The Makioka Sisters Read online

  JUNICHIR TANIZAKI

  The Makioka

  Sisters

  TRANSLATED FROM THE JAPANESE BY

  Edward G. Seidensticker

  VINTAGE BOOKS

  London

  Contents

  Cover

  Title

  Copyright

  Also available by John Grisham

  The Principal Characters

  BOOK I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  BOOK II

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  BOOK III

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Version 1.0

  Epub ISBN 9781407053752

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  Published by Vintage 2000

  10

  Copyright © Alfred A. Knopf Inc 1957, 1983

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  First published in Great Britain in 195 8 by Secker & Warburg Minerva edition published in 1993

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  Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Cox & Wyman, Reading RG1 8EX

  THE MAKIOKA SISTERS

  Junichiro Tanizaki was born in 1886 in Tokyo, where his family owned a printing establishment. He studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University, and his first published work, a one-act play, appeared in 1910 in a literary magazine he helped to found. Tanizaki lived in the cosmopolitan Tokyo area until the earthquake of 1923, when he moved to the gentler and more cultivated Kyoto-Osaka region, the scene of The Makioka Sisters. There he became absorbed in the Japanese past and abandoned his superficial Westernization. All his important works were written after 1923, among them Naomi (1924), Some Prefer Nettles (1929), Arrowroot (1931), Ashikari (The Reed Cutter) (1932), A Portrait of Shunkin (1932), The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi (1935), several modern versions of The Tale of Genji (1941, 1954 and 1965), The Makioka Sisters (1943-48), Captain Shigemoto’s Mother (1949), The Key (1956), and Diary of a Mad Old Man (1961). By 1930 he had gained such renown that an edition of his complete works was published, and he was awarded an Imperial Award for Cultural Merit in 1949. In 1946 he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the first Japanese to receive this honour. Tanizaki died in 1965.

  ALSO BY JUNICHIR TANIZAKI

  Naomi

  Quicksand

  Some Prefer Nettles

  Arrowroot Ashikari (The Reed Cutter)

  A Portrait of Shunkin The Secret History of the Lord of Musashi

  The Tale of Genji Captain Shigemoto’s Mother

  The Key

  Diary of a Mad Old Man

  The Principal Characters

  The four Makipka sisters:

  TSURUKO, the mistress of the senior or “main” house in Osaka, which by Japanese tradition wields authority over the collateral branches.

  SACHIKO, the mistress of the junior or branch house in Ashiya, a small city just outside of Osaka. For reasons of sentiment and convenience, the younger unmarried sisters prefer to live with her, somewhat against tradition.

  YUKIKO, thirty and still unmarried, shy and retiring, now not much sought after; so many proposals for her hand have been refused in earlier years that the family has acquired a reputation for haughtiness even though its fortunes are declining.

  TAEKO (familiarly called “Koi-san”), willful and sophisticated beyond her twenty-five years, waiting impatiently for Yukiko’s marriage so that her own secret liaison can be acknowledged before the world.

  TATSUO, Tsuruko’s husband, a cautious bank employee who has taken the Makioka name and who, upon the retirement of the father, became the active head of the family according to Japanese custom.

  TEINOSUKE, Sachiko’s husband, an accountant with remarkable literar
y inclinations and far broader human instincts than Tatsuo; he too has taken the Makioka name.

  ETSUKO, Sachiko’s daughter, a precocious child just entering school.

  O-HARU, Sachiko’s maid.

  MRS. ITANI, owner of a beauty parlor, an inveterate gossip whose profession lends itself to the exciting game of arranging marriages.

  OKUBATA (familiarly called “Kei-boy”), the man with whom Taeko tried to elope at 19, and whom she still sees secretly.

  ITAKURA, a man of no background to whom Taeko is attracted after her betrothal to Okubata is too long delayed.

  WOULD YOU do this please, Koi-san?”

  Seeing in the mirror that Taeko had come up behind her, Sachiko stopped powdering her back and held out the puff to her sister. Her eyes were still on the mirror, appraising the face as if it belonged to someone else. The long under-kimono, pulled high at the throat, stood out stiffly behind to reveal her back and shoulders.

  “And where is Yukiko?”

  “She is watching Etsuko practice,” said Taeko. Both sisters spoke in the quiet, unhurried Osaka dialect. Taeko was the youngest in the family, and in Osaka the youngest girl is always “Koi-san,” “small daughter.”

  They could hear the piano downstairs. Yukiko had finished dressing early, and young Etsuko always wanted someone beside her when she practiced. She never objected when her mother went out, provided that Yukiko was left to keep her company. Today, with her mother and Yukiko and Taeko all dressing to go out, she was rebellious. She very grudgingly gave her permission when they promised that Yukiko at least would start back as soon as the concert was over—it began at two—and would be with Etsuko for dinner.

  “Koi-san, we have another prospect for Yukiko.”

  “Oh?”

  The bright puff moved from Sachiko’s neck down over her back and shoulders. Sachiko was by no means round-shouldered, and yet the rich, swelling flesh of the neck and back somehow gave a suggestion of a stoop. The warm glow of the skin in the clear autumn sunlight made it hard to believe that she was in her thirties.

  “It came through Itani.”

  “Oh?”

  “The man works in an office, M.B. Chemical Industries, Itani says.”

  “And is he well off?”

  “He makes a hundred seventy or eighty yen a month, possibly two hundred fifty with bonuses.”

  “M.B. Chemical Industries—a French company?”

  “How clever of you. How did you know?”

  “Oh, I know that much.”

  Taeko, the youngest, was in fact far better informed on such matters than her sisters. There was a suggestion occasionally that she took advantage of their ignorance to speak with a condescension more appropriate in someone older.

  “I had never heard of M.B. Chemical Industries. The head office is in Paris, Itani says. It seems to be very large.”

  “They have a big building on the Bund in Kobe. Have you never noticed it?”

  “That is the place. That is where he works.”

  “Does he know French?”

  “It seems so. He graduated from the French department of the Osaka Language Academy, and he spent some time in Paris— not a great deal, though. He makes a hundred yen a month teaching French at night.”

  “Does he have property.”

  “Very little. He still has the family house in the country—his mother is living there—and a house and lot in Kobe. And nothing more. The Kobe house is very small, and he bought it on installments. And so you see there is not much to boast of.”

  “He. has no rent to pay, though. He can live as though he had more than four hundred a month.”

  “How do you think he would be for Yukiko? He has only his mother to worry about, and she never comes to Kobe. He is past forty, but he has never been married.”

  “Why not, if he is past forty?”

  “He has never found anyone refined enough for him, Itani says.”

  “Very odd. You should have him investigated.”

  “And she says he is most enthusiastic about Yukiko.”

  “You sent her picture?”

  “I left a picture with Itani, and she sent it without telling me. She says he is very pleased.”

  “Do you have a picture of him?”

  The practicing went on below. It did not seem likely that Yu-lciko would interrupt them.

  “Look in the top drawer on the right.” Puckering her lips as though she were about to kiss the mirror, Sachiko took up her lipstick. “Did you find it?”

  “Here it is. You have shown it to Yukiko?”

  “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “As usual, she said almost nothing. What do you think, Koi-san?”

  “Very plain. Or maybe just a little better than plain. A middling office worker, you can tell at a glance.”

  “But he is just that after all. Why should it surprise you?”

  “There may be one advantage. He can teach Yukiko French.”

  Satisfied in a general way with her face, Sachiko began to unwrap a kimono.

  “I almost forgot.” She looked up. “I feel a little short on ‘B.’ Would you tell Yukiko, please?”

  Beri-beri was in the air of this Kobe-Osaka district, and every year from summer into autumn the whole family—Sachiko and her husband and sisters and Etsuko, who had just started school— came down with it. The vitamin injection had become a family institution. They no longer went to a doctor, but instead kept a supply of concentrated vitamins on hand and ministered to each other with complete unconcern. A suggestion of sluggishness was immediately attributed to a shortage of Vitamin B, and, although they had forgotten who coined the expression, “short on ‘B’“ never had to be explained.

  The piano practice was finished. Taeko called from the head of the stairs, and one of the maids came out. “Could you have an injection ready for Mrs. Makioka, please?”

  2

  MRS. ITANI (“Itani” everyone called her) had a beauty shop near the Oriental Hotel in Kobe, and Sachiko and her sisters were among the steady customers. Knowing that Itani was fond of arranging marriages, Sachiko had once spoken to her of Yukiko’s problem, and had left a photograph to be shown to likely prospects. Recently, when Sachiko went for a wave-set, Itani took advantage of a few spare minutes to invite her out for a cup of tea. In the lobby of the Oriental Hotel, Sachiko first heard Itani’s story.

  It had been wrong not to speak to Sachiko first, Itani knew, but she had been afraid that if they frittered away their time they would miss a good opportunity. She had heard of this possible husband for Miss Yukiko, and had sent him the photograph—only that, nothing more—possibly a month and a half before. She heard nothing from the man, and had almost forgotten about him when she learned that he was apparently busy investigating Yukiko’s background. He had found out all about the Makioka family, even the main branch in Osaka.

  (Sachiko was the second daughter. Her older sister, Tsuruko, kept the “main” house in Osaka.)

  …. And he went on to investigate Miss Yukiko herself. He went to her school, and to her calligraphy teacher, and to the woman who instructed her in the tea ceremony. He found out everything. He even heard about that newspaper affair, and he went around to the newspaper office to see whether it had been misreported. It seemed clear to Itani that he was well enough satisfied with the results of the investigation, but, to make quite sure, she had told him he ought to meet Miss Yukiko face to face and see for himself whether she was the sort of girl that the newspaper article had made her seem. Itani was sure she had convinced him. He was very modest and retiring, she said, and protested that he did not belong in a class with the Makioka family, and had very little hope of finding such a splendid bride, and if, by some chance, a marriage could be arranged, he would hate to see Miss Yukiko try to live on his miserable salary. But since there might just be a chance, he hoped Itani would at least mention his name. Itani had heard that his ancestors down to his grandfather had been leading retainers to a minor daim
yo (lord) on the Japan Sea, and that even now a part of the family estate remained. As far as the family was concerned, then, it would not seem to be separated by any great distance from the Makiokas. Did Sachiko not agree? The Makiokas were an old family, of course, and probably everyone in Osaka had heard of them at one time or another. But still—Sachiko would have to forgive her for saying so—they could not live on their old glory forever. They would only find that Miss Yukiko had finally missed her chance. Why not compromise, while there was time, on someone not too outrageously inappropriate? Itani admitted that the salary was not large, but then the man was only forty, and it was not at all impossible that he would come to make more. And it was not as if he were working for a Japanese company. He had time to himself, and with more teaching at night he was sure he would have no trouble making four hundred and more. He would be able to afford at least a maid, there was no doubt about that. And as for the man himself, Itani’s brother had known him since they were very young, and had given him the highest recommendation. Although it would be perfectly ideal if the Makiokas were to conduct their own investigation, there seemed no doubt that his only reason for not marrying earlier was that he had not found anyone to his taste. Since he had been to Paris and was past forty, it would be hard to guarantee that he had quite left women alone, but when Itani met him she said to herself: “Here’s an honest, hard-working man, not a bit the sort to play around with women.” It was reasonable enough for such a well-behaved man to insist on an elegant, refined girl, but for some reason—maybe as a reaction from his visit to Paris—he insisted further that he would have only a pure Japanese beauty—gentle, quiet, graceful, able to wear Japanese clothes. It did not matter how she looked in foreign clothes. He wanted a pretty face too, of course, but more than anything he wanted pretty hands and feet. To Itani, Miss Yukiko seemed the perfect answer.

  Such was her story.

  Itani supported her husband, bedridden with palsy, and, after putting her brother through medical school, had this spring sent her daughter to Tokyo to enter Japan Women’s University. Sound and practical, she was quicker by far than most women, but her way of saying exactly what was on her mind without frills and circumlocutions was so completely unladylike that one sometimes wondered how she kept her customers. And yet there was nothing artificial about this directness—one felt only that the truth had to be told—and Itani stirred up little resentment. The torrent of words poured on as through a broken dam. Sachiko could not help thinking that the woman was really too forward, but, given the spirited Itani’s resemblance to a man used to being obeyed, it was clear that this was her way of being friendly and helpful. A still more powerful consideration, however, was the argument itself, which had no cracks. Sachiko felt as if she had been pinned to the floor. She would speak to her sister in Osaka, then, she said, and perhaps they could do a little investigating themselves. There the matter ended.