Captive

Kōtarō, a young graduate searching for work, spends his idle days in the house of his relative Tsuneo and Tsuneo’s wife, Tomiko. Their upstairs sitting room offers a place for intimate conversation, sympathy, and confession. Then a kiss changes the atmosphere of the household.

Tsuneo is tormented by his wife’s past. Tomiko seeks comfort from Kōtarō, while Kōtarō struggles to distinguish compassion from desire. Ordinary breakfasts, evening conversations, and walks through cold streets become scenes of increasingly uneasy scrutiny. Each finds it difficult to speak, decide, or escape.

First published in 1915, Toyoshima Yoshio’s story studies the confinement people create through attachment, jealousy, and their own uncertain motives. Its unsettled ending leaves the weight of those relationships intact.