The wa/ga distinction seen in the previous article was about the relationship between parts within a sentence. This article turns to a different question: how does Japanese point to a person?
A declaration: no real name will be given
Kokoro’s narrator, “I,” announces plainly at the very start:
I always called that person Sensei. So here, too, I will just write “Sensei” and not reveal his real name. (working translation)
This is not merely a literary flourish. True to this declaration, Sensei’s real name is never given, not once, across the entire novel. Here is a concrete demonstration that a Japanese narrative can proceed, from start to finish, without breaking down, even without using a proper name.
Several ways of pointing to the same person
Look at the scene where Sensei first appears.
Watashi wa jitsu ni sensei o kono zattō no aida ni mitsukedashita no de aru. … Watashi ga sugu sensei o mitsukedashita no wa, sensei ga hitori no seiyōjin o tsurete ita kara de aru. — It was, in fact, in the midst of this crowd that I found Sensei. … The reason I spotted Sensei right away was that Sensei had a Westerner with him. (working translation)
Sono nihonjin wa suna no ue ni ochita tenugui o hiroiageteiru tokoro de attaga, sore o toriageru ya ina ya, sugu atama o tsutsunde, umi no hō e arukidashita. Sono hito ga sunawachi sensei de atta. — The Japanese man had just been picking up a hand towel that had fallen onto the sand, and the instant he picked it up, he wrapped it around his head and started walking toward the sea. That person was, in fact, Sensei. (working translation)
The same person is referred to, across just these few lines, as “Sensei,” “that Japanese man,” and “that person.” In English, once a name has been introduced, a pronoun (he) typically takes over from there in many cases. Japanese, here, takes a different approach: it switches the very term used to refer to someone, according to context.
Reference terms narrate a shift in perspective
Why does “Sensei” get relabeled midway as “that Japanese man”? Reading this scene again makes the reason clear.
Kare wa yagate jibun no soba o kaerimite, soko ni kogonde iru nihonjin ni, hitokoto futakoto nanika itta. — He turned to look beside him after a while, and said something, a word or two, to the Japanese man crouching there. (working translation)
At this point, “I” doesn’t yet know that this person is Sensei. He’s simply observing a nameless “Japanese man,” the companion of the Westerner. Only with the line “that person was, in fact, Sensei” does “I“‘s own awareness catch up, and the term switches from “Japanese man” to “Sensei.” The shift in terminology itself is what conveys the narrator’s shift in awareness to the reader.
The limited role of the pronoun “he”
This scene also includes the pronoun kare (“he”).
Kare wa wareware no haku sarumata hitotsu no hoka nanimono mo hada ni tsukete inakatta. — He wore nothing on his skin but the loincloth-style swim trunks we all wore. (working translation)
This kare refers not to Sensei, but to the Westerner. Japanese kare is not an all-purpose pronoun like English “he,” freely pointing at any man in the discourse. Here it’s used in a restricted way, picking out the person who was the immediate topic just before. In a scene with multiple people present, relying on kare alone isn’t enough — the writer needs specific terms like “Sensei,” “that Japanese man,” “the Westerner,” to keep the reader clear, at every moment, about exactly who is being talked about.
Worth checking as you read
First, the “switching of reference terms” confirmed in this article is closely tied to the narrator’s shift in awareness within this specific scene. Not every Japanese narrative points to its characters through exactly this same mechanism.
Second, this article’s observations about the frequency and limited nature of the pronoun kare are confined to what can be confirmed from this one passage. A more systematic study of Japanese personal pronouns goes beyond this article’s scope.
Summary
| Point | Content |
|---|---|
| A declaration of no real name | Sensei’s real name is never revealed across the whole novel |
| Multiple reference terms | “Sensei,” “that Japanese man,” “that person” — the same person, referred to differently depending on context |
| Switching terms | “That person was, in fact, Sensei” — a shift in the narrator’s awareness, conveyed through a shift in terminology |
| The limited role of kare | Not an all-purpose pronoun, but a term picking out one specific person from the immediately preceding context |
In short — Japanese can point to a person accurately, without relying on a proper name, by switching the term used according to context — and can even use that very shift in terminology to convey a shift in the narrator’s own awareness.