Seizō, a middle-school graduate from Gyōda who dreams of poetry and a literary career, takes a post at a village school in Saitama and lodges at a temple in Hanyū. Over the years friendships fade, love goes nowhere, debts and illness close in, and the Russo-Japanese War rumbles on while he wastes away teaching in the country.
Books mentioned in A Country Teacher (11)
Man'yoshu: “The study was four and a half mats. On the big magnolia-wood desk lit by a lamp, the magazines Myojo and Bungei Club, the Man'yoshu and the collected works of Ichiyo lay scattered in a jumble. [auto-translated]”
Wakanashu by Shimazaki Tōson: “That night Seizo thought about many things until late. He took out his battered copy of Toson's Wakanashu, its binding coming apart, and read on and on. [auto-translated]”
Ochiumeshu by Shimazaki Tōson: “On the desk in the main hall lay Midaregami, Ochiumeshu, Musashino, and the thin copy of Enoch Arden that the priest had read when he went to Waseda. [auto-translated]”
Tangled Hair by Yosano Akiko: “On the desk in the main hall lay Tangled Hair (Midaregami), Ochiumeshu, Musashino, and the thin copy of Enoch Arden that the priest had read when he went to Waseda. [auto-translated]”
Enoch Arden by Alfred Tennyson: “On the desk in the main hall lay Midaregami, Ochiumeshu, Musashino, and the thin copy of Enoch Arden that the priest had read when he went to Waseda. [auto-translated]”
Musashino by Kunikida Doppo: “Tired of marking daily grades, Seizo took Musashino out of his bundle and read it eagerly, like a man thirsty for fresh taste. The author's feelings in Unforgettable People matched his own. [auto-translated]”
Unforgettable People by Kunikida Doppo: “Tired of marking daily grades, Seizo took Musashino out of his bundle and read it eagerly. The author's feelings in Unforgettable People, the shower in the woods of the Musashino outskirts, the young teacher boarding by the moonlit watermill bridge, all resembled his own. [auto-translated]”
Gankutsuo by Ruiko Kuroiwa: “He had lost interest in everything, and even Ruiko's Gankutsuo, which he had loved reading, he gave up halfway. [auto-translated]”
Kanbotan by Ozaki Kōyō: “Seventh: still recovering from illness and a boil, so I postponed returning to school. I started Koyo and Shuto's Kanbotan but gave up. Ninth: finished reading Kanbotan tonight, a story of agony within tragedy that follows sin, and the heroine Luisa's devoted attachment. [auto-translated]”
Bundan Shomakyo: “From Ishikawa came the usual attacks on Myojo, and on purpose he sent a pamphlet called Bundan Shomakyo, which exposed the private lives of the poet couple in Shibuya. [auto-translated]”
Ichiyō Zenshū by Higuchi Ichiyō: “On the large magnolia-wood desk beneath the lamp, the Myōjō, Bungei Club, the Man'yōshū and the Ichiyō Zenshū lay scattered in disorder. [auto-translated]”