Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

From 1925 to January 1927Author: Miyamoto Yuriko

Original Title	一九二五年より一九二七年一月まで
Author	宮本百合子
Genre	War & Social Literature
Author Type	Female Author
Summary	Amidst the turbulence of 1920s Japan, a mosaic of lives intertwines—foreigners and locals, dreamers and realists, all navigating a society in flux. A Dutchman named Paoli captivates boarding-house maids with his broken Japanese, while a timid father strolls Tokyo with his career-driven daughter, their bond tinged with unspoken tensions. A noblewoman’s companion endures ceaseless demands in silk kimonos, her desperation for escape palpable. Factory workers debate labor unions over botamochi sweets, their laughter masking anxieties about survival. Vivid dreams haunt the nights: phantom cows swimming toward cliffs, spectral long-haired figures, and a father’s irrational fears crystallizing into telegrams. Rain lashes the city in biblical torrents, erasing all but the immediacy of isolation. Meanwhile, a maid’s reckless liaisons spiral into scandal, policed by an overzealous officer obsessed with order. Through moonlit gardens and snow-clad Sapporo streets, characters grapple with loneliness, ambition, and the weight of tradition—a typist’s quiet rebellion, an aging geisha’s faded grandeur, a bedridden woman’s religious awakening. Each fleeting encounter whispers of yearning—for connection, autonomy, or simply a moment of beauty in the gathering gloom.