A Japanese Girlhood

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 3

A Japanese Girlhood

Rain and the Feast of the Stars. By Reiko Hatsumi. Murray. 21S PPThe author of this book is a young Japanese writer who was born in Tokyo and who received her early education there. Later she went on to an American University and now writes in English. Here in an elegant, elliptical prose style, she describes her Japanese girlhood and the impact of the changing times on herself and members of her family. The ordered, ceremonious social life in a well-to-do aristocratic Japanese Catholic household had brought to it the conflicting influences of the mother’s strict observance of social custom, the Buddhist convictions of various of the influential servants and the liberal ideas of an inter-nationally-minded scholarly father. Though he expected the eldest son to follow in the family tradition, the father tried to provide an education for this family which he hoped would enable them to meet different situations in different kinds of worlds. Reiko Hatsumi was therefore sent to two widely differing schools; first to the foreigners’ section of a Convent, where she absorbed Western ideas, then to a Japanese school where the effort to conform to the regimentation demanded in the pre-war militaristic period confused her to the point ot a breakdown in mental health. During her convalescence, she met a temple priest whose wisdom was influential in helping her to withstand the cultural cwffnftr m nd 1 iiie.

Miss Hatsumi describes her household, its occupants, its visitors, the German music teacher, the French governess, the garden, with vividly remembered detail which is Skilfully presented from her childhood point of view. Throughout her book we are aware of the conflict between the gentle, contemplative life and the ferment of change. The writing is marked by restraint, closely observed detail, a fine sense of etinwr and an artistic use of paradox. The illustrator has observed the same control and restraint It is a beautiful book in every way.