The Five-Storied Pagoda

"The Five-Storied Pagoda"
Short story by Kōda Rohan
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese, English
Genre(s)Historical fiction
Publication
Publication typeNewspaper
Media typePrint (Periodical literature)

The Five-Storied Pagoda (Gojūnotō, 五重塔) is a novella by writer Kōda Rohan. “It was originally written as a serialized piece of fiction in the intellectual newspaper Kokkai (Diet, or Parliament), beginning in November 1891 and ending in March of the following year. As a consequence, chapter divisions in this story […] do not necessarily coincide with the breaks in plot progression or narrative pauses.”(15). The pagoda in the story is based on a pagoda donated to Tokyo by Tennō-ji.