The Name of the Flower

Kuniko Mukoda
Stone Bridge Press (2007)
ISBN 1880656094
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (2/07)

Kuniko Mukoda, author of “The Name of the Flower,” takes a look at domestic life in several short stories.

“The Name of the Flower” is the story of a woman that took great pride in teaching her husband about flowers.  She taught him the names and properties and how to identify them.  After many years of marriage, he has matured and grown in many ways, but the wife has stood still never achieving more.  She nurtured him, but didn’t bother to nurture herself.

“Small Change” is the story of Shoji and Tomika.  Shoji chose Tomika as his mistress because he was comfortable with her and took no effort on his part.  Tomika was perfect for him - frugal, undemanding and ready to do what ever pleased him.  She was not remarkable in looks with her tiny eyes that were mere slits.  One day Shoji discovered that Tomika had an eyelift.  The change in her looks gave her self-confidence.  She began to talk more.  Suddenly she was too much trouble.  He is no longer sure he wants her.

“The Otter” is a story of illness.  Takuji is ill and cannot always discern real from paranoid delusions.  After years of marriage to Atsuko her voice grates on his nerves and he no longer trusts her.

“Ears” is the story of a man that decides to stay home from work.  He is ill and running a fever.  As he sits at home he begins to ponder ears.  He remembers a girl that had a wart on her ear.  She had a red silk thread tied around the wart in hopes that it would rot off.  He remembers lighting a match and trying to look inside her ear.  Then he begins to think about his daughter and how they argued over her piercing her ears.  He searches her closet and drawers.  They argue again when she discovers him in her closet.

The connecting thread to these stories is domestic issues.  “The Name of the Flower” by Kuniko Mukoda is a look at relationships.  Each story addresses a different issue that is faced in relationships regardless of whether you are from the East or the West.  Ms. Mukoda illustrates marriage, illness, children growing up, and how we change as we mature.  Mukoda was an extremely talented author and her death was a great loss to the literary world.  She had a flair for expressing herself emotionally and draws readers into her stories.  This is not a book you will read quickly and discard.  You will want to go back and reread the stories and ponder their true meaning.

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Reviewed by Deb Shunamon for Reader Views (07/06)

“The Name of the Flower” by Kuniko Mukoda is a wonderful book that would be of particular interest to those who think they know and understand Japan. While I can envision a Japanese reader nodding his or her head and muttering over these brilliantly translated snapshots of male/female relationships, a lot of "gaijin" will likely be quite bewildered as to what is going on much of the time. The reader quickly learns that this is not going to be an easy read. That's exactly what makes this book such a delight - it's a great, emotional reading experience that will show Westerners how little we truly understand Japanese society.
 
Kuniko Mukoda was a prolific scriptwriter for Japanese radio and television, and at the time of her death in a plane crash in 1981 she was well into a career as a popular essayist and short story writer. The Afterward by translator Tomone Matsumoto is an interesting piece on just how popular and hard-working Mukoda was. So much can be learned and enjoyed from this collection, the least of which being that Japan is now, of course, a very modern, westernized society. That this modernity can be unrecognizable when it concerns human relationships, or that Westernization does not necessarily mean the North American way, is repeatedly revealed in Mukoda's book. In addition to outright bewilderment, feelings of being insulted or angry can be indicators that you've encountered a cultural difference, and these strong emotions are evoked by many of the stories. "Small Change" is guaranteed to make any independent, Canadian woman scream in frustration. "The Carp", "The Fake Egg", and a few others still have me puzzled, while "Half-Moon" and "Otter" will break your heart.

What will non-Japanese readers take away from this book besides knowing that they may never fully understand Japanese society? This will likely be answered differently depending on whether the reader is male or female, and could be the start of some great discussions. However, seeing the familiar importance of marriages, families, and lovers in these stories, as well as the struggles we all go through to understand our own lives, keeps you riveted to this cross-cultural reading encounter to the last page. Modern works such as Kuniko Mukoda's “The Name of the Flower” will leave all readers with a great deal of respect for how similar relationships are between men and women around the world, yet how truly different.

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