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Kurotani VillageAuthor: Sakaguchi Ango
| Original Title | 黒谷村 |
|---|---|
| Author | 坂口 安吾 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the shadowed valleys of rural Japan lies Kurotani Village—a place where fleeting summers bleed into melancholy and the mountains hum with restless sensuality. Yaguruma Bonta arrives not for friendship but escape, trading Tokyo’s suffocating grind for the raw embrace of nature. Here, he reunites with Ryūzen, an aloof priest whose quietude masks turbulent depths. The village pulses with contradictions: languid days dissolve into nights thick with whispered trysts, and rituals blur into primal dances under moonlit skies. Yet beneath its carefree surface lingers a haunting transience—a recognition of life’s fragility etched into every sun-dappled meadow and decaying temple. \nBonta drifts through this world, unmoored by Ryūzen’s enigmatic presence and the magnetic pull of Tomaya Yura, a woman caught between desire and despair. Their fragile connections unravel against a backdrop of cicada-song and Bon Festival drums, where human longing collides with nature’s indifference. As autumn’s chill descends, Kurotani reveals itself not as sanctuary but mirror—reflecting the ache of existence itself. A tale of ephemeral beauty and quiet ruin, where even liberation tastes of loss. |
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