In this novel Uno Chiyo has created one of the most memorable love stories in Japanese literature. It is the story of Yuasa Jōji, a famous artist who returns to Japan after many years in Paris. Once back in Tokyo, he receives love letters from a fervent young woman who begs him to meet her—importunings that start him on a bizarre round of romantic adventures.
Writing here at the height of her powers, one of Japan’s foremost women writers explores both the folly and the inevitability of human passion, leading the reader to a startling revelation of how lives can be destroyed by the compulsions of love.
Phyllis Birnbaum is a novelist, biographer, journalist, and translator. Her translation Confessions of Love, a novel by Uno Chiyo, won the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature. Her most recent biography is Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who Commanded Her Own Army.
