num_pages: 355
description: Here is a beautifully written first-person account of what it took to strike out and succeed as an independent woman in prewar Japan - and reap the rewards in the postwar era. The chronicle begins as the memoirs of Endo Nami, born some eighty years ago in a farm village in Japan's north country, and ends as the success story of Yamazaki Ikue, chief executive of a large chain of hairdressing and beauty salons. Opening on a childhood filled with dreams, ancestor cults, and the gods of nature, the story follows the heroine's attempts to break the mold of a rigidly paternalistic society and her eventual escape to Tokyo. Enduring a lengthy, frustrating, and often humiliating apprenticeship, then a series of near-failures in her business, she eventually finds herself on the road to material success. Both as a girl and as a woman, Yamazaki Ikue relied on geomancy, astrology, and the revelations of spirit mediums to interpret the past, present, and future. She relates her life with wonderment and lyricism, combining a devotion to magical folk traditions with the hardheadedness of a modern-day businesswoman.
language: English
title: The House of Yamazaki: The Life of a Daughter of Japan
titlecomplete: The House of Yamazaki: The Life of a Daughter of Japan
ratings_count: 2
places: Japan, Tokyo
publisher: Kodansha International