The night before my first day off in a while.

I decided, "I'll sleep as much as I want tomorrow," so I turned off my phone, didn't set an alarm, and went to bed. When I woke up, it was six in the evening. I've always been a heavy sleeper, but even I was surprised at myself this time.



Hmm, I had so many dreams today (though I've forgotten the details), perhaps I'll read "Bunchō: Yume Jūya" again. I reached for the book on the third shelf from the top. This collection contains seven stories, including the title piece, but "Yume Jūya" is a favorite I often reread.

"I Had a Dream Like This"──This is the opening line of Natsume Soseki's "Yume Jūya."

As the title suggests, it's a collection of ten dream narratives, unfolding as "First Night," "Second Night," "Third Night," and so on. Each story is short, only a few pages, and I'm drawn to its slightly uncanny atmosphere. I'm surprised that Natsume Soseki, the author of "I Am a Cat" and "Botchan," wrote such fantastical tales! But for me, the most striking is the story of "Third Night"...

The protagonist was walking along a road, carrying his six-year-old child on his back. Strangely, the child's eyes had become blind, turning into a blue monk. Moreover, the child's speech had become unnaturally mature, and the things he said began to happen one after another in reality. The protagonist grew increasingly frightened, and as he began to harbor murderous thoughts of abandoning the child in the forest, the story took a thrilling and rapid turn.

Rain began to fall, and the road grew darker.

The protagonist shivered at the eerie presence of the child behind him, and the reader, sharing the escalating tension, naturally felt their heart begin to race. And what did the protagonist realize in the end...?



Every time I finish reading it, I feel as if I've been tricked, and I ponder, "What could this story possibly mean!?" I've reread it many times, and each time I grasp a new "sense of something," but it slips through my fingers, leaving a distinct impression. In the end, I still don't quite understand.

I think I first encountered this work in a Japanese language textbook, or perhaps when I read through the books stacked on my bookshelf. The comfortable, ambiguous atmosphere of the story, which offers no definitive answers, is probably why it's become a book I reach for again and again.

Closing my eyes quietly, I drift off to sleep once more tonight.

If I can welcome the veil of night with this feeling, it will be the beginning of my dazzling Yume Jūya.