Death in Midsummer (A Collection of Stories by Japanese Authors)

It is known that the Japanese are not afraid of death. In medieval Japanese communities, the highest form of punishment was not death, but banishment in disgrace. Often in villages, old men and women who could no longer work and felt they had become a burden to their children demanded to be carried into the mountains and left there to die of hunger. Every (!) composition by modern Japanese fourth-graders on the topic “My Future” ends with a description of their own death. And while the call of memento mori makes a European shudder and quickly begin thinking of something pleasant, a reminder of death will not spoil a Japanese person's mood. Above all because he never forgets about it.

Therefore, despite the frightening title of this collection, despite the fact that death lies in wait for the heroes of nearly every story, there is no sense here that with death comes the end. After all, death is merely a part of everyday life.