Home » Japan » Mieko Kawakami »ミ卵 (Breasts and Eggs)
Mieko Kawakami: 卵 (Breasts and Eggs)
The first point to make is that yes, the title does refer to human female breasts and human ovaries, though Natsuko Natsume, the narrator does enjoy eating hen’s eggs. The second point to make is is that the the other topic the first part of the book partly deals with is a topic not very common in Japanese literature at least the literature that has been translated into English, namely(relative) poverty. As we shall see the second part is related but focuses on a different topic.
The first part sees Natsuko, who lives in Tokyo, receiving a short visit from her sister and her niece who live in Osaka
Natsuko is an unsuccessful writer. She and her sister Makiko grew up in poverty in the Osaka area. Their father was lazy, abusive and a drunk. One day he disappeared and never returned. The three moved to live with Komi. However their mother died of breast cancer when Natsuko was thirteen. Komi died two years later. Fortunately Komi had left money hidden in various places around he house. Both girls worked in bars ying about their age.
`Makiko lives with her twelve-year old daughter Midoriko who has not spoken to her mother for more than six months. It is not clear why.
Makiko still lives in Osaka , working in a bar five nights a week. The two have now come to Tokyo to stay with with Natsuko. Makiko wants a breast implant.
Makiko seems obsessed with the idea of breast implants and has obtained brochures from various clinics about what is on offer. Apparently there are several different ways of doing breast implants and she knows a lot but, of course, the best is the most expensive. She has another related issue namely the colour of her nipples which apparently can also be changed.
While the two sisters are discussing breasts,Midoriko is writing in her journal, deploring the fact that her body will change in puberty and also deploring the fact that many mothers see the first menstruation of their daughter as her becoming a woman. She makes it very clear that she will never be a mother.
The two sisters go to a bath house where Makiko seems to stare at the breasts of other women while keeping hers concealed. When Matsuko finally sees her sister’s breasts she is able to confirm both as regards size and colouration that Makiko is correct. As regards, Natsuko she comments my monolithic expectation of what a woman’s body was supposed to look like had no bearing on what actually happened to my body.. However, all that matters to her is to be able to write and that is what she feels her role is.
Makiko heads off to the clinic while Natsuko and Midoriko go to the amusement park. When they return, they wait for.Makiko and wait and wait. Natsuko tells Midoriko how Makiko looked after her after their mother died, which seems to be something that Midoriko was unaware of. Makiko eventually t Makiko urns up completely drunk. What follows is some sort of reckoning between mother and daughter with Natsuko caught in the middle.
In the second part Natsuko is still in Tokyo but she has now published a book which has had considerable success. She has acquired an editor , Ryoko Sengaw,a who is helping her with a novel that she is writing but which is not moving very fast and she supplements her income by writing a column for a local newspaper. She is still unmarried and we see her at the beginning meeting a group of women who had all worked with her at a local bookshop. Some of them are very sceptical about their marriages. She had previously had another editor who was highly critical and said did not have the necessary talent. He was of course a man. I realised he was full of crap..
Elsewhere Midoriko has a boyfriend with whom she seems to be happy whileMakiko is working harder than ever as her boss is in in poor health.
Natsuko had had a boyfriend, Naruse, which did not work out because she did not enjoy sex, finding it painful. The relationship ended and he married someone else. Suddenly, out of the blue, after a long gap he phones her up. He is particularly concerned about the Fukushima nuclear accident and encourages her to write about it which, in fact, she had done. He refers her to his Facebook page where he writes about the issue as well as showing a photo of his son. She looks at this later and sees the son growing up and of course speculate what it might’ve been like if she had married him and had children with him.
She sees a video about fertility treatment and decide to look into it to see if she, as a single woman, could have a baby. She reads a lot about it, watches various videos and gives it a lot of thought. In Japan fertility treatment is primarily for heterosexual couples and it does seem it is possible for single women as well as homosexual couples to get semen for implanting and she seriously considers it. She manages to locate a Danish company which will ship all over the world and seems very reliable.
Meanwhile Ryoko Sengawa invites her to a book reading and she found it somewhat strange as the writers all seem decidedly eccentric, as regards what they wear, what they say and how they say it. She does meet another writer, Rika Yusa, and they become friends. Rika is a single mother so she can tell Natsuko about the difficulties of raising a child on her own.
Her novel seems to take a backseat as she focuses on the many issues around the subject of having children. We meet adults who have only learned as adults that the man they thought was their father is not their biological father as the mother had sperm donation and of course has no idea who the biological father is. Linked to this is the issue of infertility invariably, and accurately, being blamed on a woman rather than the man. We learn about bad fathers and bad husbands.Rika says n their opinion: us. It’s all our fault—whether they’re unpopular, broke, jobless. Whatever it is, they blame women for all of their failures. She adds They were interviewing this old woman from some other country. She was 109 or 110. Really up there. And the reporter asked her: ‘What’s the secret to long life?’ You know what she said? ‘Stay away from men
Natsuo read aslot about the topics and gets involved in discussions, both in groups and with friends. Sengawa even suggest she write a book about her experiences.
Natsuo get involved in the whole business of sperm donation, being a single mother and, more generally, how women are seen, are treated, and often struggle in the modern Japanese world.
This is of course two books even though they do merge somewhat and there is no doubt that the second part is the most interesting as we get on the whole business of the role of women and how they’re treated in Japan but also the alternatives to a conventional heterosexual marriage and parenthood. There are alternatives andNatsuo considered her options and struggles with making a decision. There is no question this is a quite unusual book and certainly well worth reading with his discussion of all these various issues.
Publishing history
First published in 1980 byBungakukai
First English translation in 2in 2020 by Europa
Translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd