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白い巨塔
白い巨塔（一）（新潮文庫）
発行部数累計600万部の大ベストセラー! 癌の検査・手術、泥沼の教授選、誤診裁判などを綿密にとらえ、尊厳であるべき医学界に渦巻く人間の欲望と打算を迫真の筆に描く。国立大学の医学部第一外科助教授・財前五郎。食道噴門癌の手術を得意とし、マスコミでも脚光を浴びている彼は、当然、次期教授に納まるものと自他ともに認めていた。しかし、現教授の東は、財前の傲慢な性格を嫌い、他大学からの移入を画策。産婦人科医院を営み医師会の役員でもある岳父の財力とOB会の後押しを受けた財前は、あらゆる術策をもって熾烈な教授選に勝ち抜こうとする。初出「サンデー毎日」1963-1965年、1967-1968年。半世紀経ってもまったく色褪せない、不朽の名作。全5巻。テレビ朝日開局60周年記念2019年、5夜連続の放送決定! 岡田准一=財前五郎(浪速大学医学部第一外科・准教授)V6のメンバーとして活躍。同時に数々の映画・ドラマに出演し、映画『海賊とよばれた男』『関ヶ原』『散り椿』と、3年連続で日本アカデミー賞優秀主演男優賞を受賞。松山ケンイチ=里見修二(浪速大学医学部第一内科・准教授。財前とは同期)2016年度、映画『聖の青春』で日本ӝ
- GenresJapanese Literature
348 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2002
3 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Toyoko Yamasaki
131 books21 followersToyoko Yamasaki (山崎 豊子, real name Sugimoto Toyoko; 3 November 1924 – 29 September 2013) was a Japanese novelist.
A native of Osaka, Yamasaki worked as a journalist for the Mainichi Shimbun from 1945 to 1959 after graduating from Kyoto Women's University in Japanese literature. She published her first story, Noren (1957), a story of a kelp trader, based on the experiences of her family's business. The following year, she won the Naoki Prize for her second novel Hana Noren, the story about the founder of an entertainment group. A major influence on her writings of that period was Yasushi Inoue, who was deputy head of the Mainichi Shimbun's cultural news desk.
Yamasaki wrote some stories based on actual events. For example, Futatsu no Sokoku is derived from the biography of a Japanese American David Akira Itami, and Shizumanu Taiyō is based on the Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident. Several works of hers were featured in films and television dramas.
A native of Osaka, Yamasaki worked as a journalist for the Mainichi Shimbun from 1945 to 1959 after graduating from Kyoto Women's University in Japanese literature. She published her first story, Noren (1957), a story of a kelp trader, based on the experiences of her family's business. The following year, she won the Naoki Prize for her second novel Hana Noren, the story about the founder of an entertainment group. A major influence on her writings of that period was Yasushi Inoue, who was deputy head of the Mainichi Shimbun's cultural news desk.
Yamasaki wrote some stories based on actual events. For example, Futatsu no Sokoku is derived from the biography of a Japanese American David Akira Itami, and Shizumanu Taiyō is based on the Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident. Several works of hers were featured in films and television dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 15, 2022
The book title can be translated as "that massive white tower," which is a metaphor for the dilemmas in the medical world in Japan. I got very touched by this novel, and I infer that my emotions came along with how realistic the depiction is, and the various difficult choices people have to make in life.
As for the take-away points, there are two topics that remain profound: 1) meaning of life , 2) decisions when multiple principles conflict with each other, such as practicability/efficiency, integrity, and politics (which links to the role a person play in a network, and based on this, their power to lead changes).
I think I want to start from (2). The balance between the first two factors, practicability/efficiency and integrity, is similar to the precision-recall tradeoff. In the novel, when 财前五郎 (Goro Zaizen) took into consideration the hospital capacity, his time and efforts vs. the well-being of each patient, even for those poor ones and in later stages of cancer, he chose to lean more towards practical concerns and those that are "realistic." So we can say that Goro stands at maybe around 80% recall, and sacrifices the precision (i.e., dedication to each individual patient). In contrast, 里見脩二 (Shuji Satomi) chooses to do almost 100% precision and low recall. He treats every patient nicely, even if they are at very late stage of cancer. A byproduct of such choices is that his career is not as successful as Goro's, and he cannot take up management roles due to lack of the sense of balancing.
The third factor, politics, comes in with a similar spirit as practicability, but with more profoundness due to the social network in human societies. Resources are distributed for certain clusters, instead of a flattened structure like the free market with providers and buyers. To get involved in well-established clusters, one needs to take a standpoint, and rise and fall with that certain group. It can be interest group, ideology group, or even scholar groups in academia with a certain belief on what is the right way to approach truth. Each individual is weak, but groups are strong, although with its pros and cons. So it is always a big life question when playing both the individual game of balancing the precision-recall tradeoff and the group game to be well-situated in a society.
This book exactly depicts many difficult choices and how different people end up different paths in the medical world of hospitals and doctors.
The other point of this book, (1) the meaning of life, comes in in two ways. One is the doctor's view, when seeing the patients go through different stages of their life, and ethical considerations of what is the right role that doctors play, which should be a psychological, medical, and philosophical role based on deep thoughts on the meaning of life, and respect to each person's freedom of choice. The other impressive moment is when Goro himself got lung cancer. It is back to the problem of what is he fighting for throughout his life. His health got deteriorated and his hands too shaky to hold steady the operation knives. When all these physical conditions hold him back, then comes in the deep thinking about what is he actually chasing after. I think for normal people, it is good to ask oneself once every several years about whether their balance of career vs. interest vs. family is proper, or whether they will regret afterwards. For this, I think Socrates way of dialectics is good, e.g., keep asking why to ourselves.
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In terms of the writing style, I really appreciate works (no matter novels, movies, etc) that can truly reflect what is happening in real life, its multi-facetedness and the detailed scenario people are facing for each difficult decision. Even when reading histories or inferring why a person in our world made a certain choice, it is always important to detailed list out what are the things on that person's table, instead of just labeling people with a certain character.
As for the take-away points, there are two topics that remain profound: 1) meaning of life , 2) decisions when multiple principles conflict with each other, such as practicability/efficiency, integrity, and politics (which links to the role a person play in a network, and based on this, their power to lead changes).
I think I want to start from (2). The balance between the first two factors, practicability/efficiency and integrity, is similar to the precision-recall tradeoff. In the novel, when 财前五郎 (Goro Zaizen) took into consideration the hospital capacity, his time and efforts vs. the well-being of each patient, even for those poor ones and in later stages of cancer, he chose to lean more towards practical concerns and those that are "realistic." So we can say that Goro stands at maybe around 80% recall, and sacrifices the precision (i.e., dedication to each individual patient). In contrast, 里見脩二 (Shuji Satomi) chooses to do almost 100% precision and low recall. He treats every patient nicely, even if they are at very late stage of cancer. A byproduct of such choices is that his career is not as successful as Goro's, and he cannot take up management roles due to lack of the sense of balancing.
The third factor, politics, comes in with a similar spirit as practicability, but with more profoundness due to the social network in human societies. Resources are distributed for certain clusters, instead of a flattened structure like the free market with providers and buyers. To get involved in well-established clusters, one needs to take a standpoint, and rise and fall with that certain group. It can be interest group, ideology group, or even scholar groups in academia with a certain belief on what is the right way to approach truth. Each individual is weak, but groups are strong, although with its pros and cons. So it is always a big life question when playing both the individual game of balancing the precision-recall tradeoff and the group game to be well-situated in a society.
This book exactly depicts many difficult choices and how different people end up different paths in the medical world of hospitals and doctors.
The other point of this book, (1) the meaning of life, comes in in two ways. One is the doctor's view, when seeing the patients go through different stages of their life, and ethical considerations of what is the right role that doctors play, which should be a psychological, medical, and philosophical role based on deep thoughts on the meaning of life, and respect to each person's freedom of choice. The other impressive moment is when Goro himself got lung cancer. It is back to the problem of what is he fighting for throughout his life. His health got deteriorated and his hands too shaky to hold steady the operation knives. When all these physical conditions hold him back, then comes in the deep thinking about what is he actually chasing after. I think for normal people, it is good to ask oneself once every several years about whether their balance of career vs. interest vs. family is proper, or whether they will regret afterwards. For this, I think Socrates way of dialectics is good, e.g., keep asking why to ourselves.
---
In terms of the writing style, I really appreciate works (no matter novels, movies, etc) that can truly reflect what is happening in real life, its multi-facetedness and the detailed scenario people are facing for each difficult decision. Even when reading histories or inferring why a person in our world made a certain choice, it is always important to detailed list out what are the things on that person's table, instead of just labeling people with a certain character.
May 2, 2020
１巻：財前助教授「食道噴門癌の若き権威」〜菊川教授の推薦〜第一回選考委員会
読むのは２回目、多分高２（３？）の時以来。2003年版のドラマはセリフを覚えてしまうくらいに何遍も見てるからストーリー展開も分かってるし、一人ずつがそれぞれの俳優さんの顔になって浮かんでちょっとした仕草まで想像できてしまう。それくらい慣れ親しんだ話なのに、本当に面白かったし、前回はあんまりちゃんと読んでなかったか分かってなかったのか（笑）、なんだか新鮮な感じもした。
60年代に書かれたものだから、その時の医学界の情勢や喋り方、服装などなど、どうしても時代遅れなところはあるけれど扱うテーマ、描かれた人間のあり方というのは普遍的。私は「不朽の名作」という言葉を乱用してしまっている気がするけれど、帯にも書いてあるように、この作品には本当に相応しいフレーズだと思う。人の命を救うことを第一、そして唯一の理念として掲げているべき医学界の曲がった封建制、そのために犠牲になっているもの、そういった一見医学界（”白い巨塔”）特有のあり方を、揶揄しているとまではいかなくとも、鋭く描いている。でももちろんそれだけじゃなくて。その一方でこれは田舎から出てきたような、社会の下層部の者が野心的に社会のヒエラルキーを這ってのぼっていき、その過程で身も心も削られ、最終的に夢破れるという、フローベールやバルザックも書いていたような、ロマンチシズムにそった一人の人間（ここでは財前）の壮大な物語でもある。財前はこの”白い巨塔”と夢溢れる人生のどちらにも翻弄されて、結果殺されてしまう主人公だと思う。主人公だからということを差し置いた時、なかなか好きになれないキャラだけど、別に好かれるようにはなってないし、実に人間味に溢れている。でも、これは私が結末を知っているからかもしれないけど、人間くさいけどその生き方はもしかすると作中の誰よりも（下手すれば里見よりも）純粋でまっすぐで、嫌いにはなれないしどうしてもどこかで応援したくなってしまう。こう言うのは財前が心底嫌がりそうだけれど（笑）、財前は犠牲になった多くのものの中の一人であり、ドラマの最終回を観るたびに泣いてしまうくらいに可哀想に思う。
医学はどうあるべきなのか、医者はどうあるべきなのか、正しいことと正しくないことの線引き、誰もが兼ね備えている善と悪、弱さとプライド、夢と野望について。答えのないことをずっと問われている感じがする。
すでにこの作品の全体的な感想を言ってしまっている気がするけど、序盤からどっぷり本題に入っているから、よしとしよう（笑）
読むのは２回目、多分高２（３？）の時以来。2003年版のドラマはセリフを覚えてしまうくらいに何遍も見てるからストーリー展開も分かってるし、一人ずつがそれぞれの俳優さんの顔になって浮かんでちょっとした仕草まで想像できてしまう。それくらい慣れ親しんだ話なのに、本当に面白かったし、前回はあんまりちゃんと読んでなかったか分かってなかったのか（笑）、なんだか新鮮な感じもした。
60年代に書かれたものだから、その時の医学界の情勢や喋り方、服装などなど、どうしても時代遅れなところはあるけれど扱うテーマ、描かれた人間のあり方というのは普遍的。私は「不朽の名作」という言葉を乱用してしまっている気がするけれど、帯にも書いてあるように、この作品には本当に相応しいフレーズだと思う。人の命を救うことを第一、そして唯一の理念として掲げているべき医学界の曲がった封建制、そのために犠牲になっているもの、そういった一見医学界（”白い巨塔”）特有のあり方を、揶揄しているとまではいかなくとも、鋭く描いている。でももちろんそれだけじゃなくて。その一方でこれは田舎から出てきたような、社会の下層部の者が野心的に社会のヒエラルキーを這ってのぼっていき、その過程で身も心も削られ、最終的に夢破れるという、フローベールやバルザックも書いていたような、ロマンチシズムにそった一人の人間（ここでは財前）の壮大な物語でもある。財前はこの”白い巨塔”と夢溢れる人生のどちらにも翻弄されて、結果殺されてしまう主人公だと思う。主人公だからということを差し置いた時、なかなか好きになれないキャラだけど、別に好かれるようにはなってないし、実に人間味に溢れている。でも、これは私が結末を知っているからかもしれないけど、人間くさいけどその生き方はもしかすると作中の誰よりも（下手すれば里見よりも）純粋でまっすぐで、嫌いにはなれないしどうしてもどこかで応援したくなってしまう。こう言うのは財前が心底嫌がりそうだけれど（笑）、財前は犠牲になった多くのものの中の一人であり、ドラマの最終回を観るたびに泣いてしまうくらいに可哀想に思う。
医学はどうあるべきなのか、医者はどうあるべきなのか、正しいことと正しくないことの線引き、誰もが兼ね備えている善と悪、弱さとプライド、夢と野望について。答えのないことをずっと問われている感じがする。
すでにこの作品の全体的な感想を言ってしまっている気がするけど、序盤からどっぷり本題に入っているから、よしとしよう（笑）
January 2, 2012
白い巨塔- Very sophisticated writing metaphor to highlight the controversy of humanity and the conflicts of the interests in Japanese hospital. Highly recommended. Also the refilmed tv series in Japanese!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews