The Makioka Sisters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
If epic literature is based in the dramatic and forward-moving narrative of a male hero's journey, The Makioka Sisters is a female epic of inaction--trying to figure out what to wear, crying for no reason at the same time every afternoon. With each perilous, pathetic step, the sisters are heroes setting out for the new world. They're like Odysseus, except without the ship and without the sea.
Emily White on The Makioka Sisters.

The Makioka Sisters (細雪) is a serial novel by Tanizaki Jun'ichirou. It is considered one of the greatest Japanese novels of all time. It tells the story of the four sisters of the Makioka family. The novel was originally published in serial form from 1943 to 1948, the action taking place from Autumn 1936 to April, 1941.

Sachiko, the second sister, is the novel's main viewpoint character. She is outwardly very brisk and modern, actually quite introspective and traditional, and, one gets the feeling, Tanizaki's idea of what he would be like as a woman. Sachiko spends most of her time trying to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko, who is thirty years old at the beginning of the novel and subtly being deliberately as unhelpful as humanly possible to register her displeasure with the situation and desire to stay with her sisters and niece rather than be forced to move away with an unfamiliar man. The youngest sister, Taeko, is something of a problem child and her overly modern behaviour (which manages to avoid Values Dissonance because it really is quite shocking and brazen) makes it harder to get Yukiko a match.

Nobody cares about the eldest sister, Tsuruko who has been Demoted to Extra in-universe, except when she forces Yukiko to move to Tokyo for no real reason.

Tsuruko and Sachiko are both married. Sachiko's husband, Teinosuke, is the most prominent male character in the novel; Tsuruko's husband, Tatsuo, is judging by other characters' reactions the closest thing the novel has to an antagonist. Sachiko's daughter Etsuko is also prominent, as are some of Taeko's boy-toys.

...Oh, what's that, you say? The plot? Uh...well...no, this isn't really that sort of novel.

Three film adaptations, the most notable one directed by Kon Ichikawa in 1983, and five TV dramas were made.

Tropes used in The Makioka Sisters include: