The Sandy Beach and Other Stories

On a sunlit beach, a young man wants solitude until he wants company—and finds embarrassment in both. His cousin writes effortless poems while he struggles to give his feelings words. Elsewhere, a grandmother insists on courage, proper introductions and a clean conscience, even as her grandson finds another excuse for an afternoon nap.

These five complete works move from beachside flirtation and a tipsy autumn letter to the uneasy intimacy of family life. A father objects to his child’s mispronunciation of his name, then learns why a name might matter. Another man promises exercise and temperance while his wife develops a private method of enduring his outbursts. Humor opens into loneliness, resentment and moments of unexpected tenderness.

Makino Shin’ichi (1896–1936) turns ordinary habits into searching, often merciless portraits of self-consciousness. This new English translation preserves the collection’s supplied order, its four numbered sections in the final story, emphatic wording and unresolved emotional endings. Notes explain names, dialect, period terms and peculiarities in the Japanese source. AI-assisted translation.