The Ruby and Other Writings

A painter returns from an exhibition with his rejected work strapped to his back. Children turn him into a kite, then draw him into a circle whose song summons stranger companions. In The Ruby, a ring, a secret meeting and the watching crows transform a bare winter field into a disturbing stage.

Spring in a Picture Book follows a boy into an old lane where a book-rental notice appears only at twilight. A formidable family friend recounts the place’s cruel history, but the boy has already met its beautiful young woman. The Silver Cauldron, Continued accompanies a bereaved poet through a night journey and a spring landscape, where remembered affection and a familiar flower bring him perilously close to water.

Gathering Medicinal Herbs returns to a hidden mountain and the memory of a child’s rescue. Seeking a cure, a medical student encounters a flower seller whose story leads him toward an extraordinary field of blossoms. These four complete writings preserve Izumi Kyōka’s vivid speech, shifting landscapes and unresolved supernatural possibilities, with notes on original readings and cultural references.