The Mummy’s Lipstick

Minoru wants to make a life in writing and the theater. In the Tokyo household she shares with Yoshio, poverty makes every hope inseparable from the question of earning a living.

Rainy streets, cherry blossoms, a funeral, and theatrical rehearsals become the settings of a marriage whose tenderness and resentment constantly change places. When success arrives, it brings a new struggle over the ownership of her art.

First published in 1913, Tamura Toshiko’s searching novel gives artistic ambition and domestic dependence a vivid physical presence. A strange final dream gathers the tension of the story into a haunting image.