An Incident and Other Stories

A Japanese woman works in a small study above an American lake. When a new family rents the rooms downstairs, curiosity, sympathy, and a dispute over privacy draw her into uncomfortable scrutiny of her own judgments. In another household, a younger brother falls ill, and a sister watches her fear change into a painful attempt to understand life and death. Then a boy named Ichita sells nattō and eggs through Tokyo streets, finding play and small pleasures amid his mother’s anxieties.

These three complete works by Miyamoto Yuriko bring sharply different experiences into focus: the inward conflicts of “An Incident,” the intimate bereavement of “An Awakening,” and the child’s-eye perspective of “Ichita and His Mother.” Published in Japanese magazines between 1918 and 1927, they reveal the writer’s attention to family relationships, material circumstances, and the difficult distance between what people say and what others know.

This English collection preserves the supplied order, the dedication, and each original ending. Brief reader notes explain customs, period references, uncertain names, and textual peculiarities. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.