SOURCE: Young, Blake Morgan. “The Final Years.” In Ueda Akinari, pp. 115-40. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1982.

In the following excerpt, Young provides an overview of the composition and contents of Tales of the Spring Rain, while also discussing Akinari's literary reputation during and after his life.

During the last years of his life—perhaps as much as the last decade—Akinari was working sporadically on his second major work of fiction, Harusame monogatari (Tales of the Spring Rain). He probably never finished it to his own satisfaction. It was read as a manuscript by a small number of admirers, but it was not published until 1907, and then only in fragmentary form. Not until after World War II did the complete text become available in print.¹ Akinari may never have intended the work for publication, for its contents are not aimed at the general reader. A work...