The Tale of the Biwa and Other Writings

A parrot calls a young woman by an affectionate name, while a house ruled by fear shuts her away from a promised meeting. In The Tale of the Biwa, loyalty and confinement lead lovers, an old servant and a military officer toward an ending of startling violence. The bird’s familiar voice continues across the consequences.

Dispatch from Haicheng brings a Red Cross attendant into conflict with military laborers over his care for a Chinese father and daughter. Competing claims about duty give way to coercion and a devastating witness report. Seishin Hermitage places an orphaned boy beside a woman who rejects the ordinary claims of marriage, amid memories of his mother and the disturbing influence of an elderly nun.

Spring at Atami offers a brief change of register: hot springs, local sights, literary jokes and eight poems accompany a visitor’s impressions. These four complete writings preserve Kyōka’s shifts between intimate speech, vivid landscape and unsettling events. Notes explain original readings and cultural references.