A wooden omiyage craft from Kinosaki 城崎, a well-known onsen (hot spring) town in Japan. Referring to 志賀直哉 (Shiga Naoya) and his short story 《城の崎にて》(Kinosaki ni te / "At Kinosaki"), which is one of his most famous works.
The story is structured around three small deaths he witnesses, each of these deaths causes Shiga to reflect on mortality, fate, and the subtle presence of death in everyday life. These reflections contrast with his own survival, his brush with death having made him more sensitive to the fragility of life. The frog souvenir from Kinosaki under an umbrella may evoke that quiet, paused time in life Shiga experienced. Frogs, as symbolic creatures in Japan, often represent return, resilience, or change, resonating with themes of recovery and reflection.
