The Spring Coat and Other Stories

An old coat lies crumpled in a seaside room. To its wearer, it carries a family secret, memories of humiliation, and the possibility of a small, spiteful revenge. Elsewhere, a young woman’s bond with her horse overturns courtship, debts, and the tidy arrangements other people would make for her.

These eight complete works range from a brief, desolate night to childhood grief, postcards exchanged among writers, embarrassment before an American visitor, an amateur filmmaker’s daydreams, and a moonlit motorcycle ride whose romance goes unexpectedly astray. The Spring Coat and Diana’s Horse give the collection its longer, shifting studies of desire and dependence; the shorter pieces offer equally sharp turns from comedy to loneliness.

Makino Shin’ichi (1896–1936) wrote with a restless imagination and an often merciless eye for his narrators’ pretensions. This English collection preserves the supplied order, numbered sections, letters, and unresolved endings, with concise notes on uncertain names and source peculiarities. AI-assisted translation.