Novel
The Wild Geese
雁
Mori Ōgai · 1913
Synopsis
Tokyo, 1880. Otama, the daughter of a sweets seller who raised her alone, agrees to become the mistress of Suezō, a married pawnbroker who has hidden his trade from her and promises to provide for the old man's needs, according to an American documentary database. He installs her in a small house; a medical student, Okada, passes under her window every evening, she smiles at him, and he gets into the habit of greeting her. When Otama learns her protector's true trade, she feels betrayed and sees in the student a possible saviour.
Context
The novel appeared in the journal Subaru from September 1911 to May 1913 and was gathered into a volume only in 1915. It is set in 1880 near Shinobazu Pond and the Muenzaka slope, around the University of Tokyo. The narrator, a friend of Okada who accompanies him on his walks, is never named, according to the same documentary source, which notes the gap between the constraints placed on women and their desire for freedom at the moment when the country is westernising. Toyoda Shirō made a film of it in 1953, with Takamine Hideko.
Who it is for
A short novel with a retrospective narrative, for readers interested in Tokyo in the early years of the Meiji era and in the condition of women.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English several times, from 1959 to 2014, and into French by Reiko Vergnerie in 1987.