Тонкий снег: Роман о семье Макиока

Book by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
the novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

The Makioka Sisters (細雪) is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. It depicts the decline of the family's upper middle class, suburban lifestyle as the specter of World War II and Allied Occupation hangs over the novel. It was translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker, and published by Alfred A. Knopf. Patrick McCoy of the Japan Times described the book as being "Tolstoyan in length and scope."

Tanizaki was born in Tokyo in 1886. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and fire, which destroyed Tokyo, he settled permanently in Kansai, the region where The Makioka Sisters is set. Many of the characters and events in The Makioka Sisters are loosely based on real people and events: Sachiko is modeled after Tanizaki's third wife, Matsuko, and Sachiko's sisters correspond to Matsuko's. Sachiko's husband, Teinosuke, does not resemble Tanizaki, however. The Makioka Sisters spans the period from autumn 1936 to April 1941, ending about seven months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The novel references a number of contemporary events, such as the Kobe flood of 1938, the Second Sino Japanese War, and the growing tensions in Europe. Publication began in 1943, at the height of World War II. The popularity of the novel attracted the attention of government censors, who ordered that publication be halted, saying: “The novel goes on and on detailing the very thing we are most supposed to be on our guard against during this period of wartime emergency: the soft, effeminate, and grossly individualistic lives of women.”

Decline and decay are prominent themes of The Makioka Sisters and are emphasized by the repetition of certain events. The succession of Yukiko's suitors, the Makiokas’ yearly cherry viewing excursions, and the increasing severity of illness in the novel form a pattern of “decline in repetition”. In reaction to this decline, the characters long for an idealized past—they attempt to remain connected to their past through yearly rituals and observances. The Makiokas’ adherence to these rituals connects them to the traditions of the merchant class from the Edo period and reflects Tanizaki's belief that the Edo period culture had been preserved in Osaka. Throughout, the novel contrasts the Kansai and Kantō regions. "Tokyo's poverty, bleakness, and disorder serve to set off Ashiya's harmonious integration of tradition, modernity, and cosmopolitanism". By extolling the virtues of the Kansai region in contrast to Tokyo, Tanizaki may have been making a political statement. The unfavorable comparison of Tokyo to Kansai "in the context of the war years, [is] a subversive reminder of the nonmilitary roots of Japanese culture and a sort of 'secret history' of Japan from 1936 to 1941".

Sasameyuki began as a serial in the magazine Chūō Kōron in 1943, but publication was halted by the Information Bureau of the Japanese War Ministry after two installments, the first in the issue for New Year 1943 (now Book 1, Chapters 1 to 8) the second in the issue for March 1943 (now Book 1, Chapters 9 to 13). In 1944, Tanizaki published 248 copies of a privately printed edition of Book One, with financial backing from Chūō Kōron; this was, again, censured by the military. After the conclusion of World War II, the novel was published in three parts: Book 1 in 1946, Book 2 in 1947, and Book 3 in 1948.

The novel has been called “the greatest cosmopolitan novel since the Meiji Restoration”. Following its success, Tanizaki was awarded the Mainichi Prize for Publication and Culture and the Asahi Culture Prize. The novel has been translated into at least 14 languages. The English translation, by Edward G. Seidensticker, was published in 1957 as The Makioka Sisters. According to Charles E. Hamilton of the University of California, Berkeley, many reviews in the United States of the English translation were "marked by an air of discomfiture", with some reviews being uncivil and others offering "factitious praise". Donald Barr of The New York Times compared and contrasted the English translation of the novel with Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Barr concluded that The Makioka Sisters "has in an immense degree the power of veracity, which is second only to the power of truth." Hamilton argued that Barr's comparison with Austen was done "inaptly". Time stated that the book had "a heroism that [ ] bends to the winds of fate like a reed and, never breaking, wins the subtler triumph of endurance." Time stated that significant portions of the book "are dull enough to make U. S. readers wonder if they are not in the hands of the Japanese sandman." Hamilton himself called the translation in the English version "skillful". One criticism Hamilton had was the loss of the Kansai dialect in the translation.