The Doctor's Wife

Infobox Book
name = The Doctor's Wife
title_orig = Hanaoka Seishū no tsuma (華岡青洲の妻)
translator = Wakako Hironaka and Ann Siller Kostant


author = Sawako Ariyoshi
cover_artist = Komaro Hoshino
country = Japan
language = Japanese (original)
publisher = Kodansha International
release_date = 1966
english_release_date = 1978
media_type = Book
pages = 174
isbn = 4-7700-2974-8

"The Doctor's Wife" (華岡青洲の妻 "Hanaoka Seishū no tsuma") is a noted novel by Ariyoshi Sawako written in 1966.

The partly historical novel is based on the life of noted female physician Seishū Hanaoka. Though much is based on fact, many events were added for dramatic purposes. The novel follows the protagonist, here named Kae, from youth until death. From a young age, she is fascinated with the wife of Naomichi Hanaoka, Otsugi, who is said to be the most beautiful woman in the Kishu province. Otsugi requests that Kae be married off to her son Seishū and Kae's family eventually agrees. From there Kae learns that Otsugi is not the angelic beauty she outwardly displays and they both compete for the affections of Seishū, who is experimenting on animals to develop an anesthetic for surgery.

References

*Rimer, J. Thomas, "A readers guide to Japanese literature", 1991 ed., p. 185-188, ISBN 4-7700-1477-5