The novel “Rivals,” completed by Nagai Kafu in 1917 and subsequently taking its place among the masterpieces of Japanese literature of the 20th century, is perhaps one of the most vivid descriptions of the life of geishas in the “era of electricity and telephones” in all of Japanese literature. The name of the author of the novel, Japanese writer Nagai Kafu, is widely known in the world of literature. In Japan, interest in his personality continues to this day. Nagai Kafu is also known to foreign readers; his main books have been translated into English, French and German. In Russia, people are almost unfamiliar with the writer’s work. This publication is intended to change the current situation and open up for the Russian reader the world of the classic of Japanese literature, the singer of the “world of willows and flowers.”