Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton (4th Estate) ~Ernie Hoyt

Asako Yuzuki is a Japanese writer who was born in Tokyo in 1981. In her childhood she read books by foreign authors such as Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gable series, and Judy Blume’s young adult novels. It was after reading Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen which got her interested in Japanese literature. 

Her first book was a collection of three short stories and was released as 終点のあの子 (Shuten no Ano Ko). Her first novel was 嘆きの美女 (Nageki no Bijou) was published in 2011 and was later adapted into an NHK cable television series. 

Butter is her first novel to be published in English. It was originally released in the Japanese language with the same title by Shinchosha in 2017. The book is translated by Polly Barton who has also translated Where the Wild Women Are by Aoto Matsuda (Asia by the Book, May 2022) and Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (Asia by the Book, August 2025). 

The story was inspired by the real-life serial murder case in Japan by Kanae Kijima, whom the mass media dubbed as the konkatsu killer. Konkatsu means “marriage-hunting”. She was convicted of poisoning three of her victims who were planning on marrying her. She was also suspected of killing four others. She is currently on death row and has been in prison since 2019. 

Manako Kajii is sitting in the Tokyo Detention Center serving a life sentence for killing three lonely businessmen. The mass media says she seduced the men by her delicious home cooking. She claims her innocence but refuses to discuss her case with any journalists. 

Rika Machida is a young reporter at a weekly magazine. She is interested in writing an article about Manako Kajii or “Kajimana” as she was known in the mass media. The woman who was convicted of killing three men and extorted money from them as well. What made the Kajimana story interesting to so many people was because of how she looked. 

Rika tells her boyfriend she’s not interested in rehashing old stories told from the same perspective. She wants to find a new lead into the case. Machida is interested in the “social background to it all”. She feels the whole case “is steeped in intense misogyny”, that “Everyone in it, from Kajimana herself to her victims and all the men involved, seems to have a deep-seated hatred of women”. 

Manako Kajii isn’t what you would call beautiful. She is a bit overweight. Rika's on and off boyfriend said to her, “I bet Kajimana eats an absolute ton! That’s why she’s that huge. It’s a miracle that someone that fat could con so many people into wanting to marry her”. However, the men who fell under spell all had the same thing to say - they were lonely and didn’t care what she looked like. 

It was Rika’s friend Reiko who gave her the idea that the next time she writes to Manako Kajii, to ask for the recipe of the beef stew she served her last victim. Her friend tells her, “Women who love to cook are so delighted when someone asks them for a recipe that they’ll tell you all kinds of things you haven’t asked for along with it”. Amazingly, Kajii responds to Rika’s latest request for an interview. When Rika goes to see Manako Kajii at the Tokyo Detention Center, the first thing Kajimana asks Rika is what’s in her fridge at home. 

Rika is caught off guard but answers politely. After Rika tells her, Kajimana reponds with, “Did you just say margarine?” As Rika tries to defend why she has margarine in her refrigerator, Kajimana tells her, “Your problem is you’ve decided that butter is bad without even understanding what it tastes like”. Before Rika can respond, Kajimana continues with her diatribe saying, “I learned from my late father that women should show generosity to everyone. But there are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine”. 

The interview didn’t go as Rika planned. It was all at Kajimana’s pace. Rika even promised to eat hot white rice topped with real butter and a bit of soy sauce. But she had to use an expensive brand of butter called Echire.

So begins Rika Machida’s interviews with Manako Kajii. But the more she interviews Kajii, the more her way of thinking is turned towards Kajii’s. Her friend Reiko believes that Kajimana has been manipulating Rika into her way of thinking and is not going about her job objectively. 

Not only is this story a mystery about whether or not Manako Kajii killed her would-be husbands, but it is also a criticism of the different standards set by men for women. In the story, all of Kajimana’s victims say they don’t care what she looks like, however, whenever they’re speaking to their peers or colleagues, they denounce her and say terrible things about her. 

In modern day Japan, the posters and commercial ads still feature women who are slim and beautiful. In a line in the book that seems to have come right out of a feminist manifesto, Yuzuki writes, “From early childhood, everyone had it drummed into them that if a woman wasn’t slim, she wasn’t worth bothering with”. It appears to be a disturbing fact that this still holds true today.