Hot Wind

At a Doll Festival gathering, a young narrator finds himself caught between two women, elaborate displays, and his first taste of sake. Years later, entrusted with a younger woman’s care, he follows her to Tokyo while carrying the papers of an obsessive historical investigation.

His subject is a castle lord who devoted his life to dreams of tengu. But the narrator’s own life keeps slipping from research into sleeplessness, drinking, financial schemes, and uneasy recollection. Inherited property promises an escape and threatens another collapse. A village festival and an encounter with a sculptor finally turn his thoughts in an unexpected direction.

Makino Shin’ichi’s 1929 narrative moves through memory, dream, imagined dialogue, and sharply observed domestic scenes. This complete new English translation preserves all five numbered sections and every supplied paragraph and exchange. Twenty notes clarify traditional masks, festivals, cultural references, and unusual textual details while allowing the narrator’s contradictions and shifting perceptions to retain their disturbing force.