Not Too Late and Other Plays and Essays

A friend lives on another man’s hospitality, offering advice, promises, and an extraordinary defense of dependence. When unexpected money arrives, an excursion with the landlord turns generosity into anger. Peaceful Antagonism follows the uneasy alliance among a jobless translator, his separated sister, their guest, and the neighbors drawn into their troubles.

In The Flowers Next Door, two husbands praise each other’s wives while the women exchange equally complicated views of married life. Across a slight bamboo fence, flowers, toothpaste, umbrellas, cinema, and a delayed outing become occasions for envy, persuasion, and unspoken expectations. Small household gestures reveal how differently people describe the same relationships.

Three short essays question the meaning of a bare stage, trace European influence on Japanese drama, and assess the promise of playwright Abe Masao. Complete translations preserve all six supplied entries, including the upload’s identical repeat of The Flowers Next Door, with concise notes on names, period terms, textual details, and unresolved contradictions.