Pathway to Japanese Literature

Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.

CityAuthor: Miyamoto Yuriko

Original Title	街
Author	宮本百合子
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Female Author
Summary	In 1929 Tokyo, Leonid Zheltersky navigates life as a Russian émigré haunted by revolution and loss. Having fled his homeland after his father’s execution during the Bolshevik upheaval, he now works at a modest newspaper office, clinging to fragile stability with his pregnant wife, Darya. Their cramped rented room becomes a refuge for Marina Ivanovna, a tempestuous seamstress escaping a bitter marital feud over unpaid debts. As Leonid reluctantly shelters her, tensions simmer—between Marina’s volatile pride, Darya’s quiet resilience, and the wary Japanese landlady downstairs, Seki, whose distrust of her foreign tenants grows alongside whispers of Darya’s impending childbirth. Against a backdrop of dust-choked streets and makeshift livelihoods, the couple’s precarious existence is tested by cultural divides, financial strain, and the ghosts of their uprooted pasts. Amid mandolin melodies and uneasy alliances, their story unfolds as a poignant tapestry of exile, resilience, and the fragile bonds that sustain displaced lives on the margins of belonging.