Troubled Waters

by Ichiyō Higuchi, Bryan Karetnyk (Translator)

This new translation of the best stories by Ichiyo Higuchi showcases the pioneering author's profound sensitivity and lyrical eye. The crystalline beauty of falling snow is a painful reminder of lost innocence; three children growing up on the fringes of Tokyo's red-light district enjoy a last summer of freedom before adulthood and its compromises overtake them; a discontented serving maid and a prodigal son find their transgressions can be mutually beneficial; and a man's passion for an indifferent teahouse courtesan becomes so consuming that he is willing to sacrifice everything to it - his job, his family, perhaps even his life.

Rarely translated into English, but revered in Japan for the purity of her classical language and her status as the country's first professional woman writer, Ichiyo Higuchi drew on her own short life in a poor Tokyo neighbourhood to inspire her work. With immense delicacy of phrase and feeling, and vivid evocations of the colourful festivals and salty street banter that mask unspoken yearning and disappointed hopes, she transmits both the beauty and the struggle of working-class women's lives in turn-of-the-century Japan. In her clear-eyed vision of the world, longing and memory may be the only solace.

Genres: Short Stories, Japan, Japanese Literature

Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 26, 2026

About the author

See also 樋口 一葉.

Pen name of poet and writer Natsu Higuchi. She studied at the Haginosha school of poetry run by Utako Nakajima and showed talent from early on. After her father’s death in 1889, she began writing novels to make a living, but she also had a sideline business, a general merchandise store, because she could not survive on income from writing alone. In less than a year from the end of 1894, she successively published such masterpieces as Otsugumori (The Last Day of the Year), Take Kurabe (Comparing Heights), Nigorie (Troubled Waters), and Jusanya (13th Night). She died at the young age of 24 from tuberculosis.

Her image currently appears on the Japanese 5000-yen banknote.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for an ARC of this book.

Higuchi’s ‘Troubled Waters’ is a quiet but affecting collection of short stories from the Meiji period. I always find it hard to provide an overall ranking for collections such as this; all stories had their own charm, but I will say I particularly enjoyed ‘Growing Pains’. Across all 5, though, Higuchi affords a sensibility to the plight of the poor which is not often found at this time. For such a young writer, her mastery of storytelling and prose are evident even through translation, and I enjoyed gaining a window into the Meiji period through these snippets of life.

I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump in terms of my enjoyment of books, so this may have come to me at the wrong time. But I did find my enjoyment of Higuchi’s writing impacted by the formatting of the book. The ARC Kindle version has weird breaks and capitalisation at the start of each story and footnotes are located at random places. This obviously follows the formatting of the physical text, so it would have been nice to pay more attention to how it reads on different devices.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely translation of 5 distinct short stories from Ichiyo Higuchi, Japan's first professional woman writer. I appreciate that it is written in the traditional format, but I did struggle at times with how it was formatted, specifically trying to figure out which character is speaking - just something for a future reader to keep in mind! Overall, it brought a wonderful lens to the Meiji period of writing.

Thank you Pushkin Press & NetGalley for this advanced copy to enjoy!