The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Sukegawa, Durian. Sweet Bean Paste. One World, 2022.

Durian Sukegawa’s third person limited narrative, Sweet Bean Paste, follows the life of Sentaro Tsujii as he bakes dorayaki and develops a friendship with Tokue Yoshii. At the outset of the novel, the baker was dissatisfied with his life and begrudgingly waded through his days. He worked at Doraharu in order to pay off the debt he owed to his former boss. When Tokue entered the shop and asked about the help wanted sign, Sentaro was dismissive of her inquiry. A few days later, Tokue returned and brought Sentaro a container of her homemade bean paste. The protagonist did not want to entertain her employment but after trying her confection he postulated that her dorayaki filling could improve sales at Doraharu. On the first day of Tokue’s employment, Sentaro was startled by the number of steps and amount of time she dedicated to making the bean paste. As time progressed the shop’s sales were noticeably increased, and the characters began to talk more as they worked in the kitchen. However, when the owner arrived unannounced, she demanded that Sentaro fire the elderly woman. She suspected that Tokue had Hansen’s disease and confirmed her assumption when she looked at the septuagenarian’s address. Tokue lived at the Tenshoen National Sanitorium where patients with Hansen’s disease were quarantined before the Leprosy Prevention act was repealed.

Sentaro could not bring himself to fire Tokue. However, sales at Doraharu were declining and the boss refused to believe that Tokue was not contagious, despite scientific evidence that no active cases of Hansen’s disease had been reported in Japan in decades. Not long after, Tokue put in her resignation. She confided to Sentaro that she suspected customers were not visiting because of her past. The elderly woman explained that she contracted the disease as a child and spent the majority of her life at Tenshoen, despite being healthy for years. She had wanted to become a schoolteacher and working at the bakery gave her the chance to spend time with and nurture young people.

In the weeks following Tokue’s departure, Sentaro sunk into a deep depression. He drank more and opened the bakery later. One evening, Wakana visited the bakery after close carrying a caged canary. She explained that she ran away from home because her mother was making her give up the bird. Before Tokue left, she promised that either Sentaro or herself would look after the canary. Sentaro wrote to Tokue about the bird and the arranged a visit to Tenshoen. At the old hospital, Sentaro and Wakana were surprised that the grocery store and the roads looked like any other part of Tokyo; the implicit bias they carried toward Hansen’s disease and the sanitorium was unfounded.

After the visit, Sentaro and Tokue continued to write letters to one another. The baker explained his attempts to make salty dorayaki and Tokue encouraged him to persevere through depression. Tokue believed that life has a purpose detached from productivity. By Listening, she was able to recognize that her life was a part of the lives of all other beings and there for held import. In her letters she urged her friend to do the same. Sentaro attempted to embrace this concept but found it difficult as he faced the closure of Doraharu. Instead of continuing to work for the boss making okonomiyaki, Sentaro quit.

Depressive thoughts returned in the following weeks and Sentaro once again questioned why he was alive. However, as he lay in the dark, he thought of Tokue and remembered her urging him to Listen. After he had a dream about cherry blossom tea, Sentaro went back to Tenshoen to visit his friend. At the sanitorium, Miss Moriyama informed the baker and Wakana that Tokue passed away. She explained how Tokue helped her to find courage when she wanted to die and gave the visitor’s Tokue’s old baking supplies. In the grove, a full moon rose as Sentaro and Wakana stood near Tokue’s cherry tree.