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The Makioka Sisters

by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Edward G. Seidensticker (Translator)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 1,849 ratings · 176 reviews

In Osaka in the years immediately before World War II, four aristocratic women try to preserve a way of life that is vanishing. As told by Junichiro Tanizaki, the story of the Makioka sisters forms what is arguably the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family–and an entire society–sliding into the abyss of modernity.

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Paperback, 530 pages

Published September 26th 1995 by Vintage (first published 1946)

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Dec 04, 2012 Aubrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, japanese, 4-star, reviewed

It's been such a long time since I've read a translation of the Japanese language. I had completely forgotten how calm and subtle the prose is, how patient you have to be in probing it. It's true that enough happens on the surface to make for a lengthy story, but it is the hidden depths that make the story engaging.

Most of the story is occupied with the lives of the Makioka sisters, focusing on the third sister who even at her advanced age has not yet been married. The book starts with discussio...more It's been such a long time since I've read a translation of the Japanese language. I had completely forgotten how calm and subtle the prose is, how patient you have to be in probing it. It's true that enough happens on the surface to make for a lengthy story, but it is the hidden depths that make the story engaging.

Most of the story is occupied with the lives of the Makioka sisters, focusing on the third sister who even at her advanced age has not yet been married. The book starts with discussion of yet another possible husband, (view spoiler) but it is so much more than a drawn out soap opera. The main thing to remember is that no matter what trivial events are being described, they are all happening at the cusp of World War II. This event, at first only briefly referred to as the 'China Incident', grows increasingly important as more and more characters feel the effects.

All of the sisters are slow to act at the beginning, analyzing the latest events for weeks on end, spending months on decisions that in this era would barely last a day. Even the youngest sibling, who is seemingly very adventurous and self sufficient compared to her sisters, is shown to be just as stuck in the past as the rest of them. She is quickest to act in realization of the changing times, and as such is the quickest to fall victim to disaster. The story doesn't continue very far after her specific troubles are over, but all signs suggest that the other sisters will not be able to avoid the dangers of the coming war. They do not know it yet, but the world is changing into a place with no time for their old methodical approach to life, and their survival will be completely dependent on their ability to adapt.

The book is a prime example of characters not appreciating in the slightest what they have until it is gone. They move around their social spheres, content in using all their time to carefully ruminate on the smallest problems from all angles, while making apologies for the slightest supposed missteps. Any hint of the dirty facts of reality is met with immovable contempt and disapproval, and in this day and age, the intrusions of reality are usually small enough that this stubbornness is enough to make them disappear. As time continues, the characters find it increasingly difficult to continue their way of life without acknowledgement of the current wartime conditions, but they still manage to succeed till the very end of this story.

The book ends with discussion of the latest banal details of life, but sprinkled throughout are the hopes that each character has for the future. As the reader knows, soon after the end of the novel Japan would descend into chaos and misery as the war made itself known, something that the author himself was completely aware of. Writing this story in Japan from 1943-1948, he would've known full well what kind of journey he was sending his characters on. He would've experienced the worsening way of life that culminated in a final blow when Japan was bombed into surrender, and watched as even the Emperor surrendered to the demands of the outside world. His intimate descriptions of pre-WWII Japan are not only highly accurate, they clearly emphasize how traumatic the war will be to a country so slow and stubborn in its ways of life.

If he had gone on to write more, it is obvious that not even the isolated Makioka family would have been able to remain unscathed. There is little chance that any of their hopes for the future that continued beyond the novel would have been realized. What is certain is that their petty feuds and selfish desires would pale in comparison to the rampant death and destruction, and the war would trigger a mental crisis of the entire population. The days where the family of these sisters could afford to be surprised at 'hasty' actions, something commented on throughout the novel, would be at an end. Whether they survived this abrupt shove into modern times is anyone's guess.(less)

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Nov 22, 2012 umberto rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, japan

I found this lengthy novel by Junichiro Tanizaki relatively interesting with lots of dialogs as well as seemingly endless descriptions. From its 530 pages, just imagine, there are totally 18 pages each having 39 lines without any indented paragraph. However, there are innumerable pages each having only one paragraph. Some might not mind reading these but, psychologically, I preferred reading it with usual paragraphs. Thus, I amusingly regarded it as a kind of sleeping medicine and it sometime di...more I found this lengthy novel by Junichiro Tanizaki relatively interesting with lots of dialogs as well as seemingly endless descriptions. From its 530 pages, just imagine, there are totally 18 pages each having 39 lines without any indented paragraph. However, there are innumerable pages each having only one paragraph. Some might not mind reading these but, psychologically, I preferred reading it with usual paragraphs. Thus, I amusingly regarded it as a kind of sleeping medicine and it sometime did induce sleepiness after reading such formidable descriptions.

One of the reasons in reading it is that I came across an excerpt entitled, "The Firefly Hunt", one of the novel's famous passages, in an oldish brownish paperback "Modern Japanese Literature" (Tuttle, 1972) compiled and edited by Donald Keene, surprisingly, with its twelfth printing! [First edition published 1957]. As for some newcomers interested in reading Japanese literature translated into English, I would like to recommend this notable one to you and, good news, we can still find it in general good bookstores in major cities or you may place an order via any bookstore agent delighted to help you.

I simply kept reading on and on hoping to read the excerpt as soon as I was reading Book 1 (Chapters 1-29) or Book 2 (Chapters 1-35) but in vain because it is not in there. So I wondered where it would be, then in fact, it is in Book 3 (Chapter 4). Disappointingly, its first two sentences in the first paragraph translated by the same translator has a bit different wording as follows:

1) 1972 edition: It was a strange house, of course, but it was probably less the house than sheer exhaustion that kept Sachiko awake. She has risen early, she had been rocked and jolted by train and automobile through the heat of the day, and in the evening she had chased over the fields with the children, two or three miles it must have been. (p. 383)

2) 1995 edition: The house was a strange one, but it was probably less the strange house than sheer exhaustion that kept Sachiko awake. She had gotten up early, she had been rocked and jolted by train and automobile through the heat of the day, and in the evening she had chased over the fields with the children, two or three miles at least. (p. 341)

I don't know why they're different. If the latest edition needs something more precise or perfect, there should be an "Introduction" section (none) with an editor or a professor clarifying on the matter and of course its readers would be grateful.

Set in Osaka before World War II, the novel subtly reveals each character of the four Makioka's sisters as a noble family, namely, Tsuruko the eldest sister acts as a senior having her authority in the main house, Sachiko does her best to help the miai [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miai] for Yukiko to come true, Yukiko serenely endures the miai plight and helps her younger sister who is in trouble, and Taeko the youngest chooses to live the modern life she wants with ensuing hardships. I liked Teinosuke as Sachiko's husband who has done everything he can, gentlemanly, to solve any problem related to anyone in his family and sisters-in-law.

In the translator's own words, "More important, it is a very good novel, something that meets the qualifications for a good novel laid down in Europe and America. It is about vicissitudes in the lives of believable characters. There is a strong tendency for modern Japanese literature to be too lyrical and personal to qualify." (Everyman's Library, 1993, p. xviii) Thus, this novel is worth reading, furthermore, the readers could learn more on Japanese ways of life, manners, problem-solving, seasonal vista, the devastating flood (based on an actual catastrophe), etc. However, there is a query made by Teinosuke on "the reasons why he had not married sooner." (p. 505) The pronoun 'he' in the quote refers to Mimaki, Yukiko's bridegroom-to-be. Sadly, I haven't found any solution to his reasonable query till the end, possibly the author might have forgotten.

I think this should be enough to give you some tips of thought on reading this novel as "a classic of international literature" (back cover) and "hailed as the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century". (Everyman Library, 1993, front inner dust jacket)

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Jul 08, 2008 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people interested in traditional Japanese culture

Recommended to Laura by: Ruth Moore

A bit long but still interesting story of four aristocratic Japanese sisters in the late 1930’s, which I thought would be fun as that’s one of my favorite periods in English literature. However, these ladies might as well be living in a different century as well as a different hemisphere — their daily rituals and cultural traditions were out of another world. While the various relationships among the sisters seem familiar (probably everyone with sisters has to negotiate the bossy, the overly sen...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, rws-summer-2012, 5-star-reads

Tanizaki provides a wonderful insight into a pre-war way of life, a culture that was changing even then. There is no sense of foreboding about war, even though the China Incident is mentioned several times and later in the book the women have knowledge of war in Europe.

What is important is getting the two younger sisters married, and doing so in such a way that the family status is recognized and honored. Told primarily from the viewpoint of Sachiko, the married second daughter, each of the sis...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Kimley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-lit, 20th-century

I really wanted (and fully expected) to love this book. I loved Tanizaki's Naomi but for reasons that I can't properly express I never found myself engrossed in this as I'd hoped to be. I'd get into for a bit, get bored, put it down for a few weeks and then pick it up again.

I can however understand why this book is so well regarded and I really keep vacillating on how to rate it. Set in Japan, it's an intimate look at a family of four sisters, their husbands, lovers or lack thereof and immediate...more

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Apr 20, 2009 Kid rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is the first early 20th century Japanese novel I couldn't finish and didn't love unconditionally. I kept pushing through it waiting for something to happen. . .ANYTHING to happen but after over 300 pages nothing really did. . .sorry. . .but this is just not my fault.

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Nov 16, 2008 Tra-Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who liked Jane Eyre, even though I didn't

Shelves: fiction

If you're hesitant, or have only read even a couple hundred pages, hear me out. I had to read this book for class. Otherwise, I don't think I would ever have pushed through it. It has a tendency to go on and on about fairly mundane matters, then unexpectedly rocket into an exciting event. This can make it difficult to read, and I know the unfamiliar Japanese names don't help.

BUT.

This book is amazing. The sensibility of the characters in general; the logical way in which they work things out, wh...more If you're hesitant, or have only read even a couple hundred pages, hear me out. I had to read this book for class. Otherwise, I don't think I would ever have pushed through it. It has a tendency to go on and on about fairly mundane matters, then unexpectedly rocket into an exciting event. This can make it difficult to read, and I know the unfamiliar Japanese names don't help.

BUT.

This book is amazing. The sensibility of the characters in general; the logical way in which they work things out, while still remaining feeling, whole people had the most excellent effect on me. It rubbed off completely, and I changed my next year's plans for the better and called a friend I've been neglecting. Just because it's like..."Oh, I'd better do this. Well that would be sensible. Let's do it."

Secondly: the psychological insight of Tanizaki is amazing and profound. By the end of this book, you might as well be on the train with Yukiko.

And finally, and perhaps best: those exciting bits DO increase as you work through the book, including many unexpected and wonderful scenes. All of Yukiko's meetings with prospective husbands, for one. Then there's the flood, Taeko's rebellious actions, a death or two, illnesses, cherry-blossom viewing, and an enchanting scene of firefly-catching, among others.

This book will pay off in the long run.

EXCEPT.

For the final sentence. I will tell you it now, to make it easier on you. For me, after all my hurried efforts, forcing through this book to write my essay in time, this ending was like a slap in the face. It's, "Yukiko's diarrhea persisted through the twenty-sixth, and was a problem on the train to Tokyo."

OK, so...it's not like one sentence ruins the whole book. I get it. He was trying to be like, "...and life goes on." What about, "The train ride to Tokyo was a long one," or, "Yukiko spent over an hour selecting a kimono." SOMETHING!!! Jesus Christ. Don't worry. Just trust me. This book is great. It's worth it. But I recommend sake on hand for that ending. I myself had to get thoroughly smashed to calm my outrage and disbelief.(less)

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Sep 12, 2008 Jennifer Ockner rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes fiction

Recommended to Jennifer by: A school teacher whom I met on a plane

The English version of this book is absolutely engrossing and beautifully written - I am extremely tempted to seek out Tanizaki's original manuscript and read the Japanese and English versions side by side. It's difficult to preserve the poetry of Japanese literature once it's translated - probably true for any language - but Seidensticker is a master at making the most of what the English language has to offer. To me, the story of the four Makioka sisters in early 20th century Japan is as addic...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, japan-fic-lit

This is a portrait of an upper middle class family attempting to preserve its status is a changing world. Junichiro Tanizaki tells the story with sympathy and humor. Two of the four Makioka sisters married while the family wealth and status were in tact. Sister #3 must be married before sister #4. The required investigations and negotiations for this marriage haven't gone smoothly. As the family fortunes decline, the delays in finding a suitor for sister number #3 and the lifestyle of sister #4...more This is a portrait of an upper middle class family attempting to preserve its status is a changing world. Junichiro Tanizaki tells the story with sympathy and humor. Two of the four Makioka sisters married while the family wealth and status were in tact. Sister #3 must be married before sister #4. The required investigations and negotiations for this marriage haven't gone smoothly. As the family fortunes decline, the delays in finding a suitor for sister number #3 and the lifestyle of sister #4 decrease the marriage value of both.

Tanazaki pays attention to detail in his portraits. He notes the accents, the kimono, jewelry, injections, small talk, superstitions, who sleeps soundly, the size of the rooms, guarded and unguarded discussions with and about the servants, and the formal letters which exchange greetings, pleasantries and heavy verdicts.

Some of the best parts relate the inner thoughts of the characters and how their thoughts incorporated what they presumed to be thoughts of the others. This is best done with Sachiko, as she cares for her sisters, dreads telling her husband of Taeko's troubles, navigates the judgment of the "main house", gets pressured into a miai for Yukiko or a punishment for Taeko. You think you know a character like Yukiko, but mid-book you learn why she rejected her first suitor, you hadn't suspected it, but it fits right in and you think ahhhhh.

After the "main house" moves to Tokyo, you can feel the out of touch patriarch making colder, more detached decisions for the others. Were this a meritocracy, Tatsuo would never be heading this family. Teinsuke cares for three Makioka sisters supposedly due to geography, but clearly he does it because he's the better man.

The book has the stuff of everyday life such as memorial services, dance lessons. waiting for others, seeing a former suitor on a train, inane dinner conversations, and huge efforts that die on a "missed" telephone call. It also has the Japanese aesthetic appreciation: the Kabuki, the cherry blossoms, firefly hunts and the curiosity about the west.

Current events are a backdrop such as the Chinese "incident", Okubata's interesting "opportunity", and German friends return to a country at war. The economy is taking a toll on the family fortune at the "main house" and a military contract benefits the others. At this time, Japan has been opened to the world for 3 generations and class structures are rigid. There is a anticipation that there will be a war and the characters seemed resigned to it. They have no positions such as "pro war" or "anti war" or any "fight for the country" fervor.

This book isn't for everyone. To appreciate it you need some background (not a lot, but some) in Japanese culture and sympathy for people trapped by the social conventions of their times. (less)

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Jan 31, 2013 JoAnn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki, originally published serially in Japan during the 1940's, offers "a detailed characterization of four daughters of a wealthy Osaka merchant family who see their way of life slipping away in the early years of World War II."

Quite a departure from the mostly British and American classics I have been choosing lately, this book started slowly, mostly due to unfamiliar Japanese names which were hard to keep straight. A character list hastily scrawled on a po...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Phillip Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Makioka Sisters (Sasame Yuki, Light Snow), first published in 1948, was written by Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965). Tanizaki wrote The Makioka Sisters after translating the Tale of Genji into modern Japanese and the Murasaki novel is said to have influenced his own. It tells of the declining years of the once powerful Makioka family and their last descendants, four sisters. It has been translated by Edward G. Seidensticker in 1957. Powerfully realistic, it mourns the passing of greatness whil...more The Makioka Sisters (Sasame Yuki, Light Snow), first published in 1948, was written by Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965). Tanizaki wrote The Makioka Sisters after translating the Tale of Genji into modern Japanese and the Murasaki novel is said to have influenced his own. It tells of the declining years of the once powerful Makioka family and their last descendants, four sisters. It has been translated by Edward G. Seidensticker in 1957. Powerfully realistic, it mourns the passing of greatness while celebrating in wonderfully evocative detail the beauty of a particular time and place, Osaka in the 1930s. In its creation of beauty out of sadness it can be compared to another family saga, The Maias (1888), by the Portuguese master Eça de Queiroz (1845-1900).

Why is this long book, largely concerned with trivial family procedures, one of the finest novels written? It is not concerned with great events, causes or philosophies. It has little concern with the war Japan was fighting with China, and then the USA, when the book was first published. Indeed its characters don't think about the war, and in a positive way, which doesn't trivialise their concerns at all (most people in fact don't think about the reasons for a war: perhaps it's better that way). This doesn't mean the book is escapist or superficial, just as the concern with women's lifestyle, dress, makeup, etiquette or social vanity make it something written just for women (books and films were once made - by men - to capitalise on what were considered women's 'little' concerns). Tanizaki does that wonderful thing a great artist can do, he finds the universal in the most exact examination of the particular, and makes a work of relevance to us all. Read another family saga, The Brothers Karamazov (1880) and my candidate for the greatest novel yet written (though I'm more than cynical about the word 'great') and marvel at the many routes artists find to the universal.

My review is impossibly partial: The Makioka Sisters is the most beautiful novel I've ever read. The language (translation) is so smooth and flowing, the characters and situations so gentle and muted, yet precise and meaningful, that reading the book is like seeing the universe in a drop of water - you see, which is moving, and awareness of where and how you see brings amazement and then a real pleasure.

In this beautiful book the characters have a greater degree of reality than many real people - Tanizaki is a great master of characterisation. I know more about them than I do about most of the people I know. It is done by the accumulation of enormous amounts of detail, but detail which, trivial though it may appear, is just right. The result is the creation of a most ethereal and delicate beauty, a lovely world crumbling to extinction yet all the more precious because of its inevitable passing away.

Sachiko, the second sister and her husband Teinosuke are that rare achievement, a convincing depiction of really good and admirable people, though in no way heroic. They are very ordinary people, but their goodness, their little troubles and worries, their faults, even weaknesses, all serve to charm and captivate. Of all the characters in the book these two are the loveliest. It is a real affirmation of humanity to have created two such kind and gentle and sensitive people, and to have made them so real and convincing.

The careworn life of Tsuruko (first sister), the hesitations of Yukiko (third sister), the unhappiness of Taeko (Koi-san, fourth sister) all gain from contrast with the stability and happiness of Sachiko and Teinosuke. And what an evocation of the old ways of Japan. Changing rapidly even as Tanizaki writes of them.

Detail by detail - Etsuko's games with the German girl Rosemarie, Itakura's leather coat, the 'old one', Koi-san's mimicry and mingled love and resentment of Yukiko...there are literally thousands of details. Teinosuke's love of Spring in his garden, the vitamin injections the sisters take, the forthrightness of Itani - all, everyone, is so precise, not random at all, chosen to evoke mood, reveal character, show milieu.

So powerful and evocative has the book been - yet nothing really happens, except to Koi-san. The war approaches, the old Japan changes, Yukiko gets married - unforgettable!

I've seen advertised a TV serialisation of The Makioka Sisters, but can't imagine how it could succeed. So much of the book's effect is through language. Visually, certain scenes stand out, such as the cherry blossom viewing or the flood. The narrative though is largely uneventful, small actions that dramatically and convincingly reveal a character's state of mind, early history or personality.

Written with love, a strong love of people and place, the book creates love in the reader. Because of Tanizaki I have loved Osaka in the late 1930s and have learned to treasure and respect its people. For those hesitating to undertake reading such a 'Japanese' work as The Makioka Sisters there is the perfect bridging novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru, 1995) by Haruki Murakami, which does mention the war - and Charlie Parker and 'hard-boiled' detective stories and Jungian archetypes and the surreal: a roller coaster of a novel and one of the best as well.(less)

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Apr 21, 2010 Al Bità rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this masterpiece many years ago, and still retain a great fondness for it. Set in Japan in the early 20th century in the period before World War II, it's concern is the 'fate' of the Makioka sisters who still cling to the old aristocratic attention to detail and the minutiae of life while trying to survive the period they are living in. The pace is leisurely, meditative, and beautifully written. Its overall impact, however, belies the quiet exterior: the internal emotional drama builds up...more

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Mar 23, 2008 martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I saw Tess had enjoyed this and, after months of trying to find a copy, I finally read it.

500+ pages of domesticity doesn't sound like fun, but this book is fascinating and even in translation it is often very beautiful. The very "foreign" world of pre-war Japan becomes somehow far closer while some of the foreign-ness remains to surprise and impress (the way it is thought laudable for genteel, well-bred women to be able to drink fairly heavily for example).

Read it and enjoy!

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May 09, 2013 Jeremy added it

Shelves: japanese-literature

Tanizaki has a delicate sensibility all his own, and his ability to make the incredibly complex, sensitive world of upper class Japanese courtship and sibling relations not only comprehensible but also engaging, is remarkable. I became weirdly hooked on the lives of the four sisters and everyone in their social orbit. Everything from their petty dramas to their sincere attempts to navigate a complicated social order as the specter of WWII gets closer and closer is rendered with a slow, confident...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Transmute rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's basically Japanese Pride & Prejudice.

That's not to say that it was bad, completely the opposite really, and Tanizaki is a gifted author.

It's just that I was completely taken aback. The first Tanizaki novel I read was the last he wrote (I think) called "The Key". The Key was a completely different novel in feel than Makioka, although my Jap. Lit. professor assures me that his obsession with feet is a constant.

The important thing I've learned in reading Japanese literature is that when y...more

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Dec 08, 2010 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got the sense that I would have appreciated this more if I had more historical/cultural context.

It's about four sisters in 1930s-40s Japan. Their family was once a big deal, but now their parents have died, their fortune has dwindled, they've developed a reputation for being haughty because the third sister won't choose a husband, and their name has been somewhat besmirched by the youngest sister's attempted elopement some years ago.

The book shows the three younger sisters trying to straddle...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Andrew added it

Shelves: japanese-fiction

My, what a subtle, graceful thing this is. Tanizaki wrote The Makioka Sisters in the late '40s, amid the rubble and chaos of postwar Japan. The world Tanizaki describes has been destroyed, utterly and irrevocably. You can sense that this is a somewhat decadent society... the Makiokas live a life of idle wealth and appearance-keeping, constantly fretting about the youngest sister's Westernized ways and the loss of respect for old Osaka families. Throughout the book, we get glimpses that war is on...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Rachel McHugh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-for-grown-ups, literature, foreign-literature, from-library

The story revolves around the four Makioka sisters, the two eldest of whom are married. The family's old posterity is waning, and they are trying to find a husband for the third sister Yukiko. Yukiko is unbearably shy, and refuses suitor after suitor, with the older sisters becoming desperate to make a match before Yukiko is too old as to be unmarriagable. Meanwhile, the youngest sister, called Koi-san, stirs up trouble of her own.

This is very much a "Japanese" novel, which focuses more on chara...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 5 of 5 stars

‘The Makiokas were an old family, of course, and probably everyone in Osaka had heard of them at one time or another.’

This story, primarily set in Osaka, spans a period of four years (from 1937 to 1941). This period, is a tumultuous period for Japan, and we view it from the perspective of one family. The Makioka is a family in decline and after the death of the parents, the husband of the eldest daughter adopts the Makioka name and becomes the head of the family. There are four sisters: the elde...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese-literature

Junichiro Tanizaki's masterpiece, The Makioka Sisters has been hailed as Japan's greatest postwar novel. It is an epic in the same size and scope as Tolstoy's War and Peace. It gives an intricate portrait of a family in transition, a sort of upper-middle class family from Osaka coming face to face with the changing world. The two sisters Yukiko, represents the past, and Koi-san the future, which are in contrast to one another. It is also a great character study of four very different sisters and...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best simile to describe The Makioka Sisters in a nutshell is that it's a Japanese version of Little Women. It has the happily ever afters despite some crazy calamity. It's an in depth painting of a Japanese family in changing times. It focused on Yukiko's marriage prospects, Taeko's rebellious and spendthrift nature, and Sachiko's fight to help her sisters. It barely touched upon the eldest sister, Tsuruko. So interesting but took me a while to finish. It's not a fast read; you must take you...more The best simile to describe The Makioka Sisters in a nutshell is that it's a Japanese version of Little Women. It has the happily ever afters despite some crazy calamity. It's an in depth painting of a Japanese family in changing times. It focused on Yukiko's marriage prospects, Taeko's rebellious and spendthrift nature, and Sachiko's fight to help her sisters. It barely touched upon the eldest sister, Tsuruko. So interesting but took me a while to finish. It's not a fast read; you must take your time and hear the insignificant but loving details of sisterly interactions. It warms the heart like nothing else. I love family stories where people care about each other. It's adorable!
Structurally, it was rather interesting. There were three 'books'. The first primarily delved into the depths of Yukiko's marriage prospects, all of which were unsuccessful. Book Two centered mainly on Taeko's infamous liaisons with Okubata and the lowly Itakura. Book One and Book Two were representative of two polar spheres of the old and progressive Japanese society. Book Three was a mesh of everybody's business, the clearly changing times. Ended with a pink bow tie- Yukiko was finally married off and Taeko was pregnant with the bartender's child. Sachiko can rest in peace now.
Each chapter averaged five pages. The shortest maybe two or three and the longest was ten to fifteen. The chapters may have seemed very short but emotionally and intricately detailed.
Also, my English deteriorated at a cheetah pace because of how awkwardly the Japanese was translated into English. I'm certain he directly translated the Japanese storytelling into English without consideration of how the English would sound; he looks inning to leave the Japanese flavor but forgot that a language could never fully bring out another's flavors and emotions. It's an old 1995 translation by Edward Seidensticker. I'm sure there's a newer and better translation of this novel somewhere.
There's no guesswork in this quiet novel, everything is laid out on a chalkboard with windy arrows crammed together. It's about reflecting on what's been told. It's very Asian. Quiet, generously detailed, and deep. (less)

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Jun 01, 2011 Gary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: japanese

The blurb says that it's a nostalgic look back at Japan's last days of opulence, an attempt to preserve the past. Either I'm getting the wrong end of the stick, or the writer of the blurb was a fanboy. I've not read such a critical report of a society that desperately needed dragging into to the modern age. I get the feeling that the writer wanted to throttle half of the characters.

It was actually a tough read. Despite the wonderfully polite, careful prose that somehow managed to make passivity...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Martha rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Makioka sisters are in a world going mad but Tanizaki focuses on the lives of the women and the subtle changes in their personal way of life. This is a book to be discussed! What is the author's intent in keeping the whirling world events just outside the story? Of course, if we are not in the war zone, we go about living in the ordinary way. So the sisters work on their lives - trying to find a husband for one sister while the youngest is expected to put her life on hold until this is done....more

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Jul 30, 2009 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here is a good introduction to Japanese literature that you will really enjoy (I think). If you read Memoirs of a Geisha, this is actually by a Japanese person, and might give you a more balanced look at Japanese society.

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Dec 29, 2011 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library_books

I don't want to make this into a lengthy write up ... in a nutshell: I was drawn into this one, and was sorry to see it end (although the last few chapters did drag a bit). Those who've said "nothing happens" perplex me, as I'm usually quite sensitive about needing a moving plot to hang onto, and this one worked out fine.

In thinking about it, the story reminds me of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, where insistence on "proprieties" causes all sorts of problems. I couldn't help often wondering who'd su...more

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Dec 15, 2009 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-literature

This was a great look into the life of a traditional Japanese family in the few years before Japan officially entered World War II. Tanizaki's main theme is the classic conflict between the old customs and the modern. It is especially interesting to see how that was already beginning in earnest in the period right before a huge change was about to come to Japan. The main conflict centers around the youngest sister who has numerous affairs but cannot marry before the third sister, who at this poi...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting character study of 4 sisters in pre-WWII Japan. The oldest two are married and of a traditional mindset, the other two unmarried, one of whom is not only in the traditional mode but also extremely withdrawn, and the other who has a modern outlook. These differences cause a lot of conflict among them, yet the sisters are also affectionately tied to one another. Much of the story is concerned with trying to find an acceptable husband for the third sister but outside events a...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Jeanne Thornton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like The Brothers Karamazov, but with more sex, floods, and family secrets uncovered by private investigators. Plot: the Makioka family, a once well respected family in quick decline, tries to find a way to marry off their recalcitrant third daughter. Wonderful scenes (aforementioned flood, rememberance-of-ancestor ceremonies, meet-the-arranged-groom dinner party disasters), wonderful writing, that classic Tanizaki sleaze factor, and some kind of artfully achieved insight into the transition fro...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Beth Pratt rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found myself engrossed by this book and its portrayal of upper class Japanese life just before World War II. I feel as though I know all of the main characters personally. The pacing was sometimes a little strange. Some passages would be long and elaborate in their descriptions of a single moment or thought, and then some passages would stuff a great deal of action into a very small space. The ending felt a little abrupt, as though once the central question was answered, anything more would be...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Su rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had misgivings about this book after reading the first chapter, and predicted it would turn out to be one of those books where not much really happens. However upon continuing reading I discovered it was somewhat like Japanese Jane Austen novel, yet even more appealing and interesting.
The characters of the four sisters and their relationships are intriguing and lifelike. Sachiko's dismay as her and her husband Teinosuke attempt to find a husband for her younger sister Yukiko, while the rebell...more

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About Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki was a Japanese author, one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature, and perhaps the most popular Japanese novelist after Natsume Sōseki.

Some of his works present a rather shocking world of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions; others, less sensational, subtly portray the dynamics of family life in the context of the rapid changes in 20th-century Japanese soci...more

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“The ancients waited for cherry blossoms, grieved when they were gone, and lamented their passing in countless poems. How very ordinary the poems had seemed to Sachiko when she read them as a girl, but now she knew, as well as one could know, that grieving over fallen cherry blossoms was more than a fad or convention.” — 2 people liked it

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