4 Novels by Sawako Ariyoshi
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Overview: Sawako Ariyoshi (1931-1984) was a novelist, short-story writer, and playwright who owed her huge following in Japan to her emphasis on crucial social problems neglected by other writers, such as dealing with the plight of women in the traditional household (The Doctor’s Wife); the effects of pollution on the environment (Fukugo-osen); problem of caring for old people in contemporary society (The Twilight Years); and treating racial segregation in the States (Hishoku). She was nominated for many awards, and won several, including the first Mademoiselle Reader’s Award for Tsudaremai, the sixth Fujin Kōron Readers’ Award, and the twentieth Art Selection Minister of Education Award, both for Kabuki Dancer.
Genre: Fiction > General Fiction/Classics



• Kabuki Dancer
In Kabuki Dancer, Sawako Ariyoshi retells the story of Okuni, the legendary temple dancer who first performed among jugglers and freak shows on a stage along the riverbank in the heart of the imperial city of Kyoto. Blending the rhythms and movements of religious festivals with the words of popular love songs, she and her troupe became sensations. Their affairs and rivalries, infatuations and jealousies, were transformed into the very fabric of their performance, as it began its evolution into the classic drama of today. Against a backdrop of civil war, dynastic conflict, and social turmoil, Okuni and her companions and lovers, together with their audience of artisans, merchants, and aristocrats, struggled to survive the birth pangs of a glorious—yet sometimes deadly—new age.

• The Twilight Years
The Twilight Years, which examines the problem of caring for the elderly in a modern industrial society, caused a sensation when it was published in Japan. It tells the story of the Tachibanas, an average family living in a Tokyo suburb, who, after the sudden death of the husband’s mother, are faced with the care of his aged father, Shigezō. The task of looking after the old man falls chiefly on his daughter-in-law Akiko, who is herself a working woman. With quiet courage that often borders on desperation, she tries to support his struggle for independent survival.

• The River Ki
The River Ki, short and swift and broad like most Japanese rivers, dominates the lives of the people who live in its fertile valley and imparts a vital strength to the three women—mother, daughter, and granddaughter—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 19th century and the middle of the 20th. Ariyoshi describes this social and cultural revolution though the eyes of Hana, a woman with the vision and integrity to understand the inevitability of the death of the traditional order in Japan.

• The Doctor’s Wife
Based on the successful medical career of Hanaoka Seishu, yet the story focuses on two women—the wife who struggles to adapt to a new household and gain the affection of her unfamiliar husband, and the over-possessive mother-in-law dedicated to the fulfillment of her son’s ambitions—vie with one another to serve one man. Kae suffers the most, for the new anesthetic that the doctor tries on her has devastating results … Readers of The Doctor’s Wife will find a tender and compassionate tale about a woman of great strength and courage, as well as an impelling account of Japanese society and the role of women in it.

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Kabuki Dancer
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The Twilight Years
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The River Ki
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The Doctor’s Wife
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3 books added:

• Kabuki Dancer
• The Twilight Years
• The River Ki