Three Houses Opposite Two Neighbors

Roman Nikolaevich Kim (circa 1899 – 1967) was a Soviet writer of Korean descent, a prominent Japanologist and at the same time an employee of the OGPU-NKVD counterintelligence. He was born into the family of a Korean nationalist who emigrated to Russia; to obtain an education, he was sent to Japan and graduated from an elite university there. Subsequently, his love for Japanese culture and simultaneous rejection of its politics became the dominant themes of his life and work. In his essays, Kim describes the cultural fever that engulfed new Japan and its preparations for war. He is concerned with the "devilishly energetic" social life of the country: European influence and the spiritual quests of the youth, the dizzying turns of fashion, literary scandals, and class conflicts. The collection includes the pamphlet "Three Houses Opposite Two Neighbors" (1934), glosses "Feet to the Snake" (1927), as well as selected articles, reviews, stories, and translations. The book is accompanied by a detailed commentary from Japanologist Anna Slasheva and an article by Kim's biographer Alexander Kulanov.