Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Cat Abandonment SlopeAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio
| Original Title | 猫捨坂 |
|---|---|
| Author | 豊島 与志雄 |
| Genre | War & Social Literature |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Behind a war-scarred hospital lies a forsaken slope shrouded in decay—a place where stray cats and whispered rumors converge. Granite stones slick with age cut through weeds and debris, flanked by concrete ruins that house a macabre secret: charred human remains preserved in tanks, their presence seeping into the air as a putrid miasma. Locals speak of disembodied voices urging passersby to “hurry up,” their commands luring victims into falls or flights of panic. Amid this desolation, a young man navigates his mother’s agonizing deathbed vigil, her hollow gaze mirroring the vacant eye sockets of the slope’s spectral figures. Shadows blur reality—a collapsed woman vanishes with a kitten; a drunken friend retches enigmatically; a fumbled kiss under a crescent moon leaves only bitterness. Post-war despair clings like the stench of rot, binding the living and dead in a chorus of restless urgency. Here, grief and grotesquerie intertwine, where every breath carries the weight of unresolved endings and unseen watchers murmuring from the dark. |
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