Written without pretense and at great length, this novel almost assumes the character of a saga devoid of heroes. The fear of boring the reader with details is absent from its pages. The tone is calm, melancholy, almost meditative in its simplicity. Were its chief topic not the trifling and petty social conventions, this book should have been read in a Buddhist rock garden.
This was my first excursion into the authentically Japanese literature dealing in concrete terms with Japanese society, and I found striking the attention devoted to propriety and politeness. Unceasing concerns about proper gestures and polite excuses for this or that taunt the characters, accustomed to the rigidities and subtleties of customs. The novel takes place just before WWII, and the larger part of it covers the unsuccessful miais (the formal meetings of bride and groom in an arranged marriage) of one of the four sisters, Yukiko, who has passed the marriageable age. The marriage negotiations, the accepted practice of formally investigating each other's families through special investigation agencies, and the considerations that govern the final outcome seem unworldly to Western ears. The family considers man's age, fortune, his ability to take alcohol, his family, his province of origin, history of insanity and other diseases in the family into consideration, but it is the maneuvering go-between that tries to sway the family's opinion of the groom.
I am very much opposed to arranged marriage, but it is wonderful to see in detail on paper the society that has now gone extinct. To a large extent, it seems the novel's intention to preserve that era at the verge of its demise. The Makioka sisters are an artifact of the passing age, and Tanizaki shows their struggle with the changing ways of the world and with each other to stay faithful to the traditions of their youth. Only the youngest sister gives way to modernity.
The novel doused in melancholy. After all, its subject is the pre-war Japan that has vanished forever, like the cherry petals fallen into the pond. The story is replete with references to inherently Japanese activities. Three sisters clad in traditional kimonos contemplate cherry blossoms every year on their traditional spring pilgrimage. One sister, taught by geishas, does traditional Japanese dancing and doll-making. Another two practice calligraphy and play the koto and the samisen. The paper and the care with which the calligraphy in the letters is executed merit much attention. All sisters love Kabuki performances. There is also poetry writing, traditional autumn moonviewing (tsukimi, which may also indicate egg yolk), and summer light-bug hunting.
This beautiful age, though, is swept away. The storm, the flood and the tragedies in the second half of the book (miscarriage, death) mirror the shaken foundations of the Makioka life, and are a premonition of the coming doom. This beautiful, pensive novel ends incongruously with Yukiko's diarrhea on the train ride to her wedding.
