The Count’s Hairpin and Other Writings

A celebrated actress escapes the heat of a provincial city, carrying a jeweled hairpin bestowed by a count. A chance encounter at a shrine, a filthy wandering performer, and a carp that leaps into her boat lead her toward a dazzling public ceremony—and a humiliation that opens onto a stranger world.

The Count’s Hairpin and Other Writings brings together three complete works by Izumi Kyōka. In “The Story of Three Blind People,” a man hurrying through the fog finds his secret intentions exposed by strangers whose blindness conceals a terrible history. “The Pillar of Seven Treasures” follows a journey through Hiraizumi, where temple statues, ruined grandeur, devotional objects, and the harshness of ordinary lives mingle in an intensely personal travel essay.

Kyōka’s writing makes a shadow, a flower, a piece of silk, or a glimmer on water carry unsettling emotional force. These works preserve his richly layered imagery and his movement between compassionate observation and supernatural menace. Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939) was one of modern Japan’s distinctive writers of fantasy and lyrical prose. AI-assisted translation.