I Saw a Blue Horse and Other Writings

A young woman’s memories, hunger, anger, and hopes move through Hayashi Fumiko’s I Saw a Blue Horse, a complete poetry collection presented with its preface, contents, dedications, and afterword. Its villages, docks, rented rooms, and journeys open an anthology in which private experience repeatedly meets the forces shaping public life.

Oguri Fuyō tells a tragic story of love and a village struck by a tsunami. Takada Giichirō imagines a future lecture on human egg-laying, turning a grotesque scientific invention into a satire of commerce, authority, and human appetites. Iha Fuyū considers Okinawa’s political transformation, while Miyatake Gaikotsu attacks the soaring prices of rare books.

A short address by Ogino Ginko, labor poems by Haryū Hajime, two poems by Uezato Haruo, and Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke’s sharply observed reflections complete the volume. These nine writers offer strikingly different forms and viewpoints. The translation preserves complete texts, physical verse lines, and original ordering, with notes on historical references and unusual readings.