Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Butterfly in the NightAuthor: Yamamoto Shūgorō
| Original Title | 夜の蝶 |
|---|---|
| Author | 山本 周五郎 |
| Genre | Popular Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the dim glow of a canal-side stall in Honjo Kamezawa-cho, the Shell Shop’s nightly patrons gather—a vegetable peddler, a boatman, a grizzled drunk, and a weary traveler cloaked in mystery. Amid clinking sake cups and steaming bowls, whispers swirl around Sachiko, a hauntingly beautiful woman adrift in delusion. She cradles an imaginary child, pleading to reunite with Takatsugu, a man who vanished years ago after allegedly robbing her family’s hemp shop. The regulars trade rumors: a stolen fortune, a broken betrothal, a life unraveled by grief. But when a disheveled drunkard rasps a contradictory tale—of sacrifice, not theft—the traveler listens intently, his guarded questions hinting at buried truths. As shadows deepen and a lone butterfly flutters through lantern light, long-buried loyalties and lies surface, teasing fragments of a tragedy that binds them all. What secrets linger in the canal’s murky silence? And whose guilt—or redemption—might yet take flight? |
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