Most of us, when we feel sad, assume there is a cause for our sadness. Often there is, and the feeling can then be addressed, diagnosed, resolved. But what about sadness without a cause? This is the terrain of melancholy and, while melancholy has a rich and varied history in the West, it takes on unique forms in Japan, imbued with a sense of the impermanence of passing time.

In the history of modern Japanese literature, the author to have comprehended this most fully is Haruo Sato, in his 1918 novella "Gloom in the Country" ("Denen no Yuutsu"; published in English by the University of Hawaii Press as "The Sick Rose"). An instant sensation when it was first released, this was one of several works by Sato that characterized a shift in Japanese literature often aligned with the Taisho Era (1912 — 1926).

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Western influences were absorbed and transformed within the framework of Japanese aesthetics, but a newfound sense of disenchantment emerged during the Taisho Era, producing innovative literary works that were in every way chimeras — that is, "modern."