The Three-Cornered World

A nameless young artist travels into the mountains, in search of the refreshments of nature. Staying at a small hot spring hotel, he soaks in the water and takes walks nearby, always with the intention of painting—though he never seems to get around to actually doing so. Instead, he finds himself transfixed by the daughter of the hotel owner, an enigmatic young beauty.

His preoccupation is neither romantic nor sexual, but aesthetic: why is he so drawn to O-Nami's changeable face, now hostile, now serene? And what prevents him finally putting brush to paper and painting her picture? As the holiday goes on, these two circle each other, pursuing barbed yet friendly conversations about art and despair. And the more he learns about her life—a divorce, a rumoured entanglement with a local priest, a cousin in the army about to travel to the Manchurian front—the more he comes to realise that experiencing O-Nami's beauty to the full requires not just gazing upon her, but understanding her.

One of the foundational classics of modern Japanese literature, The Three-Cornered World is a masterful exploration of the beauty of nature, the artist's temperament, and the hidden springs of human sympathy.