PART THREE: LEFT-OVER BUDDHAS
One day, when summer ended and the fall festival in Minami Village drew near, Enku stopped what he was doing and called Tatsukichi over.
"Boy! Tatsu, I'm talking to you! Come here!"
"What is it, Enku?"
"It's me. I've got to go to Senkouji temple before the year's over. But Hida's cold. If I wait until winter, it'll be too late. I've got to start going now."
"No!" Tatsukichi cried. "We haven't found my mom yet."
"It's just as I thought," Enku said. "We've been all over the place, but no one knows anything. You'll have to go back to Seki again. She must be there."
"I won't go," Tatsu said. "Not unless you take me."
There was nothing for Enku to do but take Tatsu by the hand and take him along. By night, they'd gotten as far as Kaminoho, a village down the road, where they could see white steam from rice cooking in houses up and down the road. Outside, the children were playing Ring-Around-the-Rosie (Kagome, Kagome). Before they knew what was happening, Tatsu and Enku had ended up inside the circle, surrounded by the children.
"What's your name?" they asked.
"His name's Tatsu," said Enku, smiling and patting the children on the head. "Come on, Tatsu. Make friends. They're cute."
So Tatsukichi took their hands and walked up the road, Enku following behind and looking around. It was then that his eyes met a nun in a white kimono, who seemed to be floating inside a thin purple robe, her eyes answering him back. They could stay here a while, he decided.
That night, they stayed at a temple in Toriya City, Enku carving Buddha's through the night. The next day, Enku took Tatsu by the hand and, chanting sutras and carving Buddha's all the way, went around from village to village looking for his mother.
One day, he heard the children's voices calling to him in the temple.
"Enku-san! Enku-san!" He opened the door and found the children surrounding him, Tatsu being given a piggyback ride on the nun's shoulder's standing in front of him. Her eyes were shining brightly from within the thin purple robe. Flustered, Enku couldn't meet her eyes. She smiled, and blushed a bright red. Quickly pulling himself together, Enku listened as the children told him how Tatsu had fallen down off a cliff and hurt himself, so the nun wrapped him a bandage made from grass and carried him back to the temple. Quickly, he invited her into the temple.
The images of Buddha he'd carved were lined up all along the gloomy walls. Facing each other, Enku and the nun sat. After a while, Enku spoke.
"I want you to let me carve you," he said. Faintly, she nodded yes.
The next day, Enku started to carve the nun's image. Rolling up his sleeves, he spit on the palm of his hands, took out his axe, and began to chop from a big block of wood.
He narrowed his eyes sharply and looked gently at the nun. It had only been a short time, but he found himself wanting to be near the beautiful nun. Fighting the feeling, he began to carve, concentrating hard and thinking about his mother, whom he'd been separated from when he was young. He thought it would be good to find Tatsu's mom soon, too. His head was full of thoughts whizzing around his head. Suddenly, the axe in his hand froze, unable to carve any longer. Upset, he put the axe down and began to chant the sutras with all his heart.
"Gyatei, gyatei."
"Hara, gyatei."
"Harasou, gyatei."
The nun joined him and they raised their voices up in the sutras together. After a while, his feelings calmed and he took up the axe and began to carve again, this time more powerfully than before. For days, Enku's torn sandals were lined up beside the nun's white ones on the stepping stone welcoming people into the temple.
Ten days passed before Enku stepped from the temple in his usual travelling clothes, Tatsu sitting upon his shoulders. With a cheerful expression on his face, he set off with powerful strides, the villagers lining the steep road to see them off. In the shadow of a tree, the nun watched, too. After Enku left, they went inside the temple and found a carved image of the beautifully smiling nun, standing beside a powerfully carved image of Buddha. He had made both images out of a single block of wood. Between them, stood a small boy, smiling, almost like the three of them -- Enku, the nun, and Tatsu -- were one happy family.
The Love of a Silver Fox: Folk Tales from Seki CIty Page 32