The Makioka Sisters (novel)
The Makioka Sisters (細雪 Sasameyuki lit. "light snow") (1943-1948) is a serial novel by the Japanese author Tanizaki Jun'ichiro.
The story, set in war-time Kyoto, centers around the four daughters of a once-wealthy family now in decline: Tsuruko, Sachiko, Yukiko and Taeko (affectionately dubbed "Koi-san.") Tsuruko and Sachiko, the elder sisters, are trying to arrange a marriage for Yukiko. Taeko, the youngest, impatient with waiting for her older sister to marry, flings herself into affairs with men of dubious character or social standing.
The novel's primary theme is the fading of traditional Japanese culture, as Tanizaki saw it being replaced by the twin processes of modernization and Westernization. On another level, the novel can be also be seen as a celebration of traditional culture, with which Tanizaki had become fascinated following the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923 that destroyed much of the old city. (An earlier non-fiction work "In Praise of Shadows" examines the unique Japanese aesthetic and makes an argument for it.) The Makiokas go blossom viewing, practice traditional dance and doll making, while simultaneously clinging to their declining name and fading glory. Although the work has been said to combine elements of traditional Japanese narrative with modern and experimental techniques, there are several distinguishable running plot-lines, including the family's repeatedly failed attempts to marry off the third sister Yukiko, and the increasing waywardness of the fourth sister Takeo, who shows an early prediliction for unseemly behavior. Taeko in some ways conforms to the archetypal femme fatale recurrent in many of Tanizaki's works. However, the book's charm comes from its small moments, a family outing to view Cherry blossoms, the relationship between second-sister Sachiko and her literary husband, an afternoon of poetry writing--each of these coursing with emotional undertones.
This is probably Tanizaki's finest work and it is certainly his most ambitious. Many of Tanizaki's works involve a strong erotic component, combined with explorations of spirituality and aesthetics, particularly Japanese aesthetics in opposition to or in collision with Western values. In this novel, Tanizaki's more lusty concerns are only hinted upon at the margins while the unique Japanese intersection of culture, art, family and beauty and its contrast to heartless modernity is on full display.
Was adapted for the screen in 1950 (Shintōhō), 1959 (Daiei Tokyo) and 1983 (Tōhō Eiga).
