Young Purple

A winter so warm that eggplants ripen has set Atami talking. When sixteen-year-old Otsuru carries the first fruits to a shrine, two rough travelers threaten her, and a handsome stranger intervenes. His gift of a purple pencil draws her into a bond whose consequences she scarcely understands.

Later, a rumored earthquake sends the hot-spring town into panic. Clothes and valuables seem to rain into the streets, while the wife of an ailing police chief listens to an inn clerk’s extraordinary account. Behind the apparent supernatural disturbance lies a human scheme—and a frightened young woman whose devotion puts compassion and duty in conflict.

Izumi Kyōka turns coastal rocks, mountain frost, sacred offerings, and the enveloping vapor of a subterranean bath into a richly shifting world of beauty and danger. First published in 1905, this novella combines the suspense of a crime tale with an intimate study of attachment, mercy, and self-inflicted punishment.