Journalist Takashi Hayami meets Ai Katsuragi, a member of a religious organization, Tenmu Jinshinko, which meets secretly at the tomb of the Emperor Nintoku. The group adheres to the nomadic way of life of its ancestors, which lacked family registers and fixed abodes, and flouts civic duties such as paying taxes, serving in the armed forces and compulsory education. Even when the government tries to crack down on a segment of the populace, they continue to discipline themselves in the way of living as ambulatory people. They rely on the company Ikarino to fund the various political, social and cultural activities they promote that protect their unique lifestyle. But when Ikarino becomes a giant conglomerate that destroys the forests and mountains that form the foundation of the Tenmu Jinkshinko, Hayami must join the group’s struggle to save their way of life. 

Hiroyuki Itsuki is a novelist, essayist, critic, songwriter and composer from Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture. He is the winner of the 1966 Shosetsu Gendai Prize for New Writers for “Saraba Mosukuwa gurentai” (“Farewell to Moscow Misfits”), the 1967 Noaki Prize for “Aozameta uma wo mivo” (“See the Paled Horse”), the 1976 Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature for “Seishun no mon, Chikuho-hen” (“The Gate of Youth: Chikuho”) and the 2002 Kikuchi Kan Prize. 

Meredith McKinney is an award-winning translator whose previous translations include “The Pillow Book, ”Soseki Natsume’s “Kusamakura” and “Koroko,” Yoshikichi Furui’s “Ravine and Other Stories,” for which she won the Japan–US Friendship Commission Translation Award in 2000, and work by Seiko Tanabe and Masahiko Shimada. 

Anthem Cosmopolis Writings