Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

Seishin-anAuthor: Izumi Kyoka

Original Title	清心庵
Author	泉鏡花
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In a secluded mountain hermitage, two figures dwell in quiet defiance of the world below. The narrator, a young man haunted by his mother’s unresolved death, and Maya, a noblewoman shrouded in mystery, share an existence sustained by rice, salt, and spring water. Their days are spent gathering vibrant mushrooms—not for sustenance but for fleeting beauty—amid forests teeming with foragers. An old mountain guard warns of poisonous fungi and cryptic visitors: a palanquin arrives, sent to retrieve Maya, yet she refuses to return to her gilded life. Servants whisper of scandal, accusing the pair of impropriety, but their bond transcends earthly desires. It is rooted in grief, nurtured by a revered nun whose enigmatic influence binds them to the hermitage. As dusk falls and shadows lengthen, secrets linger like mist—Maya’s laughter echoes through pine-scented air, chrysanthemums glow like spectral snow, and the past whispers through bamboo groves. What ties them to this sacred solitude? Only the mountain, ancient and silent, holds the answer.