Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
← Back
| Original Title | 橋 |
|---|---|
| Author | 池谷 信三郎 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a city perpetually cloaked in fog, a man becomes entangled with Shiika, a woman as enigmatic as the mist itself. Their encounters are fleeting—meetings in glass-walled fruit shops where mandarin oranges emerge from the haze, charged with unspoken tension. Each time they part at a bridge veiled in perpetual mist, Shiika vanishes into the unknown, humming a melancholic mazurka that lingers in his mind. Determined to unravel her secrets, he grapples with her shifting identities: an actress, a merchant’s daughter, a phantom who refuses to be anchored by truth. As their connection deepens, so does his obsession with crossing the bridge that divides her world from his—a threshold where desire clashes with dread. But Shiika’s warnings echo like distant bells: *"It would be better if you didn’t."* In this atmospheric tale of longing and illusion, every shadow holds a question, and love itself becomes a labyrinth of smoke and mirrors. |
← Return to List← Return to TOP