Tea Talk - 1916

A painter authenticates a forgery with delighted pride. A politician’s temper is soothed by borrowed antiques. An actor rehearsing his lines on a train is mistaken for a madman. In Tea Talk, even the smallest exchange can expose an entire world of pretension.

Written for the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun in 1916, these brief columns range from Japanese theaters, tea gatherings, and streetcars to stories of European writers and American public figures. Artists bargain, scholars posture, husbands misunderstand, and ingenious people find unexpected ways to get what they want. Kyūkin’s conversational voice makes room for sharp jokes, literary allusions, and sudden reflections on the value of art and the absurdities of reputation.

Susukida Kyūkin, a Japanese poet and essayist, brings a cultivated reader’s curiosity and a satirist’s eye to this crowded human comedy. This complete new English translation preserves the dated entries and their historical contradictions, with explanatory notes on names, customs, allusions, and reported anecdotes. It offers a lively encounter with the newspaper essay at its most mischievous.