The Makioka Sisters, 1983 movie |
Finding a husband for Yukiko is complicated by Taeko, the
fourth sister, who is at once the most modern and something of a rebel. Very
young, she runs off with a male friend. When she is brought back, she settles
down, but plans to marry this young man as soon as Yukiko has married. Taeko is
very good with her hands and makes dolls, which she sells. She also enjoys
sewing and hopes to make money at it. But she becomes entangled with one man
after another to the point that she is disinherited by the Makiokas.
Sachiko herself was the favorite of her father. When the
three younger sisters go out together, Sachiko appears to be exactly between
Yukiko’s old-fashioned restraint and Taeko’s exuberance. Sachiko is sometimes
asked not to come when Yukiko is to meet a suitor because her own modern and
lively beauty overshadows her younger sister. Sachiko is married to an
accountant, who was adopted into the family and took their name. He is very
proud of his wife and involves himself in all of the Makioka affairs. The two
have a daughter and are saddened when Sachiko has a miscarriage.
The events in The Makioka Sisters reflect Japan’s
situation between 1936 and 1941. The book is mainly set in the suburbs of
Osaka, where the sisters grew up. For Tanizaki, Osaka’s integration of
tradition, beauty and cosmopolitanism compares favorably to Tokyo’s ugliness
and disorder. Every sentence in the book describes the fine discriminations the sisters make in their choices and ideas. The Makiokas make friends with both Russians and Germans living
near them. They talk to each other on the telephone, take trains to see their
eldest sister in Tokyo and go to restaurants. Graphic discussion of several illnesses
and hospital procedures increases the sense of utter modernity.
But the Makiokas also do not miss opportunities for
concerts, dances, and rituals. Each spring they go to Kyoto for the cherry
blossoms. There are cherry trees everywhere, but Sachiko does not feel she has
seen blossoms at all unless she sees them in Kyoto. One spring while they are
strolling along the banks of Hirosawa Pond, a photographer asks to take a photo
of the three sisters and Sachiko’s daughter. “Ever since, they had made it a point
to stand under the same tree and look out over the pond, and have their picture
taken … those cherries said to be famous even abroad – how would they be this
year? Was it perhaps already too late? Always they stepped through the gallery
with a strange rising of the heart, but the five of them cried out as one when
they saw that cloud of pink spread across the late afternoon sky.”
As the story of the Makioka sisters continues, Sachiko
cannot reject her sister Taeko, who becomes pregnant and then moves in with a
bartender. Sachiko feels she must take some of the responsibility for not
watching over her sister more closely. When Taeko needs a good talking-to, it
is Yukiko who gives it to her. And Yukiko does succeed in making a match with
an interesting man, an architect. They meet in Kyoto and Yukiko accepts the
proposal. At the end of the story, she is preparing the wig and kimono for her
wedding. Sachiko thinks of how still the house will be without her two sisters.
It is Sachiko’s love for her difficult sisters, her husband
and child which animates her portrait. The other fascinating thing about this
story is the panorama which detailed description of ordinary life presents. It
is so open-ended and without precedent. One thing follows another, all of it
completely authentic in feel. In translation by Edward Seidensticker, the story
of Sachiko Makioka is riveting.
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