The Village of Eight Graves

As the saying goes: nobody lends to those in need, while everybody lends to those who have.

the prose of reality is never as spectacular as the drama of the theatre.

In the presence of others, we so rarely show what we feel deep down. But when we think that no one is looking, it often escapes us in spite of ourselves.

the hermitage. Am I right?”

all appearances, it’s dedicated to Inari, the god of rice and harvests, but the truth is that it’s always been dedicated to a great samurai from the Amago clan, who was killed by the villagers centuries ago. The armour was his. It’s said to be a sort of relic.” As the reader knows, the samurai’s armour was now clothing the wax corpse at the Monkey’

When criminals manage to conceal their motive, they have already achieved more than half of their goal.

Everything takes ten times as long in the countryside: what takes one year to forget in the city takes ten years in that village.

Thus, as in any agricultural village, the owners and the sharefarmers are pitted against one another: in such a modest settlement as this, there are stark differences in fortune.

But in this world, it is never so clear-cut what is happiness and what misfortune.