Chekhov’s Gun, Heckler & Koch, and Murakami’s Unfired Wordplay in 1Q84
Or, how Murakami loads linguistic pistols that go off in English
I’d like, if only for a few paragraphs, briefly to pause my daily routine of absorbing real-world dystopia and slip sideways into the gentler absurdities of literary nightmare—maybe a place where two moons casually float above Tokyo, the Little People mutter cryptic instructions from cocoons of air, and Guillyaks wander silently in the margins, watching reality slowly lose its grip.
In Murakami's 1Q84—I read this while I had a very small child (a Dota?, but she came around the regular, non-chrysalis way)—I notice the appearance of a "Heckler & Koch" firearm. It’s a sly hint, if not a total anagram, tending toward toward Chekhov's gun. But Murakami deliberately refuses to ready-fire-aim it. This intrigues me: the original text appears in Japanese (which I can’t read), so I wonder if Japanese readers might recognize a visual or phonetic similarity between "Heckler & Koch" and "Chekhov" in their native katakana script. It’s something obvious to an English reader accustomed to Roman letters and partial anagrams. And what about "Masa" and "Dota"? Do these particular names yield any special resonance or hidden meanings uniquely accessible to the Japanese reader?1
Spoiler Alert: (but relax—reading this won't ruin the plot completely; still, maybe dive into Murakami’s rabbit hole (Esso cat terrace?) first.2 Or just read this to sound smart on a Tinder date.)
Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 entangles amid two worlds—one we assume as "real," another slightly tweaked into an queasy new arrangement, which-in the characters label "1Q84." Here, two moons hang casually above Tokyo, unnoticed by most folks who just shuffle through their daily trance. Aomame, an elusive assassin with impeccable taste and peculiar ethics, steps sideways into this altered Tokyo after descending a strange stairway. Meanwhile, Tengo, a mild-mannered math teacher and writer, quietly rewrites a profoundly odd manuscript, which quickly unfolds into something far more dangerous—fiction bleeding into fact, fantasy contaminating reality. Soon both characters find themselves entangled with shadowy entities called the Little People, mysterious beings who manage reality like puppeteers pulling strings hidden behind an absurd cosmic curtain. Oh, and it has a lawyer, too.
Murakami conspicuously plants a Heckler & Koch pistol into his story, directly invoking Chekhov’s old dictum: “If a gun hangs on the wall in the first act, someone must fire it by the third.” Except Murakami—being Murakami—never fires the damned thing. He just lets it linger there, belligerently unfired, a deliberate cosmological joke at narrative convention’s expense. Alongside this gun-that-will-never-go-off, he scatters names—Masa and Dota—short, resonant sounds echoing with cryptic meaning, each carrying subtle symbolic heft. Like the unfired Heckler & Koch, these names drift ambiguously through the reader’s mind, implying hidden truths that Murakami cheerfully declines to illuminate.
1. Chekhov's Gun and Heckler & Koch in Japanese
Heckler & Koch is a famous German firearms manufacturer, typically written in Japanese as ヘッケラー＆コッホ (hekkerā ando kohho) or abbreviated as H&K.
Chekhov (Anton Chekhov) is transliterated as チェーホフ (Chēhofu), and "Chekhov's Gun" specifically is チェーホフの銃 (Chēhofu no jū).
Thus, in the Japanese original, there's no direct overlap between these two terms—they’re transliterated distinctly:
Term Roman Letters Japanese Katakana Heckler & Koch Hekkerā & Kohho ヘッケラー & コッホ Chekhov's Gun Chēhofu no jū チェーホフの銃
Because Japanese readers see these entirely through katakana, the pun or visual overlap present in the Roman alphabet (the "Heckler/Koch/Chekhov" similarity) wouldn’t be obvious to them at all.
However, Murakami's translator, Jay Rubin (and later Philip Gabriel), often deliberately accentuates wordplay in English that wasn’t obvious—or even present—in the original Japanese. Murakami himself, fluent in English, is also aware these subtle coincidences arise in translation. Thus, an English-language reader perceives a layered reference or even a playful subversion of Chekhov’s gun principle through the coincidental echo of “Heckler & Koch.”
2. Murakami and Subverting Chekhov’s Gun
Chekhov’s Gun is a literary device suggesting that if a gun appears in the first act, it must go off by the last act. Murakami, however, frequently subverts traditional narrative expectations. The firearm brand explicitly mentioned—Heckler & Koch—becomes a “gun” that’s referenced explicitly but never actually used in a conventional way.
Murakami’s frequent allusion to classical literary theory (like Chekhov's Gun) and then refusal to pay it off straightforwardly serves a dual literary purpose:
Metatextual Commentary: He acknowledges narrative conventions only to flout them deliberately, creating a sense of literary tension.
Unfulfilled Expectations: Readers accustomed to narrative payoffs (especially Western readers more directly familiar with “Chekhov’s Gun”) find themselves unsettled or at least intrigued by the “missed” firing, a common Murakami effect.
3. The Japanese Reader’s Perspective on Masa and Dota
In 1Q84, characters like Masami (Masa) and Tengo Kawana’s father (often referred to in context) have names whose significance in Japanese may resonate differently than in English translation. “Masa” (マサ), for example, is a very common short form for various Japanese names beginning with “Masa-” (such as Masaru, Masahiro, Masatoshi). The familiarity and simplicity of the nickname "Masa" give a casual intimacy and ordinariness to Japanese readers.
“Dota” (ドウタ or ドータ), however, is unusual and foreign-sounding, especially in katakana form, marking it clearly as exotic, distinct, or deliberately abstract. Murakami frequently chooses unusual or foreign-sounding names specifically to create a slight distancing or surreal effect.
Thus, while Japanese readers wouldn’t catch a direct interplay of words between “Heckler & Koch” and “Chekhov’s Gun,” they would very likely notice the deliberate avoidance of fulfilling Chekhov’s narrative expectation. The careful choice of firearm brand—a foreign, relatively exotic reference—further underscores Murakami’s penchant for global references that lend an atmosphere of international intrigue.
4. The Role of the Translator
Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, Murakami’s main English-language translators, often intentionally highlight linguistic coincidences and nuances. The overlap you sensed—“Heckler & Koch” as evoking “Chekhov”—would be clearly apparent in English but accidental in the Japanese original. This subtlety is typical of the way Murakami’s work gains a different layer of intertextuality and irony in translation.
Murakami himself, as someone steeped in global culture, surely enjoys this accidental serendipity—aware that his translated work will carry layered meanings for readers in different languages.
TL;DR:
In the original Japanese, there is no clear linguistic overlap between “Heckler & Koch” and “Chekhov’s Gun.”
This wordplay emerges entirely in translation, giving the English reader a layered, meta-literary experience absent in the original text.
Murakami deliberately uses the presence and non-use of the firearm as a literary subversion of Chekhov’s Gun.
The subtle interplay involving “Masa” and “Dota” would have different emotional or cultural resonances for Japanese readers but isn’t directly related linguistically to the gun issue.
Murakami’s narrative subversion, in short, is deliberate, but the linguistic pun between “Heckler & Koch” and “Chekhov” only emerges as a serendipitous gift of translation.
Honorable and loving mention to an old High School friend, who helped with the Japanese—a topic about which I know nothing. I’m including the characters to test the visual aspect of the claim, not just for pure pretense. I’d welcome any comments, corrections, or general education from folks who know the book or the language, inclusive.
…which now makes me wonder whether the Esso cat and the reference to little persons might have something to do with elementary particles.