The Golden Demon, Volume 1

At a New Year gathering, a diamond ring and the promise of wealth cast a shadow over an engagement. Miya and Hazama Kan’ichi have grown up within the same household, but affection must contend with family ambition, social standing and the attractions of an easier life.

Ozaki Kōyō’s celebrated novel follows the rupture of those promises from private rooms to the beach at Atami. Years later, its consequences reappear in a world of lenders, debtors and negotiations where money purchases influence and human feeling becomes a dangerous liability. Comic conversation, fierce denunciation and closely observed social detail give the drama its unsettling force.

This first supplied volume includes the complete opening part and the beginning of the next, ending during an unresolved loan discussion. The full English translation retains the author’s explanatory note, the characters’ conflicting perspectives and the narrator’s satire. Notes clarify Japanese customs, names and textual difficulties while preserving the novel’s historical voice.