A multi-generational saga by a Japanese woman author. We see how modernization and Westernization changed the culture in Japan through the lives and the eyes of a great-grandmother to her great grand-daughter. We go from a very traditional, old-fashioned woman to a thoroughly modern woman in that woman’s grand-daughter. The grand-daughter spurns traditions. Then we see a kind of full-circle return in the great-grand-daughter who appreciates some of the old traditions tea ceremonies and wearing kimonos.



The oldest woman of the first generation not only accepts but appreciates the benefits of an arranged marriage in the early 1900’s. On the other hand, her daughter spurns old-fashioned customs, dress and hairstyles. And she is certainly going to pick out her own marriage partner, much to the shock of her mother. The woman’s husband of the older generation is so obsessed with having a boy that he pays no attention to his daughter, not even caring what her name will be. He gets his comeuppance when he eventually has two sons and both are low-energy, low-achievers, even disappointing to their mother.

So, much of the story focuses on Hana, the daughter of the elderly matriarch. Not only was her marriage arranged, but in the new household she must be subservient to her mother-in-law. In addition her brother-in-law is hostile to her, not even lending her books. This is a mystery to her until her husband tells her one day that his brother has been in love with her for two years and that is the brother-in-law’s way of dealing with the issue.

Her brother-in-law is a rebel in his own right, refusing to establish a second family as a traditional second-son should do (since he has no estate). In addition, he marries his maid, a great transgression for an established family of high social status.

The story goes forward against a background of earthquakes, wars, depressions, famines, floods. The well-established family ends up bartering family heirlooms for food after World War II.

As World War II progresses and bombings start, for safety, her grandchildren come to live with Hana and she finds that her granddaughter loves some of the traditional ways such as tea ceremonies and kimonos that her own daughter has spurned.



I very much enjoyed the story and thought it was a good read. It moved along and kept my attention all the way through.

Photo of tea ceremony objects from tsunagujapan.com
Photo of the author (1931 - 1984) from babelio.com

historical-novel japan japanese-authors93 s Mariel667 1,128

I used to have this friend who was a writer. He was unique among my (all past) other writerly friends in that he didn't persistently offer for me to read his writings (I never minded the reading. It was the pressure for enthusiastic feedback that made me feel tired beyond my years). He was not unique in that he bragged, constantly, about his works. The one that was brought up the most was about five generations of women. I heard about the progress of the brilliant five generations of women story for years (sometimes it was a novel, sometimes it was a screenplay) and never saw a word of it. I don't know why but the most reaction I ever had was an "Oh." (An old woman "Oh" from one has formed the words so many times her lips creak. It is world weary to want to feel stuff all of the time.) I began to feel it was a joke that I wasn't getting. Is it a cliche to write about generations of women? It could be but the three generations of women (it is really four. It was wrong to discount Toyono! I kinda love her. What about her mom?! I bet she had one) in The River Ki made me smile a smile of effort in a natural way. Something that looked a lot laugh lines after a full life (maybe too full of what I could do without, sometimes. Such is life). It is wearying to want to feel something and sometimes it happens after a lot of walking.

I've been reading so many Japanese novelists these past months. The old fashioned imagery stuff appeals to me soooo much. I wish I could turn Japanese for real and feel at home in another earthiness. If the name was not already taken by sometimes member of Animal Collective I would strap on the appropriate headgear and be "Geologist". I'd taste synthetic metals for the taste of fear and rocks to see what tasted the sweat from the rocks or from the sweat of my nervous palms. Maybe I could be Zoologist instead and wear the appropriate wild animal costumes and paint the towns all of the nature colours. I'll wear scuba gear and a bee bonnet and talk to the birds and the bees. So I could get really into the metaphors about The River Ki. It's the connectedness to something else feeling. These words about rivers (I was born by a famous river myself. The Singing River in Mississippi. My favorite childhood stories were about the legends of hearing the indians singing as they drowned. "Evil white men!") reminded me of the could be anyone else feeling (so deep right? These trees are so old and who else has walked on this earth?). I could have expanded it and cut through the earth (I really am really into nature metaphors) and said that Sawako Ariyoshi's book is a river filled with the man-made toxins of telling it too much it is when the waters should have flowed. I would have said that when the day and day outs of their lives breathed something , well, breathing that one does without talking about it was the bright spots on the bottom of the river bank. Those spots are what it must have looked a long time ago before there were oodles and oodles of generations of people to fuck it all up. (Oops, I did say that stuff about the rivers.)

"In my study of English literature, I came across the words of T.S. Eliot, who said that "tradition" should be positively discouraged. I cannot describe tradition as he describes it. According to Eliot, traition negates all that preceded it and will be negated by all that follows. And yet I feel I know what he means when I think of the bond between you and me. The "family" that has flowed from you to Mother to me.
Please don't laugh at me. One day I shall marry and have a daughter. It amuses me to imagine how my daughter will rebel against me and regard her grandmother with affection. And then, I shall think that, just as people lived in the distant past and will continue to exist in the years to come, however difficult the present may be for me, I must live for tomorrow.
Now I know why I feel nostalgic about Wakayama. I could not have made this discovery or experienced this peace of mind and happiness if I had never been close to you."

I loved that letter and this book a little (ahem a lot) more because of it.
The third generation Hanako wrote this letter to her grandmother, Hana. Hana's daughter Fumio despised her mother for what she viewed as submissiveness and too keen an interest in the past ways of Japan. Hana would die in the Japan changed in WWII. I wish that Ariyoshi had not explained in words that Fumio despised her mother, that Hana believed a woman should act from a man's shadow. i lived with them when Hana listened to her husband's breathing at night. How she matched her own rhythms with those of her family said more to me about her riverliness than that could have. Being told and believing it aren't the same things. My name is Mariel Cathleen (thanks, Mom!) and that means I can be an MC too. It saved me when Hana felt close to her granddaughter by walking the same earth together. I get it now! This is what generations are all about. Taking on the name of a new family in marriage and giving her daughter a name Fumio is MC a rapper with samples from an '80s hits cassette. Hana's day to days were less backbeat and more uncredited hook from David Bowie and Queen teamed up to be Under Pressure. I love the book but can my animal costume please come without footy pajamas? We want to walk further than that.

But I loved Toyono loving Hana and Hana loving Hanaka. That's what Roger was talking about in 101 Dalmatians when he said "Melody first, my dear, then the lyrics." That's how days are made.21 s Marie Saville192 115

Coup de coeur, coup de coeur, coup de coeur. ?

Prefectura de Wakayama, finales del siglo XIX. Hana, acompañada por un fastuoso cortejo y con el recuerdo de su querida abuela Toyono, desciende el curso del rio Ki para reunirse con su futuro esposo, Keisaku. Moldeada por las costumbres ancestrales heredadas de sus antecesoras, Hana debe acomodarse a su nueva vida e integrarse en el seno de su recién estrenada familia; contando con la hostilidad de su cuñado Kosaku y la cada vez mayor indiferencia de su marido.

Pasan los años, y con ellos llegan los hijos; en especial Fumio, la primera hija de Hana. Una chica rebelde que no duda en enfrentarse a su madre y a las tradiciones que confinan a la mujer a la esfera doméstica. Fuerte y segura de sí misma, Fumio marcha a Tokyo para formarse en la universidad y, poco a poco, va adoptando las costumbres occidentales. Será su hija Hanako, sensible, observadora y muy unida a su abuela, quien acabe uniendo a las tres generaciones de mujeres.

Lo presentí desde las primeras páginas y no me equivoqué. He adorado cada instante de este libro. Toyono, Hana, Fumio y Hanako. Cuatro generaciones de mujeres y una única constante en sus vidas: el fluir de las aguas del rio Ki, que las ha visto nacer, crecer y convertirse en esposas, madres y abuelas.
Casi sesenta años de la historia de Japón quedan fijadas entre las páginas de 'Las damas de Kimoto': el fin de la era Meiji, la guerra sino-japonesa, la IIGM y su estela devastadora... Grandes acontecimientos que van dejando huella en la vida cotidiana de estas cuatro mujeres, divididas entre tradición y modernidad.
Nunca olvidaré el koto de Hana, ni los objetos familiares del trastero; la imagen de abuela y nieta contemplando los cerezos desde el castillo de Wakayama; los kakis de Toyono floreciendo cada año en el jardín de Hana, Fumio y su ofrenda en el templo de Jison...
Momentos llenos de delicadeza, sutiles y silenciosos, pero cargados de significado.

Un libro maravilloso.favourite-books literatura-asiática13 s Aiya28 15

When I first finished the book, I was thinking I'd rate it three stars. But after living with it for a few days, thinking about Hana, the story of her family, the picture it painted of Japan over some turbulent years, I had to raise it to four stars.

It had a lot of meaning to me in what it revealed of life in Japan during the course of Hana's life, a glimpse at what life would have been for my family just a few generations ago. As a woman - a modern woman - parts of it were a little hard to take, as it was difficult to put myself into that time period, to imagine living that, thinking that, being that. But we're all a product of our environment and upbringing - if I had lived back then, I'd be much closer to Hana than I am, just as if she'd lived a life mine, she'd probably be a lot closer to me.

Discomfort that aside, Ariyoshi does a wonderful job painting the picture of Japanese life, doing so in broad strokes and scattered details that work together to illustrate her work without bogging it down in endless minutia.

I thought it was particularly interesting how Hana's goals and ideals remained a constant (or changed only slowly and gradually), while Fumio, the liberal daughter, blew with the wind. Their dynamic was one of the most compelling aspects of the book, a thread binding history to modernity, the idea of conflict between parents and their children that plays out in every generation.

On a side note, no matter how many times I read about it, I just can't understand the tooth-blackening thing. I know, it was a different time, and I've even read it helped prevent cavities, but still. Whoever thought that was attractive? Yuck!

I found myself wishing the book was longer. I wanted to know more about Hana's life, about her family. But every question Ariyoshi answered would have just raised three more questions. In the end, we know all we need to know. asian-classics japanese-fiction12 s Stephen99 91

Ariyoshi tells the story of 20th century Japan through the lives of several generations of women. The style feels more biographical than novelistic, as she transcribes generational turnover, mainly through the character Hana. It starts off beautifully with a traditional wedding ceremony along the River Ki, of a kind that no longer exists, and brings us straight through to the destruction of Japan due to war. The main theme is about how traditional-minded women are the ones who keep society together, even after everything they once knew has been destroyed.

Through marital infidelity, filial disobedience, and loss of status, we see how Hana maintains her dignity. Unshakeable faith in an individual is extremely hard to convey in a novel if that character isn’t constantly making pronouncements on it. Hana doesn’t. And so Ariyoshi’s challenge is great. Few of us today would endure what Hana endures without at least looking for someone else to blame. Hana doesn’t do that either. Nor does she blame herself.

It wasn’t until late into the novel that I understood this, when I realized Ariyoshi, through her accumulation of detail, was trying to convey what faith in its particular, female, Japanese form feels . It is mysterious because there’s nothing textual about it, no deed finds its word, a consequence, partially, of a culture that lacks scripture outside the arts.

I was surprised, and then pleased, to find Ariyoshi setting off Hana against her women’s rights loving daughter Fumio, on those grounds. Is Hana hopelessly conservative? Fumio is appalled at her mother’s long-suffering ways. When it comes to style Fumio prefers Hollywood over Kyoto. Watching her mother blacken the teeth of her grandmother disgusts her, a beautifying ritual since gone out of fashion. Hana forces her daughter to learn the koto, an instrument that teaches grace of style, and Fumio, whether stubbornly or simply untalented, cannot even play the simplest melody (let alone add any grace notes to what she’s playing). Not surprisingly, when the war effort comes, Fumio’s convictions prove superficial, as she falls for one form of propaganda over another:

“Fumio had once been a staunch liberal. However, with the outbreak of war she had been completely transformed into a brave woman supporting fully the Japanese cause. But Eiji (her husband) spent many years abroad and was very pessimistic about the war.” (p.201)

There wasn’t anything especially “brave” in following to order the war mobilization of the Japanese government in the 1930s; it takes some digging, then, to appreciate Ariyoshi’s meaning in passages these. Hana’s “women’s rights”, on the other hand, is the kind not subject to government initiative (the kind that branches out into popular culture through movies, music or blogs or what have you), but originates more in a quality of soul, that place where dignity forms, and perhaps is only truly noticeable through the grace of our grandmothers, even though that quality had been there all along. Some may not find this particularly inspiring, but if you can recognize the faith, then you’ll be moved by the end of this novel. fiction8 s Paula466 259

Esta es una obra que no deja indiferente. Lo leí y comenté con unas amigas y nos ha gustado tanto como ganas nos ha dado de saber más sobre la historia de Japón entre los siglos XIX y XX, o las eras Meiji, Taish? y Sh?wa (entre 1868 y 1989) especialmente desde la perspectiva femenina.

Porque la perspectiva femenina de la historia social, más que política (que también) de Japón, es lo que nos dan las damas de esta línea familiar que comienza con la anciana Toyono y su nieta Hana, continúa con la hija de esta Fumio, quien a su vez es la madre de Hanako. Aunque el libro pueda asemejarse en cierto modo a las “Hermanas Makioka” de Tanizaki Junichir?, lo cierto es que el enfoque es completamente diferente, pues en ese libro se hablaba de un momento concreto y una costumbre concreta (el Miai o concertación de matrimonios). Pero tienen en común ambos libros las diferentes relaciones entre mujeres de una misma familia. Sin embargo la figura central es Hana, que es la única que está viva todo el libro, tanto con su abuela como con los sucesivos nacimientos de su hija y de su propia nieta. Todos los demás personajes son irrelevantes salvo dos: el marido de Hana y el de Fumio, aunque su importancia en ambos casos es meramente circunstancial.

La importancia que tiene el marido de Hana, cuyo nombre he olvidado pero no importa, es que tiene una carrera política. Dejando eso a un lado por un momento, Hana es una mujer que viene de una familia de posición elevada y ha sido educada por Toyono como una mujer dócil, que preserva las costumbres y usos tradicionales tanto de Japón como de la pequeña región donde viven. Sin embargo, la dulce Hana no debe engañaros con su carácter apacible: es una mujer de suma elegancia, vivaz, muy inteligente y muy buena estratega y ahí es donde entra el marido: es Hana quien le aconseja cada vez que tiene una duda con respecto a su gobierno y a su gente. En resumen, sin Hana, este señor no hubiera llegado ni a presidente de la comunidad de vecinos.

Fumio nace con todos los privilegios y lo tiene todo para ser feliz, sin embargo una rebeldía mal entendida y peor tratada, la convierte en una mujer egoísta, egocéntrica e intratable. Rechaza a su madre porque simboliza la tradición y el antiguo Japón, pero sin embargo, aunque dice querer ser independiente y feminista, acaba casándose y acompañando a su marido al extranjero. El rechazo y desprecio a su madre llega a ser de una falta de respeto bastante desagradable.

Con Fumio y Hana se enfrentan el progresismo exaltado y las influencias del exterior (Fumio) con la mentalidad conservadora, aunque liberal, tradicional y el carácter tranquilo (Hana). Ariyoshi nos da las dos perspectivas antes de adentrarse, gracias al nacimiento de Hana, en la historia de mediados del s. XX: el ultranacionalismo, las relaciones con los países extranjeros, el ambiente enrarecido, la militarización y, por último, la guerra.

Una historia, la de Hana especialmente, conmovedora y preciosa. Escrita con esa sensibilidad tan característica de los autores japoneses, a ratos emotiva, a ratos llena de rabia, pero siempre provocando uno u otro sentimiento en el lector. Imprescindible.favorites read_in_20238 s Tim477 755

I read this one much earlier in the year, and apparently never posted a review of it. Oops. Time to correct that.

The River Ki is something I don’t see often, but I always in theory. It’s a multigenerational spanning novel. I love the idea of getting a story from a single family as the youngest members of the family at the start become the oldest by the end. It’s an intriguing way to tell a tale, especially if you are dealing with time periods of great change. Well, this is Japan Pre-WWII and ends afterwards, so social change is a big theme throughout the novel.

The book starts with a woman named Hana on her wedding day, we will follow her life, and that of her daughter and finally a grand daughter. See a wealthy and well respected family adjust to the times and see how their lifestyle and perspective changes with Japan becoming more modern. The book operates as a fascinating time capsule.

I’ll first start by saying that I completely understand some of the mixed feelings I’m seeing on here, interestingly I ran the full gambit of reactions myself. Starting off, the wedding and the events leading up to it were so slow that I found myself getting irritated. I’m usually okay with slow starts, but I just found it to drag and was initially very concerned about even making it through the entire novel. Much to my delight, and surprise, I found myself engrossed after this section was over.

Now, while I may have been engrossed, I still had some issues with the book as a whole. I found the transitions to be very awkward, the pacing was way too fast (rather humorous and contrasting given my views of the wedding scene… It’s the author got so caught up in that scene, then decided to never do such a thing again) and I personally had trouble figuring out how much time passed, often even between pages sometimes, as there are time gaps of years in-between breaks quite frequently.

Another slight complaint, which is in no way the fault of the author, but rather in this case the reader, was that without an extensive knowledge of Japanese history or all social nuances I found myself rereading paragraphs trying to figure out a hidden meaning to them, and coming away with nothing but the surety that I missed something.

Now all complaints aside, I genuinely d the book. I found the customs fascinating; the various interesting little facts ( the coin belt that was thought to protect soldiers during the war) were a delight and will stick with me. I found Hana to be an interesting character and d seeing her philosophy when viewed with the time periods throughout the novel (her child and grandchild make for interesting contrasts, while all displaying elements of her own character, no matter how different in opinions they may be). I also really enjoyed the aspect that Hanna, while obviously our central character tying the entire story together, often felt a side character to her own novel with the beginning focusing mostly on her grandmother and the end focusing on her granddaughter. This was even more interesting to me as I felt that the second section was the one to focus on Hana the most, and it was the one to involve her daughter Fumio. Why did I find that so interesting? Because we see this section mostly from Hana, with far less scenes from Fumio’s point of view, whereas sections one and three have more views from other characters, specifically grandmother and granddaughter. I feel this is interesting as we get very little about Hana’s parents, and while a section is devoted to her daughter, she seems a side character (though a more important one) as well. The focus seems to be on greater generation gap, as if parents and children are less interesting as the gap and similarities between the generation before or after. This times in with the themes of Japanese before European influence (Hana’s grandmother) and post-WWII with American occupation (Hana’s grandchild).

This is a fairly short novel at only 243 pages, which seems strange given that with the multigenerational aspect one might expect a long saga. While I enjoyed the novel as a whole, there are some very strong pacing issues which knock it down to three stars. That said, they are a solid three stars and those with an interest in Japanese literature and a bit of modern history could do much worse than check this one out. 1950s japanese reviewed5 s Smiley 776 18

I found reading Ms. Ariyoshi's The River of Ki nostalgically impressive due to its three parts depicting Hana, as a granddaughter and young bride (Part I), as a wife and mother (Part II), and as a grandmother (Part III).

There are no chapters but we can find reading this novel amazingly enjoyable, realistically narrated and finely rendered. The story starts with the two female characters of different generation named Toyono and Hana, a paternal grandmother and her granddaughter, walking to the Miroku Hall on the top of Mount Koya (Koyasan, called affectionately Fujisan), in Wakayama Prefecture one morning in the last years of the nineteenth century, in other words, due to its vague year as mentioned, imagine one of the years as you , probably 1898 or 1899 but of course 1900 won't do. The year 1897 is relatively possible but it's a bit early, being far from 1900, the nineteenth century mark.

While reading English texts in essays, articles, novels, etc. once in a while I would be halted due to some particular words, phrases, idioms, etc. which literally captivate me; in other words, I couldn't help admiring how they've been well expressed in that particular contexts worth taking notes on paper or in mind so that I might apply in my writing sometime. It's one of my ways of reading that keeps me going, making it worthwhile, enjoyable and applicable. Therefore, I would cite three examples taken from her texts as those notable and unique ones I've never read anywhere before.

1. A few among them, blind to Hana's ungainly figure, fell in love with her lovey face. (p. 58)
2. The grains of rice, exposed to the strong sunlight, exuded a rich smell. In the Japanese art of incense-smelling, one did not "smell" incense, one "savored" it. (p. 69)
3. The waters of River Yu, a tributary of the Ki, gurgling as they always had, flowed between the rice paddies and filled the irrigation ditches which Keisaku had suggested digging to prevent flooding. (pp. 224-25)

etc.


To continue . . .

First Review:

I have never read Sawako Ariyoshi before; however, I was interested to read her novel The River of Ki by this paragraph, realizing it deserves reading with care and appreciation:

Powerful enough to sweep away people on its banks and placid enough to carry along with its flow a sumptuous wedding procession, the River Ki dominates the lives of the people who live in its fertile valley and imparts a vital strength to the three women – mother, daughter, and grandmother – around whom this novel is built. It provides them with the courage to cope, in their different ways, with the unprecedented changes that occurred in Japan between the last years of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth. (front cover)fiction japan6 s El1,355 497

The River Ki is both a powerful river as well as a beautiful one, and here it represents and mirrors three generations of women before, during and after World War II. The story begins with Hana, the apple of her grandmother's eye, who is raised and bred as a traditional Japanese woman. She is married and gives birth to Fumio who, despite Hana's efforts and wishes, rebels against the traditional arts and culture of her upbringing. In her own marriage Fumio finds someone who is as interested as her in a modern lifestyle for themselves and their children. The result of that is Fumio's own daughter wants to learn more about the traditional, conservative lifestyle of a Japanese woman. The three women's lives are intertwined not only by their roles in their family but also by their roles in society. Traditional Japanese superstition, women's rights, and politics all play a hand in the story making for an interesting read.

I had not heard of this author previously, but considering my knowledge of Japanese writers (specifically Japanese women writers of the fifties and sixties) that's not surprising. The real beauty of the story is not only the family dynamic but the description of the landscape, the individual feelings of each of the women as well as how those feelings affect their interactions with one another. This is what Amy Tan wishes she was.20th-centurylit-late6 s Alex PlerAuthor 6 books252

El paso del tiempo como el fluir de un río: siempre avanza imparable pero siempre unido también a su origen. Por las páginas de esta obra maestra se deslizan como si nada años, bodas, guerras, cambios y nuestras emociones contradictorias, todo girando alrededor de la inamovible matriarca Hana.

"Sin duda, los vientos del cambio zarandeaban la casa que había alojado a la familia patriarcal, pero Hana sabía que ese era su lugar. Se acomodaría en el salón hasta que una sacudida hiciera que las vigas se vinieran abajo y la casa se derrumbara". 6 s Sara140 108

Sawako Ariyoshi és una de les autores japoneses més importants de la postguerra, i "Las damas de Kimoto" és la primera novel·la que va publicar, l'any 1959. Es presenta com una saga familiar amb quatre generacions de protagonistes femenines al Japó tradicional de finals del segle XIX i fins a la Segona Guerra Mundial. És un llibre interessant per molts motius: en primer lloc, perquè no està ambientat a Tòquio ni a cap altra gran ciutat, sinó al camp; en segon lloc, pel retrat que fa del paper de la dona, que és profund i acurat; en tercer lloc, perquè el context històric està ben introduït i realment es pot aprendre molt.

I ara la part que no m'ha agradat tant
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