The Karma Mound

In the quiet suburb of Negishi, O-Waka pines for the musician her family has paid to stay away. One night he comes to her through the hedge, and her stern uncle, a former samurai, takes aim with a revolver—at an old badger. The twins she bears are given away to strangers. O-Waka takes the tonsure, finds the real Inosuke playing the shamisen for coppers at her gate, and flees with him by the last train out of Tokyo.

Twenty years later her uncle’s house holds two O-Waka-sans at once, and the twins, grown up and unknown to each other, have met in a Shinagawa brothel. San’yūtei Enchō’s tale of the “soul-parting sickness” is told in the voice of the stage, with its jokes, asides and cliffhangers intact. Complete and unabridged in all nine original chapters, with concise notes and a documented source record.

A New English Translation in the series Japanese Classics in English Translation.