Twenty-four Eyes by Sakae Tsuboi

[Weave]

Title of Book: Twenty-four Eyes

Name of Author: Sakae Tsuboi

Number of pages: 256

ISBN-10: 4805307722

ISBN-13: 978-4805307724

 

 

Synopsis ~

 

This is a story set on Shodoshima, a small island in the Inland Sea and the lives surrounding a primary school teacher, Miss Oishi, and the twelve island children (the twenty-four eyes of the title) in her first class. In the course of the novel, Miss Oishi faces problems of acceptance by the children and their parents, then ideological criticism from the educational authorities, then wartime privations and losses in her family and among her pupils. Differences of class, gender, and political opinion are finally rendered less important than a common experience of suffering. The book concludes with a tearful graduation reunion between the bereaved teacher and her original pupils, whose ranks are sadly depleted by the suffering of the past decade. "Twenty-four Eyes", first published in Japanese as "Nijushi no Hitomi" in 1952, immediately became a bestseller. It was made into a film two years later by Keisuke Kinoshita, a leading director, winning the Best Film of the year. In 1987, it was filmed for a second time.

 

'Twenty-four eyes' tells the story of Miss Hisako Koishi and the twelve children she teaches at different points in their lives. From the minute Miss Koishi arrives on Shodoshima Island in March 1928, she is seen as 'modern' because she wears Western clothes and rides a bicycle, at the time, Japan is going through a change with the first election of the new Universal Suffrage Act taking place in February of the same year.

 

Shodoshima Island is a small island where all of the inhabitants (including the children) work hard, which Miss Oishi (the nickname given it to her by the fifth grade students because oishi means 'big stone' and Miss Koishi is the opposite by being so small) understands but feels sad for their future because most of them have their futures mapped out for them, with the boys joining the army and the girls marrying young.

 

As the story progresses you see Miss Oishi, who eventually becomes Mrs Oishi (because she is an only child and with no brothers to carry on the family name, tradition states that her husband takes her name as he becomes part of the family) and the children at different points in their lives, the backdrop being the war and prior to that various other military activity, Mrs Oishi feels strongly about the war but does not share her thoughts or feelings as it is frowned upon, they are told they must embrace the fighting, accept that any men that died have died for a reason, which Mrs Oishi cannot accept as she loses her husband and some of the boys from her class, time continues and Mrs Oishi finds herself teaching the children of the children which she originally taught, a scene which is poignant in the book as she reads all their names for the class register and remembers their parents, uncles, aunts, etc.

 

I thought 'Twenty-four eyes' was a lovely read, Mrs Oishi's relationship with the children is shown well, and you can see how much she cares and loves the children. The war is an aspect of the story but it is not just about the war, its about the children's lives and how they develop and how some of lost their lives to the war and how the others grow into adults and have their own children, showing that life goes on.

 

Highly recommended.