Kyōka’s Animistic Prose

Presented here are translations of two short stories by Izumi Kyōka (1872-1939) set in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo in the late Meiji era with a postscript appended. Like Fukagawa itself at the time, the stories themselves represent a crossroads of tradition and modernity. Deeply rooted in the classical tradition, the author was also boldly experimental in his use of the Japanese language and his narrative method. These translations in turn are experiments in trying to capture the beauty, strangeness, and intricacy of Kyōka’s prose style. I recommend readers read these stories first before the essay so that they can come to these works with fresh eyes.