The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

“Just as Clint Eastwood opened a window for us on the Japanese experience during World War II, Gail Tsukiyama has pulled back the veil and let us peek into the lives of those living on the home front. Tsukiyama has long been known for her emotional and detailed stories. This time, she has gone even deeper to explore what happens to ordinary people during frightening and tragic times.”

—Lisa See, author of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
and
Peony in Love

“The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
is a generational saga, both sweeping and intimate. Covering the years of the war and after, on the homefront of Japan, Tsukiyama tells a powerful story of family, of loss, and of endurance with her usual insight, her perfect imagery, and her unforgettable characters. An epic achievement and I loved every word.”

—Karen Joy Fowler, author of
The Jane Austen Book Club

“Gail Tsukiyama expertly and beautifully weaves together the lives of a sumo wrestler and his family, and a Noh mask maker through World War II and into the 1960s. She has always been a wonderful storyteller, but in
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
she proves herself to be a master storyteller.”

—Jane Hamilton, author of
The Book of Ruth
and
A Map of the World

“Gail Tsukiyama is a writer of astonishing grace, delicacy, and feeling. Her lyric precision serves not only to leave the reader breathless, but to illuminate human suffering and redemption with clarity and power.”

—Michael Chabon, author of
The Amazing Adventures
of Kavalier & Clay

“War—from the viewpoint of the children. Gail Tsukiyama has taken on the writer’s most compassionate task. She envisions life after devastation, the possibility and hope that the motherless, fatherless children can live, grow, love, and make civilization again.”

—Maxine Hong Kingston, author of
The Woman Warrior

“Gail Tsukiyama takes us into the world of sumo, allowing us to experience what exists beyond the rituals and the wrestling: the fascinating culture of contact and the intimacies of family love and devotion. This is an impressive achievement.”

—Elizabeth George, author of
Careless in Red

“[Tsukiyama] writes with eloquence and feeling. Her prose is so finely wrought that you smell the rotting persimmons and the sawdust from wood being sanded in a mask shop. You are chilled by the mist rising in a Japanese mountain valley and even feel the heat and stench of the flames consuming parts of Tokyo during a World War II firebombing. This book is a feast for the senses…. Tsukiyama has the soul of a storyteller.”

—
The Denver Post

“[Tsukiyama’s] prose is spare, poetic, and unsentimental, much like the haiku that separate the different parts of this epic family saga set in Japan.”

—
San Francisco Chronicle

“The most revered Japanese arts—from sumo to mask carving—come to life in this memorable tale of two brothers.”

—Good Housekeeping

“Tsukiyama’s writing is clear and spare, and the thoughts and actions of her characters are accessible, believable. She unmasks their intentions for us, making it all the more tragic when they misread one another.”

—The Seattle Times

“This novel is a compelling story of how world events can sweep away the best of plans and redirect a family’s focus from the future to survival…. A satisfying read full of family ties, romance, and achievement against all odds.”

—Tampa Tribune

“Tsukiyama’s novel is full of lovely writing that captures a family’s struggle during a harsh, dangerous time.”

—The Charlotte Observer

“Gail Tsukiyama’s gorgeous multigenerational family drama [is] thoroughly engrossing … [her] writing is simultaneously lush and agonizing.”

—
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

“The novel is saturated with appealing local color—the intricately patterned fabrics of kimonos, scenic vistas, and food. The varied cast of characters—a mask maker, a legendary sumo coach, and young women finding their way in postwar Japan—offer additional delights.”

—
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Tsukiyama develops
Blossoms
into a saga as extended families form to see each other through extreme hardships. And somehow, in the midst of fire bombings and starvation, the attempt is made to keep a light flickering in the soul as well…. Tsukiyama brings decades of postwar recovery to light through the intimacies of a family who suffered, survived, and in some way prospered, but not without cost.”

—
Daily News

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tsukiyama, Gail.
        The street of a thousand blossoms/
  Gail Tsukiyama.
          p. cm.
        ISBN-13: 978-0-312-38477-7
        ISBN-10: 0-312-38477-7
        1. Tokyo (Japan)—Fiction. 2. Brothers—
Fiction.  I.  Title.

PS3570.S84 S77
813′.54—dc22

200702102

First St. Martin’s Griffin Edition: August 2008

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