Sawako Ariyoshi, The doctors wife | Whispering Gums

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Sawako Ariyoshi, The doctors wife

MARCH 1, 2010
tags: Historical fiction, Japanese writers, Novellas, Sawako Ariyoshi, Translated works
The doctors wife is the third Ariyoshi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawako_Ariyoshi)novel that Ive
read. The other two The River Ki and The twilight years I read well over a decade ago. According to
Wikipedia The doctors wife is considered her best novel. All, though, are fascinating reads providing
an insight into a culture which is so different from my own but in which, at the same time, people
experience similar desires, pressures and emotions.
The twilight years is set in 1970s Japan and beautifully captures the cultural changes that were
occurring around the time as Japan was (and still probably is) moving from feudal/traditional
parent child relationships to our more modern independent ways, with women caught in the middle.
The River Ki chronicles three generations of women from the late 19th to mid 20th century, exploring
changing attitudes and expectations of women. You are probably getting a picture here and youd be
right: Ariyoshis overriding theme concerns the role of women in Japanese society, both historically
and in modern times. (Ariyoshi died in 1984.)
The

(http://whisperinggums.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/hanaokaseishu.gif)
Hanaoka Seishu (Public domain, via Wikipedia)
doctors wife is an historical novel, spanning 70 years from around 1760 to 1830 and based on the life
of famous Japanese doctor Hanaoka Seishu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanaoka_Seish). A
quick plot summary. The doctors wife is Kae, a young woman from a wealthy family, who is lured to
become Seishus bride by his ambitious mother Otsugi, herself a woman married from a wealthy into
a poorer family. The novel then chronicles Kaes life in this extended family household as Seishu
develops his medical skill and training until, near the end, he performs the worlds first surgery
under anaesthetic (1804, breast cancer)*. While Seishus development as a doctor frames the novel,
the real plot concerns the relationship between Kae and Otsugi.
The novel is told in third person, mostly the more objective omniscient voice, but occasionally we feel
we are specifically in the heads of Kae or Otsugi. According to my editions introduction, Ariyoshi
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had access to Seishus personal records, diaries and books. However, being a man of his time and a

Sawako Ariyoshi, The doctors wife | Whispering Gums

http://whisperinggums.com/2010/03/01/sawako-ariyoshi-the-...

doctor focused on his research, he did not, I assume, document much of his family life. The story,
then, of the women is largely fictional. Mostly through dialogue, with description as needed,
Ariyoshi describes how the loving supportive role Otsugi initially presented towards her daughterin-law changes when her son (who had been married to Kae in absentia some three years before)
returns home from his medical studies in Kyoto. Overnight, the relationship, to Kaes shock and
distress, changes into a competitive one a competition that has serious consequences as they vie to
be guinea pigs for his experiments in anaesthesia. Both women are presented as flawed, but as it is
Kae who opens the novel and is the more powerless, it is with her that we are most keen to identify
and empathise.
Why has Ariyoshi chosen to tell this story of conflict and competition within an historically based
story of a great man? Does the historical truth add credibility to her exploration of familial power
discrepancies? Im not sure its necessary, but perhaps it helps It is a very human tale the grand
gestures made by the women to support his research are small in the scheme of things though the
impact on them, particularly on Kae, is immense. Ariyoshi realistically explores the nuances of their
relationship through the normal day-to-day patterns of life (weaving, cooking, house management,
childbirth) suggesting that this sort of conflict doesnt have to be but that it often (traditionally, even)
is. In fact, we readers are lulled into seeing it as the norm the lot of women until we are shocked
out of that frame of mind near the end by Seishus unmarried sister who says (in broken speech
because she is ill):
I think this sort of tension among females . . . is . . . to the advantage . . . of . . . every male.
She continues to explain her particular perspective on womens secondary lot, and pronounces that:
as long as there are men and women side by side on this earth, I wouldnt want to be reborn a woman into
such a world.
Clearly, given the story Ariyoshi has told, she rather agrees or, at least, agrees for such societies as
she depicts here in which womens lot is not only an inferior one but which work to discourage them
from cooperating and supporting each other. The novel may be set in Japan, but the fundamental
truths, unfortunately, are not so confined.
What I have described here is the main story, but theres more here that can be discussed, including
the development (or history) of medicine in the east and west, the experimentation on animals and
humans, and Japanese social life and customs in the Tokugawa period (http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Tokugawa_period).
Its a short but engrossing read. It falters a little I think right at the end when the historical facts are
presented so prosaically that they threaten to overwhelm its novelistic achievements, but the last line
fuses the two so beautifully that you forgive this. The doctors wife is a fascinating and keenly
observed novel that deserves to be read.
*Ironically, in 1811, novelist Fanny Burney underwent a horrific mastectomy
(http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=12724) without anaesthesia because it
was unknown in the west!
Sawako Ariyoshi
The doctors wife
Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1966 (orig ed), 1978 (trans)
174pp.
ISBN: 0870114654
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9 Comments leave one
1. Sue PERMALINK
March 1, 2010 8:21 pm
Sounds as though this is an interesting exploration of of human interaction in the context of the
fascinating and intriguing culture of historical Japan. Youve inspired me to read it.
REPLY
whisperinggums PERMALINK*
March 1, 2010 9:55 pm
Thanks for commenting Sue I hoped you would some time! All three books of hers that Ive
read are very readable and provide a great insight into the culture sometimes quite
surprising in the familiarity mixed with the exotic.
REPLY
2. Stefanie PERMALINK
March 2, 2010 6:37 am
Ive not read any Japanese Literature by women, Im going to have to put her on my reading list!
REPLY
whisperinggums PERMALINK*
March 2, 2010 7:36 am
Thanks for popping by Stefanie.
Yes do as you can tell, I like her books very much. The only other Japanese woman writer
that I recollect reading is Banana Yoshimoto (born 1964). Her first novel Kitchen is worth
reading. And I have Hitomi Kanehara (born 1983) in my TBR pile too. I like to read Japanese
fiction but have only read a tiny smattering.
REPLY
3. DKS PERMALINK
March 2, 2010 10:06 am
Theres Yuko Tsushima too, although all of her translated work is out of print (I think), and there
are the two big, old ones, Murasaki Shikibu, and Sei Shonagon. Shonagon seems to have a
low-lying but steady readership every now and then I come across a blog post by someone
who mentions her Lists of Things. (Things without Merit Splendid Things Rare Things.)
REPLY
whisperinggums PERMALINK*
3 of 4
March 2, 2010 3:54 pm

4/19/15, 7:02 AM

Sawako Ariyoshi, The doctors wife | Whispering Gums

http://whisperinggums.com/2010/03/01/sawako-ariyoshi-the-...

Thanks DKS. I was going to mention Murasaki Shikibu and Tales of the Genji. Id love to read
in one day. I havent heard of the other two so will check them out. Clearly not looking at the
lists you are or, more likely, they are not registering!
REPLY
4. DKS PERMALINK
March 3, 2010 5:46 pm
I read a library copy years ago and Ive been thinking of buying a translation of my own so that I
can read it again, but which translation to buy? This review http://dspace.anu.edu.au
/bitstream/1885/42042/1/tyler_review.html is inclining me towards the most recent one.
[The most recent translators] translation is less baroque than Waleys, less brisk than
Seidenstickers, and often better than either. Waley sounds like the most entertaining, but he left
parts out. I think my library copy was a Seidensticker. It seemed fine enough.
REPLY
5. Mel u PERMALINK
October 10, 2010 8:47 pm
I have read The Doctors Wive and The River Ki-I liked them both a lot and agree now the River
Ki is a bit better but I thought the Doctors Wive was a very interesting look at Japanese medical
practice-I hope to read Twilight Twilight Years soonREPLY
whisperinggums PERMALINK*
October 10, 2010 10:40 pm
Yes, I agree as Im sure you can tell. I look forward to hearing your view of The twilight years
when you get to it.
REPLY

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