Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
← Back
MouseAuthor: Okamoto Kidō
| Original Title | 鼠 |
|---|---|
| Author | 岡本 綺堂 |
| Genre | Popular Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the spring of Edo-era Japan, three travelers—pawnbroker Shichibē, his nephew, and their clerk—pause at a mountain teahouse on their pilgrimage home. Amid cherry blossoms and haggling over bear pelts, a weathered hunter and a mysterious girl emerge. Shichibē’s breath catches: her mole and birthmark match his daughter Ogen, stolen as a child. Overjoyed, he claims her as his own, weaving a miraculous reunion that stuns their Edo household. Yet shadows linger. A gray mouse trails Ogen, glimpsed darting across verandas and pillows—a silent omen that chills the maidservants. Whispers of unease grow as Shichibē’s wife notices unsettling gaps in the girl’s past. When Ogen confesses a desperate deception—a performer’s trickster life bound to trained mice—the family’s fragile joy shatters. But darker truths unravel: two men lie dead in a bloodied field, their feud unexplained, while Ogen vanishes into the night. What began as divine providence twists into a tale of longing, betrayal, and spectral creatures bridging worlds unseen. |
← Return to List← Return to TOP