The Peony Garden by Kafu Nagai

IN LAST week’s Japanese Literature class, we discussed Kafu Nagai’s Peony Garden.⁣⁣

I did not like the story at first but after re-reading it, I came to realize how much I really like it. I think Japanese literature can be fully appreciated if one would first immerse in the study of the writer’s background and the era when it was written.⁣⁣

The Peony Garden was written in the Meiji era when Tokyo was in the midst of its transition. I think Kafu Nagai expressed in this story his inability to accept changes or his hesitation to be a part of the newly forming society norms. I feel that this story is quite relevant to our current situation especially now that we are in the process of embracing a so called “new normal”.⁣⁣

The story is about a man and a women who visited a Peony Garden. On the way to the garden, they took a boat ride where they were lulled into talking about things of the past. Their relationship in particular. They had a very confusing relationship, in my opinion. They seem to be both agreeable about something, but each kept a hidden desire about something else.

When they reached the garden, they were both disappointed by the dullness of the surroundings. The novelty of the garden seemed to have been lost in the turn of the season. Just how their relationship have already bloomed, yet, at the wrong time. I think this story layers on change, time, nostalgia, depression, and missed chances.

My favorite part in the story is the last part when the peonies were falling off. The description of the petals falling in the shadow is just so vivid that I could almost hear them fade-away. ♡ ⁣⁣

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Kafu Nagai 1879-1959⁣⁣

“Most acute critic of Tokyo in transition—the writer who most perspicaciously described the ugly realities of the city – and as the writer who described Tokyo’s cultural features that never should have been, but ultimately were, forever lost”⁣⁣⁣⁣

– Sakagami Hiroichi⁣⁣ (Dictionary of Literary Biography)