“And on sultry summer evenings, peering through sparse reed blinds, I have had a clear view of the secrets of these people’s households. How well I recall passing by here on afternoons where the prisoner’s used bathwater would gush down the drainage ditches below the tenement’s windows, raising clouds of foul-smelling steam. It must beContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Used Bathwater from the Prison (Nagai Kafū)”
Tag Archives: “Behind the Prison”
RKS Japanese Literature: The Pure Art of Conversation Lost on People Like This (Nagai Kafū)
“Now the argument centres on him until the evening dishes line up beneath the dusky lamp-boiled beans, pickled vegetables, a stew of fish bones and scallions, and a rice tub smeared with dirty fingerprints. Gathered around their flimsy table, the family talk about uncle so-and-so, who showed up wanting to know the cost of Mother’sContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: The Pure Art of Conversation Lost on People Like This (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Making the Yellow Man Believe in the White Man’s Yellow Peril (Nagai Kafū)
“Here, then, is proof that cruelty to animals is an issue only to a few Christians, not a pressing problem for the whole of Japanese society. Is this a matter for grief or celebration? Witnessing these scenes only deepens my sense that the Japanese are a warlike people who are sure to defeat the RussiansContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Making the Yellow Man Believe in the White Man’s Yellow Peril (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: A Repulsive Mess of Fish and Sorrow for the Japanese People (Nagai Kafū)
“Upon a wooden counter disturbingly overgrown with green moss sits a shallow, round sushi rice mixing bowl half filled with greasy water containing fish parts, shaved fish meat and rows of skewered shellfish that have been dried in the sun, almost all bearing price tags of ten sen or less. As far as I canContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: A Repulsive Mess of Fish and Sorrow for the Japanese People (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Should I Become an Artist in Japan? (Nagai Kafū)
“Should I become an artist? No, this is Japan, not the West. Far from demanding art, Japanese society looks upon it as a nuisance. Those of us with a deep-seated desire to devote ourselves to the Muses or to Venus must leave this fatherland of ours with all its stringent rules before we can beginContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Should I Become an Artist in Japan? (Nagai Kafū)”
RKS Japanese Literature: Family Ties as Oppressive and Debilitating (Nagai Kafū)
“No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties. Any other relationship-be it with friend, lover, wife; be it obligatory or constraining or difficult-is something one has consciously entered into at some point. Only one’s ties with parents and siblings are formed at birth and are unbreakable. And even if oneContinue reading “RKS Japanese Literature: Family Ties as Oppressive and Debilitating (Nagai Kafū)”
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