Shinanogawa

Shinano river, magnificent and towering over Japan
Flowing endlessly through the threads of time
Spreading suffering and misery on those that dared sully its name
Oh, tragic destinies of the ones that were born therein!

1918 – Tokamachi Naka'uo – a baby is left to die in the snow, jubilant feast for the wild foxes. A star shining upon it, a mysterious wanderer happens to save it and returns it safely to its family. Was it a lucky star or a god of misfortune that sealed the fate of this young infant ? Only the Shinanogawa will remain to witness its future.

1929 - Yukie Takano doesn't know it yet but she was born from an adulterous relationship between her mother and an assistant. Living in a rather fortunate household, she couldn't have any clue about that but she still wonders why she decided to be absent from her life. She doesn't know it yet but she might have inherited the lecherous and lascivious personality from her progenitor.

Her father is also a complete freak who likes to take advantage of his servants and abuse them at will. It won't take that long for Yukie to discover the secrets of her family but she will aspire to discover the curiosities of the male body even before that, starting with Tatsukichi, the houseboy, with whom she will fall in love with and experience her first kisses, but she will have to give up on him to move to a private school far from her home. The gaps in her heart will promptly be filled up once more: enthralled by her new teacher, a forbidden relationship between an adult and a minor will cause the board of education and the headlines to rage with indignation, forcing them to elope together to burn their passion to the fullest.
However, not even this scandalous relationship with this charismatic professor will be enough to quench her thirst for physical intimacy. Awakened to a new side of herself like a wolf cut loose, Yukie's life into debauchery is only now kicking off and many other partners will enter into her life.

Shinanogawa is not exactly about a succession of Yukie's conquests and showing her frivolous existence, Shinanogawa is about her quest for identity and to find a meaning for her life, longing for affection but rejecting any form of constraints, rejecting at the same time any chance to lead a happy life. It really boils down to the slow and dramatic descent into the abyss and the pace of the story is perfectly controlled, going crescendo until there's no coming back, for her or for the poor excuses of a men that she left withering behind her.

What's the most interesting about it is how the catharsis is fulfilled in the later part of the story and how each of the characters get to contemplate their self-destruction right in the eye. It's a shame the series was only completely published in 2005, 30 years after its original start, due to false accusations of plagiarism after the movie came out and because of its low sales, probably because of the success of Dousei Jidai that completely overshadowed it as it was still running in Manga Action when Shinanogawa began its serialization. That's how Shinogawa was stuck at the 13th chapter for a long time and remained one of Kamimura's lesser known works.
It's a shame because I really think it stands in its own right in his bibliography, a romance story enhanced by its political and cultural context of the early Showa era is remarkably well portrayed and by the naturalistic side of his art that is more elaborated than in any of his other works where is style close to traditional Japanese paintings shine the brightest.

The work where his most famous catchphrase comes from "The more empty an image can get, the more beautiful it can become" absolutely needs to be read if you're interested in his works.