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田舎教師

Country Teacher

by Katai Tayama

A young village schoolteacher watches his dreams slowly fade.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,413 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
四里の道the four-ri roadはtopic marker (as for)長かったwas long
The four-ri road was long.
その間にalong the way; in that interval青縞のblue-striped市のたつwhere the market is held羽生の町がthe town of Hanyuあったlay; existed
Along the way lay the town of Hanyu, where the blue-striped market was held.
田圃rice fieldにはin (the)げんげmilk vetchが(subject marker)咲きwas blooming豪家rich familyの's垣fenceからはfrom (the)八重桜double cherry blossomsが(subject marker)散りこぼれたfell scattered
In the rice fields, milk vetch was blooming, and double cherry blossoms fell from the rich family's fence.

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About the book

The passage follows young Hayashi Seizo on his journey to take up a teaching post in the countryside, full of anticipation for a new life, while recalling his graduation days and a conversation with a close friend about literature, love, and the future. The tone is quiet and detailed, carrying the mixed excitement and unease of a youth standing at life's threshold.

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.

青縞の市のたつ羽生の町 History

In the Meiji period, the town of Hanyū in Saitama Prefecture was famous for its periodic markets selling aosema—blue-and-white striped cotton cloth—which were an important trade in local products. The text uses the market to highlight Hanyū's distinctive local industry.

木綿の三紋の羽織 Customs

Sewing three family crests on a haori (one on each sleeve and one on the back) was fairly formal dress for a Meiji-era man. The mother staying up all night to sew a cotton haori shows the family was of modest means yet treated the occasion with great seriousness.

庚申塚 Customs

A stone tower set up in Japanese folk religion to worship Kōshin, usually standing at village entrances or roadsides. It derives from the Daoist belief in the "three corpses": on the day of Kōshin, while a person sleeps, the three corpses in the body ascend to heaven to report that person's sins, so villagers stayed awake all night in a practice called kōshin-machi, and towers were later erected in commemoration. They were a common roadside sight in Meiji rural areas.

About the author

Katai Tayama (born Rokuya Tayama, 22 January 1872 – 13 May 1930) was a Japanese author. He is noted for establishing the Japanese literary genre of naturalistic I novels, which revolve around the detailed self-examinations of an introspective author; his most famous works include Futon (The Quilt) and Inaka Kyōshi (Rural Teacher), and he also wrote about his experiences in the Russo-Japanese War.

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.

Do I need to pay or sign up?

Library books are free to read without an account. Other gloss languages and importing your own texts need an account and credits.

What level is it?

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

Can I use another gloss language?

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

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