The Horse-Day Market and Other Writings

A summer night market leads a young wife into the dazzling, unsettling interiors of Yoshiwara. In another story, a celebrated novelist’s family discovers that a grand memorial may bear little resemblance to the man it commemorates. Miyamoto Yuriko brings a searching intelligence to these scenes and to the ordinary pressures of women’s lives.

The fifteen works collected here include theater reviews, reflections on friendship and marriage, memories of American camping, and mountain travel. A chained dog’s cries join those of a confined woman in a disturbing meditation on suffering. Brief pieces on beauty, music, reading, and artistic vocation reveal the writer’s dissatisfaction with easy answers.

The collection closes with Children, Children, Children in Moscow, an extended account of nurseries, workers’ education, libraries, and plans for a new social life. First published between 1921 and 1930, these complete translations preserve Miyamoto’s convictions and uncertainties alike. Concise notes explain historical terms, names, and textual details.