Somersault

by Kenzaburo Oe

  5

  “So that’s how I came to talk, with an enthusiasm I hadn’t known for ages, about the predicament I’d found myself in to this plump little middle-aged man who gazed at me with this engrossed look on his face. As I talked I had an increasingly objective feeling toward what I was saying, the contents becoming so concrete I could almost reach out and touch them. By this point Patron was already healing me—in fact he was halfway there. When I was about half finished I got up to use the toilet, and when I looked in the mirror, I thought miserably that my eyes in my unshaven face had the impassioned, feverish look of some young kid in love.

  “After washing my face I calmed down a bit, and now it was Patron’s turn to do the talking. This was the first of many sermons.

  “‘We live in a fallen world,’ he began. ‘Everything in the world is fallen—from the earth, to the oceans, to the air itself. The same holds true for human beings, who are perhaps the most fallen of all. So isn’t it natural, then, for someone who realizes this to feel it’s disgusting and dirty to touch other bodies as well as his own? Even myself, for a few days after I’ve gone over to the spirit world through a trance, I hate touching things and people in this fallen world of ours. I even can’t stand the smell of the air and can barely breathe. Since I wouldn’t survive that way, I train myself to be thick-skinned.

  “‘Isn’t the predicament you’re in a lot like the one I’m in right after I return from the realm of the spirits? You’re not suffering from some nervous condition, you’re expressing a purifying awakening of the soul. In order to survive in a fallen world, though, you have to acclimatize yourself, which is not an impossible task. Think about it. If your own body is dirty and fallen, touching other people’s bodies, still less your own, isn’t going to intensify the overall level of filth, now, is it?

  “‘What you need to be aware of is that your soul is alive inside this fallen world, inside your fallen body. You’re suffering because your soul is oppressed, because your soul is awakening. Your soul is not fallen, but as long as it’s in this fallen world, because the temporary container your soul is in, your body, is dirty, and the world that surrounds that body is dirty, your soul will indeed suffer. You must not annihilate the purity of your suffering soul. It’s hard work to survive as a pure soul in this fallen world.’

  “I listened to Patron with an openness I’d never had before and suddenly felt liberated from the pride and arrogance that had always kept me tied down and hopeless. The world is fallen, and my body is polluted—this struck me as it never had before. Was that why I’d been suffering, why I drove my mother to a desperate death? That being said, how could I snuff out my fallen body from this polluted world as quickly as possible? Why was I following an animal survival instinct that kept me from doing that? I didn’t think what my mother did was wrong, and on a conscious level at least I don’t fear death.

  “‘That’s because you’re listening to the voice of your soul,’ Patron told me. ‘Extinguishing your polluted body in this polluted world does not mean your soul will break all ties with the world and return to a world before the Fall. And if that’s the case, this fallen world itself has a certain significance, doesn’t it?

  “‘As long as you don’t find a solution here, in this fallen world, no matter where you run your soul will be in the same predicament. Escaping this world is not a guarantee of salvation. So you’re outfitted with flesh and your soul is calling out to you. It’s a tragic thing, but your mother was mistaken in refusing to listen to that voice.

  “‘People who hear the voice of the soul must do this: Wake up to the fact that our world is a fallen world, that humans are polluted beings, repent, and await the end of the world. Many people have heard the voice of the soul, which means the end time must not be far off. In fact, it is almost upon us. Anyone who hears the soul’s voice must, as a penitent person, prepare for that coming and take the initiative to welcome it. You’re not the only one who has awakened in this way, though not many have suffered as much as you. The church I am organizing is for people just like yourself.’

  “And that’s how I became a member of Patron’s church. This might sound too simple, almost melodramatic, but from the moment I laid eyes on Patron I wanted to follow him. Patron encouraged me, so I joined his church. This doesn’t mean I was confident I’d truly awakened and become a repentant person. Once I had a chance to mull it over by myself I came to the conclusion that there is a huge gap separating an awakened person from a penitent one, and you have to leap across it. I’d been so thoroughly steeped in the notion that my body and other people’s bodies were polluted that what Patron had said about the connection between this and my suffering struck me as entirely reasonable.

  “Deep down a person knows that human beings are fallen creatures in a fallen world. In this sense he is an awakened person. But that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily repentant. So this was the goal I set for myself after I joined the church: to focus my activities in the church on making that leap from being awakened to being truly repentant.

  “I set out with this resolution in mind, and from the time I worked with Guide to help set up the Izu workshop and began living with my young colleagues, I realized that all of them, too, were at the same stage—ready to make that leap. From the start it was clear this was their intention, but, being young and full of energy, their focus started to change.

  “Awaiting the end time and transforming oneself from an awakened person to a repentant one is no easy task, but is that really all one should do? Shouldn’t we go beyond that and actually help bring about the end of the world? Isn’t that what’s necessary to make the great leap? And didn’t Patron and Guide entrust my young colleagues with the Izu Research Center in hopes that they would do exactly this—come up with a plan to bring about Armageddon? All it took was someone to put it into words, and this became the radical faction’s point of departure.”

  Dr. Koga stopped speaking and squinted at the sun shining on the sea outside the train window; he sat on the sea side of the train and Kizu on the mountain side, each of them occupying two seats, with the aisle between them. When he spoke next, his manner had the practiced solicitude of someone in a position of responsibility.

  “It might sound like the Izu Institute was a hotbed of political debate, but in the beginning it wasn’t. Actually, we were far less radical than some other groups within the church, at least as far as our stance on Patron’s teachings was concerned. The criticism of the radical faction by the media was off the mark. It wasn’t just that grad students in the sciences were drawn by the generous funding and facilities—that’s clear enough from the pamphlet you just read, right?—but that each researcher also thought deeply about his own faith.

  “At a certain point the researchers suddenly forged ahead, shoring up their faith, and in the process became more politicized. They began debating how not just the research institute but the entire church could be reinvigorated, and what actions they had to take in society at large. We created a task force to investigate this, with some remarkable developments.

  “Even if you don’t know the whole process, I’m sure you’ve read and heard in the media about how it all ended up. From out of the talented young research group, a politically radical group ballooned up with uncanny swiftness. For the most part this was done in a democratic manner, though since I was one of the leaders I guess it might seem irresponsible of me to put it that way.

  “Anyhow, during the past ten years I’ve reflected on my own role, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not a religious activist or political organizer, merely a doctor. Now that I’m rejoining Patron, my main job will be running a clinic and overseeing the health of my former colleagues. And of course I’m very happy to be able to take on your case as well, Professor Kizu.”

  Outside the train window the flat calm sea spread out. Not a single fishing boat was visible. The sun was hidden behind a thin layer of clouds, the whole sea was gray tinged with brown, thoroughly diffus
ed with a pale light. Dr. Koga sat there silently, lost in thought, the peaceful expression on his face in harmony with the placid scene outside.

  Three rows away, Ikuo and Mr. Hanawa sat talking, also across the aisle from each other. Their topic of conversation was the thin little foreign book Mr. Hanawa had been reading, except for when he was napping, ever since they left Tokyo. Before long Ikuo spread out on the small table he’d pulled out beside his seat the paper that had been wrapped around his boxed lunch and, with a pencil Mr. Hanawa passed him, began scribbling formulas. Mr. Hanawa was nearly ten years his senior, so Ikuo toned down his usual rough, aggressive way of talking and treated him with the respect due a teacher.

  Dr. Koga was also watching the two of them and turned a faint smile of admiration toward Kizu. Filled with pride, Kizu returned the smile.

  “Up to a certain point,” Dr. Koga said, his smile changing to a wry one, “our Izu workshop was a laid-back, intellectually stimulating place. Looking at the two of them lost in their calculations, you can tell we’ve got two spirited personalities on our hands. Makes me wonder what will happen when all that comes to the surface.”

  “So these young people with their idiosyncrasies, then,” Kizu said, “will be linking up with Patron, whom they’re no match for. And here I am with my hopeless—though fortunately not contagious—illness am about to join them. I’m trying to imagine what will come of it all.”

  “It certainly won’t be boring, you can be sure of that!” Dr. Koga said, his eyes flashing with the message that he, too, was someone to be reckoned with.

  Part II

  17: There’s Power in the Place

  1

  Ogi and Dancer had preceded everyone else to the site in Shikoku where the new church was to be established. There they held talks with the people on-site who had been taking care of the buildings and handling visitors; these meetings included a woman from an old established family in the area, the head of the Fushoku temple—a Soto Zen sect—plus a representative of the Kansai headquarters who had been instrumental in keeping the church running as a religious corporation after the Somersault.

  Ogi had been in charge of laying the groundwork for the move, so this wasn’t his first time in the place. Still, when he saw Dancer’s surprised reaction to the scale and beauty of the chapel and the building the locals called the monastery, he was amazed all over again that such buildings, together with the large artificial lake they surrounded, had been provided for Patron’s new church.

  With Patron and Guide’s Somersault, for all practical purposes the church’s activities in Tokyo and the surrounding areas had come to a grinding halt. The Kansai headquarters alone continued its public activities, albeit on a reduced scale; meanwhile, the solidarity of their members had only grown stronger. Their leader was a Mr. Soda, from one of the leading general contracting firms in Shikoku and Kyushu. This conscientious late-forties man, accompanied by his hard-working personal secretary, had now come to the backwoods of Shikoku to attend the meetings.

  Mr. Soda’s secretary first passed out documents related to issues between the church and local authorities, as well as specific improvements that needed to be made to the facilities before the church moved in en masse, with Mr. Soda giving a short explanation to clarify the documents. He and his secretary could only stay for half the first day of the talks, having to attend a ceremony marking the completion of a JR train station in Kyushu.

  After the two of them left, the remaining members were given a detailed briefing on the local area by Asa-san, wife of the retired former principal of the local junior high school, and by the humorously eloquent head priest of the Fushoku temple, Mr. Matsuo; Asa-san was taking care of the buildings the church would use, and she and Dancer had been in close contact regarding preparations for the move. Ogi was impressed by how objective these two local representatives were regarding short-term issues involved in the church’s move. What’s more, the two of them seemed to be rivals in the considerable influence they had over those who held the political strings here. Ogi was particularly impressed by their discussion of the background of the area and its recent local history.

  The town here was called Maki Township, in Kita County of Ehime Prefecture. The region was on the northern slope of the central mountain range running through Shikoku, just about in the middle; soon after the township was incorporated, in an area called the Old Town, a church called the Church of the Flaming Green Tree rose up and, after a short time, disappeared. Fifteen years before, the leader of the church, named Brother Gii, had been murdered. His church had built the chapel that stood on the eastern edge of the south bank of the man-made lake in the Hollow, the chapel that was so well known as an example of modern architecture. On the land to the west, the church members had set up a site for tents where many of them used to stay.

  With Gii’s death the church itself, to use a popular term borrowed from the terminology of political demonstrations, just melted away. The church members dispersed like so many drops of water soaking into the ground. Actually, the final sermon to commemorate the breakup of the church had been given by Mr. Matsuo, then a church activist who had since returned to his role as local Buddhist priest.

  “Brother Gii was a very simple man,” Mr. Matsuo said, “yet one of the most ethical people you’d ever want to meet. He always considered others’ lives more important than his own, and put that belief into practice. His influence is still felt among us here. The Church of the Flaming Green Tree is no longer with us, but Gii’s life and death are etched in our memories, not just those of us who were close to him but other people as well. We would like to keep the area around the Hollow as sacred ground, which is why when you asked to take over the chapel for your own church, we leapt at the idea. We thought, Why don’t we help them make it happen?”

  According to reports that Ogi had gathered, the transfer of ownership of the chapel, and the subsequent construction of the monastery, came about in the following way. Brother Gii had inherited the Hollow and surrounding land from one of the established families in the old village. Along with this, one follower, the head of another old family in the area, decided to construct the chapel and contributed the needed funds. When the Church of the Flaming Green Tree was incorporated and tax issues became moot, this particular church member donated the land and the chapel to the church.

  Along the south side of the Hollow, a road sixteen feet wide had been built running the entire length of the man-made lake from east to west. This road was lined with cobblestones, modeled on the cobblestone paths that, according to the rich folklore of the region, used to be constructed high in the forest, remnants of which could still be found here and there. On the eastern edge of this road was the cylindrical chapel, constructed in the latest concrete technology, a building that at the time of its construction was a hot topic of conversation in architectural circles. After the chapel was built, Mr. Soda’s construction company came up with a plan to construct a courtyard out of the road leading up to the chapel, with communal residences running along both sides. But it was at this point that the church broke up.

  Many local residents didn’t want the buildings to remain unoccupied, and they wanted to complete the ones that had been planned, as well. After accepting the donation of the chapel and the land along the south shore of the lake, the town decided to build a junior high school and a continuing education center there, and there was strong support for this idea. The plans fell through, though, because of the economic timing—the Bubble Economy of Japan had just burst and money was tight. In opposition to those in the Old Town who still wanted to go ahead with the original plan, a rival movement arose calling not just for a cancellation of the continuing education center but the junior high as well—there weren’t enough children in the area to justify it, they claimed. In fact, one candidate for town head had run on this platform and won election, so the whole plan was back to square one.

  This still meant they had to deal with the investment already made in
the construction plans. With exquisite timing, just when the town authorities were racking their brains as to what the next step should be, the Kansai headquarters of the church began to show an interest in the land. Mr. Soda, the headquarters’ leader as well as the one who’d been involved in the original construction, played a major role in the negotiations. Things didn’t always go smoothly, but with the church now taking on the loans from the town, they were able to complete the original second phase of construction pretty much as it had been originally envisioned.

  The chapel and the monastery had been kept up—not exactly in a hands-on way but regularly nonetheless—and like some recent ruins were beautiful and abandoned, and no discord arose between the local residents and church members from the Kansai headquarters during their intermittent visits. However, with a good number of people expected to move to the town as Patron restarted his religious movement, there were sure to be difficulties ahead. What’s more, this was taking place soon after all the uproar involving the Aum Shinrikyo satyan that had been widely reported in the media.

  Ogi and Dancer flew from Haneda to Matsuyama airport. When they arrived at the Maki Town JR Station and went into the business district in the Old Town to rent a car, they came across some protest banners and leaflets: DON’T LET OUR TOWN BE TAKEN OVER BY FANATICS! WILL OUR CHILDREN SEE MURDERS ON THE STREETS AGAIN? and OPPOSE ARRIVAL OF PATRON’S CHURCH!