THE MAKIOKA SISTERS

The Makioka Sisters

The Makioka Sisters

Introduction

In 1949, Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki won the Imperial Prize for his novel Sasameyuki, known in America as The Makioka Sisters. Considered by many the greatest Japanese novel of the twentieth century, The Makioka Sisters is a family epic spanning the years 1938 to 1941, only months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. By the end of Kon Ichikawa's 1983 film adaptation, one sister concludes, "Seasons change but nothing really changes after all" (Olson, 2011). Her statement is pointedly ironic given the events that surround it and the encroaching shadows of war, and yet she ...