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玄鶴山房

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

An old painter lies dying while his household quietly falls apart.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,463 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: 青空文库

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Sample: three-line reading

Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.

一one
One
それはit (topic)小ぢんまりとcompactly; neatly出来上ったwas built/finished奥床しいrefined and dignified門構えのof a gate front家だったwas a house
It was a small, well-built house with a deep-set gate.
尤もof course / admittedlyこのthis界隈neighborhood / areaにinは(topic marker)こう云うthis kind of / such家houseもtoo / also珍しくはなかったwas not rare
Of course, houses like this were not rare in this area.
がbut玄鶴山房の額the sign 'Genkaku Sansho'やand塀越しに見える庭木などはthe garden trees seen over the wall, etc.どの家よりもthan any other house数奇を凝らしていたwere elaborate
But the sign 'Genkaku Sansho' and the garden trees seen over the wall were more elaborate than those of any other house.

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About the book

Genkaku Sanbo is a short novel by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, first published in Chūō Kōron in 1927 across two issues. It centers on Genkaku, an ailing old painter, whose wife, concubine, and children each harbor their own concerns. The opening depicts a household quietly divided by private motives.

Cultural notes (selection)

Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.

所謂「文化村」 History

From the late Taishō to early Shōwa era, new residential districts of rows of houses were built on suburban farmland outside Tokyo that had been bought up for speculation, and developers often gave them names like "bunka mura" (culture village) or "bunka jūtaku" (culture house). Here this points to Genkaku's property soaring in value due to urbanization.

大藩の家老の娘 History

A karō was the highest-ranking retainer in the household of a large domain (a daimyō with a fief of 10,000 koku or more) in the Edo period, overseeing the domain's administration, and the post was often hereditary. After the Meiji Restoration, former karō families lost their stipends but still took pride in their lineage.

省線電車 History

The "Shōsen densha" refers to the national railway lines operated by the Ministry of Railways (Tetsudōshō), as opposed to privately run railways.

About the author

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 玄鶴山房 (CC BY-SA)

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

FAQ

Is this the original text?

Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.

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What level is it?

This one is marked “Advanced”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.

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English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.

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