Memories of Silk and Straw: A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan

by Junichi Saga

Book Overview

Over 50 reminiscences of pre-modern Japan-illustrations of a way of life that has virtually disappeared. Voted "Best Book of the Year" by Japan's foreign press.

This is a collective biography, based on interviews taped by a small-town doctor, recording the lives of a cotton dyer, blacksmith, tofu maker, undertaker, carter, tenant farmer, local gangster, casual laborer, horse-meat butcher, magistrate's wife, apprentice geisha, rice merchant,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870119885
• ISBN13: 9780870119880
• Release Date: June 1990
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.2" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

far away and not so long ago

This book is filled with priceless historic snapshots of real-life everyday drama that cannot be found in any textbook. From farmers, fishermen, and merchants to executioners and geishas who entertained kamikaze pilots in the last days of their lives, these simple, unadorned memories of ordinary smalltown Japanese people living in a previous era under circumstances that we in modern, high-tech times cannot imagine left me in awe of the power of the human body and spirit. A learning experience in culture and history that reinforces how valuable the memories of our own elders are.

well written and interesting.

A collection of interviews with people who tell stories of their lives in a small japanese village from about 1890 to 1930. Arranged by occupation, all are very interesting. One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is the commonality the stories share with my own American relatives (as to the hardships of farm life, what people did for fun, etc.). The book even occasionally slips into a "when I was a kid we had to walk two miles uphill in the snow" sort of mode, but this makes many of the stories all the more touching.

A vanished world

This is a factual book in which a world that no longer exists becomes vividly real as seen through a provincial doctor's elderly patients recollections of their younger lives. My first introduction to this book came through my Japanese language teacher. Her physician is the son of the author. Each chapter covers the recollections of a single patient, so the book is very easily read in discreet portraits which together paint the overall picture. Dr Saga's patients tell their stories with such intimacy, warmth and frankness that you are drawn ever deeper into their world. All lived in and around Tsuchiura, a town on the edge of a large lake about 30 miles north of Tokyo. Many of the stories are of fishermen who made their living from the lake. There are also the merchants, gangsters and entertainers. Together, these people provide a real insight into the way people lived and worked in Japan before the rapid development of the latter half of the 20th century produced the comfortable lifestyles of today.

Memories of Silk and Straw

One of the best books about pre-war Japan. Each story brings to life a different aspect of life, culture, and class as they existed before the war. If you've visited Japan, you'll have a hard time believing this kind of world ever existed. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.

Excellent 1st person accounts of pre-war japan

1st person accounts collected by a Tsuchiura doctor from elderly Japanese. Together, they piece together a quiltwork of Japanese society from the bottom on up. All, in pre-war Japan. Tsuchiura is just next door to Tsukuba, a modern science city and destination for many foreign researchers in Japan. As one such researcher, the book helped me understand some seemingly unexplainable remnants of old practices that still persist. I couldn't put the book down. The stories of lives jump out of the pages.