The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

Gail Tsukiyama is a wonderful and prolific author of such novels as The Samurai's Garden and Women of the Silk, to mention just a couple.
 
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms tells the story of  Kenji and Hiroshi, who are orphaned as young boys and raised by their grandparents in a quiet neighborhood of Tokyo. The story spans almost 3 decades from the late 30's-60's.

Hiroshi has always dreamed of someday becoming a sumo master, while Kenji is fascinated by the masks of the Noh theater and dreams of being an artist. Pearl Harbor, and Japans entrance into the War changes everything.

Tsukiyama is at heart a wonderful storyteller. She takes the reader on a journey into another time and place and creates characters that we care about and teaches us a new way of looking at the world. This is a beautiful, well written, and at times sad novel. It is steeped in Japanese tradition and at the same time moves effortlessly in the modern world. Tsukiyama captures the essence of the fragile beauty of life that is constantly changing, like the title's cherry blossoms.