Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900

by Shirane, Haruo, ed.

  She ran this way and that, but the men caught and picked her up by the arms and legs and carried her toward the main hall of the temple, which was so rundown that moonlight fell through the roof in patches on the floor. The young woman screamed as the men forced her forward.

  The young woman was Ochō, daughter of the former managers of the Karakotoya House. She ended up in this deserted place because of a plan conceived by Konoito, the leading courtesan in the house, who took care of Ochō after her parents died and acted as her older sister. When Ochō’s parents died, the head clerk Kihei, her guardian, tried to make her feel obliged to him because he’d taken on the debts of the house and was acting as its new manager. Then he tried to seduce Ochō, and when she refused, he made life miserable for her. Konoito saw it was an impossible situation and decided to help Ochō escape from the house. She knew that Chūbei, who’d once worked as head clerk at the house, was now a merchant in Kanazawa and that her own family also lived there, so she wrote letters of introduction to both and gave them to Ochō. Then she went with Ochō to pray to Saint Nichiren’s soul10 in the southern outskirts of the city. On the way, Konoito secretly sent off Ochō in a palanquin for Kanazawa. But Konoito hadn’t thought about the dangers of the road. She was very bright, but she was a courtesan who’d grown up inside the quarter and didn’t realize how careful people had to be when they traveled outside. And Ochō was still too young and inexperienced to grasp the situation. Please consider this and do not judge them harshly.

  The sounds of a far-off eight o’clock bell were already echoing through distant towns and fields, and the temple seemed even lonelier than before. As she was carried inside, Ochō was like a small bird in the claws of an eagle. The unfeeling men pulled off the broken doors of the temple hall and pushed Ochō down onto the floor inside.

  “Hey, gents,” said one thug. “Control yourselves! We’ve got to take turns. Let’s draw lots.”

  Ochō felt as if she were being tortured in hell as the men stood there shouting and counting straws. Suddenly she realized that someone was behind her in the dark. Then a mouth was whispering in her ear. “Come this way,” it said. It was a woman’s voice. Ochō, shaking, moved slowly backward in the direction the person was pulling her. The toughs were too busy fighting over lots to notice. Then, with a loud shout, five or six men with sticks and poles rushed into the room and began beating the toughs.

  “Kidnappers! Thieves!”

  “Tie every one of them up!”

  “Hey, don’t let any get away!”

  Thugs force Ochō into a room in a deserted temple while tissue paper scatters. A kyōka by Hakkyōsha Chō (bottom left) reads: “Their sleeves already scented with plum blossoms, yet they seek to break off the branch—until a wind drives them away.”

  The men shouted and ran here and there after the toughs, who were so depraved that each thought only of escaping by himself.

  The woman who had pulled Ochō by the hand was dashing and brave, and everything about her showed style. She was in her twenties and wore no makeup, and in the moonlight her face was so beautiful it made Ochōshiver. The woman also wore a large hairpin in her hair, but it was a rough, sturdy wood one instead of the ornate tortoiseshell hairpins women usually wore. Her clothes were for traveling, but they all were very attractive.

  “All right, boys,” she called out. “Isn’t it about time to let up? They’ve all escaped by now.”

  “Scum of Edo!” one of the men was shouting. “Morons! Get out while you can!”

  “Don’t you criminals know who you’re dealing with?” another shouted.

  “Hey! Clean out your ears and listen up,” another called after them. “I’m Ryōkichi, honored and privileged to be a follower of Oyoshi, the boss woman of Koume.11 The tattoo on my back’s in the tried-and-true style of the dragon Kurikara!”

  “Anybody who’s anybody knows me already,” shouted another man. “I was born and bred in Koume, and I’m black with soot from all the tile kilns. My parents prayed at the Narihira Temple there, and then I was born. So people call me Playboy Gonpachi.12 My color’s purple. My boss is Oyoshi of the Plums,13 and I’m her right-hand man.”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Oyoshi said. “You boys never cease to amaze me. We’re in the middle of a tight situation, and you start improvising a farce.”

  “It’s true,” one said. “But we just wanted to show you some dramatic-looking action.”

  Oyoshi turned to Ochō. “You must have been pretty scared. Everything’s all right now, though, so don’t worry. My name’s Oyoshi, and I’m a hairdresser in Koume. I’m an unmannered, rambunctious woman who does what she wants. These days I’ve been praying to Benten for something very important, and I go on a pilgrimage every month to her shrine at Enoshima down the coast here. I have no talent, and I’m rather forward and don’t know how to hold back anything. But these young men, here, well, for some reason they seem to like it, and they go around calling me ‘boss woman.’ I’m a bit conceited, I admit, so I can’t really say I hate it when they call me that. These days I’m getting a bit famous, you know, and I almost never yield to anyone. I’m one of those loud-mouthed women they call ‘chivalrous’ who does anything a man can.

  “Right now we’re on our way back from Enoshima. We were fooling around a lot and didn’t pay attention, and we ended up taking the wrong road. That sure was good luck for you! We walked through some fields and then between some rice paddies and then into some woods. We were going through low brush when suddenly we came to this temple here. We decided to go in and then we saw you. In big trouble! I talked things over with the boys real fast and then we acted. You were in a very serious situation, weren’t you?”

  As Ochō listened, she gradually forgot her fear and calmed down. She felt so happy she began sobbing and couldn’t even thank the woman who had saved her.

  “Really,” Ochō finally said, “really, I feel like I just died and came back to life again. And, well, actually, I hate to ask you, but there’s one more thing, if it isn’t too much. . . .”

  “Are you asking me to go with you to wherever it is you’re going?” Oyoshi asked.

  “Yes. Could you, please?”

  “Of course. Don’t worry about it at all. And all the boys will be glad to come along, too. As soon as you tell me who you are, then I’ll take you wherever it is you’re going. If there’s any trouble going on at the place where you’re headed, then my place is your place, understand? I don’t care who shows up there or how much they try to threaten me, I’ll do everything I can to take care of you myself. Of course, that’s assuming it’s not the authorities who’re after you. As long as you’re involved in a clean fight, then I’ll stand behind you all the way. But hey, it’s getting pretty late. If we don’t hurry, all the inns will be closed. Well, boys, what do you say we get moving? Let’s make a circle around this young woman here as we walk. And look out for an ambush!”

  “Don’t worry,” one of the young men said. “Those thugs’ll never be back. But if you want, I can carry her on my back.”

  “Uh-uh,” said Oyoshi. “Not you, Kane, and not Gen, either. Let Ei or Kinta or maybe Jirō do it. I can’t let you two anywhere near her!” As Oyoshi laughed, thin clouds covered the moon again, but the travelers made their way safely through the dim light and finally reached the nearest town.

  In chapter 5, Yonehachi, who has moved to the entertainment district in Futagawa, on the southeastern outskirts of the city, meets with Tōbei, Konoito’s intimate customer and lover, who has helped her leave the Karakotoya and become an independent banquet entertainer. Tōbei has been asked by Konoito to attempt to seduce Yonehachi, to test her love for Tanjirō. Yonehachi remains faithful to Tanjirō and skillfully evades Tobei’s continued advances. Chapter 6 takes place on a day in early spring, a few months after Ochō’s escape in the Tenth Month of the previous year. Ochō, who has been adopted as a younger sister by Oyoshi, the women’s hairdresser who saved her, is now living with Oyoshi and learning shamisen
and jōruri chanting in order to make a career for herself as a performer at parties and private concerts.

  CHAPTER 6

  Ochō walked home from her chanting lessons completely absorbed in the jōruri text she was now learning. Over and over she sang the lines, “Moving water and human life, who knows where they will flow? And Minosaku, too . . . “14 She was now fifteen, and her face was as radiant as a full moon. The red lipstick on her lips made them look even more attractive, and she wore a fashionable robe striped with the triple-box crests of her favorite kabuki actor, the wild, flamboyant Ichikawa Danjūrō. The striking satin sash around her waist was in the latest style.

  Coming the other way down the street was an attractive man of nineteen or twenty. His head was tilted a bit, and he looked down as if he were deeply worried about something. Suddenly he and Ochō found themselves about to walk into each other. Then their eyes met.

  Tanjirō and Ochō talk in the street in front of a shop.

  Aren’t you Ochō?”

  “Tanjirō! What in the world are you doing here?”

  “Really! This is amazing. I mean, meeting you here like this. I’d like to hear all about how you’ve been. But we can’t do that here in the middle of the street. Let’s go somewhere.”

  He looked around. “Hey, over there’s a grilled eel restaurant. Meeting you like this after such a long time calls for a celebration. Why don’t we go have something to eat?”

  Ochō felt so happy and embarrassed at the same time that she began to blush. But she hid her face with her wide, flat handbag. “Sure,” was all she could say. They walked into the restaurant together.

  “Come right on in,” the amiable woman who ran the restaurant was saying. “Go on up to the second floor.” Then she asked the waitress to bring up a tobacco tray set for them. Tanjirō and Ochō climbed the stairs to the room on the second floor, where they found a spot looking out over the busy Takabashi area15 outside. Spring made the view even finer.

  “This is incredible,” Tanjirō said. “I’ve been thinking about you all the time, you know. But I never dreamed I’d see you anytime soon like this. Why are you walking around a place like this? Did you leave the quarter?”

  Ochō, shamisen in hand, is portrayed as if she were the popular kabuki actor Iwai Hanshirō VI (1799–1836). She sits below a fan, one of his emblems, and beside a box filled with books of fiction. Text: “Take Chōkichi, chanter and musician, who works for Okuma in Ryōbōmachi.” In the fan (upper left): “Seeing the returning geese, her heart, true to her distant lover, feels even sadder: / The line of geese / blurs and bends / through tears of longing /—Tamenaga Kikujo.”

  “Well, actually I haven’t lived there for quite a while.”

  “So where are you living right now? You’re carrying around a handbag for jōruri texts, so I guess you must live somewhere around here, right? You’re taking chanting lessons somewhere.”

  “Not around here,” Ochō said. “I’m living out in Koume.”

  “Then you’re coming here to take lessons?”

  “No. I’m studying with Miyashiba, a really famous jōruri chanter who lives in Ginza.16 Six times a month she comes out to a big mansion near where I live, and I go there to study with her. She’s good at teaching me the difficult points. On other days, I go to study with a teacher in Ichihara.”

  “All right. Finally I get it,” said Tanjirō. “You’re lucky to be able to study with a master like Miyashiba. She’ll make you perfect. And where did you say you were going today after you left Ichihara?”

  “My older sister in Koume’s busy today, so I promised her I’d drop by Jōsen-ji temple17 on the way home and say some prayers in her name there.”

  “Older sister in Koume? Who are you talking about?”

  Just then the waitress brought up some tea. “What’ll you have?” she asked.

  “Yeah, well, grill us three plates of medium-size ones,” Tanjirō said.

  “What about some sake?”

  “No,” said Tanjirō. “We’ll stick to food. Good old food. Or, Ochō, what do you say to having a little to drink?”

  “No thanks,” Ochō said, grinning.

  The waitress, sensing something between them, picked up a small standing screen leaning against the stairs railing and stood it near them to give them some privacy. Then she went down the stairs noisily.

  “It’s amazing!” said Ochō. “You had no way at all of knowing I’m living in Koume and you don’t know anything about my older sister.”

  Ochō went on to tell Tanjirō about Konoito’s kindness and how Konoito had helped her escape Kihei’s harassment and how she’d gotten into trouble on the way to Kanazawa and how Oyoshi of the Plums had saved her and then negotiated very forcefully with the house and persuaded them to formally let Oyoshi take Ochō into her own family and how Oyoshi cared for her as if she were her real younger sister. As Ochō went over the whole story in detail, she became very sad, and tears came to her eyes. Tanjirō, too, couldn’t help crying, and he pulled Ochō closer to him. Ochō responded and put her arms around Tanjirō.

  “I’ve really been worried about you,” Ochō said. “I was so afraid and sad I went and prayed very hard to Benten and Saint Nichiren. I always miss you and think about you, you know. But you don’t really think about me at all, do you?”

  Just then the waitress brought up the eels grilled in soy sauce.

  “Look at all that!” Tanjirō said. “Eat it while it’s still hot.” He reached for the wooden paddle to dish out some rice for Ochō.

  “No you don’t. Let me do that,” she said, moving the bowls closer to her.

  “It’s really been a long time since we’ve eaten together, hasn’t it.” Tanjirō began pulling out the wooden grilling spits from the delicious back sections of the eels and giving them to Ochō.

  “Well, thank you,” Ochō said and began to eat. “Tanjirō, where are you living these days?”

  “My house? Well, you can hardly call it a house. It’s pretty bad. In fact, it’s too embarrassing to even talk about.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair! Tell me about it right now. Everything, Tanjirō.” Her sweet way of taking liberties attracted him even more.

  “It’s nothing really. It’s just a temporary place I’m renting for a little while.”

  “Well then, are you living just east of Asakusa? Or south by the river?

  “Nowhere like that,” said Tanjirō. “That’s where the quarter moves if there’s a fire. But I’m not in the quarter at all any more. I’m living in a place called Nakanogō.”

  “Oh really?” said Ochō. “Then you’re living very close to where I am. Very. That’s the best thing you’ve said yet. I’ll come see you every day from now on.”

  “Hey, don’t talk like that. I really don’t want you to see me in the hole where I am right now.”

  “Why not?” Ochō asked.

  “Why not? Well, you know.”

  “Did you get married?”

  “Cut it out, will you?” Tanjirō answered. “How could I even think of having a wife in that place? It’s so small, it’s smaller than the bathing room at the Karakotoya House.”

  “Come on,” said Ochō. “If you’re living alone, you don’t need to feel embarrassed about living in a small place.”

  Just then the waitress brought another plate of eel slices. “Here’s the rest of your order.”

  “Hey, grill us one more plate, will you?” Tanjirō said. “Big ones this time.”

  “Right.” Her footsteps disappeared down the stairs.

  “Well,” Ochō asked, “so who’s cooking for you and taking care of you?”

  “An old woman in the same tenement helps me out.”

  “Then I definitely think I’d better drop over and take care of things myself.”

  “You never learned to cook or keep house,” Tanjirō said. “How do you expect to suddenly be able to do all that? And do you have any idea what the other tenants would say if a young woman started vis
iting a single man in the building?”

  “Are you telling me not to visit you?”

  “No, there’s nothing wrong with visiting.”

  “Then if it’s all right, I’ll drop in tomorrow,” Ochō said.

  “Tomorrow I’m going out.”

  “That’s all right. Just don’t leave before I get there. I’m really excited about dropping in, so please. Stay home until I get there.”

  “You ask me to stay home, even though I say I’m going out. You know, you’re really intelligent, but this time you just don’t get it. Eat, will you? It’s getting cold.”

  “I’m already full,” Ochō said.

  “But you’ve hardly eaten any at all. Put the eel on your rice and pour some tea over it. Try a little at least. It’s delicious.”

  “Tanjirō, you haven’t eaten much, either. Please have some more yourself. And from now on, please be kind to me and think about me a lot.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, but you forgot all about me until we met just now. You didn’t even know I’d been having a really hard time.”

  “Please.” Tanjirō said. “How could I possibly forget you even a little? I even got into an argument because of you.”18

  “Argument? With whom?”

  “Well,” Tanjirō said, falling silent for a moment. “Actually, I saw Kihei in a dream and really had it out with him.”

  “Do you expect me to believe that?” Ochō said. “Listen, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you when I saw you. Yes, yes, it’s about that Yonehachi, who’s such a big fan of yours. She did something really outrageous.”

  “Why? What did she do?” Tanjirō asked without showing any emotion.

  “She was having an affair with Tōbei, the man who belongs to Konoito. People found out, and then finally she had to leave the house. Everybody was really upset about it.” Ochō was very bright, but even she didn’t realize that the real reason Yonehachi had gone to work somewhere else was because she wanted to look for Tanjirō.