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    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel
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    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel
    Ebook557 pages9 hours

    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel

    By Gail Tsukiyama

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Gail Tsukiyama's The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is a powerfully moving masterpiece about tradition and change, loss and renewal, and love and family from a glorious storyteller at the height of her powers.

    It is Tokyo in 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms, two orphaned brothers dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows early signs of promise at the national obsession of sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of Noh theater masks.

    But as the ripples of war spread to their quiet neighborhood, the brothers must put their dreams on hold—and forge their own paths in a new Japan. Meanwhile, the two young daughters of a renowned sumo master find their lives increasingly intertwined with the fortunes of their father's star pupil, Hiroshi.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 4, 2007
    ISBN9781429919098
    Unavailable
    The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel
    Author

    Gail Tsukiyama

    Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English. She is the bestselling author of several novels, including Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden, as well as the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.

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    Reviews for The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

    3.5/5

    16 ratings14 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed by this book. I was quite wrapped in the pre-war and WWII details during the first part, but the rest of it, while easily readable, felt very contrived and overdone. I felt as though Gail Tsukiyama was trying to educate me on every detail of Japanese ceremony, therefore had to squeeze in as many "life events" as possible. It became quite predictable. Too bad.
    • 2/5
      A Japanese-POV, teenage romance history of horror and recovery with some chaste babymaking and a kiss or two, but they were long after the bombs and firestorms over Tokyo. A tour of tradition with sumo stables and noh masks, a trainride to the mountains and Nara, hunger during the War, and everyone being better than anyone should. OK, a couple of bad guys but not many.

      An orange soda of a book. Sweet and easy to sip at on a hot day. But not filling.

      BTW even though Michael Chabon blurbed the book, it has no flashy writing. It plods on cliche after cliche, and never gallops, rears up, or takes a bad turn.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of two brothers, Kenji and Hiroshi, who have been raised by their grandparents after their parents died. The story spans nearly thirty years and includes quite a large cast of characters, including the men's loves, their grandparents, their work role models. There is a lot to be learned about Japan during and after WWII and about sumo wrestling. I would give this a 3.5 if it were possible and wish I had liked it more but there were so many characters that the book had to run quite long to flesh them all out but it was hard to really attach to any of them.
    • 4/5
      This fine novel follows two Japanese families over three decades - from 1930s to 1960s. Interesting detail on sumo wrestling, Noh theater and the effects of the war. Tsukiyama's writing is poetic.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful writing as Tsukiyama always does. A strong storyline and it does intertwine to your heart. Very strong and rich Japanese background, the Sumo and Noh theatre mask makers, which are very foreign to the outside world. Tsukiyama obviously did alot of research on these culture. One thing I found interesting is the trauma that WWII brought to Japan. And in the book, Tsukiyama said that she did want her readers to know the trauma brought by WWII into Japan. This challenged me when I read this book, as we always thought how evil the Japanese were at that time, and we totally overlooked their suffering in their very own soil. Overall, I do think that this is a book worth to wait for that long...
    • 3/5
      Beautifully told story about war time Tokyo and the determined rebuilding of the city. Characters' development is shallow and does not generate a great sympathy from the reader. Good for listening while driving as it is good to have the words and names pronounced correctly.
    • 5/5
      Just when you think you've read the best that Gail Tsukiyama has written, you read another and it threatens to trump the others. I don't think Ms Tsukiyama is capable of writing even a mediocre book.The Street of a Thousand Blossoms covers the world of sumo wrestling and Noh theater. Both traditional sporting and artistic performances to have survived WWII. In pre-war Japan, we are introduced to a pair of grandparents bringing up their 2 young grandsons after their parents died in a boating accident, an esteemed mask artist and the owner and manager of a stable of sumo wrestlers and his 2 daughters.Even as the Japanese armies gain more victories around the Asia Pacific, hardship descends on the Japanese people at home. Rations, military police harassment and abuse, hunger,fear and the horrors of the atomic bombs change families and people as no one could have foretold. Through the war, through American occupation and through the gradual rebuilding of Japan, the reader is provided ring-side seats into the lives of everyday Japanese. We are given the privilege of understanding the thoughts and feelings of each person. We learn their secrets, their fears, their hopes, their dreams and their aspirations. While the 2 orphaned boys grow up to become confident men in their chosen profession of sumo wrestling and mask making, happiness wars with grief. You celebrate their triumphs and you grieve with their tragedies. What you don't do, is lose hope because they don't lose hope. What's subtly weaved through is that of balance.The cadence throughout the book is one of respect, quiet determination and acceptance. You lose yourself among the pages and you forget that these people aren't real. You can see them in your mind's eye and you want to reach out and hug them. This is a book that leaves a soothing calmness in you even as you close it.
    • 1/5

      Interesting view of Japan during World War II through the eyes of the Japanese people. Beautifully written, but didn't hold my interest -- somewhat scattered.

    • 3/5
      I am not sure why I didn't love The Street of a Thousand Blossoms. I generally like books about Asian culture, in the style of Amy Tan and Lisa See, and historical fiction. The prose was pretty, and the protragonists were likeable, though a bit too perfect to be believable. The pacing was very slow, the only thing that made me want to keep reading was the knowledge that eventually the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would happen, and I was curious about what it was like to live in Japan then, and hoping that the story would pick up at that point.
    • 5/5
      The novel essentially tells the story of two orphaned brothers, Hiroshi and Kenji living in Tokyo and growing up under the care of their beloved grandparents. The readers follow the boy from their childhood, through the teenage years until their adulthood. In the thirty years much is happening. Tragedy strikes more than once, or even twice. Japan goes through tragic times together with the rest of the world fighting in WWII, millions of people die as a result of Hiroshima's and Nagasaki's nuclear bombing and in the midst of all that two boys grow up with dreams to become something more than just two more dutiful Japanese citizens. As I have already mentioned in my bookclub, I fell absolutely and irrevocably under Gail Tsukiyama's spell. Her writing is exactly what I expect from the best literary fiction, it's very lyrical, with a lot of passages that I woud want to commit to memory and with wonderful characters. Why are they so wonderful, you ask? Because they are painfully human and very real. Not only Hiroshi and Kenji, but their friends, their grandparents and everyone they meet on the road of life, deal with life, death, loss, tragedy and happiness in their own ways and the more I got to read about them the more they seemed like people I'd love to know and the less like a characters on the pages of the book. Some are strong and determined to get what they want despite the circumstances, others just 'go with the flow' simply to survive and a few can't make it at all. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is not an action packed book, it's rather a panorama of people's lives in the midst and aftereffects of great tragedy. And because it's Japanese, the author imparts a lot of wisdom that I think I always like the most about Asian fiction. Most of it is simple but it has stronger impact on my own thoughts and actions than any self-help book out there. I know that not everyone will appreciate this novel for precisely the same reasons I loved it so much: it's not about one main plot so much as about the characters, relationships and dealing or not dealing with whatever may come. It's one of those books that once you get familiarized with the people in there, you pick your favorites, most intriguing or most tragic and then you just want the story to go on and on. You want to know what happens in their lives after you turn the last page. I am now ready to go to the bookstore and get every single book Ms. Tsukiyama penned.
    • 2/5
      Perhaps I'm becoming more discerning in my reading selections, perhaps this wasn't the right time for me to read this book, perhaps the two occupations featured, sumo wrestling and mask making were entirely uninteresting to me....I don't know. I do know that I read half of this book and decided I really wasn't enjoying it. I didn't care about any of the characters, the plot, or how it turned out. Too many characters may have been part of the problem, too many Japanese words, and the writing seemed flat and uninspiring. I wanted to like this book, I tried but no go.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful story by an awesome author about two Japanese orphans raised by their grandparents pre, during and post WWII. The older of the two studies the suma and becomes an exhalted wrestler while the younger of the two goes on through university studying architecture but becomes a maker of theater masks. This is a beautifully written novel with richly formed characters that I really cared about. Tsukiyama, as in all of her books, tells so many complete stories within this novel that upon finishing the book one feels so satisfied with the reading of it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I recommend all of her books. They are all absolutely wonderful and beautifully written.
    • 1/5
      I picked this book up from my public library because it had a blurb by Michael Chabon. Usually, I don't do that, but I thought, I love his work, maybe I'll love this too. The novel follows the lives of two brothers who are orphans and live with their grandparents. It starts before world war II in Japan and progresses through the mid-sixties. One of the brothers is interested in sumo and becoming a wrestler, while the other brother's interest lies in creating Noh masks for the theatre. The beginning of the book is quite promising and I was immediately drawn in. However, it quickly became overloaded in too many characters and flat scenes. When I think of other novles that have an abundance of characters and work well, I wonder how that is possible? Part of it is that they have their own story, or their story is so tied up in the overall main story. For instance the story might be about an event, instead of a person's life. It didn't work well in this novel. I found myself skimming for the few lines of dialogue that mattered to the brothers' lives. While the writing is beautiful at times, it is not beautiful enough to keep one enthralled. There are writers who can have page after page in which almost nothing happens and it is a gift. Again, that's not the case in this novel. When it comes down to it, this novel can be summed up as a "sports story", and what always happens? The homerun is hit, the touchdown is scored, all the bowling pins get knocked over. Predictable, wandering and flat at times. This one took effort to get through. I might still check out one of her earlier novels, but we'll see.
    • 4/5
      The story of a Hiroshi, who is orphaned in the 1930's and raised by his grandparents through the conclusion of World War II, and his little brother Kenji. Both boys survive the war and rise to the top of their fields--Hiroshi as a sumo wrestler and Kenji as a Noh theatre mask maker. Both encounter considerable tragedy along the way, so much in fact that it almost becomes funny. Uh oh! The baby dies, the train crashes, the wife commits suicide, the couple is infertile--it goes on and on. The story is interesting if it does pull a little too hard on the pathos. Lots of interesting Japanese culture, especially reading about Japan during the war.