The grand-prize winner of the Tokyo Nakano Literary Award. It is a novel that traces the lingering scent of memory and relationships through the image of regret and flowers.

Regret blooms quietly, like a flower, after the fact.

A runner-up piece that uses the imagery of shrines and purification to search for fear and salvation. Set in a fantastical stage, it tries to touch what does not disappear.

It borrows the language of exorcism to touch what remains.

A runner-up piece that depicts the feeling of stepping into a new life alongside the warmth of relationships and the touch of the body.

A new life slowly begins to touch the body.

A novel in which a single perspective gradually loosens through the quiet hours of waiting for the first train. The stillness of the station becomes the story’s entrance.

At five in the morning, a story begins at a station where no one is yet waiting.

A novel that listens closely to small everyday sounds while drawing human presence and seasonal changes. Quiet listening carries the story forward.

The more closely you listen, the more faintly the world trembles.