"Shôhei Ôoka's novel about a bar hostess in postwar Tokyo is a bracing alternative to the more familiar geisha stories that have appealed to romantic American readers. . . . In Dennis Washburn's smooth translation, the novel displays the subtleties of a sector of Japanese culture ruled by sexual courtesies."
--The New York Times Book Review

"'In its first English translation, Ôoka's 1961 novel depicts the atmosphere and social mores of Tokyo's decadent Ginza District of the 1950s . . . Despite the dry irony of Ôoka's prose, there is great pathos in this story of the little bar hostess whose circumstances overwhelm her. This edition includes an informative introduction by the translator and an enlightening 1972 postscript by the author."
--Publishers Weekly

"Dennis Washburn has faithfully captured the tone of Ôoka's earthy novel, rendering artfully the terse dialogue and sharp narrative descriptions of the seedy world of a life lived in the shadow of younger women, callous men, and a changing society."
--Erik R. Lofgren in World Literature Today

Ôoka Shôhei (1909-88) was a distinguished member of the Japanese literary establishment for more than four decades following the end of the Pacific War. He was a prolific writer and active translator of French literature, most notably the novels of Stendahl. A protege of the influential critic Kobayashi Hideo (1902-83), Ôoka secured his reputation with such works as the novel Fires on the Plain and the memoir Taken Captive: A Japanese POW's Story that recount his experiences as a soldier in the Philippines during World War II.

While the war was the defining experience for Ôoka, his work exhibits enormous range and depth. The Shade of Blossoms, for which he was honored in 1961 with both the Mainichi and the Shinchô literary prizes, is a novel of manners; and certainly the setting of the novel, the demimonde of the Ginza bar scene in the 1950s, and its subject, the aging bar hostess Yôko, seem far removed from the universe of battle. Nonetheless, The Shade of Blossoms not only shares key elements of style but also extends in important ways the moral concerns of his earlier works.

The Shade of Blossoms provides a disturbing view of lives at the margins of Japanese society. Ôoka's is a powerfully ethical literature that describes the inner search for meaning and identity in a world where received values have been disrupted by war or by social upheavals. His moral imagination is uncompromising and disturbing, and his emotional intelligence is matched by few postwar writers.