Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

AppleAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio

Original Title	林檎
Author	豊島与志雄
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	On a chilly April night aboard a train winding through the darkness, a drowsy traveler encounters an unsettling companion—a pale, rigidly poised man with clouded eyes and a persistent smile. Obsessively fixated on a sleeping child nearby, the stranger reveals fragments of his fractured psyche: his adoration for children, a daughter lost to illness, and a haunting past that led authorities to exile him from Tokyo. As he recounts disturbing tales of luring children to his home and clashes with police, his demeanor oscillates between eerie calm and manic intensity, blurring the line between tenderness and menace. The narrator grows increasingly uneasy, caught between pity and dread, as dawn reveals unsettling interactions between the man, his weary uncle, and the oblivious girl. By journey’s end, the stranger vanishes into the crowd, leaving behind lingering questions about sanity, obsession, and the fragile boundary between love and predation. This atmospheric tale weaves tension through whispered confessions and unspoken threats, inviting readers into a twilight world where innocence masks darker compulsions.