The Divine Chisel

A honeymoon in the mountains becomes an artist’s ordeal when a young sculptor’s wife vanishes. The only promise of her return is a demand from the master of an abandoned castle: he must carve a woman worthy of replacing her.

Izumi Kyōka’s The Divine Chisel leads from a remote hot-spring inn into a world of living wooden figures, wandering scarecrows, talking roadside statues, and a valley where flowers serve as counters on a natural game board. A village craftsman and a troubling monk accompany the sculptor as his confidence gives way to the limits of his skill.

Memory, desire, and artistic devotion meet in a mountain beauty whose connection with his childhood is deeper than he understands. The bargain that might save his wife asks what a work of art can offer—and what its maker is prepared to surrender.