Sakura no ki no shita ni wa(Under the Cherry Trees)
【Masterpieces of Modern Japanese Literature㊷】
By Motojirō Kajii
Narrated by Nana Nagao
Buy from Retailers
A short story by Motojirō Kajii
“Beneath the cherry trees, corpses are buried. You can believe this—it is true. For how could the cherry blossoms bloom so splendidly otherwise? It is beyond belief that they should be so beautiful. These past few days, I have been uneasy, unable to trust that beauty. But now, at last, I understand. Beneath the cherry trees, corpses are buried. You may believe that—it is true. Why is it, I wonder, that every night on my way home, among all the things in my room, it is always the smallest and thinnest of them— a razor blade, for instance— that comes so vividly to my mind, as though it possessed a kind of second sight? You said you could not understand that— and indeed, neither can I.”
Author : Motojirō Kajii
Narrator : Nana Nagao
Produced by：Koé no Shoten
Special Thanks：Shigoto, Inc.
Listening Length：07:15
Release Date：2025/10/9
＊For how to listen, pricing, purchase methods, payment options, and more, please check each distribution site.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
1901 – 1932
Born in Osaka, he dropped out of the English Literature Department at Tokyo Imperial University. He founded the literary magazine Aozora and published works such as Lemon, In the Town with a Castle, and A Certain Landscape of the Heart. The following year, he traveled to Yugashima in Izu for health reasons and created Winter Day and Winter Fly. As his condition worsened, he returned to Osaka and published Mating in the magazine Sakuhin in 1931 and The Carefree Patient in Chūō Kōron the following year. Just as he was beginning to gain recognition in literary circles, he died at the young age of 31. Works such as Descendants of Cain and Under the Cherry Tree reveal a unique literary style, combining delicate sensibility with poetic expression in a deeply lyrical manner.