spring reading: sweet bean paste

a quick spring book, filled with cross-generational friendships, a confectionery shop and lots of cherry blossoms.

I have been searching and searching for a perfect spring read this year and I’m happy to share that I have found one! Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, translated by Alison Watts, is a quick, heart-warming read set in the midst of blossoming springtime. Right from the opening line, Sweet Bean Paste sets a a spring-y, wholesome vibe.

A sweet scented breeze blew along Cherry Blossom Street.

Sentaro stood over a hot griddle inside the Doraharu shop, as he did all day everyday, cooking pancakes for his dorayaki.

Sentaro is just one of three main characters from three very different generations within Japanese society, who have each faced isolation in their own way.

Sentaro

First we meet Sentaro, standing over his hot griddle, at the confectionary shop he runs. He is preparing fluffy pancakes to be layered with sweet bean paste in a special treat called dorayaki. He works alone in his shop, with customers stopping in occasionally buy dorayaki. It’s quickly revealed that Sentaro spent time in prison and now has a debt to the owner of the dorayaki shop. He dreads spending day after day doing the same tasks over and over again working alone in the shop, trying to escape his debt and the continued solitude.

Tokue

Tokue soon enters the story, a kind older woman who dreams of working with Sentaro in his dorayaki shop. While I won’t spoil the details, we find out that Tokue has also faced her own isolation over the years. Throughout the book, Tokue’s secret gradually comes to light.

Wakana

Wakana is one of the handful of school students that stops by the shop on their way home. Unlike her classmates, Wakana’s family lives in poverty and she eventually switches to part-time school in order to work. She feels isolated from her peers as the only part-time student.

As a reader, I loved meeting this cast of characters; the cross-generational relationships in Sweet Bean Paste are truly heartwarming. At the start, Sentaro, Tokue and Wakana appear to have nothing in common. Over the course of the novel, they learn to care deeply and show so much empathy for one another. This journey from isolation to connection feels like a fitting topic for spring, seeing hearts unthaw and joy blossom out of sadness.

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The setting of Sweet Bean Paste is just so lovely for spring. Most of the book’s events take place at Doraharu, a dorayaki shop on Cherry Blossom Street. While Sentaro works away inside, he notices the trees outside - the sweet fragrance, the falling petals. He is clearly inspired by the beauty of nature in spring.

Here is a short quote of some of this seasonal magic:

The first time I ever saw you I was taking my regular weekly outing. I was walking along that street enchanted by the cherry blossoms, when I smelt something sweet on the wind and found Doraharu.

While Sweet Bean Paste covers the span of a year, the opening events all takes place over a few weeks in spring and the later part of the book all occurs the following spring. Cherry blossoms are at the heart of this novel.

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Something really special about Sweet Bean Paste is how it draws a lovely connection between the characters’ inner life and nature outside. One concept that I was first introduced to while living in Japan is animism, a way of believing and seeing the world in which every object and plant is a being, just as a person is a being. Tokue coaxes adzuki beans to cook just so by paying close attention to each individual bean and “listening” to it share its journey from seed to plant to picking and all the way to her pot.

Characters view various plants, including cherry trees, as experiencing emotion over the course of the book. In one passage, the author Durian Sukegawa lovingly describes the cherry blossom blooming as an expression of joy:

Sentaro slowly turns his head to gaze in rapture at each and every tree. Blossom surrounds him on all sides, as if he is at the centre of a deep, sparkling lake. He senses the full force of emotion that has been dormant in the trees all year, waiting for this once-a-year explosion of joy: their pure, unadulterated happiness.

All around, Sweet Bean Paste is just a lovely read. It’s not a fast-paced story but it is short and sweet, it only took me a few hours to get through. If you’ve been looking for something seasonal to read this spring, I highly recommend it!

Content note: Sweet Bean Paste includes discussions of suicidal ideation. Please take care while reading.

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And since I can never keep my book recommendations to just one, if you’re interested in reading other books by Japanese authors, here are a few favorites:

• Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto (or really anything by Banana Yoshimoto!)

• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

If you’d like to dig into more seasonal reading, you can find all my recommended spring reads over on Bookshop. Check out reading lists for each season with a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and my year-round favorites, like Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr.

What are YOU reading this spring? Do you have any books that just scream springtime? Recommendations wanted. There are seven weeks of spring left and I want to get in all the spring reading that I can!

Thank you for reading! If you’d like more nudges to live seasonally, please subscribe to seasonal things.

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