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A letter arrives during the evening rush at an Osaka restaurant. O-Fumi’s absent husband asks for money and proposes his own conditions for returning.

Her mother and uncle reckon up his debts while the restaurant continues to serve its customers. Outside, Dōtonbori’s electric lights, theaters, and waterways draw the family’s conversation into a changing night.

First published in 1914, Kamitsukasa Shōken’s story turns domestic work, pleasure, resentment, and longing into a sharply observed portrait of urban life.