Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

'Kerria Flowers'Author: Izumi Kyoka

Original Title	山吹
Author	泉鏡花
Genre	Popular Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	Amidst the mist-shrouded mountains of Shuzenji Hot Springs, three lives intertwine under the fragile bloom of late cherry blossoms. Shimazu Tadashi, a reclusive painter adrift in melancholy, encounters Nuiko—a viscountess fleeing her gilded cage of familial cruelty. Disguised as his wife to evade pursuers, her desperation mirrors the decaying carp floating in a nearby stream, a silent omen of ruin. Between them wanders Heguri Tōji, an aging puppeteer haunted by sins of his youth, who worships a marionette as penance and begs Nuiko to whip him into absolution. Against the backdrop of Kōbō Daishi’s raucous festival, where sacred processions clash with drunken revelry, their fates spiral into a dance of longing and atonement. Nuiko’s fragile resolve to vanish into obscurity with the puppeteer collides with Shimazu’s detached curiosity, while rain-soaked petals and whispered chants blur the line between salvation and damnation. Secrets unravel like frayed puppet strings, revealing wounds no medicine can mend—and choices that could bind their souls or set them free beneath the kerria flowers’ fleeting glow.