1122: For a Happy Marriage
1122 いいふうふ
Discussed in the Journal
JournalThe One Who Writes Is Not Always the One Who Wants ItStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
A wife has licensed her husband's affair with one woman, one day a month — a marriage designed around honesty about desire.
Ichiko Aihara, a web designer, and her husband, Otoya, have been married for seven years and can talk about anything, except that they no longer have sex. It stopped when Ichiko turned him down, and to keep the marriage happy they agreed a rule: love outside the marriage, with permission. Otoya, a gentle, clumsy man, has a lover, Mizuki Kashiwagi, a married mother he met at an ikebana class. On their anniversary trip Ichiko reaches for him for the first time in years, and he says no: there is someone he loves. Her friend Megumi reminds her that the rule gives her rights too.
Ichiko, who has never got on with her mother, tells Otoya about her father's violence when she was small. Mizuki, furious to learn that the affair was never a secret, asks Otoya to live with her and her son, and he wonders whether he has only ever felt desire. Ichiko visits a women's sex service and is drawn to a young therapist, Rei. When Mizuki's husband, Shiro, is posted to Singapore, Otoya breaks the rules for a last night with her, and Ichiko books Rei again; with him she feels so cared for that she cries. Otoya tells Mizuki he wants to stay friends, and in a rage she attacks him. The Aiharas end the arrangement. Mizuki tells Shiro, who has ignored her affair and their son's therapy, that they both have to change.
Mending the marriage is harder than breaking it. Otoya cannot shake Mizuki's words, Ichiko cannot stop comparing, and when Otoya sees her with Rei and learns who he is, he looks at her with contempt and moves out. Mizuki finds she is pregnant and decides to have the baby as Shiro's; Shiro, alone with their son for the first time, learns what she has carried. Otoya comes back to nurse Ichiko through a cold, and she turns down Rei's offer of a real relationship.
They decide to try for a child. IVF fails, Ichiko loses her footing, and when Otoya says he would be happy with just the two of them, she finds she cannot picture that future. They divorce. Soon after, Ichiko finds her mother dead at home, and the first person she calls is Otoya. They put the flat up for sale. Three months later, when a buyer comes to see it, Ichiko breaks down: she cannot sell it, she wants to be with him. Otoya weeps too. They stay divorced and live together again. At the end he comes home, she says welcome back, and he hands her a bunch of gardenias.
Starring
Mitsuki Takahataas Ichiko Aihara
A web designer, seven years married, who stopped wanting sex with her husband and licensed his affair to keep the marriage happy.
Ichiko Aihara’s story
Ichiko's rules for Otoya's affair are simple: no lies, nothing brought home, dates on the third Thursday. On their anniversary she reaches for him and he says no. At a women's sex service, a young therapist, Rei, makes her feel so cared for that she cries. When Otoya comes home hurt by his lover, she admits she hated him having one, and they end the arrangement. But she keeps comparing, and when Otoya learns about Rei, he moves out. She turns Rei down: it is her husband she wants to live with. Worn out by failed fertility treatment, she tells Otoya that being married has become too hard, and they divorce. When her mother dies, she calls Otoya first. When a buyer views their flat, she weeps that she cannot sell it, and they live together again, still divorced.
Masaki Okadaas Otoya Aihara
Ichiko's gentle, clumsy husband, who works for a stationery maker and has a lover with his wife's permission.
Otoya Aihara’s story
Otoya took Ichiko's refusal hard, until an ikebana class brought him back to life and to Mizuki. On their anniversary he turns his wife down. But when Mizuki asks him to live with her and her son, he wonders whether he has only felt desire, and when her husband is posted abroad, he feels relief. On his birthday he tells Mizuki he wants to stay friends, and she attacks him in a rage. He confesses everything to Ichiko, and they weep together. After that he cannot make love to his wife, and when he learns about Rei he looks at her with contempt and moves out. He comes back when she falls ill, tries for a child with her, and they divorce. He arranges her mother's funeral, weeps with her when she cannot sell their flat, and brings her gardenias.
Nanase Nishinoas Mizuki Kashiwagi
A housewife neglected by her husband, who finds refuge in Otoya after they meet at an ikebana class.
Mizuki Kashiwagi’s story
Mizuki is raising a son with developmental delays almost alone; her husband, Shiro, treats childcare as her job. Learning that Otoya's wife has sanctioned their affair, she is furious, then asks him to live with her and her son. Shiro, who knows, is posted to Singapore and tells her to be a mother she can be proud of. On Otoya's birthday, when he says he wants to stay friends, she attacks him in a rage. She tells Shiro what she has done, and that unless they both change they cannot stay together. Pregnant with Shiro's child, she wants to have it; caring for their son alone for the first time, Shiro finds out how hard it is, and she admits she has taken her frustration out on the boy. They start again.
Kengo Koraas Shiro Kashiwagi
Mizuki's husband, an awkward, driven man who has looked away from her affair and from their son's needs.
Hokuto Yoshinoas Rei Ikebata
A young therapist at a women's sex service, whose care gives Ichiko back a part of herself.
Why it matters
1122 treats sexlessness as a problem of talk rather than of sex. Peko Watanabe, whose manga it adapts, opened her story with Article 24 of the Japanese Constitution, which grounds marriage in the equal rights of husband and wife, and has said that the trouble is not the absence of sex but being unable to discuss it. The series tries every workaround a modern couple might reach for: permission for an affair, a women's sex service, fertility treatment. Each costs something, and not always to the person who chose it. When the manga ran, readers condemned the husband's sanctioned affair and cheered the wife's visit to a therapist, a double standard the story holds up to the light. Its ending is its boldest idea: a divorced couple who choose to go on living together, as if marriage were one shape a love can take rather than the proof of it.