The Last Concubine.

Lisa Arsenault is a high-school English teacher who is involved in
several ministry campaigns to increase literacy.

Set in the latter half of the 19th century, against a background of civil war and radical social change in Japan, this novel describes the fictional adventures of the last shogun’s concubine, Sachi. Although she is not an historical figure, many of the major characters, and most of the events, are non-fictional.

Sachi grew up in a mountain village where she would have lived out her life in obscurity had not the imperial princess passed through, noticed her, and acquired her as her companion in the vast women’s palace of the shogun’s compound. Eventually she is chosen to be the young shogun’s concubine, and, again, her life path would have been set, but for the fact that he died and she had not borne him the all-important male heir. Shortly after, the centuries-old traditions of the shogunate literally go up in smoke and Sachi is forced to flee the burning palace and start yet another life as a fugitive on the road.

Sachi’s character undergoes several changes in the face of changing circumstances. The hidebound protocols and restrictions that she followed slavishly in the women’s palace are swept away and she becomes, at least to some extent, the arbiter of her own fate. Trained as a concubine to be the servant and plaything of men, she gradually comes to view herself as an individual in her own right.

Reading this novel one feels transported to, and immersed in, old Japan. Sensory details, especially those pertaining to scent, are particularly acute. And some of the visual descriptions are almost tangible—one can practically feel the silk and brocade of the court kimonos and trace the designs of their cherry blossom motifs. Readers with a particular interest in Japanese palace history will be captivated by the lifestyles of the upper class. The discrepancies, however, between rich and poor, and between the sexes, are somewhat disturbing. Rather than regard it as the author’s “magical, fragile world which has gone forever,” I am more inclined to read about the dismantling of the shogunate system with a sigh of relief.