Krishna
This is a book written by a Japanese author in Japanese, primarily intended for Japanese audiences. It has been translated into English. This shows. I am not saying it is a bad thing. In fact, it gives you a window into Japanese way of thinking and living, and gives you a window into native Japanese customs that would not come through if the author had been living in the West and exposed to Western thinking – at least in my mind.
It is steeped in Japanese cultural mores. So it is a book that is nice to read, and sounds exotic. The story revolves around the four sisters. The first two Tsuruko and Sachiko are married (to Tatsuo and Teinosuke respectively). The third one is Yukiko, unmarried (even though she is thirty) with dwindling offers now. The youngest is Taeko. In Japan, the youngest is called ‘Koi-san’ (“small daughter”) as is Taeko in the family.
Etsuko is Sachiko’s school going daughter.
Mrs Itani, a friend and a beauty parlor owner, relishes in matchmaking and proposes a forty year old man – never married – for Yukiko.
We get the back story. The Makioka name had great dignity all over Japan and the sisters’ father had a good business that declined. He, the father, only had four daughters and Tsuruko (the elder sister) married and the husband took the Makioka name and became head of the family when the father died. He was disliked by Yukiko and other sisters. Sachiko also married and the husband too took the Makioka name. However, initially, when Yukiko was young, a lot of suitors came for her hand but the family rejected them all as ‘not worthy of Makioka name’ and so the offers declined. When Tsuruko’s husband found a wealthy man from a small town, Yukiko rejected the offer because he was uneducated and not her intellectual equal and besides, she did not want to go live in a small town. So, with her past thirty, the new match found by Itani had some attractions.
Incidentally all the sisters hate the iron handed discipline of the husbands of the elder two sisters except the wives themselves. Tsuruko gave up a job in the bank to help the sisters’ father with the business but that was already in trouble. After their father’s death, Tsuruko sold the bank as a ‘hopeless venture and went back to the bank, which rankled with Yukiko.
Earlier, Tsuruko arranged a match for Yukiko. The man was in the same bank as his and the family name was even more exalted than Makiko. Yukiko gave vague responses of intent, and the man was keen after meeting Yukiko. At the last moment, Yukiko firmly said no quoting – to Tsuruko’s eyes – unimportant reasons. ‘His face is not intelligent; I don’t want to live in the countryside; he is uneducated as opposed to Yukiko, a brilliant student and a graduate’ etc. Thereafter he resolves not to involve himself in matchmaking for Yukiko in the future.
Meanwhile Taeko still sees her ex flame (platonically, as happens in Japan) and they have sworn to wait as long as it takes for Yukiko to marry. The book gives a strong local Japanese flavour and makes us understand the way of thinking in traditional Japanese community. So it is interesting to read.
Suchiko, who is far prettier, agrees to make herself look old and ugly when they take Yukiko to meet a suitor at an informal dinner (but really with a serious intent to look at him and see if she will agree to marry him) hosted by Itani to find a husband for Yukiko.
The story moves with the polite conversion of Japanese, with dinner talk around the capacity to hold alcohol and why the man did not stay in France but returned to Japan to work here. All humdrum stuff to a reader.
They want to convince the prospective groom that even though Yukiko looks frail, she is healthy and so are thinking of having her chest x-rayed and sent to the man (No, not kidding). Also Yukiko gets some dark stains above one eye and they want to get rid of it by having Yukiko take some hormone injections. So that she will be blemishless and healthy so that the man would agree to marry her. Not really surprised, having seen similar attitudes in India, at least in the sixties.
Taking one month to investigate, finally one of the husbands discovers a ‘mental illness’ in the family and therefore they refuse the alliance, leaving Yukiko single again! Itani is tireless in finding yet another prospect for her, but that man has already five children and is a ‘no go’ from the beginning.
Meanwhile the sisters, especially the young one (Koi-san) befriends a western lady Katherina – originally a Russian but speaking halting Japanese. The story goes on to describe Katherina, and also the neighbours who are German one Mrs Stolz and her children, who are friends of this family. Later they have to go off to Germany and leave with regret. The new foreigner who comes in is combative, complaining about everything that Makiokas do – the dog is too noisy (it barked just one night) and the music is too loud (it was because Etsuko was sick with some poxlike infection and had to be isolated in outhouse close to the next door neighbour’s house and music was the only entertainment)
Is the story going anywhere? Yes, it simply describes a conventional Japanese society in all its customs, odd mostly to Western eyes and therefore interesting – like a peak through the window of the life lived in a family in a far off land. Not for this author the quick moving action or even the emotional drama that is more common in Western literature.
Tsusuko is caught by panic every time something major happens. When her husband is transferred to Tokyo, she is in a panic as to how to leave Osaka, where she has been all her life, what to do with the ancestral, sprawling house she is in, and how to even pack. The sisters help her but also gossip about her when among themselves. All very natural life scenes.
Tsuruko leaves and the elders force Yukiko to go with them since only it is proper and that Yukiko should not bring shame to Tatsuo by preferring to stay in Ashahi with Sachiko. Koi-san was excused since she still had studying to do but as soon as possible, she should also leave for Tokyo.
All strange to Western eyes indeed – these social customs and obligations. What struck me though is how similar it is in many Asian countries in conservative families – India, Thailand, South Korea to name just a few. Politics may be wildly different in these places but traditional values and the clout that the elderly wield all have a familiar tint.
Koi-San (Taeko) has befriended a boy Okubata and intends to marry him – even though he is jobless, has no aim in life – and even plans to earn by doll making and stitching to support him and herself after marriage. This causes a scandalous reaction from the household because a high class house like the Makiokas do not stoop to doing work for a living! They are against Taeko marrying this layabout.
And then suddenly a major event intrudes. When Koi-San had gone to her sewing class and when Etsuko was in her school, a major flood comes to the town and Teinosuke goes at considerable danger to himself – he was almost washed away multiple times – and then Okubata goes in search of them, after hearing about Taeko (Koi-San) was stuck in school. Really well described – the sense of calamity for the rescuers and the sense of doom and foreboding for Sachiko who was waiting in the house, not knowing what happened. (The phone lines were nonfunctional due to the flood as well).
A lot of (non action) things unfold from it. A man Itakura who is not of ‘the same class as Makiokas’ called risks his life to save Taeko when Okubata does not go into the water because his fancy dress will get wet. So Taeko falls for Itakura and Okubata and Itakura have a fight over her!
The family is even more scandalized. The hillbilly Itakura is no match for Taeko but Taeko is determined to spurn everyone and marry him. Suddenly Okubata does not seem such a bad choice after all. At least he comes from a noble family. (Stongly reminiscent of the class system of England and caste system of India, is this not?) However, an ear infection lands Itakura in the hospital and inexplicably a minor operation goes wrong and his leg is infected with gangrene. Due to the family’s indecision, they leave it too long unattended and the boy tragically dies.
There is another desperate attempt at a mail for Yukiko and for the first time, as a slap in the face of the Makioka price, the old and feeble man who came to see her sends his apologies, rejecting her! It is a shock for the family.
Meanwhile Taeko has taken up again with Ekubata and seems to spend nights with him, as he was expelled from his family for embezzlement and has found a small apartment of his own. First the family tries to hide it from the eldest sister but later they come clean. Tsuruko is shocked and orders Taeko and Yukiko to Tokyo or else, if Taeko rebels to disown her from the family name.
Taeko is persuaded to take another house in Osaka and ‘pretend’ to be cut off from the family. But when Taeko is dangerously ill with a serious dysentry (or worse) that threatens her life, they are shocked to find that she fell ill in ‘Okubata’s house’. They then secretly move her to a hospital so that she could be looked after by Dr Kushida in a ‘more respectable’ place.
Sachiko decides to write all to Tsuruko including her fears that Koi San may not survive her present illness.
But the old woman who works for Okubata tells a different story! It was Taeko who has been demanding jewellery (and because of which Okubata was thrown out). Okubata has been providing for her expensive tastes; he has been steadfast in his devotion while Taeko has been fleecing him and also being unfaithful behind his back. Right now, the old lady claims, she is seeing a bartender called Miyoshi.
When confronted with evidence, Taeko simply walks out in anger but comes back next day as if nothing has happened. The sisters take her in again, not wanting to cut off completely. When another prospect comes for Yukiko, it seems that this is a good match on both sides. Then Taeko drops another bombshell. She is pregnant by Miyoshi! In a conservative society like Japan, it is the equivalent of a tsunami.
Sachiko, who hears of the news in secret, is completely devastated. Yukiko’s brightest prospect was now in danger and there seemed to be no end to Taeko’s selfishness. She did not care what she destroyed as long as she could get what she herself wanted, thought Sachiko.
The rest of the story brings about several resolutions. Not being a thriller there is no great twist at the end and the book ends at a logical place.
If you are looking for something different or a book that exposes thinking and customs of one foreign country, this is a good book to pick. If you want racy story or twists, avoid this book; this is not the book for you.
An interesting read indeed.
7/10
‘– Krishna