Seizō and the Pond

A hungry thirteen-year-old reaches Tokyo’s outskirts after losing his parents. A kite maker offers him shelter, but the village pond remains a source of strength and, eventually, art.

In the accompanying memoir, Miyajima Sukeo returns to Yotsuya’s childhood landscapes: castle defenses, ponds, theaters, busy streets, and the changes brought by modern Tokyo.

The two works, first published in 1927 and 1928, preserve the daily life and remembered places through which people make sense of loss and change.