Spring Chill and Other Essays

A sickroom, a daughter’s piano music, and the battles of ancient Norwegian kings meet in the opening essay of this collection. For Terada Torahiko, reading and everyday experience can unexpectedly illuminate each other.

These nine complete works follow curiosity across art, memory, and science. An unsparing review of a 1927 art exhibition asks what makes a painting alive. Two intimate first-person narratives explore illness, family obligations, and a childhood picture whose world outlasts the places it recalls. A commemorative letter captures an elusive impression of a poet. “The Guide” considers both the value and the dangers of received authority, from travel books to scientific teaching.

Other essays propose an entropy clock, sketch a scientific study of poetic cadence, and explain seasonal subjects such as lightning, dew, fog, and charcoal. Their insights and uncertainties remain rooted in the early twentieth century.