Tale of the Dragon Pool and Other Pieces

A child disobeys his sister and wanders among hills covered in red azaleas. Lost, frightened, and unable to return home, he encounters a beautiful woman whose refuge seems to offer kindness beyond the ordinary world. His homecoming brings suspicion, confinement, and a struggle to make others understand what he has seen. “Tale of the Dragon Pool” unfolds through the child’s shifting perceptions toward the creation of a deep mountain pool.

Two essays accompany the tale. “The Armor Hall” considers accounts of wooden statues commemorating women who put on armor to comfort a grieving mother, then turns to a Chinese story of statues and divine marriage. “Plums in Midsummer” follows the buying, pickling, and drying of plums, the dancing fan that guards them, and the sparrows drawn to a household feast.

This complete translation retains all four supplied collection positions, including the repeated Dragon Pool tale. Reader notes preserve name readings, textual clues, refrains, and period terms while keeping Kyōka’s visual imagination and uncertain boundaries intact.