Bones and Other Writings

A young man carries a fragment of his mother’s bone in a purse amid drinking parties, precarious friendships, and a restless search for direction. In “Bones,” affection and recklessness share the same rooms, and laughter repeatedly gives way to grief.

Elsewhere, a child watches his younger brother choke on a go stone, a son remembers the fierce temperaments of his parents, and a northern autumn unfolds in frost, fading clouds, and the warmth of a farmhouse. These intimate pieces stand beside a nine-stanza school song and reflections on nature and poetry.

Arishima’s accounts of releasing his Hokkaido farm examine the distance between benevolence and freedom won by the people themselves. His essays ask what culture can mean for farmers trapped by poverty and private ownership.