
Writing
Kiyoshi Shigematsu (重松 清, Shigematsu Kiyoshi, March 6, 1963) is a Japanese writer born in theTsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture. He also used the pen names Akira Tamura (田村 章, Tamura Akira) and Kōshirō Okada (岡田 幸四郎, Okada Kōshirō).

Yasuo (Hiroshi Abe) grew up as an orphan. He married a woman he loved and they had a son Akira (later played by Takumi Kitamura). Yasuo's life seemed great at the time, but his life totally changed after his wife died in accident. Since that time, Yasuo, who never experienced parents' love himself, has to raise his son Akira alone.

Mortality and death seen through the eyes of a lonely student who has an morbid and albeit naive fascination with death. His teacher, Koichi is also grappling with the issue of mortality as he deals with the impending death of his ailing father, who has decided to spend his final days in the family home. As the story progresses, Koichi finds unexpected solace from his grief by letting his troubled student visit and meet with his father in the hopes that he will understand the meaning of life and death.

Schoolteacher Yohei is married to Miyoko. For the first time in 25 years they begin to live by themselves when their son marries and moves out. Then Yohei discovers that all’s not well in his marriage.

Toshiko does not have long to live. She wants to make the most of her time while she can and takes a sojourn to where her true hometown for which she has so much nostalgia and admiration. With her husband on her side she remains can-do and keeps her chin up, but can only lament the passing of time and what will happen next to everyone and everything she loves.

Only a fool loves their body more than their soul! Masayuki and Kyoko's bodies had both started to age to the point where they no longer experienced sexual passion. They are a couple that shares the same bed while finding separate pleasures with their own sex toys. Masayuki was always reminded that his true understanding of love came from his high school ethics teacher and that teacher's wife. The incident occurred when Masayuki was only 17. When he became alone with her he impulsively craved her body, only to notice that on the other side of the sliding paper screen...

Junko and Kohei were each other's first relationship, and got married. A white apartment, a white blouse, and white underwear; their relationship was pure. But then Junko put on conspicuous lingerie and a black dress, and went to attend a class reunion. Suspicious, Kohei followed behind her until she disappeared into a hotel with Okada, a former junior high school classmate. Kohei had learned from his mother to obsessively despise `filth,' and vowed to make Junko utterly filthy. So, he presented his own wife to a gang rape club...

Chiho has prohibited her husband, Takahashi, from smoking while she is trying to become pregnant. Takahashi hasn’t told his wife he was laid off, and has a paid sexual encounter with a high-school student, attracted by the pungent odor of her cigarettes, Peace Regulars.

Yoko is an ordinary housewife living in an ordinary apartment block. She has no real complaints as she goes about her tedious days, although her husband, Shinichi, is rather predictable in bed. They have one son, Junichi, and Yoko feels at a loss regarding his recently-acquired adolescent interest in sex and his secret stash of erotic magazines. Junichi is about to write his junior high school entrance exams, so he’s heading off to cram school camp for New Year’s. Before going, he makes a surprising suggestion, “Why don’t you guys go somewhere for New Year’s?” Yoko and Shinichi are suddenly faced with the prospect of New Year’s apart from their son. How will this couple, who’ve already lived half of their lives, change their behavior when it’s just the two of them?

Sachiko and Yoshida are newlyweds, and have just moved into a newly-constructed apartment with completely white rooms. It’s reasonable to expect that they would be enjoying their newlywed life, but Sachiko is refusing to go along with Yoshida’s sexual demands. One day, Yoshida’s junior colleague, Kato, shows him a video. Its title is White Room: Evening Classroom Inspection, and in it a girl is shown holding a photograph of her mother against her thigh while engaged in fondling. But the astounding thing is that it is a room in their newly-constructed apartment! Yoshida stealthily takes the video home, but Sachiko sees what it contains.

Higashigaoka Junior High School is in turmoil as one of the pupils, Noguchi, who had been bullied, attempted suicide last term. On the first day of the new term, a substitute teacher arrives to take the second year class. When the teacher, Murauchi (Hiroshi Abe), introduces himself, the pupils are surprised by his stutter. He has a speech impediment. Unable to speak eloquently, Murauchi faces his pupils with ‘words of truth’. His first instruction to the pupils is to return Noguchi’s desk and chair to the original place in the classroom. Every morning Murauchi greets the empty desk, “Good morning, Noguchi.” This causes a ripple beyond the classroom and among other teachers and parents, but Murauchi will not stop doing it. Eventually the day comes when Murauchi must leave.


