Information of the Book
Killing Commendatore is the 14th long novel by Haruki Murakami.
Outline and Style
A story of 36 years old male portrait specialized painter. The style is a reminiscence by the man.
Book 2 consists of 32 chapters. The chapters are attached titles of a vague passage.
Characters
Painter (‘I’)
: A portrait specialized painter. Graduated from an art collage.
Yuzu
: Former painter’s wife. Younger than him 3 years. Have a architecture licence and worked at a small architecture office. A classmate of my former girlfriend. The painter fell in love with her at first sight, because she resembles his younger sister. She married with him two times. The interval (live separately to him) was 9 months, and he lived in the valley. When he was 36 years old,
Wataru Menshiki
: A successful IT business entrepreneur. 54 years old well-dressed good-build mysterious man with a curled long white hair. ‘Information buisiness’
Marie Akikawa:
A 13 years old, small, quiet and mysterious girl. A student of the art course run by the painter near the Odawara station, and Mr. Menshiki thought that she is a danger between him and his ex-lover.
Shoko Akikawa
An age 40s elegant, educated woman has big breasts. The aunt of Marie Akikawa. (Older sister of the mother of Marie.) During the paintings of the portrait of Marie, she read a covered thick paparback always in the living room of the painter’s house. She unexpectedly fall in love with Wataru Menshiki.
Masahiko Amada
Tomohiko Amada (40)
Mother of Marie Akikawa (33)
Tsuguhiko Amada (36, 37)
Yoshinobu Akikawa (39)
Colleague of Masahiko Amada (42)
: Yuzu’s lover.
‘Long Face’ (51, 52)
The man without face (53, 54)
Donna Anna (54, 55)
Muro (64)
: A daughter between Yuzu and the painter or lover of Yuzu.
Locations
Upper part of the mountain near the entrance of a narrow valley
: The place where the painter stayed. The former atelier of Tomohiko Amada in the suburban Odawara city. The painter actually borrow from Masahiko Amada of the reason of worry about theft and fire.
Culture shool in the front of Odawara station
: The painter was introduced there by Masahiko Amada. He taught dessin and water colour on Wednesday and Friday.
Mr Menshiki’s house
: A big elegant white house.
A Small Shrine
Hole Under the Small Shrine
Metaphor path (52, )
Key Elements
‘Killing Commendatore’
: A painting work by Tomohiko Amada. It was painted a violent scene of the Asuka era. A young man thrusts the breast of a old man by a heavy sword. A young women a male servant see this duel. And the strange man sees the scene from a hole of the left lower edge part of the painting.
Bell like an Ancient Instrument (15 -)
: buddhist instrument
portrait of Mr. Menshiki (, 18, 19)
The portrait of white Subaru Forester (20, 22, )
portrait of Marie Akikawa
painting of the hole in a bush
binoculars of Mr. Menshiki
penguin amulet (figure) (46, 47)
kitchen knife of Masahiko Amada
double metaphor (55)
Summaries and Memoirs
33. I Like Things We Can See The Same As Things We Can’t See
Next Sunday, Marie and Shoko Akikawa visited the house of the painter again. The painter said ‘Canvas is only a plain tableau but picture should be painted as “three-dimensional”’. time, Converse; dessin; croquis; training
- ‘Three-dimensional’ the painter said means ‘meaningful’ and ‘of much substance’.
During the painting, again, Shoko Akikawa read a covered thick paperback. The painter began to draw a portrait of Marie, but he can’t grasp her particularity and context to draw the canvas. So they talked about her family and his dead sister. three-dimensional; story; one straight line; scent of summer
Marie looked incomplete the portrait of the man of white Subaru Forester, and said ‘this picture has sufficient power already’. vice
Then Marie looked Killing Commendatore, and said ‘I like this picture. It appeals something, and lead us anywhere where we can decide neither right nor wrong’.
stock of memory; time
When they backed to the living room, Shoko Akikawa was reading the thick paperback still. She said ‘I have a superstition. If I tell the title of a book which I read, I wouldn’t finish reading the book, somehow’. The painter suggested he cook something and have a dinner together. Then they had a dinner of simple pasta and salad. superstition; handiwork; intellectuel play; Jaguar; Toyota Prius
34. I See, Recently, I Don’t Measure An Air Pressure
Mr. Menshiki visited the painter’s house suddenly. He was shaken up, because Marie Akikawa was in the house. When the painter try to introduce Marie and Shoko to Menshiki, but Menshiki went out and he measured the air pressure of his car, was being upset. Then the painter introduced Mr. Menshiki to Shoko and Marie in the living room. They talked together, but Menshiki can’t look Marie straight in the face. Mr. Menshiki said the portrait of him drew by the painter is ‘not a so-called portrait, it’s a painting drew by a profound view’. So Marie said ‘I wanna see it’, and Menshiki introduced Marie and Shoko to his house. portrait
In the front of the house, Mr. Menshiki and Shoko talked about his newest Jaguar coupé and cars. Shoko asked that she can test drive his car, and Menshiki allowed it. She enjoyed the sound and feeling of Jaguar. After the left of Marie and Akikawa, Menshiki and the painter talked about the impression of Marie in the living room. newest Jaguar coupé; Jaguar XJ6 Series 3; Toyota Prius; salade niçoise; odor; E type; roadster; Charlie Mingus; Ray Brown; impression as a picture; objective fact; meaning or the life
direction sense; magnetic force
35. You Should the Place Remain As It Were
At the night, Marie Akikawa suddenly visited the house of the painter. They talked about the small shrine and Marie said ‘the place should remain as it were’. Marie told that Mr. Menshiki conceals anything in his heart, his strange eyes have an intentionality always. And she told ‘teacher, I’m glad to your painting my portrait’. Cleveland Indians; Immanuel Kant; Königsberg; ‘Es ist Gut’; visual memory; strange eye; presentiment
Marie said ‘I heard the sound of bell from the small shrine’. The painter went to the studio, and the bell was vanished.
36. You Must Not Talk Together About The Rule of The Game
scotch whisky
The following morning, the painter went to the small shrine, and meditated in the hole. He thought the hole thinks and is living, and felt his thought and hole’s are confused. There’s the feeling of the world of after death.
- The hole of small shrine is the same of the well as symbol in other Murakami’s works.
The day, he felt that he want to draw something in the studio. He drew a painting of the hole. The painter looked the painting like a female genitalia by the ‘Freud’s interpretation’. Freud; Richard Strauss; Der Rosenlavalier; George Solti
The painter and 41 years old woman talked about ‘the game’ they play. And she said ‘I want we won’t talk about the rule of the game’. a kind of game; courtesy (manner); trust; respect
- The ‘game’ they mentioned is apparently implied or signified Wittgenstein’s language game. To shut up about the rule is an important thing of the language game. Also Murakami mentioned the language game in some his essays.
The evening, Mr. Menshiki called the painter, and told the past of Tomohiko Amada in Vienna according to the Anschluss and the Kristallnacht, and about his younger brother Tsuguhiko Amada. He fought as a soldier in Nanjing 1938 (he would commit the Nanjing massacre) and committed suicid soon after his discharge. Gestapo; Nazi Germany; Anschluss; Kristallnacht; Hitler; Resistance; Spanish Civil War; Guernica; the Roongdo bridge accident; the Nanjing massacre; German-Japan Defence Agreement (Antikominternpakt); the Tokyo Music School; Tokyo Art University
The painter and Masahiko Amada talked by telephone. Aso; Yotsuya; old Jaguar
37. There’s a Positive Side in Whatever Things
The painter visited the company of Masahiko Amada. They taleked about Tomohiko and Tsuguhiko Amada, and about golf. Odawara; Tokyo; Shibuya; Yotsuya; Aoyama; Perrier; Haryana; Zushi; consience; sanctuary; spirit; power of will; the Pacific War; Chopin; Debussy; Hangzhou; pipe organ; traum; fragile; Yangtze River; Mauthausen; Gestapo; Munich Agreement; Berlin; Tokyo;
38. Because of That, I Can’t Become a Dolphin
idea; process; imagination;
On Sunday, Marie and Shoko Akikawa visited again to paint the portrait of Marie. Missoni; Converse; third person’s element
a form; complex of light and darkness; intercourse; memory; Van Gogh; collective memory;
pleasant fatigue;
Mr. Menshiki visited the house to pick up Marie and Shoko. Mr. Menshiki said ‘To be drawn a portrait is like to be robbed a soul’, but Marie denied his opinion and said there’s a intercourse. act of art
The idea ‘Commendatore’ appeared in the front of the painter. And he said idea needs energy as perception by other, so he is omnipotent because man can’t stop thinking. concept of time; habit; energy; dolphin; neutral idea; E=mc2; atomic bomb; Hiroshima; Nagasaki; caveat emptor;
- Philosophy of Zen or Spinoza
will;
39. A Camouflaged Case Made for a Specific Aim
After the go home of Marie and Shoko, the painter and Mr. Menshiki talked about Marie and his father Yoshinobu Akikawa. accident; Trojan horse; egoistic; Jaguar E Type; old Meissen; strange feeling; transitional being; the World War 2; India; reincarnation; whiskey; single malt; Scotland; Islay isle; Prince of Weals; Jura isle; George Orwell; 1984; caveat emptor; Olive; George Solti; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; strategy (preparation); laziness; ego;
40. I Can’t Make For the Face
The midnight, the painter woke up by a loud crash noise. He went to the studio and see the spirit of Tomohiko Amada.
41. Only When I Don’t Look Back
The painter met the ‘real spirit’ of Tomohiko Amada in the studio. He only gazed his own work Killing Commendatore with his strong concentration. gohst; spirit; phantom;
spirit; life; Izu;
Toyota Corolla Wagon; silver Jaguar;
/
42. Dropped On the Floor and Cracked, It’s a Egg
Glico Pockey; Captain Achab;
The painter continued to paint the portrait of Marie Akikawa and the painting of the hole everyday. realism;
Chivas Regal; a total narrative;record
black Volvo wagon; Itoh; sashimi; Tokyo;
The painter and Masahiko Amada talked about Tomohiko, paintings of the painter and Yuzu. Masahiko told ‘Yuzu’s lover is his colleague and she is pregnant now’. egg; courtesy; Captain Achab;
Izu;
43. It Shouldn’t End in Only a Dream
Tohoku; Hokkaido; Aomori; Hakodate; Shimokita Peninsula; sexual dream
The painter remembered a real sexual dream he saw in an unpopulated hotel of Aomori, in which he had a hard sex with sleeping Yuzu.
He thought he had a sex with Yuzu really.
The same time, Yuzu had been pregnant. So, the painter thought Yuzu was been pregnant by him. indigenous chaos
Jane Austin; Dostoïevski; Demos; Kirillov; Russia; freedom; idiocy
reality; unreality; interconnection; succubus
44. Like a Characteristic a Man Is the Man
The painter drew the portrait of Marie Akikawa again. secret sign of my self
Marie and the painter promised they met there in the evening. gohst
In the evening, Marie visited the painter’s house and talked about Mr. Menshiki. square box; lunch box from Sweden; friend; military binoculars; unusual power
- Amada’s black old Volvo wagon is a metapher of coffin?
Next, they talked about the small shrine.
Chevas Regal
45. Anything Will Happen
The painter completed the painting of the hole. own will and claim; un line divides uncompleted and completed; will; intention; record
- The hall is the same as the symbol of well in other Murakami’s works.
Before the work of the culture school, the painter shopped second-hand records and ate a soba with tempura. After the work, Shoko Akikawa called him and tolled Marie was vanished. Odawara; Starbucks; deep black coffee; Billy Holiday; Clifford Brown; Bob Dylan; Nashville Skyline; Alabama Song; the Doors; Bruce Springsteen; the River; Roberta Flack; Donny Hathaway; soba with tempura
In the studio, the painter looked his own paintings, and he thought anything has triggered by the complete of the painting of the hole. The painter called Mr. Menshiki and asked him to come here.
46. A High Strong Wall Make Men Powerless
The painter and Mr Menshiki went to the small shrine. omnious prediction; spirituality
Mr. Menshiki got into the hale and found a penguin figure probably Marie Akikawa laid there. the Berlin Wall; wall; 3m; the Tokyo Jail; ministry system; Spanish; Turkish; Chinese; trial; penguin figure; sign of innocence
47. Today is Friday, isn’t it?
Shoko Akikawa called the painter and she said Marie had the figure for a cell phone strap. donut shop
- Donut is the important metaphor in Murakami’s works. It signifies the entrance to the alter (alien) world.
The painter and Mr. Menshiki talked about the mean of the penguin amulet of Marie Akikawa and why she put it on bottom of the hale. Beethoven; violin sonata; George Klekamp; Wilhelm Kemp; Richard Strauss; concerto for oboe
The commendatore appeared in the front of the painter. world of humans; time; space; probability; blood should be shed; public language; private language
- Philosophy of language by Wittgenstein
48. Spanishes Didn’t Know How to Sail the Offshore of Ireland
Armada; Elizabeth l; Felipe ll
Mr Menshiki confessed he fell in love with Shoko Akikawa and they had became a intimate relationship. equation;velocity; motive; mere vancancy; man of emptiness; T. S. Eliot; hollow men
Masahiko Amada called the painter and he suggested go to Izu to see his father Tomohiko with him. Izu; Tomei Highway; Catholic
In his car, Masahiko told women’s faces are different left to right and women have two personalities. Amagi plateau; Izu plateau; senility; hit songs of 80’s; Duran Duran; Huey Louis; ABC; Look of Love; FM radio; Google; Mac (Macintosh); Bertie Higgins; Key Largo; Batman; Two Face; Scott Fitzgerald; paranoïa
- Amada’s talk resembles a famous Murakami’s metapher line divides left and right.
Richard Strauss; Beethoven’s symphony; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; blank (emptiness); Deborah Harry; French Kissin in the USA; Rayban
49. It’s Full with Same Numbers of Deaths as It
On the way to the hospital, the painter saw the man of white Subaru Forester at a family restaurant. sandwich; wthite Subaru Forester; tadpoles
The painter and Masahiko Amada arrived a hospital Tomohiko Amada was then hospital. Masahiko and the painter talked about Yuzu, her pregnancy and her lover. white Honda minivan; dark bleu Audi sedan; Bananarama; Manazuru Penninshula; Fiji
They arrived the room hospitalized Tomohiko. Tomohiko awoke. The painter tried to talk to Tomohiko. Tomohiko seemed to be reacted by the words ‘horned owl’, ‘loft’ and ‘safekeeping of paintings’. The mobile phone of Masahiko rang and he left to answer, so the painter and Tomohiko was left in the room. horned owl
50. It Demands a Sacrifice and a Trial
The Commendatore emerged. And he said he knew where Marie Akikawa was, to help out her demands not a few sacrifice and trial and the painter need to kill the Commendatore. sympathey; quiz; sacrifice; trial
51. Now’s the Time (Here Comes)
The Commendatore said a set of reaction caused by his death leads the painter to a place Marie stay. set of reactions; Point Blank; Lee Marvin; Don Giovanni; allegory; returning (loop)
The painter and the Commendatore talked about the past of Tomohiko Amada. Nazi; Gestapo; Battle of Nanjing; helplessness; hopelessness (despair)
The consciousness of Tomohiko Amada temporary returned by his all of capacities. And the Commendatore said ‘you must kill me during his consciousness returns’. cause and result; destiny
The painter thrusted the Commendatore by Masahiko’s kitchen knife to kill. The idea Commendatore died as a symbolic act but the blood shed and the physical body killed in a reality. Tomohiko Amada watched it and he returned to a coma state. evil father; physical body; symbolic act
52. A Man Wears An Orange Triangle Hat
The ‘Long Face’ emerged on the corner of the room and he seemed to watch the incident. The painter tied the Long Face on the bed foot to not to set free him. And he questioned about where Marie is and who the Long Face is. He answered he is a metaphor, he came from the ‘metaphor path’ and in there dangerous living thing ‘double metaphors’ live. Then the painter went in to the metaphor path. Asuka Era; Pacific Ocean; Atsugi Base; Maritime Self-Defensive Force; relativeness between phenomenon and expression; the world moved by relativeness; sacrifice; trial
53. It Must Be a Fire Hook
The painter continued to walk in the metaphor path. That is a barren colourless world created by metaphor of people. Then he reached a pier and found a tall man standed there. cheese toast; black coffee; Decca; metaphor; simile; Beethoven; Symphony No. 7; Winner Waltz; sweet Sachertorte; Hakenkreuz; unconsciouness
- The metaphor path resembles the underground world the Dark Blacks live in ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’.
54. Eternity is A Very Long Time
The man had no face. His had head but his face is blank. He said ‘you want to cross this river you should pay a alternative’. So the painter gave the penguin figure of Marie as a transfer fee to the man without face. alternative; eternity
They reached the opposite shore. And the man said ‘There’s no need of direction or way. Your acts bring relativeness matches them’. verge between being and null; relativeness
The painter started to walk on the opposite land. There’s no senses of time and direction. Then he reached woods. In the woods he felt he was watched by many eyes. The eyes made by his fear and suspicion. Walked long time, he saw a point of light from far away. He want through the woods and reached very high cliff and found a cave like the wind hole of Mt. Fuji. He entered the cave and realized the point light is a cantera. Under the light, a lady was standing. She is a draughtier of the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovannni, Donna Anna. sense; time; derection; consciousness
55. It Obviously Contradicts The Principle
In the cave, Donna Anna told the painter that he should enter the hole. The hole resembles the hole Komichi entered in the wind hole of Mr. Fuji, their childhood, but it is bigger. He entered the hole and healed voice of Komichi. She said ‘Go.’ And ‘Remember the things you think nostalgic and concrete things’. He penetrated the narrow space by he abdicated reason and thought all things are metaphor and relative things. things like that; outcome by relativeness; light is the metaphor of shadow; shadow is the metaphor of light; the best metaphor; alter new reality; double metaphor; Yonex; Peugeot 205
- Semiology, Structuralism
- Sigmund Freud
He was thrown out to a wide space. Then he realized he was in the hole of small shrine (in the real world). And there’s the bell like an Ancient instrument.
56. There Should be Blanks We Must Fill In
The hole was shut up by anyone. time
He reflected he can only ring the bell in the hole, and he do it. air; love; idea
- The description in this clause resembles the experience of Sgt. Mamiya in a well at Nomonhan in Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
He felt the time he seemed as eternity passed, someone opened the cap of the hole. Mr. Menshiki opened the cap and said ‘Are you all right?’. Menshiki told Marie got back home safely. The painter realized three days passed in the metaphor path. In the painter’s house, Mr. Menshiki made a perfect omelette and talked about happenings of three days. time; connection to himself; eternity; rain; logical
57. The Thing I Should Do Someday
/
questions; facts; real world
40 years old girlfriend called the painter and she said they wouldn’t meet again. indication
/
58. It’s Like I Hear a Story of a Beautiful Canal on Mars
The painter called Masahiko Amada, and apologized and explained his vanishment. Hitchcock; Social Ethics
Sapporo Bier
The painter called Yuzu and they made appointment at the evening of next Monday. Go-go’s; Chablis
Shoko Akikawa called the painter and told that Marie was safe and said nothing her vanishing, so Shoko asked the painter to meet and talk with Marie. Bruce Springsteen; The River; Independence Day; Hungry Heart; Lubber Soul; Pet Sounds; E Street Band; Cadillac Ranch
Shoko called again and told she and Marie would visit at 15:00 that day.
59. Until the Death Divides the Two Persons
The painter asked Shoko to leave only him and Marie because it was good for Marie. Shoko left the house during two hours. The painter talked about the painting Killing Commendatore, the hole at the small shrine, the idea Commendatore, the metaphor path, the man of white Subaru Forester and ‘double metaphor’, and Marie was only hearing. Marie answered she met the Commendatore and she had seen Tomohiko Amada was painting pictures. Then they sealed the paintings Killing Commendatore and the man.of white Subaru Forester and concealed them to the attic. horned owl; wisdom of forest
60. If the Person Had a Very Long Arm
She accounted for she was in Menshiki’s house. She sneaked into the house to know his personality by her curiosity, but she can’t escape from there during three days.
In the house, Marie found out many old women’s clothes. (The clothes are her mother’s.) Raiders of the Lost Ark; Indiana Jones; hornet; Steinway grand piano; Bach; invention; Mozart; Piano Sonatas; Chopin; Apple; hobbits of Rhine River
61. You Must Be A Courageous And Wise Girl
(…)
62. It Had A Taste Like A Deep Maze
(…)
63. But It Is Not the Thing You Think
(…)
64. As a Form of Grace
(…)
Analyses and Remarks
Details of the Book
Killing Commendatore, Book 2: The Moving Metaphor
Haruki Murakami
Sinchosha, Tokyo, 24 February 2017
544 pages
ISBN: 9784103534334
Related Posts and Pages
Note (EN) | Killing Commendatore, Book 1
Book Review | Killing Commendatore
Summary | Novelist as a Profession
Note (EN) | Novelist as a Vocation
Note (EN) Horned Owl Spreads Its Wings Only With the Falling of the Dusk (Haruki Murakami A Long, Long Interview) with Mieko Kawakami
Timeline of Haruki Murakami
Works of Haruki Murakami
Literature / littérature / Literatur Page
YouTube Haruki Murakami Commentary Playlist
YouTube Literature & Philosophy Channel