Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

Study NotesAuthor: Sakaguchi Ango

Original Title	勉強記
Author	坂口安吾
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In the wake of Tokyo’s Great Earthquake, as modernity’s first tremors reshape society, an enigmatic student named Kurisu Angichi drifts into Nirvana University’s Indian Philosophy Department. Clad in thick glasses and a perpetually contemplative air, he unsettles his peers—monks’ heirs clinging to tradition—with his shaved head and baffling obsession with ancient languages. While they dabble in pomade and pretension, Kurisu wrestles with Sanskrit’s labyrinthine grammar under a professor who claims mastery yet falters before dictionaries, and endures Tibetan lessons from a flatulent scholar convinced language conquers nations. His journey spirals into absurdity: nights haunted by snakes in mountain huts, debates over enlightenment’s futility, and a surreal geisha-house initiation led by a serene abbot. Meanwhile, his friend Ryūkai—a monk-turned-painter starving to fund Parisian dreams—embodies desperation clashing with dogma. As Kurisu abandons enlightenment for fleeting human connections, the story weaves existential folly with biting satire, probing whether wisdom lies in ancient texts or the chaos of living.