During the Rains

Nagai Kafu (1879-1959) is best known for his evocative descriptions of Tokyo and its people, especially the kept women, geisha, and prostitutes. These two novellas, which appear here in English for the first time, are set in the Tokyo of the 1930s. During the Rains (1931) is the story of the vicissitudes of an amiable and lascivious Ginza cafe girl. The hero of Flowers in the Shade (1934), kept by a wealthy woman in his student days, ends up in his forties being supported by a prostitute.