Fish of the Seto Inland Sea - Hardcover

Pilgrim, Ruri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002570874 ISBN 13: 9780002570879

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

An extraordinary portrait of one family across the years of Japan’s greatest changes; a loving, honest, moving biography of the author’s mother.

Ruri Pilgrim tells the story of her family from the 1870s to the 1950s. She begins with the formality and security of the arrangements of life for a Japanese middle-class family, living in a walled compound with their servants, following exactly the tradition inherited from their parents, with marriages arranged for the children, which continued up till World War II.

By then her mother was married to an engineer and living in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. That period, with her mother’s often funny, painful experiences of learning about the Chinese and Russians with whom she now lived with her growing family, and the war seen from her point of view, is fascinating. At the end of the war, the Japanese – women, children, everyone – had to escape, walking hundreds of miles to the coast.

The family returned to a Tokyo where the society, the culture, the economy was entirely overturned. The Americans were everywhere, the Japanese were unemployed, and the ways of society that they had all known had vanished. And yet somehow Ruri’s indomitable mother survived.

About this title

About the Author

Ruri Kumoi Pilgrim was born and raised in Japan, went to university in the USA, and came to Cambridge University for her PhD. She married a colleague, and has worked with him on aid projects all over the world. She now lives in Bath.

From the Back Cover

“When people heard that the daughter of the Shirais was chosen as Shintaro’s bride, they could not understand why. The Shirais had been doctors in traditional medicine for many generations. They had been retained doctors of feudal lords until the system was abolished towards the end of the 1880’s. Since then the present head of the family, Tei-ichi, continued to look after people in his area with his hereditary knowledge and experience. But the family were not well-off. The house was always full of poor patients. With backs and knees bent from hard lives, the peasants brought their children, exhausted from suffering. So his fees were often not paid or pad with small amounts of fish, fruit and vegetables.

The Shirais lived in an old house surrounded by a moat and high stone walls. A wooden bridge led to a large gate and straight ahead was a main entrance. The gate was usually closed and people used people used a small side door to get into the front courtyard. From there they walked to the back of the houseto enter through the family entrance or kitchen.”

'Fish of the Seto Inland Sea' is an extraordinary, moving portrait of one family across the years of the greatest changes in Japan, and a loving biography of the author’s mother and family.

Ruri Pilgrim tells the story of her family from the 1870s through to the aftermath of the Second World War, based on her own memories and long conversations with her mother, and on the writings and recollections of other relatives. Her mother lived in the walled compound in the countryside, along with the rest of their family and the servants. Her father was the local doctor and their house was very much the centre of the community. The lifestyle was formal and secure; days and seasons followed regular patterns; there were accepted rules governing social behaviour; marriages were arranged. The whole atmosphere is one of timeless continuity.

By the time Japan entered the War, Ruri Pilgrim’s mother had married an engineer and was living in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. That period with her mother’s sometimes painful, sometimes funny experiences of learning about the Russians and Chinese with whom she now lived with her growing family, as well as the war seen from her point of view, is fascinating. At the end of the war, the Japanese – women, children, everyone – had to face marauding Chinese and the Soviet army while trying to escape to the coast.

The family returned to a Tokyo, where the society, the culture and the economy was entirely overturned. The Americans were everywhere, the Japanese were unemployed, and the ways of society that they had all known and lived by had vanished. And yet somehow Ruri Pilgrim’s indomitable mother survived.

'Fish of the Seto Inland Sea' presents a fascinating, unique inside view of a country of which we know little and a family portrait of great emotional depth and honesty, a world readers will not forget.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002570874
• ISBN 13: 9780002570879
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336