The Makioka Sisters

If epic literature is based in the dramatic and forward-moving narrative of a male hero's journey, The Makioka Sisters is a female epic of inaction--trying to figure out what to wear, crying for no reason at the same time every afternoon. With each perilous, pathetic step, the sisters are heroes setting out for the new world. They're like Odysseus, except without the ship and without the sea.

—Emily White on The Makioka Sisters.

The Makioka Sisters (細雪) is a serial novel by Tanizaki Jun'ichirou. It is considered one of the greatest Japanese novels of all time. It tells the story of the four sisters of the Makioka family. The novel was originally published in serial form from 1943 to 1948, the action taking place from Autumn 1936 to April, 1941.

Sachiko, the second sister, is the novel's main viewpoint character. She is outwardly very brisk and modern, actually quite introspective and traditional, and, one gets the feeling, Tanizaki's idea of what he would be like as a woman. Sachiko spends most of her time trying to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko, who is thirty years old at the beginning of the novel and subtly being deliberately as unhelpful as humanly possible to register her displeasure with the situation and desire to stay with her sisters and niece rather than be forced to move away with an unfamiliar man. The youngest sister, Taeko, is something of a problem child and her overly modern behaviour (which manages to avoid Values Dissonance because it really is quite shocking and brazen) makes it harder to get Yukiko a match.

Nobody cares about the eldest sister, Tsuruko who has been Demoted to Extra in-universe, except when she forces Yukiko to move to Tokyo for no real reason.

Tsuruko and Sachiko are both married. Sachiko's husband, Teinosuke, is the most prominent male character in the novel; Tsuruko's husband, Tatsuo, is judging by other characters' reactions the closest thing the novel has to an antagonist. Sachiko's daughter Etsuko is also prominent, as are some of Taeko's boy-toys.

...Oh, what's that, you say? The plot? Uh...well...no, this isn't really that sort of novel.

Three film adaptations, the most notable one directed by Kon Ichikawa in 1983, and five TV dramas were made.

Tropes used in The Makioka Sisters include:

• Apocalyptic Log: Hilda Stolz's letters from Germany as World War II rages.
• A World Half Full: Despite everything, and even as the firebombs start to fall.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: The original title is Sasameyuki, a word referring to a type of light, powdery snow. Since the book takes place in Osaka, it doesn't snow very much; the title exists essentially as a pun on the third sister's name, which means "snow child" ("Flurries of Yukiko" might capture the meaning, but not the pun, in English). So greatly was this Lost in Translation that, rather than trying to replicate the meaning of the word "sasameyuki" or the nature of the pun, translator Edward G. Seidensticker just gave the book a completely new title.
• Big Bad: Tatsuo, while not behind any grand evil plan or anything, is pretty much responsible for everything bad that happens in Yukiko's life purely by virtue of simply being a jerk.
• Bittersweet Ending: Weddings, I find, are not always gay.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Makioka "Japanese D.W." Etsuko.
• But Not Too Foreign: Averted. The Stolzes are 100% German and the Kyrilenkos 100% Byelorussian.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The flood and Itakura's death herald in a steadily darkening plotline for the second half of the book.
• Cheerful Child: Etsuko.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Teinosuke.
• Does Not Like Men: Yukiko.
• Demoted to Extra: Tsuruko.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: Meta example: Western readers who aren't familiar with common Japanese names are often surprised to find out that this novel has a male author.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Getting Yukiko married.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Tsuruko is phlegmatic, Sachiko is choleric, Yukiko is melancholic, and Taeko is sanguine to a fault.
• Girls Are Just Better: Teinosuke and to an extent Itakura are the only adult male characters who aren't intensely minor or big jerks.
• Happily Married: Sachiko and Teinosuke; Tsuruko and Tatsuo.
• Heroic BSOD: Sachiko hits the bottle starting about halfway through the novel.
• Hero of Another Story: Katherine Kyrilenko, whose story is actually more interesting than the main plot and would completely eclipse it were the novel not Slice of Life.
• Ho Yay: Incest Yay Shipping between Sachiko and Yukiko; Foe Yay between Okubata and Itakura.
• Hurting Hero: Sachiko. Dear God. Yukiko, too, but Sachiko, who starts out fairly cheerful, is implied to be self-harming by the end.
• Fundamentally Female Cast
• Incest Yay: Sachiko is heavily implied to be secretly in love with Yukiko, which is used as a platform for her to Wangst about the pluses and minuses of Arranged Marriage.
• Jerkass: In addition to Tatsuo, Okubata. He's more of a prodigal son than anything else, though.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: The entire main cast, relative to the rest of Japanese society.
• Manipulative Bitch: Yukiko, of all people, kind of is one. Taeko wishes she was.
• Meaningful Name: Subverted. Sachiko means 'Bliss Child'. Yeah, RIGHT.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Sachiko and Teinosuke.
• Put on a Bus: Averted. Okubata is almost sent to fight in China but scams his way out of it.
• Slice of Life: One troper's mother has described it as 'pre-war Japanese Seinfeld'.
  • This troper's Japanese Literature professor describes it the same way.
• Subculture: Some wags have noted that each of the three main characters (discounting Tsuruko) have personalities that map nicely into some modern youth subculture or another despite living in pre-war Japan. To wit, Sachiko is Emo, Yukiko is Goth, and Taeko is 'Scene'. Obviously the actual subcultures themselves were non-existent in the novel's historical setting, but the personalities fit astonishingly well.
• The Alcoholic: Mimaki, Yukiko's eventual husband, who is chosen partially for his near-certainty of not paying any attention to her and allowing her to continue her life with her sisters and niece.
  • Don't forget Sachiko.
• Those Two Guys: Okubata and Itakura pre-Character Development.
• Those Wacky Nazis: The Stolzes are meant to evoke the decent, normal, good-hearted people who supported Hitler out of Misplaced Nationalism and naïveté.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: Actively ignoring the fact that World War Two is happening is presented as a heroic act of passive resistance.
• World of Woobie
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Yukiko is a perfect example of The Stoic variation.
• Youngest Child Wins: After her Trauma Conga Line, Taeko actually gets a decent, hardworking husband in a previously unknown character. Yukiko's new husband, by contrast, is drunk and irritable (though at least not a wife-beater). Sachiko is a nervous wreck, more upset about Taeko's miscarriage than Taeko herself is, and clinging to Teinosuke for dear life as their marriage is the only thing that either of them have left. Tsuruko is bitchy and discontent as always.