About the Author

The Author: Saki Ryuzo was born in 1937 in Pyonghand, now North Korea. Originally a reporter, he wrote more than one hundred books and received prizes and awards for his work. The Translator: Tomone Matsumoto received her Ph.D. in Asian studies from the University of Arizona and has taught Japanese language and literature in Australia, the United States, and Japan. She is co-editor of The Showa Anthology (1986) and a translator of The Name of the Flower: 13 Short Stories of Mukoda Kuniko (1994).