Kyoka Izumi, born Kyotaro Izumi on November 4, 1873, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, was a prominent Japanese novelist, writer, and kabuki playwright active during the prewar period. He is best known for his distinctive style that contrasted with the dominant naturalist literature of his era: his works often featured surrealist critiques of society and romantic tales with supernatural elements influenced by Edo period arts and literature. Izumi’s writing is celebrated for its rich, stylistic prose, and he is considered one of the supreme stylists in modern Japanese literature.
Izumi began his literary career under the mentorship of Ozaki Koyo, a leading literary figure of the time, serving as his houseboy while receiving instruction. His first published work appeared in 1893, and he later gained recognition for stories that vividly depicts melodramatic and often implausible characters and supernatural themes. Some of his noteworthy works include “The Holy Man of Mount Koya” and “A Woman’s Pedigree.”
Kusa Meikyu, translated in Italian as Labyrinth of Grass, is from 1908. It was originally a novel and has been adapted into other formats, including a notable short film released in 1979. The work includes elements of surrealism and the supernatural, with dreamlike and mystical narratives. A haunted house, a set of characters, a fateful night. The translation I have could use a ton of footnotes, as you’re left with the notion of having missed half of the point between plays on words and theatrical references. Even the linguistic barrier, though, can’t shield the way the story builds up and unravels, between heaven and hell, in a handful of hours.
You’ll crawl through the first half and then you won’t be able to put it down.
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