FUTON

FUTON: translation

Futon (1907; tr. The Quilt, 1978) is a naturalist novel by Tayama Katai. Strongly autobiographical and confessional in structure and tone, Futon is considered, along with Hakai (1906; tr. The Broken Commandment, 1956), to be one of the first I-Novels. It describes the forbidden yearnings of a married writer for his young female student. After she takes his advice to follow her heart and runs off with another man, the novel concludes with the pathetic scene of the writer, forever separated from the object of his love, trying to recapture her memory by smelling her bed linen. The novel received intense critical attention for the implied confession it contained of Tayama’s own affection for a female pupil.