Flood, Storm and Typhoon in Tanizaki Junichirō’s The Makioka Sisters

Abstract

Morton discusses in detail for the first time in English the relationship between The Makioka Sisters, Tanizaki Junichirō’s famous 1948 novel, and two horrifying weather events. The chapter analyses the portrayal of these events, which form the heart of the work, as literary evocations of the trauma such tragedies create, and also as examples of the author’s unparalleled skill in making these experiences the turning point in his fascinating narrative of the slow decline of one family’s fortunes in pre-war Japan. The Makioka family’s decline parallels Japan’s own slide into chaos and war in the 1930s decade, and the connections between the family’s fate and that of Japan are subtly hinted at in the narrative.