Yoshiharu Tsuge leaves early genre trappings behind, taking a light, humorous approach in these stories based on his own travels. Red Flowers ranges from deep character studies to personal reflections to ensemble comedies set in the hotels and bathhouses of rural Japan. There are irascible old men, drunken gangsters, reflective psychiatric-hospital escapees, and mysterious dogs. Tsuge’s stories are mischievous and tender even as they explore complex relationships and heartache. It’s a world of extreme poverty, tradition, secret fishing holes, and top-dollar koi farming. The title story highlights the nuance and empathy that made Tsuge’s work stand out from that of his peers. A nameless traveler comes across a young girl running an inn. While showing the traveler where the best fishing hole is, a bratty schoolmate reveals the girl must run the business because her alcoholic father is incapable. At the story’s end, the traveler witnesses an unusual act of kindness from the boy as the girl suffers her first menstrual cramps — and a simple travelogue takes on unexpected depth. Red Flowers affirms why Tsuge went on to become one of the most important cartoonists in Japan. These vital comics inspired a wealth of fictionalized memoir from his peers and a desire within the postwar generation to document and understand the diversity of their country’s culture.

The Song of the Blood-Red Flower, a classical book, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

Reproduction of the original.

This little tale is a terrible indictment against war, and yet it is written with utmost simplicity — a really artistic simplicity which permits its being placed side by side with the best pages of Turgenev and Tolstoy. In 1879 an execution was pending at St. Petersburg, and the summary justice of a court-martial had produced a most painful impression on society. During the night Garshin made a desperate effort to obtain a reprieve for the condemned. He failed in his attempt, and two days later, seized by a nervous disease, he ran away from his friends who kept watch over him, wandered on foot over Russia, and was at last confined in a provincial lunatic asylum. He soon recovered, and wrote “A Red Flower," a most striking description of the double consciousness of a madman who knows his illness and yet makes superhuman efforts to destroy some red flower — a red poppy he saw in the garden of the asylum—because that flower, stained with the blood of all martyrs of humanity, appears to be, in his imagination, the cause of all human sufferings. Garshin's tale records of what he saw, felt, and suffered himself. But his brain was tormented by the same questions and contradictions which perplex so many of his contemporaries, so that his tale reflect the actual state of mind of educated society in the Russia of today; and he was endowed with a fine artistic taste which permitted him to show in a few traits the very bottom of the human heart. He possessed to a high degree the really artistic gift of obtaining the most powerful effects by the simplest means. —The Literary World, Volume 19 [1888] “A Red Flower” is a fantastic picture of insanity by Vsevolod Garshin, one of the younger Russians of the day. —The Smart Set, Volume 35 [1911]

Mike Sullivan loves his adopted city of San Francisco, and he loves trees. In The Trees of San Francisco he has combined his passions, offering a striking and handy compendium of botanical information, historical tidbits, cultivation hints, and more. Sullivan's introduction details the history of trees in the city, a fairly recent phenomenon. The text then piques the reader's interest with discussions of 71 city trees. Each tree is illustrated with a photograph--with its common and scientific names prominently displayed--and its specific location within San Francisco, along with other sites; frequently a close-up shot of the tree is included. Sprinkled throughout are 13 sidelights relating to trees; among the topics are the city's wild parrots and the trees they love; an overview of the objectives of the Friends of the Urban Forest; and discussions about the link between Australia's trees and those in the city, such as the eucalyptus. The second part of the book gets the reader up and about, walking the city to see its trees. Full-page color maps accompany the seven detailed tours, outlining the routes; interesting factoids are interspersed throughout the directions. A two-page color map of San Francisco then highlights 25 selected neighborhoods ideal for viewing trees, leading into a checklist of the neighborhoods and their trees.

Taylor debunks the myths and prejudices surrounding menstruation through carefully documented research, cross-cultural perspectives, and much more.