Resumo de Cherry Tree Blossom Season

Translation by:femme/900/20 October 2005
The author was inspired by the life of her mother to write this family chronicle through the experiences of Japanese women.
From the beginning of the twentieth century up to the Second World War, this saga allows us to uncover the daily lives of these women across four generations. Kei, the grandmother, represents the feudal tradition of Japanese society that considers women, first and foremost, to be pretty puppets under their fathers' control, then under that of their husbands. Marriage is seen as one of the supporting pillars of this society which is ruled by the ancestral laws that punctuate the lives of Japanese men and women.
Ayako, Kei's daughter, so very much admired on account of her beauty, and who is very abiding with the Japanese social codes, marries a man chosen by her family. She raises three daughters, Takeko, Haruko, and Sachiko, with the goal of marrying them off in their turn, according to the rules of Japanese society. The tea and kimono ceremonies make up an integral part of their upbringing by preparing them to be exemplary wives. Indeed, Japanese society does not recognize them as having the right to practice a profession or choose a husband themselves. The courageous and independent Haruko will not, however, succeed in her opposition against the weight of Japanese tradition. She will see herself having to decline a career as a doctor and will be obligated to accept a husband forced upon her by her family.
A mother in her turn, Haruko, like many other Japanese women will suffer a complete lashing, a dramatic consequence of the war. Her struggle to survive in a city of ruins will force her to change. If the War brings its share of misery by destroying the main supporting structures of traditional Japanese society, it also allows these women to evolve. No longer able to count on the money and abundance passed on inside of families thanks to arranged marriages, Haruko, like other widows or wives of her rank, has to look in the face of the necessity of having to go to work. The encounter with the American enemy, as well as the opening up of Japanese society to the outside, on account of the pursuit of youth studies in Europe and the United States, allows for an expansion of the Japanese mentality. A change is brought about for the vision of women and Haruko can hope for better days through her own daughters' evolution and successes.
The way the novel is scripted demonstrates the abrupt change in Japanese society. The first part has to do with the social rules that surround arranged marriages and the rhythym of the seasons which punctuates people's lives and women's roles. The second part points out the economic and moral consequences of the war for a society with rigid attitudes. The third part offers an opening up to the future as a result of the struggles of these women who seem to have more aptitude for adaptation than the men. It is noted, moreover, that many of the men in the novel die, one after another, from dsease or fatal wounds sustained during the war.
Faced with societal changes, the men are often very powerless. In addition, Haruko's life is itself marked by the successive deaths, first of her younger brother and then of her husband at the end of the novel.
The novel, however, does not have to do with a complete rejection of traditional Japanese society since it ends with a tea ceremony during which Haruko remembers a scenario where she was reflecting on things with her grandmother, Kei. The image of a blossoming cherry tree, heralding the budding of new leaves, is a hopeful note that makes the Japanese woman the symbol of continuity between tradition and that which is new.
The author knew how to perfectly integrate the detailed descriptions of Japanese rituals and customs in the narration. This allows us to better grasp a knowledge of a society's life on the inside, which might seem archaic to us, and also to better understand a philosophy of lifoften seems strange to us.

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