Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

My Mental PeripheryAuthor: Sakaguchi Ango

Original Title	わが精神の周囲
Author	坂口安吾
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	After being discharged from a hospital stay battling addiction and exhaustion, a writer defies medical advice to rest, driven to complete his novel. His work, published under unauthorized titles during his hospitalization, becomes a battleground of artistic control and personal demons. Struggling to capture Kyoto’s dialect for pivotal chapters, he embarks on an ill-fated research trip that leads to physical collapse. Retreating to a coastal town for recovery, he gains unexpected weight but loses sleep, haunted by unfinished pages. Between moxibustion charlatans and well-meaning friends, he confronts the paradox of a body failing while the mind burns with creative urgency. As insomnia sharpens his resolve, he vows to write through exhaustion, rejecting medical fatalism for the raw discipline of creation. This is not a tale of decline but of stubborn rebirth—where every setback fuels an artist’s defiant pact with his craft.