Tanizaki’s novel tells the story of an extended family in gradual decline during Japan’s pre-World War II years. As the title suggests, the novel tracks the lives of four sisters, as they age and cope with family travails, while living around the Osaka/Kyoto region. When the story begins, the two older sisters are already married, their husbands having taken the Makioka name, thus having been adopted into the family. However, the family name is not as illustrious as just a generation ago. The Makioka sisters’ parents have both died, leaving little money and no more business prospects. Therefore, both male heirs work in banking firms. “The Makiokas were an old family, of course, and probably everyone in Osaka had heard of them at one time or another. But still—Sachiko would have to forgive her for saying so—they could not live on their old glory forever.”
The family’s attempts to marry off the two younger sisters drives much of the plot. “It was nonetheless out of the question to have the younger sister marry first.” This novel details the traditions, forms, and appearances that a family of this class tries to keep up amidst the changing times. As war breaks out in Europe and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria threatens to broaden to the rest of China and throughout Asia, the Makioka family struggles to adapt to their new station in life. “Teinosuke preferred not to be too deeply involved in domestic problems, and particularly with regard to Etsuko’s upbringing he was of the view that matters might best be left to his wife. Lately, however, with the outbreak of the China Incident, he had become conscious of the need to train strong, reliant women, women able to support the man behind the gun.”
In early twentieth century Japanese society, blood still formed thick bonds, even as families divided, expanded, and dispersed. In this novel, when the eldest sister, Tsuruko, and her husband, Tatsuo, the family patriarch, are forced to move to Tokyo for a bank job, tensions in the family are exposed as the two younger sisters are reluctant to follow, as expectations would dictate. “Aunt Tominaga was of the view that, although the younger sisters might well stay with Sachiko while the main house was in Osaka, it would be better for them now to go to Tokyo. After all, they belonged to the main house…. If the two sisters were to leave the main house and stay in Osaka, it might lead to talk and reflect on Tatsuo’s name as head of the family.” Money was becoming tight of late, but protocols and appearances had to be kept up at all costs. Calligraphy, poetry, cherry blossom gazing, and kabuki occupy most of the sisters’ time. “The cherries in the Heian Shrine were left to the last because they, of all the cherries in Kyoto, were the most beautiful. Now that the great weeping cherry in Gion was dying and its blossoms were growing paler each year, what was left to stand for the Kyoto spring if not the cherries in the Heian Shrine?”
Throughout this novel, the differences between the regional Japanese micro-cultures, their dialects, and the family status of the various characters all play pivotal roles. “The waiting room was full of strangers, women of the Tokyo breed, none of whom seemed ready to strike up a conversation. Ashamed, even when they talked in hushed voices, to have their west-country accents overheard, the sisters felt as if they were in the heart of the enemy country.” The youngest sister, Takeo, thoroughly westernized, pushes all the bounds of the rest of the family, as they quietly struggle to reign her back into conformity. “If she must have a hobby, doll-making will do. Dressmaking is quite out of the question…. The people in Tokyo still worried about family and position, and it seemed to them a disgrace that the Makioka family should produce a seamstress.” The other Makioka mistress, Yukiko, alternates between being comically and tragically inept at attracting a suitable husband, to the rest of her family’s chagrin. “The fact was that Yukiko could never be at home in the modern world. She would therefore always retain something pure and maidenly. What she needed was a husband who would place a proper value on her virtues, someone who would see it as his duty to cherish and protect them.” Through it all, the sisters show undying love and devotion for one another, even as each tests the others’ patience to no end. “He slid the door open to find Yukiko sitting on the veranda with her knees tucked under her chin, while Takeo cut her toenails for her…. It was only a glimpse, and yet there was a beauty in the scene, sister with sister, that left a deep impression on him. Though they might disagree, there would not often be serious conflicts between them.” At heart, this story is about four women who are struggling to keep up their traditions in a Japan that was rapidly industrializing and transforming beyond the recognition of their own comfortable childhoods. “And what if she had married the rustic gentleman? More than sour grapes, she was sure, made her know that she would not have been happy. If he spent his life on slow trains between one out-of-the-way little station and another, she could not believe that she would have been happy with him. Her decision had been the right one.”
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