Young Apricot Leaves and Other Writings

A stopped clock brings a quiet young mechanic into a household where speech seems the only way to communicate. When he writes in the hearth’s ashes, a young woman discovers how to say what has remained unspoken. Miyamoto Yuriko’s “Young Apricot Leaves” gives this collection its intimate, observant center.

Eight further writings explore the pleasures and pressures of everyday life. A maid’s treasured blanket complicates her plans to leave her husband. A sixteen-year-old’s first attachment leads through enchantment and disappointment toward a violent encounter. Childhood manuscripts recall the beginnings of a writer’s vocation.

Essays consider the ideal working home, the limits of suburban comfort, accounts of women’s imprisonment, and the literary discoveries of a visit to America. A response to Arishima Takeo’s death and a sustained reflection on women’s art ask how experience can reach beyond inherited concepts.