Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
← Back
Floating Land PricesAuthor: Kuroshima Denji
| Original Title | 浮動する地価 |
|---|---|
| Author | 黒島 伝治 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a rural Japanese village gripped by the fever of land speculation, a family’s fragile existence unravels against the backdrop of modernization. The patriarch obsessively acquires fields and mountains, believing land to be an eternal legacy, even as debts mount and mechanization reshapes farming. His eldest son’s impulsive marriage to the daughter of a wealthy landlord fractures under societal pressures and personal betrayals, while the younger brother narrates their descent with a mix of resentment and pity. As railways promise prosperity, surveyors’ stakes pierce the earth, sparking greed and desperation among villagers—until corruption collapses the project, leaving ruined fields and broken dreams. The family’s relentless toil yields only decay: crops rot, debts suffocate, and relationships crumble. Vivid contrasts emerge between lush, untamed nature and the encroaching industrial world—flickering electric lights, choking automobiles—that erode tradition. Through intimate struggles and sweeping change, the story captures a vanishing agrarian life, where human desires clash with inexorable progress, leaving haunting questions about legacy and survival in its wake. |
← Return to List← Return to TOP