Chiyo Uno: 色ざんげ (Confessions of Love)

The latest addition to my website is Chiyo Uno‘s 色ざんげ (Confessions of Love). This 1930s novel was written by a free-spirited writer who was also an expert in fashion. She claims that the story was actually told to her verbatim by her lover, the artist Seiji Tōgō. The story is about the very tempestuous and complicated love life of Tōgō, involving his wife, soon to be his ex-wife, his new wife, the very spoilt daughter of a rich Mitsubishi executive, a young woman who really loves another man though she marries Tōgō and, finally, the woman he might love most but whose family definitely do not love him. Train journeys through Japan, a car crashing off a cliff, a suicide pact, an actual suicide and a regular changing of partners and lovers are all part of this frenetic novel. While most of the characters seem thoroughly miserable except when they are actually having sex (not as much as you might expect), it is still an interesting read, not least to learn of the dubious morality of Japan of the period.