Kaname and his wife Misako drift toward a divorce neither can bring herself to name, while his old father-in-law indulges in a Kyoto mistress and the puppet theatre of Osaka. Torn between modern Tokyo tastes and the old Kansai ways, Kaname finds himself drawn to the doll-like Ohisa and the slow, graceful traditions she embodies.
Books mentioned in Some Prefer Nettles (3)
A Thousand and One Nights: “"The Arabian Nights is, on the whole, a book for adults to read. What you children have is just a collection of the stories fit for children to read, picked out from it." Kaname explains to his son, who is peering at the illustrations. [auto-translated]”
Henry V by William Shakespeare: “Burton's footnote reads: "Even here the coarseness is no greater than in plays written for our own old stage, such as Shakespeare's Henry V. Besides, tales like these Nights are not meant to be read aloud or recited before mixed company." [auto-translated]”
The Love Suicides at Amijima by Monzaemon Chikamatsu: “Kaname vaguely remembered that the Gidayu version of The Love Suicides at Amijima was not Chikamatsu's original but a rewrite by Hanji or someone, and that this line must come from the original; the old man praised the puppet-play texts, saying "today's novels are nowhere near them." [auto-translated]”