Geisha in Rivalry

by Kafū Nagai

  At this moment, the outer glass door of the bath was flung open excitedly, and a woman who appeared to be a housemaid came running in. Panting for breath, she called out: "Danna! Danna! I'm here from the Obanaya!"

  "What is it? What's the matter? Don't make such a racket."

  "The neisan—she's in a bad way."

  "What happened? Did she take ill all of a sudden? All right, all right. Here, help me dry myself off."

  CONFUSION

  JUKICHI, the neisan of the Obanaya, had already had a slight stroke last spring and had collapsed at a teahouse where she was entertaining. From that time on, she had entirely given up her much-loved sake and had tried to smoke as little as possible. Today, in order to be in time for a teahouse engagement at two o'clock on the afternoon, she had gone out in the morning to have her hair dressed. Returning home, she suddenly fell into a faint at the telephone, and there was no sign of life about her except her loud snoring.

  The hakoya Osada was in the midst of making a round of the teahouses and machiai to collect the bills; the two young dancing girls had gone out for their lessons; and Hanasuke had already left for a visit to the local shrine. The only persons in the house were the scullery maid Oju and Komayo. Since today was the last day of the performance at the Shintomiza, Komayo had just been thinking that it was about time to go for her bath. She had just opened the drawer of her dressing table to take out the combs that she used to tuck up the side locks of her hair when she heard the scullery maid calling out in a loud voice: "Somebody come quick!" Running downstairs in alarm, she saw Jukichi lying on the floor.

  After sending the bewildered Oju rushing off to the bathhouse to call Gozan, Komayo telephoned for the doctor. Although she wanted to get the still prostrate Jukichi to her room at the back of the house, it was impossible for her to do it alone. Instead, she went to the back room and pulled out a quilt to cover her.

  While she was still attending to Jukichi, Gozan and Oju came back, gasping for breath, and the three of them managed with some difficulty to get Jukichi to her own room and put her to bed for the time being. Within minutes, the doctor had arrived and made his examination. Until he had seen how she got through the night, he explained, he could give no answer about her prospects. As it was now, it wouldn't do at all to move her, much less try to take her to a hospital. There was nothing to do but keep her absolutely quiet and let her rest. Having given these instructions to Gozan, the doctor left. Within a short while a nurse was to come.

  One by one the members of the household who had been out returned home, and somehow they all managed together to help with the nursing. They had hardly had time to take a breath, however, before the news about Jukichi had flown from here to there throughout the district, and people began arriving to express their sympathy and inquire about her: geisha, geisha-house owners, machiai mistresses, professional flatterers, hakoya—one and all. The lattice door was constantly being opened and closed, and the telephone rang ceaselessly. The confusion was almost enough to make even normally healthy people fall ill. The hakoya was so busy answering the phone that she had no time to eat. Komayo and Hanasuke, occupied with receiving visitors at the entrance to the house, hardly found a moment for a smoke. It was only when it came time to turn on the lights throughout the house that the coming and going quieted down for a bit.

  "Koma-chan, let's get something to eat while we have the chance. What would you like?"

  "I suppose we should. In fact, I haven't had anything to eat since this morning. For some reason, though, I don't have any appetite at all."

  "Let's get something foreign style and save the trouble."

  Just as Hanasuke stood up, the telephone rang. She went to answer it, and Komayo heard her say: "Yes, yes" and then something else and then: "Just a moment, please.... Koma-chan, it's the hostess at the Gishun. She says she's calling from the Shintomiza."

  Komayo went to the phone. "Oh, really? Is that so? You really must forgive me. To tell the truth, okami-san, there's been some confusion here at the house. Our neisan is ill. That's why I haven't had time until just now to call you up. I really beg your pardon." Then, after discussing something for a few minutes in an undertone, she said goodbye and hung up.

  "Koma-chan, today's the last day at the Shintomi, isn't it? I'd completely forgotten about it. It'll look bad if you don't go, won't it?"

  "I've already refused—just now. No matter what, I can't go out today."

  "But why? You put yourself out too much. This isn't a private home. Besides, if a call comes for a party engagement, that's business, isn't it? Go ahead, at least for a little while. I'm free tonight, and if it's a matter of greeting people that come to ask about the neisan, I'll be here to take care of them. I don't mind at all. The neisan seems to be resting quite well. Really, you must go and at least put in an appearance while you have the chance."

  "I haven't even had a bath yet today, and look at the mess my hair's in." As she said this, Komayo poked with her fingers into the center of her ginkgo-leaf coiffure, which was by no means so rumpled as she said it was. She pulled at it so roughly that she seemed about to tear it to pieces on purpose. At the same time she shook her head in an irritated manner. "If things were the same as before, it would be wrong not to go, no matter how much trouble it might take. But that's all over now, so what's the use? Just going there to put in an appearance and then having to see things I don't like and listen to things that make me angry—it would be much better if I didn't go anywhere at all."

  "That's just where you're wrong. It's because you keep saying such chicken-hearted things that he gets cocky and does exactly as he pleases. If I were in your place, I wouldn't care if it was in public or not—I'd take him down a peg or two right away."

  "But no matter what I do, if he's changed his mind for good, what's the use? Anyway, I'm fed up with the whole business." Then, in a tone that seemed to show the result of long and hard thinking, Komayo continued: "Hana-chan, if the niisan has finally decided against me, it's an embarrassment, to say the least. I can't stand the idea of facing people, and that's why I don't intend to stay in Shimbashi any longer."

  "Oh, dear, what a girl you are for always looking at the dark side of things! Men are all alike when they get involved in a new affair. There isn't a one of them that doesn't get swept off his feet and carried away for the time being. But they always come back to their first love. If you just keep a firm hold on your patience, your sincerity will win out in the end. Anyway, don't stand there making excuses. Hurry up now and at least go and show your face. You know I wouldn't give you bad advice."

  Although it appeared from her talk that Komayo was debating whether to go or not, the truth was that she would never be satisfied as long as she didn't go. Consequently, much as she had been holding herself back until now, this sort of advice from Hanasuke made her all the more eager to get started. In fact, she was now in such a frame of mind that nothing could stop her.

  "Well then, maybe I should go for a little while. The neisan will probably be all right, won't she?"

  "If something comes up, I'll phone you right away."

  "Hana-chan, I'm really grateful to you."

  Instead of calling the maid, Komayo went quietly out to the kitchen to get some warm water for smoothing her hair. Then, just as quietly, she went upstairs and sat down before her mirror. Today, in contrast to all other days when it was almost unbearably noisy, the second floor was deserted and lonely. The electric lamp, which someone had left blazing away, was reflected in her mirror as she faced it, and even this struck her as dismal. Ordinarily the hakoya would have helped her into her kimono, but now she took it from the chest of drawers by herself. Everything else, too, she did alone, from tying her obi to smoothing the folds of her kimono —all of it with an unaccountable feeling of unhappiness. Then, as if to get away as quickly as possible from the loneliness of the deserted second floor, she started to leave.

  At this moment a small slender object fell with a slight thud at her fe
et. Startled, she took a step backward and searched the floor. It was her own obi clasp, copper-colored and engraved with a spinning wheel.

  At the beginning, when she had first become intimate with the niisan, he had once left the Gishun with her to walk her to the corner near her house. As they strolled along through Takekawacho, he suddenly pushed open the lattice door of the Hamamatsuya accessories shop, and they went in. While they were being shown all sorts of rare things—purses, bags, clasps, and the like —Komayo's eyes lighted with joy on the little clasp with the spinning wheel. It had a connection with Isshi's name, the second character of which was the same as the first character for spinning wheel, and she bought it immediately. Then the niisan discovered one with a young colt on it that reflected the first character of Komayo's name. The Hamamatsuya had supplied accessories like these to the Segawa actor family for several generations, calling frequently at their home, and it was said that everything carried in the kimono sleeves or worn in the obi of such celebrated actor families as the Naritaya, the Otowaya, the Takashimaya, and the Tachibanaya had to come from this shop and from nowhere else.

  Picking up the precious spinning-wheel clasp that had fallen at her feet, Komayo was about to fix it again on her obi. But when she looked at it closely she found that somehow or other the back of it had been damaged, so that even if she tried to fasten it, it quickly came open again. At a time like this, when she had misgivings about everything, no matter how trivial, this was enough to plunge her into an indescribably hateful feeling of desolation. But since there was nothing else to do, she replaced the clasp with the pearl one that she had used for a long time before. Then, with quiet steps, she stole down the stairway and dejectedly left the house.

  When she reached the theater a short time afterward, Komayo realized in no time at all that there had never been a day like this for sheer hatefulness and bad luck. There was no denying it after all: the mishap with the obi clasp had been an omen. To begin with, because there had been a mix-up in the time, there was no one at all to meet her when her jinrikisha pulled up at the door of the theater teahouse. Since there was nothing else to do, she went in without saying anything to anyone. After she had waited for some time she finally saw one of the theater maids that she knew by sight come hurrying down from the second floor. When she asked to be shown to her seat, she was told that the mistress of the Gishun, leaving for home a short while before, had said that no one else was coming. So just now they had been obliged to give her seats to other guests. The teahouse hostess came in, overflowing with apologies, and at last they managed to find another seat somewhere for Komayo and show her the way to it. But when it turned out to be in a far too prominent place and at the end of a row to boot, Komayo suffered another wave of embarrassment. She felt that it would be impossible for her to sit there all by herself. So, without even taking her seat, she went out into the corridor again and stood there peeking through the door into the auditorium.

  What drew her attention almost immediately was a box on the east side of the theater in the middle of which sat her rival Kimiryu in a high marumage coiffure with a red chignon band and, arranged around her, Rikiji of the Minatoya, the mistress of the Kutsuwa, and no one less than Segawa's stepmother Ohan—all four of them together. Kimiryu and Ohan seemed to be discussing something in a most intimate fashion, and when it came over Komayo that Kimiryu had already gone so far in winning the stepmother to her side, her feeling of misery was altogether beyond expression. In Komayo's eyes, the manner in which the two of them were talking together was already that of a bride and her mother-in-law who were on the best of terms. She had the sensation that she herself, without even being aware of what was happening, had been turned into a perfect stranger. Perhaps because she was already beyond grief and rage, she did not burst into tears. Feeling only that it would be a shameful and bitter thing to be seen by so many people who knew her, and not even realizing what play was in progress on the stage, she left the theater in a daze. As fast as she could, she hurried back home, and no sooner had she reached the second floor than she flung herself down before her dressing table in despair.

  THIS AND THAT

  TOWARD dawn on the third day following her collapse, Jukichi of the Obanaya went at last to join her ancestors and was shortly laid to rest among them at the family temple in Yotsuya Samegahashi. By the time the seventh-day mass had been said for her and the customary bean-jam cakes and the furoshiki cloths for wrapping parcels had been distributed in return for the condolence gifts—and all the other details had finally been taken care of—the end of the year was suddenly at hand. Fortunately there was an experienced hakoya to handle the business affairs of the house, but old Gozan, after the death of the neisan, only found himself bewildered at having to decide everything alone, even to puzzling over what to do about the New Year's kimono for the geisha and the young apprentices. Already, on the night of the seventh-day services, he had taken advantage of the gathering of his intimate friends to drop a hint about what he intended to do. Since it was impossible for a man to carry on by himself in the future, he said, he had been wondering whether to turn the business of the geisha house over to someone who was interested or to sell it outright. As for himself, he could rent a second-floor apartment somewhere and go back once again to his profession of storytelling. This was how he would pass the years that were left to him, and they probably wouldn't be many.

  Last night the hakoya Osada had slept hardly at all, what with finishing up the business of preparing year-end gifts for the teahouses to which the Obanaya geisha were customarily invited, and this morning she had made the rounds to distribute the most important ones. When she returned, Gozan was busy as usual, looking through the documents that he had taken from the chest of drawers, the stationery box, and several other places. Seeing her come in, the sweat standing on her forehead despite the coldness of the winter day, he called to her: "Thank you for all your trouble." As he spoke, he took off his glasses. They were the thick-lensed spectacles of an old man, the frames of heavy brass. "You should stop for a while and take a rest. It would be terrible to have you wear yourself out and then get sick on me at a time like this.... By the way, Osada, if you have some spare time just now, would you come in here, please? There are still some things that I want to ask you about."

  "Yes? What is it? If it's something I know how to explain..."

  "Actually it's about taking care of the geisha.... You probably know pretty well about affairs upstairs. So far, I haven't said anything in particular to them, but I'm wondering if you've heard anything from the girls themselves."

  "It seems that Hanasuke-san said she was planning to move to another house somewhere after she'd talked it over with you."

  "I see. Kikuchiyo was lucky enough to get herself redeemed last year, so now we have only Komayo and Hanasuke to think about. The others are still youngsters, and there probably won't be any trouble making arrangements for them."

  "I think Komayo-san has been saying something about wanting to go away to the country."

  "What? Says she wants to go off to the country? Has she lost her mind? Why, I had been thinking that when things were settled and she was taken into the Ha-mamuraya family—this is just between you and me, you understand, and I don't want it to go any further —I thought it would be just the right thing to cancel her bond as a sort of wedding gift."

  "Oh, danna! It's too late to think of any such happy outcome as that. Why, it's already been hopeless for some time."

  "You don't mean to tell me! Really? They've broken it off? And here I'd been thinking I'd like to do what I could for her, even if it wasn't much.... Have they really broken it off for good?"

  "I don't know all the details, but it seems there's no hope at all that he'll marry her."

  "Is that so? It just goes to show you how stupid a man gets about everything when he grows old. When it comes to love affairs, I just don't understand anything at all any more."

  "The story is that Hamamuraya-san is goin
g to be married early next spring. The woman's name is Kimiryu-san, and she used to be at the Minatoya. People have been talking about it everywhere."

  "Really? I see. And because of that, Komayo feels she can't stay in Shimbashi any longer. That's why she's talking about going off to the country, the poor girl. But isn't Komayo being too faint-hearted about all this? Wouldn't it be better for her to speak up and say something?"

  "I don't know for sure, but Hanasuke-san tells me there was quite a row between them—enough to make everybody worried who knew what was going on. I was secretly worried myself for fear that something serious would happen, but just then the neisan became ill, and then there was the funeral, and all this seemed to turn her mind away from her troubles. Now it looks as though she had somehow resigned herself to losing him."

  "The woman you just mentioned—is she beautiful?"

  "Kimiryu-san? I know who she is, but she's not as beautiful as all that. But she's tall and well built, and she attracts attention very quickly. But, danna, it isn't only that. People are saying that what's more important than her good looks is her big dowry. That's why Hamamuraya-san changed his mind so completely."

  "H'm. Is that the way it is? Well, if that's the kind of rascal he is, it's better for her to do the breaking off. But she really must be discouraged about the whole thing. I feel sorry for her."