Pathway to Japanese Literature

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

Until the Death of a Certain GirlAuthor: Murō Saisei

Original Title	或る少女の死まで
Author	室生犀星
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In 1919 Tokyo, a troubled writer is jostled awake by an innkeeper—a detective demands his presence, stirring dread over a blood-soaked night he cannot escape. Flashbacks unravel a drunken brawl at S Bar: clashes with a brutish thug, a cane strike splitting flesh, and panicked flight through midnight alleys. Central to the chaos is the bar’s spectral server—a waifish girl with haunting eyes and an unyielding smile, whose trembling innocence mirrors his gnawing guilt. Dragged into police custody, he confronts frayed friendships, mosquito-ridden cells, and a settlement steeped in extortion. Relocating to a tranquil house offers no reprieve; memories of violence poison his solitude, while encounters with a radiant neighborhood child amplify his shame. As legal threats loom and liquor blurs his resolve, he teeters between self-destruction and fragile hope for redemption. A brooding portrait of moral decay and fleeting purity unfolds beneath the city’s merciless summer glare, where every shadow whispers of consequences yet to come.