Michiyo Aratama – MRQE

Kokoro

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In the dying months of the Meiji era, a sympathetic student befriends a married couple, but soon realizes they share a curiously strained relationship stemming from an unknown incident in their past.

Kaidan

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning “ghost story,” this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior’s reflection in his teacup.

Enjô

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Learning of his family’s collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.

Otoko wa tsurai yo: Fûten no Tora

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Traveling salesman Kuruma Torajir falls in love with an inn manager as New Year’s approaches.

The Sword of Doom

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. Its a way of life that leads to madness.

Kohayagawa-ke no aki

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

Ningen no jôken

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.

Ningen no jôken (1959/I)

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

Ubaguruma

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Upon discovering that her father has a mistress, a young girl befriends the “other woman” and her child. Realizing that her half-sister is doomed to being regarded as an outcast, the heroine sets about to spiritually legitimize the girl.

Samurai

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tair of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.