Something Strange Across the River

First published in 1937, is a book both modern & nostalgic. It shows a changing city, it's slums, backstreets, temples & shrines, a city filled with erudite establishments & brothels. It shows a man trying to justify his life, & a glimpse into the creative process & a gentle eulogy on things passing.

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Kafū Nagai’s short story “Something Strange Across the River” (1937) brings us to the streets of early 1900s Asakusa (then the center of Shitamachi “low city” culture & entertainments) & Yoshiwara & surrounding districts. Plenty of nostalgia for how things had been during the narrator’s/Nagai’s youth (“the old, nostalgic world made manifest as muse to my exhausted heart”), & some of this yearning for days past & the imagery reminded me a little of Yasunari Kawabata’s The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (1929). — DanielWarriner.com