The Cup and Other Writings

What can a small cup reveal that seven larger cups cannot? Beside a waterfall, seven children discover an unfamiliar girl whose words unsettle their easy agreement. Mori Ōgai’s brief opening story introduces a collection concerned with independence, judgment and the difficulty of knowing another person.

Kuriyama Daizen follows a retainer’s struggle with the Kuroda lord through disputes, remonstrances, secret letters and a hearing before the shogunate. Suginohara Shina reconstructs a woman’s life from tangled family histories and documentary evidence, while questioning the stories later attached to it.

Two essays complete the collection. In History As It Is and Departures from History, Ōgai explains how historical records shape fiction and why a writer sometimes leaves them behind. Chaos turns an unprepared address into a reflection on small cleverness, bewilderment and the capacity to grow. These five complete writings, first published between 1909 and 1916, appear with concise notes on names, historical customs and the supplied accounts’ inconsistencies.