outright absurd (yes, yes; I do realise Japan is not in 'the West' although, for all intents and purposes, they're 'honorary westerners'). Uchida's fight against traditional marriage is a solitary struggle; and, forgive my crassness, Uchida strikes me as an irrational slut with poor impulse control that is heralded and provided justification of her actions by fans of her comic books and the willfully ignorant state of mind she must be in while she writes them.

I once read that lying is the greatest sin --which I wholeheartedly agree with. Here are two similar opinions from Islamic perspectives:

'Undoubtedly, lying is the worst of sins. It is obvious that the evils of lying are more dreadful than those of adultery. Some false words lead to war between two tribes or two sections of the society. Some lies blight the honour of thousands of people or endanger their lives, or lead to economic disasters.
One kind of falsehood is that which is attributed to Allah (S.w.T.), the Holy Prophet (S) or the Holy Imams (a.s.). Understandably this is the worst kind of falsehood. Often due to lying, innocent people are sent to the gallows and their families destroyed.' *1


'Lying, in essence, is deliberately telling something that is other than the truth and is something dispraised by all sensible people. A liar is always in doubt and never truly believes anything. Had this been the only disadvantage of lying, it would have been sufficient. Some philosophers have stated, "The one who knows himself to be a liar will never believe people who tell the truth. Moreover, the one who is known to be a liar will never be believed, even when he tells the truth. Not only this, but when people hear lies, they may automatically attribute it to him, even if he is not the one who told it."' *2

By attempting to justify her lack of morals, Uchida is lying to herself and fans of her work, and, in doing so, harming herself and those around her. In masking her fear of commitment as bravado against systems that oppress women, Uchida has successfully damaged at least four men and doomed her children to a life that would be better had with a responsible father-figure --three of her children probably do not even know who their true father is. Surely, if one could choose their parents, they would tend toward those couples that are not necessarily the richest or most famous; the ideal parents are those that are responsible and caring, and can instill decent morals and provide emotional support whenever the need arises. The ideal parents would be heterosexual, and committed enough that the thought of separation daren't enter their hearts --certainly not at the risk of harming their child.

It is also important for the reader to recognise that there are multiple truths. The Uchida that I know --my Uchida-- was painted primarily from the video provided above (which I thought was informative and kept me interested for 20 minutes --even though I disagree with the feminist narrative it pushed). Whether the video is entirely factual or ridden with inaccuracies is, I believe, not important. Given that it is the only major source of information regarding Uchida in the English language, it is what I must build the foundations of my concept of Uchida Shungiku upon. Whether my sculpture of Uchida is identical to the true Uchida is at no fault of my own, or even Amanda Seaman --whose knowledge of Uchida is derived from other sources. Ultimately, if the sources of the sources of Amanda --who is my source-- are riddled with innacuracies, and if the true Uchida were to read this article and consider it a personal insult and reject my truth: that was not my intention, and I recognise the possibility of it being interpreted that way.
Anyway, I wish the true and my Uchida the very best in life, and I hope that my Uchida will acknowledge her faults before her time in this world ends.

You can listen to a live performance of Uchida and her backing band here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeWGQjBhFE4
I am unsure why the video has so many dislikes. I didn't find the song particularly objectionable. Did the viewers dislike her as a person?

*1: http://www.al-islam.org/greater-sins-volume-2-ayatullah-sayyid-abdul-husayn-dastghaib-shirazi/seventeenth-greater-sin-lying
*2: http://fatwa.islamweb.net/en/article/158748/