Bullfight

Tsugami, the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in war-scarred Osaka, agrees to sponsor a bullfight. For months this great gamble consumes him, making him as wary and combative as if he were in a ring himself. As he becomes ever more distant, his lover Sakiko is unsure whether she would like to see him succeed or be destroyed.

As much a story of post-war Japan as it is about the country’s special brand of bullfighting, this novella is a masterly exploration of hope, ambition and despair. Tsugami has built his newspaper into something solid and sustainable in the uncertain aftermath of the war. But the idea of more — more money, more excitement, more life — holds an irresistible appeal. Just as he has been sleeping with Sakiko for years despite having a wife and children elsewhere, his yearning for a bigger life pulls him into the chaotic endeavour of the bullfight, putting everything he has worked for at risk.

From the planning of a bullfight, through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his solitude, Inoue crafts something intensely memorable: a profound and compelling existential tale.

This novella follows a journalist’s crazy scheme to stage a bullfight in postwar Osaka.

Endorsements

“A disarmingly simple tale of ambition and entrepreneurial daring... written in tight, confident prose.” — Financial Times

Winner of the Akutagawa Prize.