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The Salaryman’s Wife is about 21st Century Samurai: the Japanese mafia called Yakusa and the Ya-San’s junior motorcycle gang Bosuzoku, the Geisha Samurai consort bar girls and Rei Shimura a formidable Samurai woman strong minded self confident loyal. Rei Shimura moves from California to Tokyo at age 24 passionate for Japan, it‘s people, culture, folk art and antiques. Through 8 books the illiterate (cannot read kanji) antique buyer progresses to age 30 solving mysteries of murder and Japanese culture along the way. The Salaryman’s Wife is #1 of 8 books and like the first Nero Wolf, displays all the eccentricities defining its repertory cast. Rei is konketsujin, a denigrating appellation for half blood Japanese. Her mother is a sexy blond Baltimore socialite interior decorator with a penchant for designer clothes, her father a Japanese University of California psychiatrist. Her parents live in the toney hills of San Francisco and want nothing more than to lavish all their attention and money on their only child. However Rei’s heart is drawn to Japan where her Samurai blood seeks self support and self sufficiency, rejecting the comfortable luxury her parents offer. In Tokyo Rei’s Auntie Nori Shimura and children, her cousins physician Tom and collegiate Chika offer Rei family sanctuary and refuge. Her father’s brother, a traditional salaryman uncle, works in another city and visits home rarely. Through each book the reader learns Japanese language, as in the 5 disc DVD Shogun with Richard Chamberlain, as well as culture and prejudice. The murder takes place in a minshuku family run inn in the mountain village of Shiroyama origin of traditional Shunkei wood carving. The town is the site of ghost stories about Samurai Princess Miyo Shiroyama who failed at seppuku ritual suicide in the 1800s and continues to roam the surrounding forests. Rei’s experiences of Japanese prejudice as an American, as konketsujin, is a mirror image of the Chinese woman in the Joy Luck Club. Rei’s Samurai refusal to accept dependence on a male is similar to the matriarchal Chinese ethnic tribe Muoso where women accept men informally in a “walking marriage” then walk away if it so pleases her. In Salaryman's Wife haughty Japanese trophy wife Setsuko Nakamura dies at the minshuku over the New Year and Rei uncovers lies which return to haunt decades after WWII and sexual repression which wreaks harm in the cross fire of hormonal drive and fantasy. The entire 8 book series is a thoughtful journey through Zen Buddhism, the mixed parentage pregnancies resulting from American war and occupation, and a young woman's passion for self determination. Each book in the Rei Shimura series is engaging for it's revelation of Japanese culture, daily life in crushingly overpopulated Tokyo, the charm of the countryside and minshuku, the desire to consume 30 different foods each day to promote health, the difficulty wearing yukata and kimono, traditional tansu storage chests as well as ego, what is valued or defiled, shame, anger, literature, myth, conceits, leisure pursuits, hierarchy and career trajectory. And the female integrity which arises from self support. To view 1950 American views of Japan see DVD Memoirs of a Geisha, VHS Geisha Boy - Jerry Lewis, Teahouse of August Moon - Glenn Ford, My Geisha - Shirley MacLaine, and Sayonara - Maron Brando, Geisha and Barbarian - John Wayne. 5 Star travelogue and vocabulary lesson in a murder mysteryRead full review
Massey Mysteries are always worth the time spent and great gifts!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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