Sakiko cannot say no. Hiroko is tired of hearing it. Two sisters, straddling American and Japanese culture, navigate womanhood.

Mako Idemitsu

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, in an elite and wealthy family, author Mako Idemitsu went to the United States in 1962 where she met and married abstract expressionist painter Sam Francis. While raising two children in California she became disillusioned with the roles of wife and mother and picked up an 8mm camera. As part of a feminist consciousness-raising group she began to make experimental films that explored women’s issues and Japanese cultural influences. Her artistic work is critically acclaimed and featured in museums across the world.

Juliet Winters Carpenter

Translator Juliet Winters Carpenter studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and translation at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. Her past translations include Secret Rendezvous by Abe Kobo, Masks by Fumiko Enchi, and the works of Minae Mizumura. In 2015, she became the first person to win the prestigious Japan-US Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature twice.