Souvenirs of San’in

A summer train journey carries Shimazaki Tōson and his artist son from Osaka into the coastal world of San’in: rebuilt Kinosaki, sea caves at Uradome, Tottori’s streets and dunes, and the shifting waters of Lake Shinji. Boats, local guides, country inns, and encounters with strangers give the journey its intimate rhythm.

Tōson looks closely at what survives beneath the visible surface. Maruyama Ōkyo’s temple paintings change the way he sees village children; Sesshū’s stone gardens overturn his old doubts about the painter. Myths of land-pulling and land-yielding, memories of poets, and stories of earthquakes and war enter the same landscape as meals, laundry, heat, and fatigue.

One of modern Japan’s major literary figures, Tōson brings the attention of a novelist and poet to this travel account. Its sixteen sections preserve both the delight of discovery and the limits of a traveler’s knowledge. This complete new English translation includes the quoted poems and concise notes on names, cultural references, and textual inconsistencies.