Naka Kansuke (1885-1965) was born in Tokyo into a wealthy family. Hypersensitive and solitary—defining traits of his personality even as an adult—he grew up isolated from children his own age under the care of his aunt, who raised him because his mother had fallen ill. Kansuke studied at Daiichi Higher Institute and Tokyo Imperial University, where he was a star pupil of the renowned novelist Natsume Sōseki. In 1910, after completing his university studies, Kansuke volunteered for the Imperial Guard to distance himself from his social circle, but in 1911 he fell seriously ill and, after two months in the hospital, decided to withdraw from the world, becoming a hermit, and withdrew from social life.

In 1913, thanks to the support of his mentor Sōseki, he debuted as a novelist with *Gin no aji* ("The Silver Spoon"), a delicate memoir of his childhood and youth published in installments in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The popularity he achieved with this first work did not encourage him to abandon his seclusion, but it did spur him to continue writing novels such as *Devadatta* (1921), *Dogs* (1924), and *Under the Shadow of the Bodhi Tree* (1931)—the latter two included in this volume—as well as essays and poetry.

Recognized by his contemporaries as a unique writer, Naka Kansuke remained unswayed by literary trends and controversies, and until the end of his days, he was a romantic pessimist, incapable of believing in the inherent goodness of humankind.