The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese Women's Writing.

by Paul Gordon
Schalow; Janet A. Walker
Review by: Alwyn Spies
Pacific Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 276-278
Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia
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 PacificAffairs

these twoauthorssucceeds as the coverage of thisworkis comprehensive

and the selection of significanttitlesis good. Others could suggestaddi-
tional titles,and this reviewerwould add the followingimportantones
(*indicates bilingual sources): A GuidetotheJapanese LibraryCollectionsof
Western NorthAmerica; ProceedingsoftheWorkshopforjapanese StudiesLibrarians;
Japan Studiesin Canada; JapaneseNational Government Publicationsin the
Library ofCongress;*DirectoryofjapaneseScientific
Periodicals; ofForeign
Directory
CapitalAffiliated inJapan;*Handbook
Enterprises ofFinancialDataofIndustries;
*Analysts'Guide;Nelson's, Halpern's, and Spahn & Hadamitzky'sJapanese
Character Dictionaries;PopulationCensusofjapan; and *NationalSurveyof
Prices,etc. Manylibrariesalso keep titlessuch as the followingin theirref-
erence collection: TheJob Hunter'sGuidetoJapan;How toDo Businesswiththe
Japanese:A Complete GuidetotheJapaneseCustomsand BusinessPractices;A
GuidetoTeachingEnglish inJapan;*Japanas It is: A BilingualGuide;*Nippon,
theLand and ItsPeople.All these essentialreferencematerialsare strongly
recommendedforinclusionin a revisededition,when thispresentvolume
is enlarged in the future.Since thisreferenceguide, as itsseriestitleindi-
cates,is thefirstofthissortofbibliographyfromthispublisher,similarones
on otherAsian areas are expected to appear in comingyears.
ofBritishColumbia, Vancouver,Canada
University TSUNEHARU GONNAMI

THE WOMAN'SHAND: Gender and Theory inJapanese Women's Writing.

Edited byPaul GordonSchalow andJanet A. Walker.Stanford(California):
Stanford UniversityPress. 1996. xx, 511 pp. (Illus., B & W photos.)
US$60.00, cloth, ISBN 0-8047-2722-8; US$22.50, paper, ISBN
0-8047-2723-6.

THIS BOOK is a collection of fifteenessays, most originally presented at

the Rutgers Conference on Japanese Women Writers (April 1993), dealing
with a very wide range ofJapanese women's writing.The essays in the first
section, "Situating the Woman Writer in Japanese Literature," treat the
classical texts The Tale of Genji, The Pillow Book ofSei Shonagon, The Gossamer
Years (Kagero Nikki), and The Tosa Diary; the next three sections
"Narrating the Body," "Defining the Female Voice," and "Locating 'Woman'
in Culture" - contain essays about works by modern writersKanai Mieko,
Enchi Fumiko, Takahashi Takako, Oba Minako, Hayashi Kyoko, Hayashi
Fumiko, Kono Taeko, Nakazawa Kei, Matsumoto Yuko, Tsushima Yuko and
Yamada Eimi. Bibliographies of English translations of modern Japanese
women's writing and of critical works, and translations of classical writing
are provided.

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 Book Reviews

The editors claim that the collection is part of a worldwide "inquiry into
women's traditions of writing"and also is indicative of a new trend in North
American academic circles towards applying western critical theory,partic-
ularly that related to gender and feminism, to Japanese women's writing.
The preface states that the book follows the history of western feminist
study in that it mirrors the early Anglo recovery of tradition and later
French resistance to patriarchal language and current postcolonial con-
cerns with acculturation through ethnicityand class. The sheer volume of
women writersrepresented by the collection indicates its success in "recov-
ering" Japanese women's writing for North American audiences.
Thematically disparate, its essays introduce or elaborate on an assortment of
stories by writersof great talent.
With a few stunning exceptions, a tension recurs between the theory
and the textual analysis within the essays, and between the essays and the
editors' attempt to unifythem. Like much other writingthat applies western
theory toJapanese literature,the introduction consists of a discussion about
the problems with defining 'Japanese woman" and 'Japanese woman's writ-
ing" and the ethical difficulties in applying western ontological and
philosophical frames to Japanese texts that are then countered by a bid for
strategic essentialism and the need to make real political changes for
women everywhere: essentialist categories, it is argued, can question the
binarisms that underlie them. Texts must then be represented as subver-
sive to qualify as "women's writing"or writingthat is worthyof gender and
feminist theory. It seems that we are still tryingto prove that what we like
to read, write and think about, or teach with, is "good." To whom does this
need to be proven or justified?
The constant search for subversion apparent in the majority of essays
is more than balanced by the inspiring textual analyses they contain. The
Woman's Hand also contains a short piece of Oba Minako's fiction in the
translator's postscript to her essay that is, given its position in the collection,
absolutely brilliant. The editors have included a translation of a "fictional-
ized autobiographical essay" from Oba's 1994 collection Mukashi onna gaita
(Long ago, there was a woman) because it contains an "account" of her pre-
sentation at Rutgers of the paper included in Woman's Hand. This is a
Japanese woman writer's "fictionalized" analysis of western academic non-
fictional inquiries into Japanese women's writing placed in the literal
context of a book of academic essays on Japanese women's writingthat suc-
cinctly summarizes the tension between the readings of the texts
(experienced jouissance) and the theory and its necessary condition for
social change or real conclusions, suggests that perhaps fiction says more
than theory can ever explain. In it, the narrator,who is aJapanese woman
writer at a foreign university,gives a talk on women's writing. The young
people attending keep asking for a point, for conclusions about women's

277

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 PacificAffairs

writing.She finallyanswers,"Face it,thereare no conclusions.You ramble

on about whatyou have seen, and thenyourtimein thisworldis up."
ofBritishColumbia,Vancouver
University Canada ALwYN
SPIES

MAKIKO'S DIARY: A Merchant Wife in 1910 Kyoto. By Makiko Nakano.

Press.
TranslatedbyKazuko Smith.Stanford(California): StanfordUniversity
1995. xii, 256 pp. (Maps, figures,B & Wphotos.) US$45.00, cloth,ISBN
0-8047-2440-7; US$14.95, paper,ISBN 0-8047-2441-5.
THIS IS the one-year diary of a youngJapanese woman, a new bride in a
large extended merchant family household of Kyoto in 1910. Makiko
Nakano's diary offersan important window on Japanese gender construc-
tions, familyrelationships, merchant culture and continuing transitions to
a Westernized lifestylein the period in which it was written.
Makiko's rendition of her own life and storyadds to the growing body
of literature which seeks a more sophisticated understanding ofJapanese
constructions of womanhood by exploring the intersections of gender with
age, class, subculture, and individual personality. Makiko emerges as a cre-
ative individual, ever eager to try new things. She is not however, a
rebellious young woman, or one of the newJapanese feministsof the time,
who question gender constraints inherent in Japanese social values. To a
large extent Makiko's primary goal is becoming the "Good Wife, Wise
Mother" that is the espoused Meiji ideal. She is frustratedwhen she must
ask permission to venture out of the household, when she is made to feel
guilty about visiting an art exhibit or the theatre, when her husband belit-
tles or reprimands her. However, she does not see these frustrations as
resulting fromJapanese gender and familyroles, but tends to define them
as "her problem," resulting from her wagamama (selfish) nature, and con-
tinually chides herself to do better for her family.
The diary reveals a great deal about extended familyrelationships dur-
ing this time period. At a young age Makiko and her husband must assume
the role of adoptive parents for younger relatives, and a "returned bride."
Although Makiko likes and respects her husband, he is often the source of
her irritationsin life. Certain interactions remind us that marriage during
this period had less to do with personal feelings between husband and wife,
and more to do with extended family and household expectations. The
diary offersan extensive view of the relationship between one daughter-in-
law and her mother-in-law, a relationship which seems bound by deep
affection rather than the deep resentment stereotypicallyattributed to it.
However, there are indications in the diary that in general this relation-
ship is expected to be a tense one. Perhaps Makiko's more favourable
relationship with her mother-in-law results from her individual need to
create an affectionate bond with a mother substitute upon the death of
her own mother at the time of her marriage.

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