53 pages • 1 hour read
Mieko Kawakami, Transl. Sam Bett, Transl. David BoydBreasts and Eggs
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 1: Breasts
Book 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Are You Poor?”
Content Warning: This section of the guide references domestic violence, suicidal ideation, and sexual abuse, including rape, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and child sexual abuse, which feature in the source text.
On the train to Tokyo Station, 30-year-old Natsuko “Natsu” Natsume contemplates how you can always tell whether someone grew up poor by asking them about the number of windows in their home. If they describe having no windows, or only one or two windows with no distinguishing features, then they were poor. Natsu herself was born into poverty and remains poor. Since moving to Tokyo at the age of 20, she’s worked a minimum-wage job to support her struggling writing career.
At Tokyo Station, Natsu awaits the arrival of her older sister, 39-year-old Makiko, and her 12-year-old niece, Midoriko. Natsu and Makiko grew up in a derelict apartment in Osaka. Their father was a lazy and abusive man who contributed nothing to the household and beat them often. When Natsu was seven, he abandoned the family, whereupon they moved in with Natsu’s grandmother Komi.
When Natsu was a teenager, both her mother and Komi died of cancer only years apart. She and Makiko worked tirelessly to stay afloat, taking on menial jobs in factories and bars. After Midoriko’s birth, the three of them briefly lived together in Osaka.
Makiko and Midoriko arrive at the station. Midoriko hasn’t spoken to Makiko in over six months, communicating solely with a pen and paper. She continues to speak normally to her friends and teachers. Makiko has no idea what happened. As they walk back to the apartment, Natsu observes that Makiko looks worn and unwell, but is as energetic as ever. Makiko still works at a hostess bar called Chanel in Shobashi. Sadly, Natsu thinks that her sister has become “another single mother, working herself to death” (20).
In Natsu’s apartment, they watch the news and discuss the recent rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman by a 19-year-old perpetrator. The victim reminds Natsu of Komi. She is disturbed by the idea that women aren’t safe from assault at any age. Midoriko leaves to explore the neighborhood. When they are alone in the apartment, Makiko excitedly produces a stack of brochures and shows them to Natsu.
The narrative is periodically interrupted by undated entries from Midoriko’s journal. Midoriko is struggling with her school and home life but finds solace in journaling. She writes about her recent discovery that women have eggs or “ova” inside their bodies. Midoriko is distressed by the prospect of menstruation, and wonders, “How does that ever feel normal?” (22).
Book 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “To Be More Beautiful”
Natsu explains that three months prior to her Tokyo visit, Makiko called her and expressed her desire to get breast implants. Natsu dismissed it as a passing whim, but in the intervening months Makiko has become obsessed with researching different clinics and procedures. She’s decided on silicone implants, which would cost 1,500,000 yen, over 10,000 USD. She has a consultation scheduled at a Tokyo clinic for the following morning.
Natsu feels a mixture of pity and frustration at Makiko’s decision. She can’t understand why Makiko wants implants when she has no money to spare between her low-paying job and the cost of raising Midoriko. Makiko refuses to go on welfare because it would hurt her pride, preferring to tough out her dire financial circumstances in the same way their mother did.
In her journal, Midoriko grapples with the inevitability of her first period. She recalls a classmate’s assertion that the desire to become a mother is inherent in all women and wonders, “Does blood coming out of your body make you a woman? A potential mother?” (44). Midoriko is sure she doesn’t want children. She is disillusioned with the idea of life as a constant cycle of work and familial duties, and feels trapped inside her changing body.
Book 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Whose Boobs Are They?”
The day before Makiko’s consultation, she and Natsu visit a women-only bathhouse. Makiko shares that she used to use tretinoin and hydroquinone to bleach her nipples, which she feels are too dark to be beautiful. Natsu realizes that Makiko wants to be conventionally beautiful because she thinks it will make her happier. Natsu reflects on her relationship with her own body, which has failed to live up to her “monolithic idea of what a woman’s body should be” (55).
Natsu is distracted by the entrance of a person she describes as a “tomboy.” Unable to determine the person’s gender identity, she grows uncomfortable at the idea of a man entering a woman’s bathhouse. When the person turns their head, Natsu recognizes them as a former classmate, Chika “Yamagu” Yamaguchi. Natsu has a hallucinatory vision of confronting Yamagu, whereupon their body transforms into a collection of tiny homunculi, who circle Natsu and shout, “There’s no such thing as women” (64).
In her journal, Midoriko recalls a kiddie ride called Robocon that she used to frequent as a child. It was comprised of a metal shell with two eyes that the rider could see out of, though no one else could see in. She remembers how after riding Robocon, everything felt strange and alien for the rest of the day. Midoriko likens this strangeness to how she’s feeling now as her body changes.
Book 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Breasts and Eggs is set in contemporary Japan, with the first book, Breasts, beginning in 2008. Through Natsu, Makiko, and Midoriko, Kawakami explores the experience of three women at different stages of life, on the spectrum from puberty to menopause.
A key theme of Breasts and Eggs is life outside of gender roles in modern Japan. The lives of Natsu, Makiko, and Midoriko are steeped in the ideals and expectations of contemporary, urban Japanese society. Women in modern Japan have achieved legal equality to men, free to work and access the same educational opportunities. Still, patriarchal ideals pervade every aspect of their lives, with men seen as the head of the household by default. Women are expected to conform to standards of appearance and behavior that prioritize youth, beauty, and domestic life. They are implicitly told that their life’s purpose is to become a wife, and eventually a mother. As a single, childless woman and a single mother respectively, Natsu and Makiko live outside of these expectations.
The focus of Breasts is Makiko’s seemingly irrational desire to get a breast augmentation. Makiko fixates on her breasts as a symbol of her failure to fulfill the standard of the ideal woman, even resorting to painful treatments to bleach her nipples, which she sees as too dark. Natsu interrogates Makiko’s motivations, only to conclude that “wanting to be beautiful was reason enough” (56). Makiko has spent her life being conditioned to equate beauty with goodness and value. She believes that being more beautiful will make her happier, and happiness is “[the] single greatest motivator” (59). Makiko’s organic desires are impossible to disentangle from the society she lives in.
Alienation from the body appears as a key motif in these chapters. In an interview, Kawakami is quoted as saying “The body is something that cannot be separated from the self, and at the same time, it is the closest other” (Kawakami, Mieko. “‘Breasts and Eggs’” Grapples with the Weird Mess of Women’s Bodies.” Electric Lit, 2020). Kawakami explores this othering through Natsu, Makiko, and Midoriko. Existing in a human body is a complex and sometimes adversarial relationship, especially when that body is subject to constant evaluation and criticism from the outside world.
While listening to Makiko talk about breast implants, Natsu wonders “whose breasts are we talking about right now—and why?” (37). At the bathhouse, she describes her sister’s nipples as “control knobs” and “rubber tires.” Makiko compares her own breasts to “the plastic baggies they put goldfish in at festivals” (58). These awkward, unflattering metaphors reflect the way women’s bodies are dissected in the public eye, broken down into parts for evaluation and consumption. These body parts, so often objectified, criticized, and discussed, cease to belong to their owners.
Midoriko expresses a similar feeling of alienation in her diary entries, which describe her disgust and fear of puberty. Midoriko knows that womanhood comes with an oppressive and inescapable set of societal expectations. She feels that her body is rebelling against her by forcing her into a role she has no interest in fulfilling.
Despite the pervasive influence of the patriarchy, there is a notable absence of male characters in Breasts, establishing the theme of Single Mothers and the Dangers of Domesticity. Neither Natsu nor Makiko has a partner. Though marriage offers a way to advance socially and financially, neither seems to want a husband, perhaps in part because of their own experience growing up with an abusive father. Kawakami explores how married life can be dangerous for women through Natsu’s father, who exists only in her memory, by turns a neglectful and abusive presence. Despite being “a little man” (16), he nevertheless exerted control over his wife and daughters, abusing his position as the de facto head of the household. Natsu’s mother was expected to care for her husband and tolerate his violence as part of her wifely duties. For both Natsu and Makiko, a single-mother household is therefore preferable to life under the boot of an oppressive patriarch.
Poverty is introduced as a recurring motif in this section. Natsu grew up in a poor, single-mother household. In the novel’s first sentence, she advises: “If you want to know if someone grew up poor, ask them how many windows they had” (1). As adults, she and Makiko continue to live on the line of poverty. While cataloging her own frustrated ambitions, Natsu reflects on the cyclical nature of poverty, noting that her sister has become “another single mother working herself to death” (20).
