Author · 1862–1922

森鴎外Mori Ōgai · もり おうがい

Mori Ōgai was one of the leading writers of Meiji and Taishō Japan. As a young doctor he studied in Germany, and that experience shaped his early fiction, including 舞姫 (The Dancing Girl). He was an important translator of European literature; his translations include Goethe's Faust and Andersen's The Improvisatore. In his later years he turned to historical fiction and biography based on Edo-period sources. Works such as 阿部一族 and 山椒大夫 belong to this period, as does 高瀬舟. His other well-known works include 雁 (The Wild Geese).

高瀬舟 — Night Boat on the Takase River

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高瀬舟 is a short historical story by Mori Ōgai, first published in 1916. It is set in Kyōto during the Tokugawa period, when criminals sentenced to exile were sent downriver to Ōsaka by boat. On one hazy spring night, the constable Haneda…