The Guest in the Next Room

Everyone regards him as a man of upright conduct. His confession tells another story: a concealed affair, a woman left to bear its consequences, and a mother whose devotion helps protect him from exposure.

In The Guest in the Next Room, Nagatsuka Takashi follows this uneasy narrator from the oak woods of his home village to the fishing port of Hirakata. There, a quiet woman staying behind the adjacent sliding partition draws his attention. Her reserve, apparent illness, and unexplained circumstances deepen his anxiety about the woman he has left behind. Coastal walks, fishing boats, a whale story, and a night of shipwreck surround a mystery he cannot solve.

First published in 1910, the story joins close observation of rural and coastal life with an unsparing account of self-deception. This complete English translation preserves all eight sections, the narrator’s evasions and judgments, and the unresolved neighboring guest. Twenty-four notes clarify historical places, clothing, local vocabulary, and period medical language.