The Second Kiss

Murakawa is a handsome young employee living in the home of a wealthy family. His attraction to the quiet Shizuko promises an escape from loneliness, but a nighttime mistake gives the imperious Kyōko a claim he never intended to grant. What begins as embarrassment becomes a contest of pride, secrecy, and revenge.

As letters, encounters, and marriage proposals are manipulated, Shizuko’s gentleness offers little protection against the household’s pressures. A visit to the seaside brings the conflict into the open, and the lovers must confront the consequences of choices made in fear and passion.

First serialized in 1925, The Second Kiss captures a world of automobiles, fashionable clothes, theater visits, and new social freedoms, where older obligations still govern intimate life. Kikuchi Kan, a major novelist and influential figure in Japanese literary publishing, turns a domestic romance into an increasingly disturbing study of power and desire.