Autumn on the Kiso Road and Other Writings

Old mountain roads lead a traveler through rushing streams, lonely post towns, and silver moonlight toward a friend in Kiso. The journey’s beauty stirs memories, poetic excitement, and thoughts of lives unfolding among the mountains. A later recollection returns to the streets of Ushigome and the young writer’s first visits to Ozaki Kōyō.

Six writings by Tayama Katai join travel, literary memory, and reflections on art. “Autumn on the Kiso Road” offers a richly atmospheric mountain journey. “An Account of Visiting Kōyō Sanjin” remembers famous writers, early ambitions, and the contrasts between a celebrated author’s home and a poor student’s life. Other essays examine social drama and impressionism, foreign literature, the discipline of study, and the effort to escape convention and inward confinement.

Katai (1872–1930), a central figure in Japanese naturalism, asks how artists can approach human life more deeply. This complete new English translation presents all six supplied works in their specified order, with brief notes on source readings, historical claims, and textual inconsistencies. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.