Cat Short Story Collection: The Feline World as Depicted by Great Japanese Writers

★Unable to love people, only cats—
Osamu Dazai once said he "lacked the ability to love," but his first object of affection was a cat?
★Kenji Miyazawa, hailed as Japan's Hans Christian Andersen, depicted cat communities experiencing bullying just like humans?
★What happened to the "cat" in Natsume Soseki's immortal literary classic, "I Am a Cat"?
 
Novelists, national poets, fairy tale authors, pioneers of ghost stories…
Cats were not only a source of inspiration for these literary giants throughout history,
these cat-loving writers were just as addicted to petting cats as modern people!
 
This book spans Japan's Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras, featuring a curated collection of vivid short stories and essays depicting feline life by fifteen renowned Japanese authors, including Natsume Soseki, Kenji Miyazawa, Lafcadio Hearn, Motojiro Kajii, Osamu Dazai, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
 

From tales depicting love for a slowly fading house cat, to terrifying ghost stories and anthropomorphic fairy tale poems about cats, there are also murder delusions adapted from real psychological cases, impoverished lives spent with stray cats, and the subtle romantic feelings between men and women mediated by cats.
 
Each cat story is filled with laughter and tears, some novel, some spine-chilling. The rich emotions and vivid descriptions by these literary masters draw readers deeper into the adorable yet aloof image of cats, making their eyes sparkle with affection. At the same time, one can deeply feel the genuine experiences of these cat-loving writers as devoted cat owners.