The Makioka Sisters, by Junichiro Tanizaki, was translated from the Japanese by Edward Seidensticker. The Japanese title, Sasameyuki, means ‘light snow’ and evokes an image (in poetics) of cherry blossoms falling in spring, denoting impermanence, a major theme in the novel. Notably, one of the Makioka sisters is named Yukiko; the yuki in her name, as in the Japanese title, means snow.

This is not my favorite type of fiction (i.e.: the interaction of three (sometimes four) women), but I found myself warming to the novel as I journeyed through the pages. It is a melancholy story, which focuses on the decay of the Makioka family status just prior to World War II. The impermanence of life is represented, in part, by the deterioration of traditions, the annual outings to experience the cherry blossoms, illness and death, and Sachiko’s unhappiness at the eventuality of ‘losing’ her sister — Yukiko — to a husband.

A lasting image from the novel is of the three youngest sisters (Taeko, Yukiko, and Sachiko) dressed in kimonos and strolling through the shrines to view the cherry blossoms, while tourists snap pictures of the three women (some of whom asked permission; others, impolitely, did not).

It was a bittersweet book to finish and, as I closed the cover, it was as if the final cherry blossom had fallen to the ground (and now I’ll have to de-emasculate myself by reading some Hemingway (or his ilk)).

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