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The Two Geniuses of the TownAuthor: Sakaguchi Ango
| Original Title | 町内の二天才 |
|---|---|
| Author | 坂口 安吾 |
| Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In a quiet town simmering with rivalry, two fathers clash over their sons’ supposed genius. Kinsan, the brash fishmonger, obsesses over molding his son Chosuke into a baseball prodigy, while Gensan, the prickly barber, boasts of his son Sho-bo’s shogi mastery. Their feud erupts in barbed exchanges at Gensan’s shop—Kinsan mocks Sho-bo’s “genius” as provincial, while Gensan derides Chosuke’s pitching as amateurish. Determined to humiliate each other, they strike a reckless wager: Kinsan recruits a disreputable child shogi prodigy from Tokyo to crush Sho-bo, while Gensan vows to parade Kinsan as a madman if defeated. Meanwhile, Chosuke’s baseball team faces a humiliating loss against a rival pitcher, shattering Kinsan’s illusions of his son’s talent. As both men confront the vastness of the world beyond their town—and their sons’ ordinary limits—their bitter rivalry unravels into mutual disillusionment. Yet pride lingers, etched in firewood piles and whispered rumors, as the town watches two deluded fathers grapple with dreams larger than their narrow lives. |
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