There is no doubt that this “gift” left by Mr. Honda has a symbolic and spiritual dimension to it, especially since Mr. Honda is a medium of some sort and specializes somewhat in spiritual guidance. I believe it will be an underlying motif in Book 2, and most likely also in Book 3. My intuition tells me that the empty box is a message, a mission given to Toru to go on a spiritual quest in search of his “inner being”, or of another parallel universe/ reality. Mr. Honda only really appears once in the book, when Toru and Kumiko reminisce about the times they used to spend with him at the beginning of their marriage. But one of the most important and spiritual lessons given by Mr. Honda during his monthly meetings with the couple was “The point ism not to resist the flow. You go up when you’re supposed to go up and down when you’re supposed to go down. When you’re supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you’re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there’s no flow, stay still.” (51). There aren’t very many clues as to the nature of the empty box left by Mr. Honda, but I suspect that the lesson of “flow” may correlate directly with the idea of this box. Perhaps it is Toru’s time to find the highest tower, or the deepest well... I am excited to read on and discover the meaning of the gift!
I am not sure, but perhaps Mr. Honda hints at the idea that some gifts are invisible. Is he refering to the special abilities of those who bear the blue mark?
ReplyDeletePerhaps the flow (of life) itself is a gift.
It may be that the box is a symbol for the materialized society of mankind, and that the box is to remind not so much Toru, but also the reader that there is a spiritual dimension to life that is often tossed aside, and yet bears the most important gifts.