Kondō Isami and Science and Other Writing

A dying man’s indistinct words launch a pursuit through Japan. A fugitive, a widow, and a wandering singer move through mistaken accusations, divided loyalties, and unexpected encounters toward a fatal meeting on Kirara Slope. Naoki Sanjūgo tells their story with sudden violence and a wry awareness of the machinery of adventure.

The collection then turns to a blistering attack on Satō Haruo’s proposals about writers’ pay. In its final and longest work, Kondō Isami and his Shinsengumi discover that courage, armor, and decades of sword training offer little protection against modern firearms. The battlefield exposes the distance between inherited prestige and practical power.

These three complete works, first published in 1926 and 1930, reveal a writer equally drawn to popular storytelling, literary controversy, and the collapse of samurai certainties. The new English translation preserves every supplied piece in order, including songs, dialogue, numbered sections, and closing passages. Twenty notes clarify historical terms, cultural references, and the historical story’s deliberate or unresolved discrepancies.