Three short novels by contemporary authors whose themes stem from the days before the westernization of Japan. The Songs of Oak Mountain: Based on a legend with a modern message of cheerful fortitude in a situation of unique horror. Ohan: A psychological study of a marriage and in particular of the submissive, inarticulate, self-sacrificing wife who was the ideal. It is the first extensive piece of fiction by a modern Japanese woman writer to be published in this country. Asters: Set in the thirteenth century, it introduces the reader to a world of magic and to a hero fascinated with cruelty and death.