The Budding Tree: Six Stories of Love in Edo

by Aiko Kitahara, Ian M. MacDonald (Translator)

This Naoki Prize-winning work is a personal yet precise account of the lives of working women in the Edo period (1600-1868). In the latter half of the Edo period, the warrior caste was finding itself pushed out of the top echelons of society by the rising merchant class, and repeated famines swept the countryside. Against this backdrop, a small number of women vigorously built themselves independent lives with unusual careers--working as designers of ornamental hairpins, or even scribes--in the male-dominated society of the day. The stories in The Budding Tree recount the conditions in which these women lived.

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Asian Literature, Historical, Historical Fiction

170 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Aiko Kitahara was born in Tokyo's Shimbashi district. After graduating from Chiba Prefectural Girls' High School she joined an advertising firm, beginning her crative work on the side. She won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for her debut work, the 1969 Mama wa siranakatta yo (Mom Didn't Know). She has gained a widespread following for her elegant style and for her detailed images of the everyday lives of Edo-period Japanese. Many of her works have been adapted for television.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mild-mannered tales of awkward love in the Edo era (1603-1868) of Japan. Strong depictions of enterprising women from the period, from makers of handcrafted hairpins, copyists with literary flair, and restaurant owners, fighting off the advances of frivolous suitors and the antagonism of patriarchal colleagues.

[Nada · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found myself drawn to Japanese literature as I picked up 3 books for authors i know not of except that they include the famous -ichi, -ichida, -amato in Japanese names. I found something in Japanese lit. which differed entirely from American/English lit. It was this calm, relaxed-pace with which events went on. No matter how tense the events went on, it's just this.. calm voice reading in your head. And when it went completely wrong, it felt like the author was bowing down in deep sorrow. It was more of a composed walk along the sunset/sunrise while other forms were like an afternoon run along a crowded bridge. Though it's not been at all easy keeping up with the names which were all-so-similar (I mean there was Okaji, Ohatsu, Ogen, Omiyo all in one story..talk about confusion!)but i found out a lot of interesting words, for an instance:
1- Edo is the former name of Tokyo. This book was talking of lives in the Edo period (1600-1868)
2- Apparently shōji is that door consisting of many translucent windows that Mouri always used to drag in Detective Conan
3- Ukiyo-e art (i had to search through that.. i tell you, a whole new world!)
4- tatami
well, a lot of things that had to do with Japan in the Edo period. It was very interesting to know these stuff, like i was literally living in there, travelling back in both time and place. It's funny Japan always had this familiar notion like i've been there before but i'll probably never be, i just watched anime and read about it in a book for Anis Mansour.
About the PLOT of the book, I dare say feminists would have definitely liked it, haha. But overall I liked the experience of it. Got myself a couple of quotes there. Wouldn't have finished it this fast if it weren't borrowed and not actually my property, otherwise, it would have been lying on the shelf already collecting dust.

[Amy ☁️ (tinycl0ud) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six is just nice for a collection IMO, any longer and it runs the risk of getting tedious. These stories are set in premodern Japan, in the early 1800s, and what's really interesting is how each story focusses on an unmarried working woman during that time period. I don't know why this is marketed as love stories when romance and men were not the point at all—these woman are trying to seriously earn their livelihoods during a very interesting (to me) time period when both literacy rates for women and the merchant class were rising but relationship structures (e.g., marriage, divorce, adoption) from an earlier time were still strongly present. With the fall of the old structures and the gradual dissolution of the samurai class, everything was changing. I felt that the backdrop really brought this bygone era to life not so much with rosy nostalgia but with a candid appreciation of the genuine struggles faced. No matter how much better it was, people were still starving and the city/countryside divide was still apparent.

In no.1, a spinster schoolteacher past a marriageable age (she's 27 lol) gets threatened by a corrupt police officer, putting her already tenuous livelihood at risk. In no.2, a copyist driven by her own ambition takes a risk editing an author's work to help it get published. No.3 features a determined joruri performer whose rising star is unfortunately dependent on the patronage of fickle men. The protagonist in no.4 runs a shop selling hairpins she painstakingly designs, but a reunion with old classmates temporarily distracts her from her mission to make her business a success. In no.5, a woman artist starts to gain recognition for her beautiful woodblock prints, but the woodblock carver she is having a drawn-out affair with is ghosting her. The final story is about a divorced restaurant owner who is perhaps too kind-hearted for her own good, but she finds that she is not alone in her dream to continue running her own place.

[Priscilla Mifsud · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I have half read this book as I've been through 3 of its stories. The stories are promising and I feel quite grounded in a realistic life like ambience. Perhaps it is deserving of more than three stars but due to the myriad names and places in Japanese, I often felt at a loss while reading. The emotion of love is there in a universal way which I can't quite explain. It transcends time and place for emotions are human and as such common across cultures I believe. I would perhaps have been better prepared if I had done some background research into Edo and Japanese culture. Still three stars for having struck an innermost chord despite my ignorance of Japanese matters.

[Nieves Batista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alguna está bien, pero otras me han aburrido.

[Ofelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but the stories all felt very anticlimactic somehow

[Bia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very strong and some disappointing short stories in this book. The namesake story is the best one though many, especially the ones focusing on women artists, show how difficult it was to be a woman in Edo but also their unbroken resolve to keep going, even if the world (and especially their lovers) were against them. A very interesting read but more some stories than others.

[Sae-chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shojo no jidai geki? Or a propaganda for UN Women? Anyway, I really liked the way it depicted Edo comings and goings. Feel just like looking at series of ukiyo-e.

[Tonymess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aiko Kitahara was born in 1938 and began her fiction career whilst working as a copywriter. She won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for her novel-length “Mama didn’t know” (Mama was shiranakattanoyo) and was runner up in the Shosetsu Gendai Prize for New Writers with her novella “Powder Snow Flies” (Kona yuki mau) in 1969. Her work “The Budding Tree” (Koiwasuregusa “Forget-Me-Not” the original Japanese title) won the Naoki Prize in 1993. She won the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature in 2005 for “Until Dawn” (Yo no akeru made) and has written an extremely popular detective series, currently running to thirteen volumes, which has been turned into a television series.

This work, “The Budding Tree – Six Stories of Love in Edo”, contains six short stories, all interconnected in some way, and set in the early 1800’s, the later part of the Edo period, and introduces us to six women’s tales:

For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com

[Veronika KaoruSaionji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. Six stories about six Japanese women which lived in Edo (Tokyo) around 1830 and most of them were painted by (real) female painter (which is sixth one). Every story is about one of them and in every story a little about some other woman, too.
Every of these women try to works as men and were succesful - as female school teacher, joruri actress, famous restaurant proprietess ("Budding tree" is name her restaurant) and so on.
And about some men who support them or admire them. I love this book!

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aiko Kitahara can be described as a Jane Austen of Edo period Japan. Though she was not a writing during the period, her ability to create the scene and detail is wonderful and rich. The Budding Tree follows the narratives of women in working class situations as they struggle within confining and rigid social codes. Really quite a good, but somehow, small book. It lacks the wit of Austen or it went going straight over my fat American head.

[Cal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book but it also didn't do much for me. Maybe it's a translation/cultural style issue more than anything, because I feel similarly about another Japanese novel I've read. I feel like the characters were basically all the same and even though the situations were different, the struggles were similar. So it wasn't the most engaging read. It was nice to see women as the focus, and their abilities as business owners.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy these stories. It's always nice to read about independent women, but especially interesting to read about them in late 1800s Edo. I generally don't like books that take place in history, but it is wonderful to envision calligraphy artists and dancers in Japan. I also like how these stories, are told from the point of view of women who enjoy being on their own but also see love and I like how each story is left very open so that you can choose either ending.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually don't like short stories but Aiko Kitahara has an incredible way of connecting each of these stories of Japanese women in the Edo period in Japan to each other, it almost felt like a complete novel. Plus, who can resist stories filled with samurai, kimonos, Japanese food, woodblock printing, love, drama, heartbreak, heroism...especially when they're written so elegantly.

[Kevin Michael Dela Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too much sexism than I can handle. Still, a nice read. Some of the stories have a strange ending. Or was that the ending? If you're into Japanese literature, but can't read Japanese, this is a book for you.