Royal Dust and Other Essays

A queen discovers that even royal dust has its privileges. A nervous Yale student praises the very bell that prevents his companion from hearing him. A tea master reads his host’s intention in a garden deliberately left unswept.

Susukida Kyūkin’s Tea Talk brings Japanese poets, tea practitioners, artists, and political figures into conversation with Mark Twain, Henry Ford, European royalty, and the world of the theater. The stories expose vanity and misunderstanding, but also pause over generosity, artistic perception, and the care with which a gift is offered or received.

This new English translation collects the six complete supplied works from 1915, 1922, 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1930. It preserves their original order, dated columns, publication labels, dialogue, and poems. Thirty-six numbered notes explain cultural references, literary wordplay, uncertain names, and historical discrepancies. Kyūkin’s period judgments and reported claims remain visible, allowing readers to encounter both the wit and the assumptions of the original newspaper essays.