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OfusaAuthor: Nagatsuka Takashi

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Original Titleおふさ
Author長塚 節
GenrePopular Fiction
Author TypeMale Author
SummaryAmidst the sun-drenched plains along the Kinu River, a young hairdresser moves with quiet purpose. Ofusa, mute yet radiant, navigates her world with childlike cheerfulness, her crisp white garments contrasting the earthy tones of rice fields and wheat-laden horizons. Each day, she travels the embankment to a bustling barbershop, where boatmen and laborers exchange rough banter beneath skylark songs. Her deft hands style hair and scrub floors, her smiles masking a deeper yearning—for Shō-san, the elusive husband who drifts in and out of her life, leaving whispers of betrayal and stolen coins in his wake. The shop’s women gossip about her tragic past: a mother lost to drink, a lover’s abandonment, a fragile hope that binds her to a man others deem unworthy. Yet Ofusa’s heart remains a sealed box, its contents known only to her. As wild roses bloom and river sparrows dart, she clings to kintsuba sweets and fleeting reflections in the mirror, a figure both pitied and enigmatic, dancing on the edge of a world that watches, laughs, and wonders.
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