We have the ability to open up our ears and minds to anything and everything. It’s my belief that everything in this world has its own language. That’s what I call Listening, and I’ve been doing it for sixty years now. I pay attention to the language of things in this world that don’t use words. One thing I can do in Tenshoen is sniff the wind and listen to the murmur of the trees. She taught Sentaro that life is so much more than what society dictates, and that every single thing that lives on earth contributes in their own way. But Tokue was able to find an elemental freedom in her imposed isolation from society, and found deep personal meaning in the language of nature.

In a culture that defines a person’s success as what one can contribute to society, she and the other former lepers were denied that personal identity and meaning. Sadly, there was no family left and no place for her out in the world, so she and many of the other residents simply stayed at the sanitarium. In 1996, Japan changed the laws about lepers, and she was given her “freedom” from the confines of the leper community. She had been cured more than 40 years ago, but because of the cultural stigma and harsh laws against lepers, she lived all her life in a sanitarium, isolated from the rest of society. It turns out that Tokue had leprosy as a child. Sentaro begins to learn from Tokue how to make the wonderful sweet bean paste, and he learns so much more than that from her! She has a wonderful outlook on life, but is mysterious about her past. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue’s dark secret is revealed.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. It is set in modern-day Japan, and focuses on some cultural changes that are just happening within the last twenty-five years or so. Sweet Bean Paste, by Durian Sukegawa, is a story of friendship and renewal. There are times when the colour of life changes completely. People’s lives never stay the same colour forever.

Sweet bean paste goodreads