Tanabata’s Wife, “The Finest Love Story Ever Written by a Filipino.”
For Independence Day, I will be writing about the 1932 short story Tanabata’s Wife by Baguio writer Sinai Hamada, an intimate and moving story of love amidst conflicting cultures hailed by some as “The Finest Love Story Ever Written by a Filipino.”
From sappy Tagalog ballads to cheesy romantic movies and soap operas, the Philippines has no shortage of intense and passionate depictions of love for the hopeless romantic. But according to poet and writer Francisco Arellana, “the finest love story ever written by a Filipino” is one with none of the high intensity drama or kilig moments that define Filipino storytelling. Written by Baguio born writer Sinai Hamada, Tanabata’s Wife is a seemingly mundane but poetic portrait of the married life of a Japanese immigrant named Tanabata and his native Igorot wife, Fas-ang set in rural Baguio during the 1920’s. And although the story is short, it is nonetheless a moving masterpiece that beautifully captures the power of love in the midst of conflicting cultures.
Tanabata and Fas-Ang
Written in the year 1932, Tanabata’s Wife is also significant for capturing an almost forgotten chapter of Philippine history when Japanese migrant workers moved to rural places like Baguio during the American Colonial Period to work on major construction projects like Kennon Road, and who would later settle down as farmers and intermarry with native women. Hamada himself is half-Japanese, born to a Japanese father and a Cordilleran mother from the Ibaloi tribe. So in many ways, this story is deeply personal for Hamada.
The story begins with a young Igorot woman of the Bontoc tribe named Fas-ang traveling to Baguio to look for work. She encounters a Japanese farmer named Tanabata-san who offers her and a fellow Bontoc woman work to help him tend his garden. As they work the fields together, the farmer and his Bontoc helper develop a close bond, and Tanabata-san takes a liking to Fas-ang. The old man makes up his mind to make her his wife upon consulting with his friend Okamoto-san, and so one night, he proposes to her, “explaining to her as best as he could his intentions…[And] Without ceremony and without the law, they were wedded by a tacitly sworn agreement between themselves.”
Simple Prose, Complex Meaning
The two continue on with their married life and spend their time tending to their fields and raising their son Kato. In contrast to the intense and flowery writing style of Filipino writers like Nick Joaquin, Hamada’s prose is short and precise, using simple and sparse language in his descriptions of people and places. When a character does something, he describes it as it is and adds little subtext on what the character is thinking or feeling. Conversations, if any, never appear to be eye-catching or substantive.
Much like the writing of Ernest Hemingway, Hamada only describes the bare minimum of what is taking place in the story. His writing style may seem bare or even dull on the first read, but the world he is writing about is anything but boring. In his work, there are glimpses of the beautiful scenery of the Cordillera Mountains or the fierce warrior culture of the Bontoc tribes. However, this minimalist style of writing forces the reader to focus on the relationship dynamic between Tanabata and Fas-Ang and make them aware of both the spoken and the unspoken feelings they have for each other. A masterful storyteller, Hamada reveals more about Tanabata and Fas-Ang from what is not said.
Spoken Love, Unspoken Barriers
The language and cultural barrier as well as age difference between Fas-Ang and Tanabata-san serves as the main conflict in the story. This makes it extremely difficult for them to connect in any way other than what can be seen or shown. While the problems that impede their relationship are subtle, they are nonetheless palpable throughout the story.
Tanabata, though a caring and kindhearted husband and provider, has nothing in common with Fas-Ang outside of farm work. Fas-Ang is young, adventurous, and deeply connected to her large extended family and the rapidly changing world around her. Tanabata-san, on the other hand, is an old and introverted homebody with little interest or understanding of the alien world of Baguio outside of a few Japanese friends and his distinctly Japanese home. It does not help either that Fas-Ang does not speak Japanese and that Tanabata-san’s knowledge of the Bontoc language is so limited he could not even properly tell his wife that he loves her.
There also exists the cultural barriers that exist between the two. Whereas Filipino culture is very vibrant and expressive, Japanese culture is more defined by conformity and adherence to strict tradition. In Tanabata’s Japanese household, Fas-Ang has no choice but to conform to an alien culture in her own home, doing things like pickling and salting radishes, naming her son based on the Japanese calendar, and being forced to stay home for one month after giving birth to her son. In one instance, Tanabata invites his Japanese friends together for Kato’s baptism party and Fas-ang is hopelessly out of place in her own son’s celebration. According to Hamada:
“She did not understand the chattering of her guests. So she stayed very quiet, holding the baby in her arms.”
Although Fas-Ang loves her husband dearly, she tells her visiting cousin that “she is often homesick.” Her escape is the movie theater houses of Baguio City, something her husband is too old to understand in spite of her “garrulous chatter.” She then regularly goes out to the city on her own, bringing her son to meet family members and fellow Igorots in the theater houses. Soon, she sees her husband only when she comes to bed after midnight.
These subtle marital conflicts culminate to adultery, as Fas-ang runs off with her son to elope with another Bontoc man. The man leaves a note threatening to kill Tanabata should he intervene, and Tanabata is devastated by this news. He goes into a state of deep grief and loss, and Hamada depicts this perfectly by choosing to describe his home and garden without the care of Fas-Ang. As Tanabata spirals into despair, Hamada writes that:
“The rows of cabbage were rotting. Tanabata was thought to be crazy. He did not care what happened to the plants. He had dismissed the new helpers that were left him. Weed outgrew the seedlings. The rainy season set in, and the field was devastated by a storm. Tanabata lived on his savings.”
In his great sadness, he resolves to return to Japan to die there. However, in the end, Fas-Ang comes back to Tanabata’s house and resolves to welcome them back home. In this climactic moment, Hamada writes:
Tanabata looked out of the window, startled. He saw the mother and child. He rushed outside, exultant. Gently, he took them by their hands and led them slowly into the house. Then he lighted the big lamp that had long hung from the ceiling, unused.
Love is Shown, Not Said
In telling Tanabata and Fas-ang’s story, Hamada highlights the unique problem that interracial couples face. If communication is the key to a loving relationship, how can a couple truly love each other if they do not even have language or culture as common ground? Especially when a couple has a language barrier, it puts one or both parties in a situation where they have to constantly translate their soul for the person they love the most.
So how does love persist amidst such adversity? Through Tanabata’s and Fas-ang’s lives, Hamada shows that in spite of the misunderstandings and unspoken tensions between them, the two share a love that transcends color and culture. Lacking a common language, they share this love through their actions: their work, the compromises and the unspoken sacrifices that they make for each other. The message conveyed by each character may be lost in translation, but Tanabata and Fas-ang never lost the loving intent they had in everything that they did.
Sinai Hamada’s work Tanabata’s Wife may lack the high-stakes drama or allure of a popular soap opera, but I agree that it is the finest Filipino love story because it perfectly depicts the universality of love. That at its core, love is not a feeling, but rather a bond that is so powerful that it can bring people together in ways that words cannot express. By stripping away their stark differences, Hamada shows that no matter where you come from, love will always be fundamentally built on sacrifice, compromise, and forgiveness.
