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hardcover $21.95
Dalkey Archive Press
Paddyfield.com
Powells.com (USA)
More reviews by Todd Shimoda
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
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The Budding Tree by Aiko Kitahara / Ian MacDonald (trans.)
Not much Japanese fiction has been written with Edo-period women as the main characters. The Edo period, 1603-1868, when Japan closed its borders to all but a few select foreigners, was the era of shoguns and samurai. Correspondingly, most fiction set in the Edo period spotlights those icons. We are left with the idea that women were rearing children strapped to their backs in the fields, gossiping with their maids behind shoji screens, or working in brothels.
AIKO KITAHARA / IAN MACDONALD (TRANS.)'s six stories present Edo women in a different light. All the women work -- they are an owner of a private school, a professional calligrapher, a stage performer, a jewelry designer, an artist, and a restaurant owner. Most of the women inherited the businesses and careers from their family with no male heirs. All have to overcome prejudice against professional women.
Romance plays an important role in the characters' stories, indeed it is largely the focus of most of the plots. As competent as the women are in their businesses, most are naïve in matters of love. And just as many women in modern Japan, they struggle to meet the demands of a profession and to create a satisfying personal life. The characters' personal conflicts arise from the previously mentioned prejudice, envy and jealousy, financial crises, and adultery. All stuff of good love stories.
The author also weaves historical issues into the stories. In the latter part of the Edo period when these stories take place, Japan suffered a series of famines, peasant revolts, and other social and political upheavals. In particular, the merchant class, once despised as the lowest class, has risen to prominence. Even samurai have to put away their swords and work for them. These changes create both opportunity and tragedy for the women.
One of the most interesting stories is the last. The Budding Tree is the name of a restaurant owned by Okaji, a divorced middle-aged woman. She has devoted her life to making her restaurant a success even as the country descends into famine. Rice prices inflate daily and peasant revolts rock the countryside and spill over into the city. A starving family, relatives of Okaji's head waitress, arrive at the restaurant barely alive. Okaji pities them, gives them jobs, but they soon are taking advantage of her generosity. Okaji's ex-husband then shows up, begging for money. Her staff is worried about their jobs as the economy crumbles. Soon the troubles multiple and she finds herself battling to keep the restaurant.
The stories lean toward the sentimental, as you find in most Japanese television dramas. Things work out for the characters in melodramatic ways. However the stories provide a welcome addition to understanding the lives of Edo-period Japanese as they move toward the globalization of today.
Todd Shimoda
06/01/2008
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