Tomie Kawakami (川上 富江, Kawakami Tomie) is the main antagonist and titular character in the manga series of the same name. She is known for her beauty and ability to become clones and infect people, turning them into one of her, so much that Tomie is not a person and is simply the name every creature like her uses.
Description[]
Tomie Kawakami is a young woman frequently described as almost impossibly beautiful by those she meets. She was born on August 1st. Tomie's hair is normally long and black, but in certain versions it is shorter but still black, while in others it is light blonde. She has her iconic beauty mark below her left eye.
Tomie is a manipulative, hedonistic, and extremely selfish woman, seducing men to do her bidding. She is one of Junji Ito's most recurring characters, appearing for a grand total of 3 series: Tomie, Tomie: Part 2 and Tomie Again.
There have been numerous live-action adaptations of Tomie's stories, with the character herself being portrayed by a wide variety of actresses.
Personality[]
Initially Tomie was a love struck girl who was liked by the guys in her class but disliked by the female students. She had a crush on and had a intimate relationship with her teacher before she died, and seemed to be genuinely in love with him. After her resurrection she began to see men as simply tools for her to use while still attempting to retain some plausibility into her cover. The only thing that would bother her is being called or shown as a monster, this causing her to go into a blind murderous rage and send her minions to kill the offending party.
Over time, her ego grew, as she considered herself the most beautiful woman in the world and saw everyone else as lesser. The only thing ever shown to effect her after this was when an individual resisted her abilities which would cause her to start to obsess over them.
Eventually, every Tomie would even start to see other clones as lesser and would begin a war against each other. Each would use their powers to bend men to her will and order them to kill and burn the other copies. As well, she seemed to view humans far lesser, and would partake in cannibalism while regenerating.
Abilities/Powers[]
Source of Obsession[]
Tomie's mere presence seems to drive people to become fixated on her, both positively and negatively. People enthralled by Tomie tend to feel a mixture of intense love and hatred towards her, often beginning as the former and shifting towards the latter as time passes.
Eventually, either due to love or due to hate, people will be driven, often irrationally, to kill and chop her into pieces. This drive is almost universal and even applies to parts of her, as characters were driven to cut up her hair as it grew without any previous knowledge that it would grow further.
Super Regeneration[]
Tomie is able to regenerate herself from the smallest living piece, including hairs, skin, and drops of blood. Each separate piece can grow into a full clone of herself, with its own independent mind. The only way to prevent Tomie's regeneration is to burn every part of her, leaving nothing for her to grow from. The only other proven way to halt her regeneration is to submerge her in an acidic solution, this halts her growth as her regeneration can't overcome the acid.
Tomie's regeneration takes time but can be expedited by bringing her food or striking her with concentrated radiation. The story "Little Finger", which is about a group of Tomies growing to their full glory, each in sequence, implies that she can either control her regeneration if she wishes or that her regeneration works faster if she can manipulate someone into bonding with her.
When placed under enough emotional stress, Tomie will start to split without sustaining any injury. This is usually manifested as a second face and later an entire new head emerging from her own. This however is extremely rare and seems to only have occurred on a few occasions.
It is also apparent that if her organs or blood are implanted into someone, even if her organs are removed later from the host, her biology will take over the recipient and they will lose all sense of self, slowly becoming another Tomie; occasionally the recipient will become a physical clone of her who acts just like her but still refers to themself with their own name. This is also mentioned as the only way for her to age, and it is stated that regenerated clones will not. It is unknown if this is true or not as Tomie clones tend to be killed before they can age significantly.
Another possibly less active ability is with her hair. When placed on the skin it will adhere to it and act like a hair that has always been there. This hair will penetrate the skull and wrap itself around the brain causing the person to see Tomie. The person in question (in this case high school girls) will be driven to attach more of Tomie's hair which will quickly replace their existing hair. Given enough time the girl's hair will be fully replaced and she will be able to see and talk to Tomie. In the end of the story "Hair" this culminates in Tomie's hair bursting from every pore of the victim leaving only a mass of hair behind.
Etymology[]
- The name Tomie means "wealth, abundance" (富) (tomi) and "bay, inlet" (江) (e).
- Tomie's surname Kawakami means "upstream, upper reaches of a river" (川上).
- The kami sound is also associated with the 神 symbol, which is used in association with and means 'god'. This could be a reference to her flawless appearance and ability to seemingly live forever and recover from any damage done to her, however, since her name's symbols are not so, this is simply an assumption.
Trivia[]
- Tomie shares many similarities to a succubus:
- She draws men of all ages towards her.
- She uses men for her own amusement.
- She retains her youthful appearance.
- Throughout the entire run of her stories, Tomie has never killed a single person by her own hands, always having the men she seduced do it for her.
- Tomie shares many similarities to the concept of death:
- Where ever Tomie goes, people die; whether by their own hands or by others.
- No matter how many times Tomie gets killed by the people she encounters, she comes back with almost no method to completely take her out for good.
- The ways in which Tomie's victims die range from being murdered, committed suicide, driven mad, being left for dead in the middle of nowhere, and aging.
- For unknown reasons when photographed her more monstrous nature is shown usually by extra eyes or another face/head emerging from her head. After Tsukiko discovered this Tomie gained an aversion to cameras and will absolutely avoid them whenever she can.
- Each Tomie believes herself to be the most beautiful being, and they see even other Tomies as inferior copies of her and seek to kill any they come across. They do this by invoking men to hunt down the other Tomie and kill them with fire.
Gallery[]
