Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Night ShoesAuthor: Yokomitsu Riichi
| Original Title | 夜の靴 |
|---|---|
| Author | 横光 利一 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the sweltering August heat following Japan’s surrender, a family seeks refuge in a remote mountain village, their lives upended by war’s abrupt end. The narrator’s brother-in-law stumbles into their garden with news of defeat, his flushed face mirroring the fiery chrysanthemums blazing under a merciless sun. Amid crumbling farmhouses and ancient temple ruins, villagers navigate scarcity—fleas torment sleepless nights, rice vanishes into bureaucratic voids, and whispers of communism mingle with cicadas’ cries. The land itself feels haunted: overgrown battlefields echo with spectral histories, while stoic farmers like Sanemon and Kyūzaemon embody contradictions of pride and despair. Through fragmented vignettes—a widow’s grief-stricken smile, a developmentally disabled laborer’s quiet dignity, a demobilized soldier’s hollow laughter—the story weaves a tapestry of resilience and disconnection. Nature persists, indifferent: persimmons swell, rain drowns unripe rice, and autumn winds carry both decay and fragile hope. In this liminal space between collapse and survival, human bonds fray yet endure, illuminated by fleeting moments of beauty amid desolation. |
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