A work of nonfiction based on reporting about judges who make decisions with far-reaching social consequences, including nuclear-reactor restarts, death sentences, and electoral inequality. It follows their consciences, ambitions, and tensions with the institution to illuminate the often closed world of the courts.

It asks what judges think and how they confront their institution in a place where people judge other people.

In this essay, Manyoshu scholar Makoto Ueno interweaves his family's history with a folklorist's perspective as he writes about closing the family grave in his hometown, caring for his mother, and seeing her through her final days. Tracing memories from his grandfather's funeral to his mother's death, he reflects on changing customs surrounding death and graves.

Using family deaths as a starting point, the book considers the history of death and graves through personal memory.