Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
← Back
Lake and ThemAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio
| Original Title | 湖水と彼等 |
|---|---|
| Author | 豊島 与志雄 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | By a secluded lake shrouded in mist and autumnal chill, a woman tends a near-empty teahouse, her days steeped in quiet reflection and scripture. Forty years of solitude weigh on her like the frost-bitten ginkgo tree outside—its sparse branches mirroring her own dwindling connections. When a gaunt young man arrives, his haunted eyes and cryptic words unsettle her fragile peace. Drawn to his anguish, she offers solace through faith, but he resists, consumed by a love entwined with existential despair. Days later, he returns with a companion—a woman whose quiet intensity mirrors his own—and borrows a boat under the pretense of moonlit serenity. As they drift into the lake’s mercury-like expanse, the teahouse keeper glimpses their fervent prayers and tearful embraces, sensing a reckoning between devotion and oblivion. Their charged silence lingers long after they depart, leaving her to grapple with echoes of their unresolved yearning—and the haunting question of where faith ends and the human heart’s abyss begins. |
← Return to List← Return to TOP