Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto
"Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto is a poignant short story that explores the complexities of the Japanese immigrant experience in America, particularly through the lens of intergenerational relationships and cultural disconnection. Centered around Rosie Hayashi, a Japanese American adolescent, the narrative reveals her struggles with her cultural identity and the generational gap between her and her mother, Tome. The story is set against the backdrop of historical challenges faced by Japanese immigrants, including restrictive legislation such as the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 and the Alien Land Act of 1913, which created significant barriers to social and economic stability.
Tome’s passion for writing haiku serves as a symbol of her yearning for expression in a world that often stifles her desires and dreams. Contrastingly, Rosie's burgeoning romance with a member of a Mexican family illustrates her exploration of identity and connection beyond her immediate cultural confines. The narrative delves into the hardships of incompatible marriages and the burden of unfulfilled aspirations that immigrant families often grappled with, highlighting the emotional landscape of women in traditional Japanese culture. Through its intricate double plot structure, "Seventeen Syllables" offers a rich examination of ethnic, feminist, and intergenerational themes, inviting readers to reflect on the nuances of cultural heritage and personal identity.
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Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto
First published: 1949
The Work
“Seventeen Syllables,” Hisaye Yamamoto’s most acclaimed short story, combines a number of themes that appear frequently in her fiction. These themes include: the difficulties faced by Japanese immigrants to the United States, the cultural separation between these immigrants and their children, and the restrictions experienced by Japanese American women within traditional Japanese culture. Important for an understanding of the story are some facts about the Japanese immigrant experience in America. Although the United States welcomed Japanese immigrants after 1885, immigration was stopped with the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924. Many of the first Japanese immigrants were unmarried men, who saved their earnings and sent back to Japan for brides they knew only through letters and photographs. Many of these married couples proved incompatible and were forced to make the best of an unsuitable marriage, keeping their problems concealed from the children. The Alien Land Act of 1913 prohibited Japanese immigrants from buying or leasing land for a period of more than three years. Since one-half of the immigrants lived in rural areas, the law forced families to move constantly and dispersed them often. A Japanese woman frequently had no other woman in whom to confide. In spite of these hardships, literature flourished and many immigrants wrote traditional Japanese poetry.
Yamamoto’s story deals with these concerns through a device used often by Yamamoto, the double plot. On one level the plot concerns the adolescent Rosie Hayashi and her secret plan to meet Jesus Carrasco, a member of a Mexican family hired for the harvest. Rosie’s inability to speak much Japanese and her failure to understand the interest her mother, Tome, takes in writing haiku, which she submits weekly to a Japanese-language paper in San Francisco, highlight the cultural and intergenerational differences between them. In the midst of the tomato harvest, when all workers are desperately needed, the editor arrives with a prize for Tome’s poetry, a print by Hiroshige. Angry, her husband burns the picture. Tome reveals to Rosie that she has married her husband as an alternative to suicide. Rejected by a well-to-do lover, she had given birth to a stillborn son. An aunt in the United States arranged the marriage. Disappointed and disillusioned, Tome asks Rosie to promise never to marry at a time Rosie is experiencing the blissful promise of young romance. The story is a carefully nuanced and technically sophisticated combination of ethnic, feminist, and intergenerational concerns.
Bibliography
Cheung, King-Kok. “Double-Telling: Intertextual Silence in Hisaye Yamamoto’s Fiction.” American Literary History 3, no. 2 (1991): 277-293.
Cheung, King-Kok, ed. Seventeen Syllables. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Kim, Elaine H. Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982.
Yogi, Stan. Legacies Revealed: Uncovering Buried Plots in the Stories of Hisaye Yamamoto. Studies in American Fiction 17, no. 2 (1989): 169-181.