Transcription
Foreign. We had agreed to leave eugenol at eight o'clock the next morning. Wearing a hunting cap I had bought at a shop beside the public bath, I stuffed my school cap into the bottom of my bag and walked over to the chief lodging house on the roadside.
The sliding doors were all open on the second floor, so I casually went upstairs. The entertainers were still in bed. I stood in the hall, confused. Lying at my feet, the dancing girl blushed and quickly covered her face with her hands. She was sharing a futon with the middle girl. She still had on her heavy makeup from the night before. The rouge on her lips and the corners of her eyes was slightly smudged. Her emotional appearance as she lay there touched my heart. She turned away as if to avoid the light, hiding her face with her hands. She slid out of the covers and knelt in the hall. "Thank you for last night," she gave a pretty bow. I felt awkward standing over her.
The man was sleeping with the oldest girl. Until then, I had had no idea they were a couple. "Oh, I'm sorry," the older woman spoke, sitting up halfway. "I know we had planned to leave today, but we were told there's to be a big party this evening where we can perform, so we decided to stay one more night. If you have to move on today, we could meet in Shimoda. We've already decided to stay at an inn there called Koshiya. It's easy to find."
I felt as though I had been dismissed. "Why don't you wait and leave tomorrow?" the man spoke up. "As she said, we're staying an extra date. I'm sorry, we'd like to keep you on as a traveling companion. Why don't you go with us tomorrow?"
"Yes, let's do that," the woman added. "After all, you've come with us this far. I'm sorry we're being so selfish. We'll leave tomorrow, even if it's raining."
"Spears outside. The day after tomorrow is the 49th day since the baby died. Since it died while we were on the road, we've been planning all along that we should commemorate the 49th day in Shimoda. We've been hurrying to get there by tomorrow. It's probably not proper to tell you so much, but it's like we have some kind of connection to you from a previous life. Would you offer devotions with us the day after tomorrow?"
I decided to delay my departure. I went downstairs and talked with the clerk in the dirty office of the lodging house. While I waited for the entertainers, the man came down and invited me to go for a walk with him. Along the road to the south was a beautiful bridge. Leaning against the railing, the man began to tell me more about himself. He had acted in a new-style Kabuki troop in Tokyo for a time and said he still performed occasionally at the port on Oshima. That explained the sword sheath that stuck out of their luggage like an appendage. He told me he also performed when they entertained at gatherings. The wicker trunk held the costumes they used, as well as pots, dishes, and other household effects.
"It's wretched the mess I've made of my life, but my older brother and Kofu is doing fine as family heir, keeping up the reputation of the family, so I would be of no use anyway. All along, I thought you were from Nagaoka Hot Springs. Did you—the oldest girl there with us—she's my wife. She's a year younger than you, 19. Our second baby was born prematurely on the road. It lived just a week. My wife still hasn't recovered her full health. The older woman is her mother. The dancing girl is my own little sister. So the 14-year-old sister you told me about is she's the one. Actually, it bothers me. I didn't want my sister to have to live like this, but it's a long story."
He told me his name was Akichi, his wife's was Chiyoko, and his sister's was Kaoru. The other girl, Yuriko, 17 years old, was the only native of Oshima. She was employed by them.
"It keeps you," he stared down at the river shallows. He became sentimental and appeared to be on the brink of tears. As we walked back, we found the dancing girl, her face washed clean of the white makeup, crouching by the road, petting the puppy on the head. I spoke to her as I started back to my room alone. "Come on over," I said. "But by myself? I—" "So come with your brother. We'll be right there."
Before long, Akichi came to my room. "Where is everyone?" I asked. "The old lady is so strict with the girls." However, we had been playing five in a row only a short while when the girls came across the bridge and upstairs. They bowed politely as always and hesitated, kneeling in the hallway first. Chiyoko, the oldest, stood up. "This is my room. Don't be so formal. Come on in," I said.
The entertainers stayed about an hour, then went down to the inn-bath. They begged me to come along, but I put them off. I said I would go later, since there would be three girls in the bath. Shortly, the dancing girl came back upstairs alone to relay a message from Chiyoko. She said to come on down, she'll rinse your shoulders for you. I did not go. Instead, I played five in a row with the dancing girl. She was surprisingly good. Earlier, when she had played winter stays against Akichi and the other girls, she had defeated them all handily. I usually win at five in a row, but I needed all my skill with her. It was refreshing not to have to make easy moves for her.
With just the two of us there, the dancing girl initially sat back, playing her stones from a distance with her arm outstretched, but gradually she forgot herself and hunched over the board, absorbed in the game. Her unnaturally beautiful black hair almost touched my chest. Without warning, she flushed. "Please forgive me. I'll get in trouble," tossing down her stones, she fled the room.
The older woman was standing outside the public bath. Chiyoko and Yuriko rushed out of the bath at my inn and hurried back to their lodging house without coming upstairs again. Akichi stayed at the inn with me for a morning until late afternoon. The proprietor, a simple, honest woman, warned me against keeping his company, saying it was a waste to feed a fellow like him.
That evening, when I went to the entertainers' lodging house, I found the dancing girl receiving a shamisen lesson from the older woman. She stopped playing when she saw me but resumed after the woman said something to her. Whenever the girl's voice rose as she was singing, the woman reprimanded her. "I told you, not so loud."
Akichi had been called over to the banquet room of the inn on the other side of the road. I could see him across the way from where I watched. It looked as though he were groaning. "What's he doing?" "That—it's chanting from a note drama." "No drama. It sounds strange." "He's a jack of all trades. You never know what he'll do."
A man of about 40, who said he was a poulterer, was also staying at the lodging house. He opened the partition between the rooms and invited the girls to have dinner with him. The dancing girl took her chopsticks and went over with Yuriko. They picked through the chicken stew that remained after the man had rouged the pot. As the girls were returning to their own room, the man patted the dancing girl's shoulder. The woman glared at him. "Hey, don't touch her. She's an innocent virgin."
The dancing girl addressed the man as uncle and asked him to read the story of The Lord of Mito to her, but he left immediately. She did not want to ask me directly, so she told the woman that she would like me to read the rest of the story of The Lord of Mito for her. I picked up the book with a certain expectation in my heart. Just as I hoped, the dancing girl scooted over beside me. Once I began reading, she brought her face close enough to touch my shoulder, her expression serious. Her eyes sparkled as she gazed at my forehead without blinking. It seemed to be her habit when she was being read to. Earlier, I had noticed that she had held her face right beside the poulterer.
The dancing girl's most beautiful feature was her sparkling big dark eyes. The curve of her double eyelids was unspeakably lovely. Next was her flower-like smile, and in her case, the word flower-like was absolutely accurate. A moment later, the maid from the inn came to call for the dancing girl. She put on her costume. "I'll be back, so please wait and read the rest to me." Out in the hallway, she bowed low. "I'll return soon. Don't sing," the woman said. The dancing girl picked up her drum and nodded slightly. The woman turned back to me.
"Her voice is changing now." The dancing girl knelt properly in the second floor of the restaurant, beating the drum. I could watch her back from the window as though she were in the next room. The sound of the drum set my heart dancing. "When the drum enters, the party certainly does liven up." The woman was also looking across the way. Chiyoko and Yuriko went to the same gathering. About an hour later, all four returned.
"This is all we got," the dancing girl dropped some 50-cent coins from her fist into the older woman's palm. I read the story of The Lord of Mito out loud for a while, then they talked about the baby that had died while they were on the road. They said the baby was almost as transparent as water at birth and did not even have the strength to cry. Nevertheless, it lived for a week.
My common goodwill, which was neither mere curiosity nor bore any trace of contempt for their status as itinerant entertainers, seemed to have touched their hearts. Before I knew it, they had decided that I should accompany them to their place on Oshima. "The house where Grandpa lives would be good. It's big, and it would be quiet. If we chased Grandpa out, you could stay as long as you wanted, and you could study." They made this announcement to me after conferring among themselves. "We have two small houses. The one in the mountains is usually empty. Moreover, I was to help out during New Year holidays when they performed at the port in Habu."
I realized that their sense of the road was not so hardened as I had first supposed. Rather, it was more of a lighthearted attitude that had not lost the scent of the fields. They were bound together by the familial affection you would expect between parent and child or brother and sister. The hired girl, Yuriko, was the only one who was selling around me. Perhaps she was at the age when a girl is most bashful.
I left their lodging house halfway through the night. The girls came downstairs to see me off. The dancing girl placed my clogs at the door so I could step into the measly. She stuck her head out the gate and looked up at the bright sky. "Oh, the moon! We'll be in Shimoda tomorrow. How wonderful! We'll have the baby's 49th-day services. Mother will buy me a comb. We'll do all kinds of things. Would you take me to see a movie?"
The port of Shimoda had the air of a hometown that the itinerant entertainers who traveled around the hot springs in Izu and Sagami longed for when they were on the road.