The Life of a Certain Woman
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| Author | Tōson Shimazaki |
|---|---|
| Original title | ある女の生涯 Aru onna no shōgai |
| Translator | William E. Naff |
| Language | Japanese |
| Publisher | Shinchō |
Publication date | 1921 |
| Publication place | Japan |
Published in English | 2007 |
| Media type |
The Life of a Certain Woman (Japanese: ある女の生涯, Hepburn: Aru onna no shōgai) is a biographical novella by Japanese writer Tōson Shimazaki first published in 1921. The story is an account of the last years of Shimazaki's oldest sister Sono Takase and her battle with mental disorder.[1][2]
After the death of her husband, Ogen, a woman of sixty, leaves the household of the Oyamas, her husband's family, together with her forty-year-old daughter Oshin, her little nephew and a serving woman. She first stays at the clinic of Dr. Hachiya, suffering from mental disorders believed to be inherited from her father, who had died in complete madness, and the aftereffects of a venereal disease which she caught from her promiscuous husband. In addition, she blames the same venereal disease for her daughter's intellectual disability. After her companions' return to the Oyamas, Ogen travels to Tokyo, where she moves between the flats of her younger brothers Naotsugu and Kumakichi, who try to talk her into getting medical treatment. She is first taken to a rest home in Koishikawa, where her condition decreases to the point of hallucinating. Eventually, she is transferred to the Negishi mental hospital, which she loathes. Three years later, she dies. At her wake, the absence of her brother Kumakichi is noted, which the eldest brother Shōta explains with the fact that he had gotten notice too late.