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The Unnamed Speaker
Takeichi is one of Yozo’s peers in high school. Yozo initially thinks Takeichi is simple-minded and unobservant, so he’s shocked when Takeichi is the only person who recognizes that Yozo is constantly pretending to be someone he’s not. This happens one day at school, when Yozo purposefully falls over—everyone laughs, but Takeichi comes up behind him and says, “You did it on purpose.” From that point on, Yozo is determined to keep tabs on Takeichi, terrified that the strange boy will tell everyone that he’s a faker. To Yozo’s surprise, spending time with Takeichi helps open his eyes to what true art can be, since Takeichi inadvertently shows him that good artists don’t try to make beautiful, pleasant paintings. Rather, they try to depict the world as it really is, meaning that they unflinchingly paint the horror and depravity that Yozo himself sees everywhere around him. Having realized this, Yozo decides to become a painter. In this way, Takeichi helps Yozo find a way to express his “true nature,” which he otherwise keeps hidden.
Takeichi Quotes in No Longer Human
The No Longer Human quotes below are all either spoken by Takeichi or refer to Takeichi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Second Notebook
Quotes
I got to my feet with a rueful smile and was brushing the sand from my pants when Takeichi, who had crept up from somewhere behind, poked me in the back. He murmured, “You did it on purpose.”
I trembled all over. I might have guessed that someone would detect that I had deliberately missed the bar, but that Takeichi should have been the one came as a bolt from the blue. I felt as if I had seen the world before me burst in an instant into the raging flames of hell. It was all I could do to suppress a wild shriek of terror.
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Explanation and Analysis:
There are some people whose dread of human beings is so morbid that they reach a point where they yearn to see with their own eyes monsters of ever more horrible shapes. And the more nervous they are—the quicker to take fright—the more violent they pray that every storm will be…Painters who have had this mentality, after repeated wounds and intimidations at the hands of the apparitions called human beings, have often come to believe in phantasms—they plainly saw monsters in broad daylight, in the midst of nature. And they did not fob people off with clowning; they did their best to depict these monsters just as they had appeared.
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Explanation and Analysis:
The pictures I drew were so heart-rending as to stupefy even myself. Here was the true self I had so desperately hidden. I had smiled cheerfully; I had made others laugh; but this was the harrowing reality. I secretly affirmed this self, was sure that there was no escape from it, but naturally I did not show my pictures to anyone except Takeichi.
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Explanation and Analysis:
The next instant he asked with his quiet smile, “Was that real?”
Even now the recollection makes me feel so embarrassed I can’t sit still. It was worse, I am sure, even than when in high school I was plummeted into hell by that stupid Takeichi tapping me on the back and saying, “You did it on purpose.” Those were the two great disasters in a lifetime of acting. Sometimes I have even thought that I should have preferred to be sentenced to ten years imprisonment rather than meet with such gentle contempt from the district attorney.
Get the entire No Longer Human LitChart as a printable PDF.
Takeichi Quotes in No Longer Human
The No Longer Human quotes below are all either spoken by Takeichi or refer to Takeichi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Second Notebook
Quotes
I got to my feet with a rueful smile and was brushing the sand from my pants when Takeichi, who had crept up from somewhere behind, poked me in the back. He murmured, “You did it on purpose.”
I trembled all over. I might have guessed that someone would detect that I had deliberately missed the bar, but that Takeichi should have been the one came as a bolt from the blue. I felt as if I had seen the world before me burst in an instant into the raging flames of hell. It was all I could do to suppress a wild shriek of terror.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
There are some people whose dread of human beings is so morbid that they reach a point where they yearn to see with their own eyes monsters of ever more horrible shapes. And the more nervous they are—the quicker to take fright—the more violent they pray that every storm will be…Painters who have had this mentality, after repeated wounds and intimidations at the hands of the apparitions called human beings, have often come to believe in phantasms—they plainly saw monsters in broad daylight, in the midst of nature. And they did not fob people off with clowning; they did their best to depict these monsters just as they had appeared.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The pictures I drew were so heart-rending as to stupefy even myself. Here was the true self I had so desperately hidden. I had smiled cheerfully; I had made others laugh; but this was the harrowing reality. I secretly affirmed this self, was sure that there was no escape from it, but naturally I did not show my pictures to anyone except Takeichi.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The next instant he asked with his quiet smile, “Was that real?”
Even now the recollection makes me feel so embarrassed I can’t sit still. It was worse, I am sure, even than when in high school I was plummeted into hell by that stupid Takeichi tapping me on the back and saying, “You did it on purpose.” Those were the two great disasters in a lifetime of acting. Sometimes I have even thought that I should have preferred to be sentenced to ten years imprisonment rather than meet with such gentle contempt from the district attorney.
