The Flower Mat Read online

  Shugoro Yamamoto (1903-67), born Satomu Shimizu in Yamanashi Prefecture, adopted his new name in gratitude for the kindnesses shown him by the Yamamoto family with whom he lived during his school days in Yokohama. Critical recognition followed the publication of his first novel, Suma-dera Fukin (Around the Suma Temple), in 1926. Among his nineteen other novels, Nihon Fudoki (Japanese Women's Lives, 1944), Mominoki ivas Nokotta (A Fir Tree, 1958), and Aobeka (1961) were singled out for special awards, all of which Yamamoto declined. Hanamushiro (The Flower Mat, 1948) represents well Yamamoto's belief that the historical novel should not be a mere chronicle of events but a study of the impact of those events on an ordinary human being. This common touch, plus the sorrow and lyricism of his historical novels, have attracted a wide readership among Japanese and have allowed Western readers to share a very Japanese view of life. The Flower Mat was very popular in the original Japanese and was the basis of a successful television drama.

  Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd,

  with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon,

  Vermont 05759 and 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.

  Copyright © 1977 Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, Ine

  First Tuttle edition, 1977

  All rights reserved

  LCC Card No.: 76006031

  ISBN: 978-1-4629-0445-7 (ebook)

  Printed in Singapore

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  Table of Contents

  Introduction 7

  The Flower Mat I I

  Prologue 13

  Part One: Chapters 1-5 19-57

  Part Two : Chapters 6-9 58-92

  Part Three: Chapters 10-14 93-132

  Part Four: Chapters 15-19 133-172

  Epilogue 173

  Introduction

  IN RECENT years it has become increasingly fashionable to proclaim the end of national particularities and the gradual extension over the globe of standardized habits of thinking, feeling, and consuming. While this vision of the evolution of human society is an oversimplification, it is nevertheless true that if Kipling had been born only a decade or two later he might never have written the famous words, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet."

  Shugoro Yamamoto (1903-1967) was a man of our century. To read his novel, The Flower Mat , however, is to be plunged back into a time when East and West were indeed two completely different worlds. In the West it was the decade of the 1760s. In Japan, where the events related in the novel take place, it was approximately the 165th year of the Tokugawa period, very early in the seven-year reign of the Empress Go-Sakuramachi at the imperial capital of Kyoto.

  More important, however, the tenth Tokugawa shogun, Ieharu, was now ruling throughout the land. The early shoguns had been generals and military deputies of the emperor. But since the Tokugawa family had come to power in 1603, the shogunate had gradually developed into a hereditary office that became the center of power in Japan, surpassing in authority the emperor himself. Under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns the old social and political organization of Japan was molded into a unified and efficient state.

  Not even the power of the Tokugawa shoguns, however, was able to prevent the gradual development of Japanese society, starting around the middle of the eighteenth century, along lines that were finally (in 1868) to lead to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji era. The old feudal, ''natural" economic system was gone, having been replaced by a money economy which would weaken the economic strength of the samurai, the ruling social class, and bring about the breakdown of the earlier, rigid class hierarchies.

  The samurai had originally been warrior-farmers. Gradually, however, the samurai had ceased to be farmers and had tended to settle permanently in the castle towns, where they frequently found employment as administrators in the local government.

  The Flower Mat relates the events of one year in the life of just such a samurai family, the Kugatas, when they become entangled in the intrigues surrounding the adoption of an heir to succeed the ruling daimyo. The latter is in this case one of the daimyo, or lords, of what was then known as Mino Province and is today Gifu Prefecture near Nagoya in central Honshu.

  The tale of the reversals and ultimate vindication of the Kugata family is as timeless and universal as the human race itself. But the social structure and the background of feeling and philosophy which are so successfully portrayed in The Flower Mat are peculiar to Japan—perhaps even peculiar to the Japan of an earlier age.

  Here we find ourselves in a family-oriented society in which the whole is greater than any of its individual components, a society whose members are motivated almost exclusively by a sense of duty—duty to family, to clan, to ruler, to a spiritual ideal higher than that of personal fulfillment. The needs of the individual are completely subordinate to those of the larger world of which he is a part.

  Ichi, the instrument of the Kugata family's salvation, appears as the ideal Japanese woman of that time. She exists, and is valued, not for herself as an individual but as a loyal wife completely devoted to her husband and his family. Affection, whether between two people of opposite sex or between members of the family, is expressed not in terms of feeling or passion (no matter how highly spiritualized) but as a matter of supreme kindness, courtesy, and devotion to others' welfare.

  The Western reader looks in vain, then, for traces of the conflicts and passions that dominate Western literature. At first their absence may puzzle and disconcert him. By the time he reaches the end of The Flower Mat, however, he experiences a strange feeling akin to solace and assuagement. There is something curiously soothing in this vision of a world motivated by quiet affection and devotion to simple, spiritual values rather than strong physical drives, material desires, and the urge for individual fulfillment.

  —THE TRANSLATORS

  IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

  The Kugata Family:

  ICHI, a daughter of the Okumuras who became a member of the Kugata family when she married the eldest son, Shinzo

  SHINZO, Ichi's husband

  ISO, Ichi's mother-in-law

  TATSUYA , Shinzo's younger brother

  KYUNOSUKE , Shinzo's youngest brother

  NOBU, Ichi and Shinzo's daughter The Okumura Family :

  Ichi's mother

  KASHO Ichi's father

  BENNOSUKE , Ichi's brother

  LORD TODA , the daimyo (ruler) of Ogaki, a town in Mino Province (present-day Gifu Prefecture)

  JOSUKE , a rich farmer in Ogasa village near the border of Lord Toda's territory

  GEN , Josuke's wife

  TEIJIRO , the owner of Minojin House in Shimada village near Ogasa

  MANKICHI , the manager of the Minojin House workroom

  that produces flower mats

  MOZAEMON, a farmer in Morishima, across the border from Ogasa

  Prologue

  IT IS SAID that the town of Ogaki in Mino Province was given its name, which means "great
wall," following the erection of a massive stone rampart. This wall was later incorporated into the castle of the ruling daimyo to protect it from the floods that were quite numerous in the area due to the presence of the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers.

  In the fourth year of the Horeki period, which is to say 175-4, or about ten years before the events of our story, the Shimazu family, lords of Satsuma Province in Kyushu to the south, had been directed by the shogunate to carry out difficult flood-control work on the river embankments below Ogaki. Before the work was completed, however, the original budget of some thirty million ryo had multiplied nine times, and the hazardous work itself had left more than thirty of the clan's samurai vassals, the hanshi, either dead or wounded. Yukie Hirata, a Varo, or principal retainer, of the Shimazu clan, and forty-five of his samurai subordinates acknowledged their responsibility for the extraordinary cost overrun and loss of life; their suicides were an unprecedented tragedy.

  Although flood disasters decreased considerably after this project's completion, the Ogaki area was not yet entirely safe, and when it rained more heavily and longer than usual, the town flooded near the upper reaches of the Satsuma construction area; even washouts of the great castle walls were not unusual. The town expended quite a large sum each year on river improvement, and the chief vassals from Ogaki took turns managing the work.

  Over the years stories of these chief vassals' mismanagement and political corruption began to circulate. Inspection of the construction site was not duly carried out, and the construction budget constantly increased. The rise in property taxes to make up this sum finally brought many people to question the wisdom of allocating any more funds for this project.

  The daimyo, Lord Toda, required by the Tokugawa shogunate to spend most of his time in the distant capital of Edo, appointed Toneri Otaka as kuni-garo, the chief vassal who would rule over the Ogaki area in his stead. Otaka was capable, talented, and possessed an extraordinary nature, as rising to such a position from the rank of uma-mawari, or samurai of the lord's horse guard, clearly demonstrated. Such a promotion would have been quite impossible for a man who was merely clever, smooth talking, or skilled at winning the confidence of others.

  But the fairness of any system is easily destroyed when those who hold positions of authority begin to take themselves into consideration first or become motivated by power and profit. This was particularly true in Ogaki, where Toneri Otaka's ten-year grip on such an important position was in fact due to the support of the older families and other chief vassals of the clan. That certain advantages accrued to them is unquestioned, as is the fact that a cancer was spreading throughout the Ogaki government.

  Lord Toda, at thirty-nine, ought to have been in the full flower of manhood, but he instead seemed in poor health and neglectful of clan government. His long term as sosha-ban* was undoubtedly one of the reasons for this, as was the task, assigned him by the shogunate, of informing all the other daimyo that the new shogun, Ieharu, would recognize their holdings. The position of sosha-banhad been a tremendous strain on body and mind, and dealing with the various lords had been both a delicate and difficult matter. Lord Toda's reward for his efforts had been the gift of a sword from Ieharu and a steadily declining state of health.

  Called Tokujiro as a child, Lord Toda had become the ruler of the clan at the age of seven and had taken in marriage Masaaki Hotta, who had borne him one son and five daughters. Only three daughters had survived to adulthood, however, and, owing to his poor health, Lord Toda was now beset by his vassals with suggestions regarding the adoption of a male heir to succeed him. To the great disgust of the people, these periods of succession had always generated struggles between new and old political factions, but in a few cases such struggles had actually led to reform of clan politics, since the adoption of an heir provided the perfect opportunity to begin the often necessary innovations in the government.

  Seeing the struggle through to a successful conclusion was not always an easy matter, however, and in this conservative and feudalistic age, the more forceful approach often demanded an appropriate sacrifice. Yet if the reformists, who could always be counted on to make some sort of move, dealt with the problem systematically, there was a greater chance of good results for the government.

  A clique consisting of Geki Ohara in Ogaki and Yazaemon Suzuki and Shingobe Hori, the two chief vassals in Edo, was proceeding in just this manner. They did not rush into things hastily but carefully built up a firm foundation, sparing neither time nor trouble in the hope that they would be able to rid the clan government of its recent corruption. They assigned Gorobe Toda (no relation to the lord) to spy on Kasho Okumura, a karo, and placed people in all the key positions. They thus took every measure necessary to secure their success.

  Shinzo Kugata was in a position which made him important to this clique. It was his job, as a subordinate of the superintendents of the treasury, to handle general accounting matters—a most convenient position from which to guard against the mishandling of funds by those in power. This post had been held by the Kugata family for generations, and Toneri Otaka and his group must have felt a bit awkward in Shinzo's presence. But he was gentle and in fact looked stupidly honest. Moreover, since the parties in power did not dream of the existence of a clique preparing to fight them, they exercised little caution. Kasho Okumura had even married his beloved daughter, Ichi, to Shinzo.

  Note : This Prologue was originally the first chapter of Part Π in the Japanese text. It has been adapted and placed here for the sake of the Western reader.

  Footnote

  * Sosha-ban: an official of the Tokugawa shogun charged with introducing the samurai to the shogun at festivals, with reading aloud the list of gifts given by the shogun, and with similar tasks. The office, created in 1632, was abolished in 1862.

  Part One

  1

  SINCE the age of twelve or thirteen, Ichi had suffered from a recurrent eye infection with the coming of spring. She had forgotten about it lately, thanks to the change in her life created by her marriage to Shinzo Kugata. But shortly after the cherry trees at the castle had bloomed, her husband told her, "Your eyes are red." When she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw that the ailment had indeed begun again. chi had suffered from a recurrent eye infection with the coming of spring. She had forgotten about it lately, thanks to the change in her life created by her marriage to Shinzo Kugata. But shortly after the cherry trees at the castle had bloomed, her husband told her, "Your eyes are red." When she looked at herself in the mirror, she saw that the ailment had indeed begun again.

  It could be said that she had weak eyes. If she devoted all her energy to sewing or read a book printed in small characters, her eyes would soon water or her eyelids begin to twitch. If she continued reading or sewing, it was not unusual for her vision to cloud, and she would be uncomfortable.

  "You'd better not sew any longer," Iso, her mother-in-law, told her. "Your eyes are apt to be affected when you're expecting a baby, even if that's not the reason."

  "I've had eye trouble since I was small. It will somehow heal by itself if I can get through this season," Ichi answered.

  Her reserved answer was a result of the constraint she still felt toward her mother-in-law, for she had been married only seven months. And yet, already Ichi had won a kind of self-confidence. Since she had become a member of the Kugata family she was enjoying every day ; her life was full of a high-spirited, cheerful atmosphere, and she could feel that her body and mind were unfettered. She felt as if something that had not budded while she was still with her parents had suddenly begun to blossom.

  This might have been because her family's discipline had been too strict and also because, being an only daughter and the last of five children, she had been pampered by her family. By nature she was not very strong; because of her family's overindulgence, she had never had any confidence in her health and had come to fret over even the most minor ailments.

  But things were quite different in the Ku
gata household. Her husband, Shinzo, her mother-in-law, Iso, and her brothers-in-law, Tatsuya and Kyunosuke, were easygoing, simple people and were seldom fussy about things. They were also very liberal, unusual for a samurai family, and never assumed a haughty attitude. It was a foregone conclusion that you would be encumbered with constant cares for a time after you married, and not even Ichi could say that she had not experienced this. But it was only for a short time, and as soon as she had become familiar with the personality of this family, she felt a relieved, easy feeling. She stopped catching colds easily, and her arms and legs began to grow plump. Certainly she would be able to recover from her chronic eye infection.

  "If you say so, all right. But please don't try too hard," her mother-in-law said, not forcing her to stop sewing.

  That evening her brother-in-law Kyunosuke found out about her eyes and became excited.

  "You're too easygoing, mother. In general, newly married wives who are expecting a baby no longer have to sew. You should do the same, sister," he said, turning to Ichi. "You'd better put away that fine work, and I seriously think you should go to a doctor soon."

  "You're very knowledgeable about such matters," Iso said as she looked smilingly at her third son. "But what you're talking about has to do with the period after childbirth, doesn't it?"

  "What? After childbirth?" He appeared embarrassed, and glanced quickly at his brothers.

  Shinzo forced a smile and said, "Anyway, he always jumps to conclusions." Tatsuya, his face ever peaceful, nodded in agreement.