Rapeseed Blossoms and Other Writings

A first visit to Masaoka Shiki becomes a lesson in poetry. A trip to Kyoto leads from an inn’s spring garden into a licensed pleasure quarter, where a grand procession gives way to uncertain conversation. Remembering Itō Sachio, Nagatsuka Takashi finds affection, vanity, awkwardness, and unexpected courage in a fellow poet.

These six complete writings combine literary reminiscence, personal essay, and travel diary. Along the northeastern coast, the narrator shares a cucumber with a village household, crosses rough water with pilgrims, watches deer and monkeys, and listens to a woman recall the villages buried by Mount Bandai’s eruption. Small observations give human scale to landscapes both beautiful and frightening.

Nagatsuka Takashi (1879–1915), a poet and prose writer associated with Shiki’s circle, brings an attentive and sometimes sharply judgmental voice to these encounters. This new English collection preserves the supplied order, original sections, diary dates, and quoted verse, with concise explanatory notes. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.