The Flower Mat Page 9

  "Then you don't even know about the punishment of the conspirators, do you?" The word "conspirators" had an ugly ring. "They were planning a revolution against the government. That's the greatest crime a samurai can commit, you know."

  Ichi quietly raised her eyes and looked at Bennosuke, who was sitting nearby with arms crossed, looking at the river through the open shoji of the window. There was a look of dejection in his profile.

  "I don't know anything about it." Ichi lowered her eyes again. "I don't know what my husband has done, or what kind of crime it is. But I do know what kind of personality he has and what kind of things he would be doing."

  "You talk so naively, Ichi. If Shinzo is to be punished for committing a major crime, you have to be punished too. The result might stain the Okumura family name. Your father and I have been concerned about this. You don't know how hard we've been looking for you! Aside from this, consider your father's and my feelings and come back to us. We'll manage the situation somehow. You just come back to us, Ichi."

  "But Nobu . . . my daughter's name is Nobu, mother, . . ." Ichi said, still looking down at her knees. "May I take Nobu with me?"

  "I'm sure you can, since she's a girl. You are coming back to us, aren't you?"

  "I'll go back to my house now, and then I'll return home with Nobu in four or five days."

  "You are telling me the truth, aren't you? You're not cheating on me by saying nice things, are you, Ichi ? Your father's been so worried his hair has gone completely white."

  "Bennosuke can accompany me to my house," said Ichi, her eyes still downcast.

  Ichi soon rose, saying that she would arouse suspicion if she got home too late. She gave the toy windmill and the doll to her mother, saying that it would be too much trouble for her to carry them herself, but what she meant was that she wanted her mother to have them as a substitute for holding Nobu in her arms.

  Her mother seemed rather uneasy about Ichi's undue readiness to accept her offer and insisted that she wanted to talk more with her. But Ichi thought she would begin to scream if she listened to any more. Evading her mother's request as casually as she could, she said goodbye.

  Bennosuke followed her out. It was already growing dark ; a thick mist was flowing over the Makida River, and they could see snowy egrets soaring up from the reed bushes along the river bank. They went straight along the road, which turned toward Honmura in Shimada village, out to the river bank, and walked for a while.

  Ichi stopped walking for a moment and looked at her brother. Bennosuke returned her gaze absent-mindedly, his face pale and expressionless. He had never been too healthy and had always had a gloomy face with scowling eyebrows. But now he seemed dejected and helpless, like a man in a stupor.

  "Bennosuke, you knew what Shinzo was going to do, didn't you?" Ichi looked sharply into her brother's eyes. "You know very well that he wasn't going to commit a revolutionary crime, but rather to do exactly the opposite, brother."

  "I don't know." Bennosuke's voice was dull and devoid of feeling, like water leaking from a cracked bowl. "I haven't the slightest idea what is just and unjust, or even whether there is such a thing as truth. Can you understand those things, Ichi?"

  "What I want to know concerns him. I want to know what he and the people around him were planning and why they pleaded guilty to such a crime as revolution. I want to know how Shinzo died and what happened to Kyunosuke."

  "Shinzo was run down in the castle, in the corridor leading from the accounting office to the bonfire room. But I know this only from other people, and I don't have any details."

  "Then in that corridor ... in that corridor he died?" Ichi's knees were trembling.

  "Some say he was slain, some say he was captured, and I even heard that he escaped on the way to jail after his capture. We just don't know whether, or to what extent, the things people are saying about the events of that period are certain. Five people in addition to Gorobe Toda were slain, but I don't think Kyunosuke was among them. Eleven people from the public prosecutor's office were sent to prison. I think two of the churo* were put under house arrest, and five were imprisoned in Edo. That's all I know."

  "And they didn't accuse you of anything, Bennosuke?"

  "Me? Why?" Bennosuke looked at his sister dully. "What do you mean by that?"

  "I'm sure you did something called Seishukufu, brother. I remember conveying the message to you and that it was a great help to the work of Shinzo and his people."

  "Nonsense!" Bennosuke smiled sardonically and waved his hand. "Such a thing has no meaning. I'm a buffoon. But I'm not the only one. Human beings are all buffoons. Those who do dishonest things and grow rich, those who make noises about justice and truth although they are powerless—in general they're all buffoons, and the strongest ones win. That's all there is to it. Seishukufu! Please, don't make me blush!"

  Ichi stared at her brother's expressionless, masklike face. He was like a man whose body and soul have been crushed and who is barely alive. He had been soft-hearted and sensitive, the closest brother to her in age and also the one whose personality was the most compatible with hers, but he had changed completely. Like the master of Minojin House, but in a different way, this brother too had to be among the people left behind by the march of progress.

  Ichi bowed to him, saying, "I'll say goodbye to you here," as if to encourage herself.

  "Then you're not coming home, are you?"

  "I want you to look after mother and father. They'll be angry at me. But since even you, Bennosuke, could escape without punishment, I don't think there's any need to worry that I'll ruin the family name. Take care of yourself."

  Bennosuke answered her only with his eyes and looked after her without moving. She turned around after climbing down from the bank and walking a hundred yards along the footpath between the rice fields. Bennosuke, still gazing after her, was silhouetted against the gloomy, dim light of dusk.

  My husband may still be alive. It was a most precious and, for Ichi, an incomparable piece of news. There seemed to be no proof that he was alive, but there also seemed to be no definite proof that he was dead. Since she had almost completely given up hope for his life, it was almost unbearable to return to a state of uncertainty, but she was nevertheless happy to have the hope of that one chance in a million.

  At the same time she could hardly bear the thought that they had pleaded guilty to "planning a revolution." Of course she could not understand the details, since it had something to do with politics, but she simply could not believe that the conviction for planning a revolution was just. Probably the opposition had manipulated the matter through the power they wielded in order to protect their own existence. Bennosuke had also said that the strongest man would win, which showed that in the present circumstances the strongest man had won, without regard for the right and wrong of the actual facts.

  Such a thing shouldn't be permitted. Ichi shook her head as she walked quickly along the darkening path toward her house. It can't just end like this ! No ! If my husband's work, for which he sacrificed his own family and his own life as well, is the proper course to take in order to fulfill one's responsibility as a human being, I should not watch in silence while it is squelched as a "revolution." Whatever I have to do, whatever hardships I have to face, I must.

  Upon her return to the house she asked Josuke to step outside, and consulted him about moving. She gave as a pretext the fact that since she had met Bennosuke at Karasue a search for them must be going on in the area. She made no mention of the fact that her mother had been there, nor did she say anything about her husband and Kyunosuke.

  Her mother-in-law and even Tatsuya became tense when they heard the news, and Josuke too was at a loss.

  "If that's the way things are," said the old man, "I guess you should move somewhere else for a while, for instance to the territory of the Takasu clan." He began to think. "I have someone in mind, just outside Morishima. He used to be a farm hand here at my place, and now he's farming a little plac
e of his own. This man would make no complaints, even if we went to him right now. But . . . well, his house is a very dirty place. ..."

  "Since this is such an emergency, we'll be all right as long as we can just take shelter somewhere. Right, mother?"

  "You're right, but . . ."Iso closed her eyes for a moment. "But I'm afraid we're only asking him for our own convenience. And since we've given so much trouble already ..."

  "Don't talk like that. And if you can put up with the inconvenience, Tatsuya and I can even carry your things there tonight," said Josuke.

  "I'd be very happy if you could," Ichi said, paying no attention to her mother-in-law. "We'll think about the next steps later. We'd like to leave here as soon as possible."

  "Good. . . . It's all very ... it was all a very nice dream," said Tatsuya, his body swaying as if in a trance. "I thought we could settle down here. If things go on like this, I guess my field won't amount to anything."

  Ichi stood up and went to pack.

  Footnote

  * Churo: an official second in rank to the chief vassal.

  14

  "SINCE Ogasa is near the border of the Takasu clan territory, it's a convenient refuge in case of emergency."

  Tatsuya's words were now proving true. The family transported their belongings there that very night, and the following morning, before daybreak, Ichi tied Nobu to her back, took her mother-in-law's hand, and left Josuke's house. If they went to another clan's territory, there was not the slightest possibility that their whereabouts would be discovered, so long as they did not become official residents there.

  Ichi's worry had not been without foundation. Thorough searches were carried out all over Sakamatsu Prefecture for more than ten days and Josuke and his wife were questioned on numerous occasions, but ultimately no trace of Ichi, Iso, and Tatsuya was found.

  Since the rainy season had gone without a hitch this year and the sunshine was also perfect, people were saying that the crop would surely be a good one. All the villages were happily discussing plans for the summer festival entertainment.

  Morishima was near the Nagara River. It was commonly called Senmachida, or One Thousand Fields, and the name was apt. Everywhere were lowlands planted with rice and lotus. A ridge with a row of pine trees cut through the approximate center of the village as far as the river; this was called the Karesawa, or Dry Marsh, and was a kind of dike built to protect against flooding.

  Mozaemon's house, where Ichi and her family had taken refuge, stood near the southern side of this dike. The house and storage building were built on a stone foundation five feet high. Mozaemon, his wife, Toshi, and their one child tilled a rice field of about two and a half acres and raised carp in the lotus pond.

  Both husband and wife were completely unsociable people. They were simple and stupidly honest rather than upright, and their only pleasure was earning money. Their five-year-old child, known as Hei (his real name was not used), bore an almost uncanny resemblance to his parents in features and personality. He puttered about quietly and played all by himself, either in the field or in the house. His activities consisted of imitating his parents' farm work or whittling a piece of wood into a small hoe or a plow. It was amusing to watch him assume a very serious air, as if he were earning a living like a full-fledged adult.

  A seven-year-old child named Kiichi lived nearby. Hei was quite a solitary child with no particularly close friend, but whenever he saw Kiichi he was sure to go out and call him all kinds of bad names.

  "Kiichi's got a bald spot on his head," Hei would shout. "If a fly lands there, it'll slide right off!"

  Then Kiichi would rush over, thrust his head in front of Hei, and say, "Take a good look at me. Do I got a bald patch on my head? See, I ain't got none!"

  Hei would look closely at his head, then nod, saying, "No, you don't got none."

  "I don't got no bald patch," Kiichi would say with his small shoulders squared. "The bald patch is on jour head. Unnerstan'?"

  "Yeah."

  "You're the baldyhead," Kiichi would emphasize, and go away. Then Hei would again shout the nasty remark after him. "Kiichi's got a bald spot on his head. If a fly lands there ..."

  Then Kiichi would come running back, hit Hei on the head, and quickly run off.

  Ichi watched this scene from her borrowed room in the storage building, and it made her laugh. When she noticed that even her mother-in-law was watching them laughingly, she would think about how it would be if Nobu were a boy and would somehow feel sorry that her child had been born a girl. Then she would take the sleeping baby in her arms and press her to her breast.

  Early in July Ichi went to Shimada. She had not gone to Minojin House since the recent events, and she wanted to make her excuses and tell them that she was in hiding. She had gone to the trouble of choosing a rainy day because she could disguise her appearance a little with rain gear. She left the house, looking like a man in her straw sandals, straw coat, and straw hat.

  The distance to Minojin House now was twice what it had been from Ogasa, and since the wind had begun blowing from south to north and the rain become stronger, the trip took Ichi even longer than she had expected. When she finally reached Minojin House even her undergarments were soaking wet under the straw coat. However, she did not stop at the weaving shop, but visited the main house just as she was.

  "Well, well, to come in such a rain!" Mankichi came out as if meeting someone he longed to see and helped her out of the hat and coat. "I heard the story in Ogasa and figured you wouldn't come around here for a while. But since we've received a very pleasant order from the castle. . . . Oh dear! You're soaked!"

  "No, not really. I'm just going to tell Teijiro that I can't come any more, and then I'll head for home."

  "If you stay in those wet clothes, you'll catch cold. I'll order some dry clothes for you to change into, so take those wet ones off and I'll hang them to dry. They'll dry in no time in the drying room. ..."

  The old man went into the back room. A middle-aged female servant soon came in with a change of clothes and an obi for Ichi. While she was in the bathroom drying her wet body and changing her kimono, Ichi realized that the weather had become extremely violent; the wind was blowing so hard it was ripping at the eaves, and the pouring rain was slapping objects around and making a screen of water.

  Typical of people brought up in this area, she would soon begin to worry about flooding if this weather continued. "I hope it won't flood," she mumbled, and for a while she uneasily watched the driving rain.

  Mankichi then led her to Teijiro's room. The master, his face swollen as if from a sleepless night, was just opening a book on the desk, but when he saw Ichi he placed a piece of paper over the book to hide it, and, pressing the paper with his long pale fingers, greeted her.

  "That mat has become famous." Teijiro began to talk as soon as Ichi had sat down. "I'm sure I told you that we were going to present it to Lord Toda, and soon after I last saw you we did just that. About five days ago he summoned us to him, so I sent Mankichi, who reported back to me that the lord was very pleased and had asked him for details about the maker of the mat."

  "I hope Mankichi didn't tell him about me!"

  "Of course he didn't tell him about your social position. He said he told the lord only that it had been made by a lady who was supporting her elderly mother and her small child and that she had designed it herself without instruction from anyone. We were again summoned the day before yesterday and ordered to bring you to the castle. You're to have the honor of an audience with the lord."

  For a moment Ichi's breath stopped. It was a very rare honor for an ordinary subject of no social standing to be granted the honor of an audience with the lord ;

  it was absolutely unthinkable to refuse. If Ichi declined, not even Minojin House could escape punishment for the crime of disrespect.

  "What shall I do!" Ichi involuntarily raised imploring eyes. "If I go to Ogaki they'll soon find out who I am. I simply cannot accept the summons." />
  "I thought about that too. As you well know, this is something we simply cannot refuse. Furthermore, since this will be of tremendous advantage to our work in the future, I'd like you to accept this summons regardless of the cost. The thing is to change your appearance. What do you think?"

  "You say change my appearance, but ..."

  "Oh, you'll change it completely. It's a pity, but you'll color your cheeks up to your hair and make a scar or burn mark on your face. You'll also change your hairdo and your kimono and obi. I think you'll be all right then."

  Ichi shuddered, but thought that if she were made up that heavily her identity could be successfully concealed. Teijiro then told her that Minojin House would probably win an award for the mat and that they would certainly receive good news at that time about, for instance, the subsidy for the manufacture of the new flower mats and permission to replant the bingo-rush, both of which they had already requested.

  Meanwhile the wind was blowing more and more violently, and the driving rain was shooting silver arrows in every direction from a terrifyingly dark sky. Since Ichi was feeling increasingly uneasy, she answered that she would return in a few days after she had thought the matter over thoroughly. Then she stood up to leave.

  The master looked out through the window and then said a strange thing.

  "I think I must have the nature of a beast," he said. "When the weather turns so stormy, I become strangely high-spirited. Usually I feel bored and tired, but when I look at wind and rain I become incredibly cheerful. I feel like running stark naked up the mountain or jumping and rolling around carefree in a bamboo grass field, or in the woods, or in the rocky gorge. ... I guess it's indecent to say this in front of you, but ... a beautiful woman ... a beautiful young woman with a healthy, well-proportioned body . . . stripping her, running around wildly in the mountains where the violent wind and driving rain are roaring madly, running her down, her escaping, grabbing and grappling with her and rolling down the stony slope ... oh ! I can see it ! I can feel it ! "