Kafu Nagai (1879–1959) was a Japanese novelist and essayist whose real name was Sokichi Nagai. His years in the United States and France deepened his engagement with Western literature and urban culture; after returning to Japan, he became a professor at Keio University and founded the literary journal Mita Bungaku. His writing chronicled Tokyo’s transformation under modernization while preserving the atmosphere of older neighborhoods and entertainment districts, and he received the Order of Culture in 1952. In “Bokuto Kidan” (“A Strange Tale from East of the River”), he portrays the relationship between a writer and a prostitute named Oyuki in Tamanoi, recording a part of Tokyo that was already disappearing.
