Steadfast as the Pine: A Beauty Buried Alive

Behind a revolving bookcase, a young wife discovers that her honorable husband commands a band of criminals. His answer is to bury her alive. A courageous townsman opens her coffin—and faces a harder task than rescue: persuading her that survival need not betray her duty as a wife.

In the ports, temples, and hills around Uraga, the household’s secret entangles a stubborn geisha, a wayward lover, a hypocritical monk, and two brothers willing to risk their bond for a friend. Comic quarrels and sea journeys lead toward a confrontation where loyalty, repentance, and deception can scarcely be distinguished.

San’yūtei Enchō (1839–1900), a master of Japanese performed storytelling, adapts a Western tale into an expansive Japanese narrative of chivalry and betrayal. This complete new English translation preserves all forty-four sections, the repeated oral accounts, humorous interruptions, and final transcription credit. Selected notes explain historical units and religious language. AI-assisted translation.