Scorpions

Translated, with an introduction, by Michael Day / October 2025 / 4.5 x 7, 72 pp. / 978-1-962728-10-2

“My literature is a cancer which attacks and destroys the literature of the past.”
—Yumiko Kurahashi

Yumiko Kurahashi’s 1968 novella Scorpions takes the form of a transcript of a one-sided interview with L following the arrest and institutionalization of her twin brother K. The two have played a role in a series of horrifying deaths culminating in the murder of their mother. Through a first-person narrative that varies in tone from scientifically clinical to darkly humorous, mingling together references to the Bible and Greek mythology, odd bits of dialogue, and obtuse descriptions, we learn of K and L’s shocking crimes, the gruesome plight of their religion-obsessed mother, and the professional and personal entanglement of L and an older man they call the RED PIG, their mother’s former lover.

Scorpions remains, after more than half a century, a shockingly transgressive text, as well as an encapsulation of the work of an influential but woefully under-translated author. It bears allegiance to the most radical French fiction of its time, particularly the work of Jean Genet, an author Kurahashi admired, whose own novels explored the sanctification of criminal behavior. 

Yumiko Kurahashi (1935–2005) was an influential Japanese writer of experimental fiction who explored—and questioned—societal norms and taboos. Although her career gave repeated rise to controversy over the years, she is today regarded one of the more significant figures to emerge from the postwar Japanese literary scene.