The Imado Fox and Other Stories and Memories

A late-night traveler crawls across a flooded bridge, only to discover that the road is dry and his supper has vanished. An actor’s affair returns in a series of disturbing encounters. A woman’s knees appear beside a reader’s pillow, bringing an old house’s hidden story into view.

Osanai Kaoru’s seven works range far beyond these brief uncanny accounts. “Scrap Paper” exposes the cruel confidence of a young man protected by class privilege. “Umeryō’s Story” lets an apprentice geisha recount a terrifying flood with an irrepressible appetite and a gift for mischief, while a watchful narrator corrects her version. “The Pears” recalls a childhood festival performance that astonishes its audience.

The collection closes with “Shiba, Azabu,” a memoir of rented houses, actors, classrooms, restaurants, and literary friendships in a changing Tokyo. Osanai Kaoru (1881–1928), a central figure in modern Japanese theater, brings a dramatist’s ear to these voices. All seven works appear complete in a new English translation, with brief notes and their documented publication history.