Crape Myrtle and Other Writings

A summer walk through pine-covered hills awakens a writer’s memories of his brother, old friends, and lovers who have passed out of his life. Temple bells, railway journeys, and red crape myrtle draw past and present together, while the wish to escape an entangled existence grows ever stronger.

Eight writings by Tayama Katai bring fiction, travel, personal recollection, and literary reflection into one collection. A young woman visits a secret lover’s grave before her own marriage. Two companions explore a coast whose beauty is interrupted by a discovery of death. Travelers contemplate Yoshitomo’s fate at Noma, and two artists face a stone Buddha that exposes the limits of their own efforts. Essays consider prefectural towns, the Great War, society and the self, and modern European drama.

Katai (1872–1930), a central figure in Japanese naturalism, writes with an intense interest in memory, inward struggle, and the pressures of ordinary life. This complete new English translation includes all eight supplied works in their specified order and brief notes on readings and textual inconsistencies. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.