Confessions of a Mask

Much of the motivation for Kochan’s complex “masks” comes from the need to maintain a good appearance in his regimented, repressed society. To effectively convince others that he is matching social norms, he must also convince himself. He has constructed rigid standards for himself based on his imperfect understanding of social norms, and he loathes himself when he cannot achieve them, leading to paranoia that others can see through his masks in the same way he can. Kochan’s relationships with other people demonstrate and explore this theme, as he uses others as both a testing ground for his personas and a standard for “normal” behavior he should imitate. Kochan’s bifurcated identity can be read in part as an extreme form of what was then an emergent social phenomenon in Japan: the concepts of honne and tatemae. Honne refers to private desires and inclinations, which may run counter to social norms and must be kept hidden, while tatemae refers to the identity one performs in the public eye, typically in strict adherence to social norms. Though scholars disagree on the degree to which this dichotomy is uniquely Japanese, it has close parallels in the Chinese concepts of “inside face” and “outside face” and in the Freudian id and superego.