A Cot n Man.

and 'I\�o VVormm

Tanizaki has long been regarded as one of the gi­
ants of twentieth-century Japanese writing. In the
postwar period, most of his works have become
known worldwide, and his place in modern litera­
ture is as assured as it is eminent.
What distinguishes this wonderful new col­
lection-a novella (the title story) and two shorter
pieces-is its lightheartedness, its comic r�alism.
All three stories, however, are variations on a
favorite theme: dominance and submission in
private relationships. T he "man" in the title piece
is a typical Tanizaki hero-spoiled, self-indulgent,
and obstinately ineffectual-caught up in a war
between his vindictive former wife and her willful
young successor, both rivals of the fourth party in
the title: Lily-seductive, elegant, and magnifi­
cently in control-.a tortoiseshell cat. T he strug­
gle among these three female characters for
possession of this feckless n1an, and his bumbling
attempts to assert himself, make for a series of
richly entertaining confrontations.
T his is followed by "T he Little Kingdom;'
which describes the curiously shifting relation­
ship between a hard-pressed schoolteacher and a
small but indomitable pupil determined to estab­
lish his own rule. And the collection ends with
"Professor Rado;' a sly portrait of a self-important
academic, seen from the point of view of a jour­
nalist eager to "get a story." In a series of inter­
views, the professor responds to questions merely
with grunts; but by -accident the journalist ulti­
mately discovers a scandalous hidden side to this
eminently respectable gentleman-one so comi­
cally grotesque that it could only have come from
Tanizaki' s well-known store of erotic curiosities.
Here is Tanizaki at his best, displaying-in a
first international edition-the skills that made
fvlishima call his writing "above all, delicious, like
French or Chinese cuisine:'
The Author: Jun'ichiro Tanizaki was born in 1886 and
died in 1965, his life and literary career thus spanning
the three modern imperial reigns of J\1eiji, Taisho, and
Showa. He was a true "child of Edo" (as the capital was
called), having been born in the low-lying commercial
district near Tokyo Bay; yet in his middle and later years
he lived mostly in the Kansai, the area around Kyoto­
Osaka-Kobe and the center of Japan's traditional court
culture. A passion for the contemporary \Vest (in food,
films, and fashion) was relatively short-lived, but he had
an enduring interest in serious \Vestern literature, in
which he was widely read and which he occasional­
ly translated into Japanese. At the same time, he
immersed himself m Kansai culture and traditions,
producing, among other works, a great novel of Osaka
bourgeois life on the eve of \Vorld \Var II (The l\1akioka
Sisters) and several translations into modern Japanese
of the classic novel The Tale of Genji. English-speaking
readers have been introduced, through translations, to
many of his principal works, notably: the collection
Seven Japanese Tales, Naomi, Some Prefer Nettles, The
Secret History of the Lord of Musashi and Arrowroot, The
Makioka Sisters, The Key, and Diary of a Mad Old l\1an.

The Translator: Paul McCarthy took his doctorate in

East Asian Languages and Civilizations, specializing in
modern Japanese literature, at Harvard University in
1975. He has taught Japanese, English, and Compara­
tive Literature at universities in the United States and
Japan, and is known for his acclaimed translation of
Tanizaki's memoirs, Childhood Years. A professor at
Surugadai University, he currently lives in Tokyo.
A Cat. a Man. and Two \!Vomen
 Stories by

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki
Translated by
Paul McCarthy

KODANSHA I�TERNATIONAL
'l(>kyo and New York
Jacket illustration: Yamashiro Ryuichi
Half-title illustrations: Annie Thi
A Cat, a Man, and Two Women was first published in the
magazine Kaizo in 1936 as Neko to Shozo to futari no onna;
"The Little Kingdom" in the magazine Chugai in 1918 as
Chiisana okoku; Part I of "Professor Rado" in Kaizo in 1925 as
Rado sensei; and Part II in Shincho in 1928 as Zoku Rado sensei.
Distributed in the United States by Kodansha International/
USA Ltd., 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Published
by Kodansha International Ltd., 17-14 Otowa 1-chome, Bun­
kyo-ku, Tokyo 112, and Kodansha International/USA Ltd.
Copyright© 1936, 1918, 1925, 1928 by Chuokoron-sha. English
translation copyright © 1990 by Kodansha International Ltd.
All rights reserved. Printed in Japan.
ISBN 0-87011-755-6 (U.S.)
ISBN 4-7700-1511-9 (Japan)
First edition, 1990
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro, 1886-1965.
[Neko to Shozo to futari no onna. English]
A cat, a man, and two women I by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki;
translated by Paul McCarthy.
p. em.
Translation of: Neko to Shozo to futari no onna, and other
stories
ISBN 0-87011-755-6 (U.S.): $18.95
I. Title.
PL839.A7N413 1990
895.6'344-dc20 90-4967
 CONTENTS

Preface
. .

Vll

A Cat, a Man, and Two Women

1

The Little Kingdom

101

Professor Rado
137
 PREFACE

Tan izaki Ju n'ich iro (1886-1965), o n e of the grea test Ja pa n ese

writers o f this century, is by now wid ely known in the West, as
h e ha s been for well over half a century in Ja pa n . Most, though
not all , of his ma j o r long works of fiction have been translated
into �nglish and other European lan guages, as have a n umber
of his short stories . If the Ta n izaki d rama has hardly been
touched as yet, a limited n umber of important a n d appeal­
ing non-fiction writings have already a ppeared (In Praise of
Shadows, an essay on aspects of trad itional Japanes e a esthetics;
Childhood Years, a book of memoirs).
Among the major works that have only recently begun to at­
tract the at ten tion o f Western students of Ja panese literature is
Neko to Shozo to futari no onna, literally, The Cat, Shozo, and
Two Women, wh ich I have tran slated h ere as A Cat, a Man, and
Two Women. It was written in 193 5-36, appearing in the
Ja nua ry and July numbers of the literary j ournal Kaizo in the lat­
ter yea r. As Nomura Shogo, in his study of the author's works
Ta nizaki Ju n'ichiro no sakuhin (Rokko P ubl ications, 1974), has
pointed out, A Cat (as I will call it for brevity's sake) is unique
among Ta n i zaki's works in s everal respects, and this uniqueness
is n ot unconn ected with its date of writing. For one thing, it is
the only n ew work of fiction written an d published in the six­
year p eriod from late 193 5 through 1941. Apart from several
essays a n d prefaces, a n d th is work itself, the en tire p eriod wa s
devoted to his grea t tra n sla tion into modern Japa n es e of the

Vll
eleven th-cen tury classic Genji monogatdri (The Tale of Genji).
Tan izaki' s tran slation is "grea t " not only in the sense o f being a
masterful recreation of the original but also in terms o f its size­
twenty-six ind ividual volumes in the fi rs t edition, and some two
thousand pages in the s tandard Com plete Works.
One can understa nd why the au thor might have wished to im­
merse himself entirely in this massive translation project and
refra in from writing any major fictional works at all. But why, at
the very begin n ing o f this p eriod , did he trouble to write a novel
of medium length which, in terms of q uality, ranks among his
major fictional ach ievements? Two answers have been sug­
gested , both of which seem highly plau sible. One has to do with
the novel's particular social setting, and the other with points
of contact between the p ersonal s ituation o f the principal
character and the author's own recent experiences.
To deal with the latter point first: in the mid-l930s Tan izaki
was in the process of ending his secon d , short-lived marriage to
Tomiko in order to wed M a tsuko, who remained his wife and a
major source o f literary inspiration until his death three decades
later. Thus, the topic of d ivorce and re marriage and the subse­
quent complications m u s t have been very m uch on his min d ;
and i t w a s natural for h i m to make i t t h e theme o f a novel. B u t,
though the theme was suggested by his own situation, the in­
d ividual characters are clearly inven ted. One may suspect cer­
ta in links between the author himself and Shozo (a taste for
pleasure, multiple involvements with women, and, above all, a
passion for cats); b u t no one who knows the b iography would
suggest that Tomiko was an ything like S hin ako, or Matsuko like
Fukuko. Nor was there a scheming p a rent in the wings when
Ta nizaki d ivorced : h is mother had d ied almost twenty years
before. Thus the novel as a whole is certainly not au tobio­
graphical, though its timing may be said to be.

Vlll
 The other point relates to the social world o f A Cat in contrast
to tha t o f The Ta le of Genji. This cla ssic novel chronicles the
lives of the aristocrats of the H eian court, w ith most attent ion
being paid to their aesth etic sensibilities, ro mantic longings, and
erotic adventures. It i s a h ighly colored and no doubt idealized
accou nt of a way of life tha t was, even in reality, fa r removed
from the everyday life of the ordinary man or woma n. Com­
mon ers appear only on the margins of the courtiers ' lives, as ser­
va nts in the background, or a s figures o f fu n.The world o f Genji
is, above all, characterized by beau ty, refinement, sen sibility;
and it is one that Tan izaki, who has always been categorized as
an "Aestheticist," was able to enter into fu lly.
B u t there m u st have been a side of h im that wanted to keep in
touch with a hu mbler, more quotid ian reality.Writing at around
this time to his wife, Ma tsuko, he urged : " Your present s itua­
tion is id eal. You say you have to go out and shop for things like
some serva nt. B u t think how much better that is for you, and
how much more you will learn fro m it tha n you would by
reading some pointless p iece of literatu re. It is in fact the only
way to get to know the real , living world. Why don't you ap­
preciate the chance you now have and take advantage of it?­
that's m y qu estion to you . I will go fu rth er and state that it
would be very advantageous indeed to be able to rid oneself of
the con sciou sness o f being 'an artist' or 'a literary p erson , ' and
actu ally to live on the same level a s a serva nt for, say, two or
three years . . .." (Quoted in No mura, p p. 287-88.).
In an essay entitled " A H alf-Sleeve Tale" Ta n izaki applied
the lesson to him self, d escribing his plea sure in wearing the
light, sim ple dre s s of the co mmon p eople in the heat of a Kyoto­
O saka midsu mmer, and cla im ing to have fou nd joy and freedom
in the realization tha t h e too was "a man o f the p eople . " It is as
if he wished with one part o f h i m self to rea ffirm the life of the

lX
average man and to fi n d valu e and beauty in it, by way of reac­
tion to the Genji's extremes of aristocratic refinement in which
he was then immersed.
The world of A Cat is certainly ordinary in social term s .
Shozo' s fa mily keeps a small s h o p and lives behind i t . A trip to
see a m usical revue in nearb y Takara zuka , or a weekend at a
hot-spring resort, passes for luxury. Th eir language, a lively and
charming variety of O saka speech, is, still, u ndeniably a bit
vulga r. We are fa r from the world not only o f the Genji' s lord s
and ladies but even of the wealthy M akioka clan , that upper­
middle-class O saka merchant fam ily which formed the subject
of a novel w ritten (though not allowed to be p ublished) during
the war years . Yet Tanizaki's tone in describing his plebeian
characters - feckles s Shozo; his sad, scheming ex-wife Shinako;
the willful you ng hussy Fukuko, who has taken Shinako's place;
and Shozo's indulgent but cleverly co ntrolling mother- is never
condescend ing. The comedy is warm and a ffectionate, a pparent­
ly the fru it of careful observation o f p eople o f this region and
class. The comic tone, while never d isappearing, modulates into
a quiet pathos toward the novel's end with the figure of Shozo
crouching in the gra s s outside Shinako ' s house and the p ortrait
o f the woman herself, cu nning and d ishonest p erhaps, but un­
questionably in love with Shozo despite everything, and gradual­
ly learning to love her rival as well.
Her rival : not the silly, selfi sh slattern who has ousted her, but
the tru e heroine of the novel, a cat called Lily. For, as the title in­
d icates, we have here a quad rilate ral rather than a triangular
love a ffa ir. Shozo's real passion is fo r cats, and Tanizaki (himself
a great ca t fancier who kept a p a ir throughout his later years,
loving the one but hating the other, Jehovah-like) seems to cap ­
ture " the es sen tial Cat" in his d escrip tions of Lily a n d h e r
ways. B eau ty, intelligence, winsomeness-the aging torto isesh ell

X
poss esses them all; and Ta nizaki's portrait of her is , like the
novel as a whole, a convincing blend o f hu mor, sympathy, and
a ffection.

"The Little Kingdom " ( Chiisana okok u, 1918) is another ac­

count of ord inary people, here a provincial schoolteacher and
his fam ily who suffer from illness and extreme poverty. The
depiction of them is real istic and highly sympathetic (some
m igh t say verging on the sentim ental-but not, I think, by the
standards of the Japanese read ing public around 1920). It is
unusual among Tan izaki's works in several respects . First, it has
no overt erotic com ponent. Its theme of dominance and subm is­
sion is worked out purely in terms of the shifting power relation­
ship between the teacher and one of his young pupils . Tan izaki
never hesitated to delve into erotic masochis m , even among
young child ren (as. in the still u ntranslated Shonen [Children]);
nor was he averse to d escribing its manifestations in a homosex­
ual relationship (as in Jotaro, also un translated). B ut here the
children are virtually unsexed, and the d escriptions of the
teacher and the boy Numakura focus on consid erations sim ply
of power and status .
Some Japanese critics have hailed "The Little Kingdom " as
that rarity in the Tanizaki canon, a piece of socio-political com ­
m entary. It is not n ecessary t o believe that the author intended
anyth ing so atyp ical as direct social crit icis m in order to accept
the notion that the p eriod in which it was written, the. momen­
tous events that were then occurring (the Russian Revolution
and rice riots a nd other manifestations of political discon tent in
Japan itself), may have influenced Tanizaki's choice of th eme
and h is d ecis ion to depict the con trast between the rich and the
poor, the d o m inant and the dominated, the powerful and the in­
effectual, ra ther than the sort of erotically masochistic relation-

Xl
ship h e u sually p re ferred . I n any event, the type of critic who
tends to regret Ta nizaki's lack of intellectual or ideological con­
tent is delighted to find it h ere; and it has even been seen a s a
kind o f early warning against the da ngers o f Stalinism-wh ich
would make Ta nizaki a very astute p rophet indeed, the story
having b een written in 1918. What will impress most readers,
though , is the author's skill in depicting the p sych ology of the
teacher a s h e sinks into p en nilessnes s , p hysical illness, and men­
tal collapse; and the s hock of the ending, with its p a inful double
twist.

The two parts of " Profes sor Rado" were p ublished in 192 5
a n d 1928 in two d i fferent literary j o urnals, Kaizo a n d Shin­
cho. The work d escribes p recisely the kind of erotic relationship
left out of "The Little Kingdom " ; th u s the professor j oins the
long p rocession of Tan izaki's ma soch ists-willing, eager, and,
indeed, es sentially manip ulative "victims" of some a dored,
seemingly dominant female figure . What d is tinguishes Rado
from many o f his p red eces sors and s uccessors is the comic­
satiric tone in which h is tale is told . H e is, in this, similar to the
p rotagonists of Diary of a Mad Old Man (where the theme of
foot fetishism is similarly highlighted) and of The Secret History
of the Lord of Musashi (where the motif of the comical speech
d e fect is given even more play than in the p resent story), and
sta nds in contrast to the darker portrayals of s imilar characters
in A Portrait of Shunkin, The Key, and other work s . For most
read ers, p robably, the p ro fessor's somewhat grotesque obses­
sions with feet and flogging will seem to lend them selves more
read ily to com ic than to s tra ight-faced treatment, though
Ta nizaki h im self seemed as comfortable with the one mode as
with the o th er.
Japanese society is characterized by q uite clear-cut d ivisions
. .

Xll
between the p ublic p ersona a n d the private life; between
tatemae ( what is outwardly exp res sed ) and honne ( what is actual­
ly thought and felt ) ; between ap pearances a n d reality. Professor
Rado is an arroga nt, p erversely eccen tric academic whose mask
of p etula nt self-im porta nce conceals a n u mber of unsavory
secrets, the details of wh ich are only gradually revealed. H is
nemesis is a rel en tlessly in trus ive n ewspaper reporter, a man im­
p elled by a m ixture of professional zeal, voyeurism, and an
un dersta ndable d esire to avenge himself for the humiliations he
has endured at Ra do's hands. The " rubbery dialogues" between
these two very differe nt typ es of egotists sharp e n the co mic
thrust o f the story, as does the sly narra tive tone maintained
throughout. Th e oddn ess of the professor's obsessions , the
reporter's outrageous inqu isitiveness, and th e distressing phys­
ical defects of Rado's doll-like mistress are p ortra yed with a dry
humor that leaves the rea der m uch more amused than ap­
palled.

I would like to tha nk Pro fessor H oward S. H ibbett of Harvard

Un iversity, who first directed my attention toward Tan izaki's
fiction and then sup ervised with great erudit ion and patience
my disserta tion on the author's early life and works; Professor
Anthony H . Cha mbers , who ma ny years ago urged m e to read A
Cat, a Ma n, and Two Women and m ore recently agreed to let me
translate a work that h e h imsel f was plan ning to do; Mrs.
Tan izaki Matsuko, for her kindness a nd encouragement over
the years; Mr. S tephen Shaw, my ed itor at Kodansha, who
urged, encouraged , kept a fter, and helped me along the way, as
o nly the best ed itors would ; and M rs.Moriya su Machika , whose
initial enthusiasm for "Pro fessor Ra do" fired my own, and who
ch ecked all three tra n slations against the originals with grea t
care, patience, and sk ill.

Xlll
 This translation is dedicated to Violet, and to her friends­
Beth Schultz, Carol and Del Shankel, Tsurukawa Hidetoshi,
and Jim McCarthy, all of whom know why.
Paul McCarthy
Tokyo, 1990

N.B. Japanese names (except on the jacket and title page) follow the
Japanese order-family name first.

XlV
A CAT, A MAN,
AND
TWO WOMEN
Dear Fukuko,
Please forgive me-l had to borrow Yuki's name for the return
address on this letter. But it's not really Yuki, I'm afraid. From
what I've said,I'm sure you 've already guessed who it is-or rather,
you m ust have known from the moment you opened the envelope.
"Oh, it's her," you said to yourself-then, getting angry, "How
rude! She's got some nerve,using a friend's name so I'd read the let­
ter. " B ut just think for a moment, Fukuko. If I'd used my own
name,he would have seen it and intercepted the letter. I'm sure of
that. And I wanted to be sure you'd read this. So, you see, there was
no other way. B ut please set your mind at rest-I have no inten­
tion of blam ing you for what happened, or playing on your sym­
pathy. If I wanted to, a letter ten or twenty times as long as this
wouldn 't be enough. But that wouldn't serve any purpose now,
would it? A h-ha-ha-ha-no indeed. Why,I've really become quite
strong,after all I 've been th rough. I don't spend all my time crying,
you know-even though I have plenty of reasons to cry, and to be
angry. B ut I decided not to think about things like that any more­
just carry on with my life as cheerfully as I know how. After all,
only God knows what will happen to anybody in this-life,so it 'd be
foolish to let you rself hate and envy other people because of their
good fortune, wouldn 't it?
Of course I know it 's rude of me to write to you directly like
this-I may not have m uch education,but I know that much . B ut
I've had Mr. Tsukamoto mention this to him lots of times,and he

3
just won't listen. So the only way left was for me to ask you for
help. Put like that, it sounds like I'm going to ask you to do
something difficult,but i t won't be a ny trouble to you at all,really.
There's just one thing I wan t from you. A nd of course by that I
don't mea n I wan t you to return him to me. No, it's something
m uch, m uch more trivia l than that. It's Lily I wan t. From what
Mr. Tsukamoto says, he wouldn't mind giving her to me,but you
keep saying no.
Oh, Fukuko, could that be true ? A re you actually interfering
with the granting of my one and only wish? Please consider,
Fukuko: I gave you the man who meant more to me than life
itself! And not only that-I gave you everything from that happy
household we'd built together as a couple. I didn't take so much as
a broken teacup away with m e. I didn't even get back most of the
things I brought with me when I married him ! Of course it may be
better not to have things around that would bring back sad
memories of the past,but don't you thin k you could at least let me
have Lily ? I won't make any other unreasonable demands. I've put
up with everything-I've been beaten up, knocked down, and
tramp led on. Considering all I've sacrificed, is it too m uch to ask
for one little cat in return ? To you it's just a worthless little
animal,but what a consolation it would be .to mel . . . I don't wan t
to seem like a crybaby,b u t without Lily I'm so lonely I can hardly
stand it. . . . Why, there's nobody in this whole world who'll have
anything to do with me now, except for that cat. I've been com­
pletely defeated, a nd now do you really wan t to make me suffer
even more ? A re you that cruel,that you don't feel even a grain of
pity for me in my loneliness, my un happiness?
No, no-you're not that kind of person. I understand that
perfectly. It's not you who won't give Lily up, but him. Yes, I'm
sure of it. He loves her. "I m ight be able to .do without you," he
used to say, "b ut do without Lily? Never! " A nd he always paid

4
much more attention to her than he did to me at the dinner table,
and in bed. So why doesn 't he just come right out and say he
doesn 't wa nt to let her go ? Why does he put the blame on you ?
This is something for you to think about,Fu kuko ....
Well, he got rid of nasty old me and has started a new life with
you,the girl he loves.As long as it was me he was with,he needed
Lily. B ut why should he now? Isn 't she just a bother to have
around? Or could it be that even now, without her, there'd be
something missing ? And does that mea n that he looks on you,like
me, as something a little lower than a cat? Oh but forgive me,
I've gone and said more than I meant to! ... I 'm sure he wou ldn 't
be as stupid as that. Still,the fact that he 's trying to hide his feel­
ings for Lily and blame everything on you might mean that he's a
little worried....Oh dear-silly me,going on as if it was my busi­
ness. But anyway, do be careful, Fu kuko dear. Do n't think ((Oh,
it's just a cat," or you may find yourself losing out to it in the end.
I would never give you bad advice-I'm thin king of you, not my­
self, in all this.Get Lily away from him just as soon as you can.And
if he refuses to let her go,won 't that seem even more suspicious ?...

Fukuko stored all th is away and began to ob serve Shozo and

Lily's behavior more carefully. She watched Shozo enj oying his
sake, with a d i sh of marinated horse mackerel to go with it. H e
took a sip, then p u t the small cup d own and sa id ( ( Lily! " Picking
up a fi sh with his chop sticks, h e held it high in the air. Lily had
been stand ing on her hind legs with her forepa ws resting on the
edge o f the oval dining table and staring, motionless, at th e fi sh
lying on th e plate in front of her master. She looked like a
customer p ropping him self up against a bar somewhere, or like
one of the gargoyles gazing down from the sp ires of Notre
Dame. When the piece was lifted from the plate, Lily's nostril s

5
began to quiver and h er large, in telligent eyes grew quite round,
as i f w ith human amazement, as she gazed u p at the longed-for
morsel.
But S ho zo wa s not inclined to give in so ea sily. " H eeere it
goes ! " he teased, dangling the fish right in front of Lily's nose
before s uddenly s natching it away and p op p ing it into his own
mouth . Then h e noisil y slurped away at the dressing that
covered the mackerel, cru nched through the brittle bones, and
began the whole p rocess again with the next p iece. B ringing it
close, then withdrawing it to a distance, ra ising it, then lowering
it, he tantal ized the cat. Lifting her p aw s from the table and
bringing them up h igh on either side o f her chest in ghostly
fa shion, Lily began to pursue the fish, tottering after it on her
h ind legs. If the p re y was brought to a s tandstill just over her
head, the cat would fix it intently with her eyes and then make a
leap for it, darting out w ith h er front paws to s eize it. She would
j ust fail to get it, fall back, then leap again. It took her five or ten
minutes of s uch fran tic activity to s ecure one mackerel.
Shozo rep eated the same thing over and over again. He would
give her a fi sh , then h im s el f a little drink, and calling "Lily"
would raise the next p rize h igh . There must originally have been
some twelve or thirteen mackerel on Shozo's p late, each about
two inches long, of which he himself had actually eaten perhaps
three or four. For th e rest, h e had simply sucked out a bit o f the
vinegar dressing before giving the flesh to Lily.
" Ohh-ohh . . . owww! That h urts! " Shozo let out a shriek:
Lily h ad lea p t onto his shoulders and dug in her claws.
" Get down! Get down from there ! "
I t was past the m iddle o f September, and the last traces o f
summer heat were fading away; but Shozo, who, like most fat
p eople, disliked the h eat and was p rone to s weating, had brought
a low table out to the edge of the back veranda, now muddy

6
from a rece nt flood. He sat on top o f it, wearing only linen half­
drawers , a short-sleeved undershirt , and a woolen stomach­
band. The shoulders Lily had ju mped onto were flesh y and
round like little h ills ; and to keep from sliding o ff she naturall y
had to use her claws. As they dug through the thin cotton und er­
sh irt and bit into Shozo's flesh , he gave another cry of pain.
"Get down from there , you - " h e shou ted , shrugging his
shoulders violently and leaning to one side to encou rage her to
leap off. But the cat, determined to ma intain her perch , just
dug her claws in deeper until Shozo's und ersh irt began to be
dappled with spots of blood .
Yet, though he gru mbled about her "wildness," he could
never bring him self to be reall y angry with h er. Lily seemed to
be fu lly aware of this as she gently rubbed her face against his
cheek with l ittle flattering noises and, if she saw that his mouth
was fu ll of fi sh , boldly brou ght her own right up to h er mas ter' s.
I f Shozo interrup ted his chewing to poke out a p iece o f fish with
h is tongu e, Lil y would nimbly dart her head forward to se ize the
morsel. Occas ionally she would devour it all at once; at other
tim es, she would lick the rem nants from around Shozo's mouth,
care fully and co m placently. There were even times when cat
and master would contend for the same p iece, each tugging at
one end . Then Shozo would put on an angry act, complete with
grunts and cries, frowns, grim aces , and a little sp itting. Actually,
though, he seemed to be enjoying h im self just as much as Lily
was .
Resting a bit from these exhausting ga mes, he casually held
out h is sake cup for a refill. " H ey, what's wrong?" Suddenly anx­
ious, he looked up at his wife, who had been in a sunny mood un­
til just a while ago but was now fi xing him with a steady gaze,
h er hands th ru s t into her sleeves ins tead of offering the ex­
p ected drink.

7
 "There ' s no more sake ? " he ventured, looking with wary sur­
prise into his wife ' s eyes and slowly with drawing the cup . She
had a calm, unflinching look about her as she announced
" There ' s something I wan t to talk about, " and then se ttled into
a rather gloomy silence.
"What? ... What about? .. . "

"I want you to give that cat to Shinako ! "

" B u t . . . w h y 7. "
To make a demand like that out o f the blue, why, i t was
outra geou s , thought Shozo, blinking furiously for a few mo­
ments; but his wife looked in no mood to be trifled with, and
he was at a loss what to think or do.
"But why this, all o f a sudden ? "
"Never mind why- j u st give he r t h e cat ! Call M r . Tsukamoto
over tomorrow and be done with it . "
" B u t what's the point o f all this a n yway ? "
" S o, you re fu s e 7"
.
" N o w hold o n a minute! How can I a gree when y o u won ' t
even tell me why? Are you angry about someth ing? Something I
did?"
Could Fukuko be j ealous o f Lily? He considered this possibili­
ty for a moment but then dismissed it as making no sense. A fter
all, Fukuko herself was basically fond of cat s . When S hozo was
still living with his former wife, Shinako, he had sometimes men­
tioned her occa sio nal j ealou sy of the cat to Fukuko, who had
always made rather scornful fun .o f this sort o f silliness. Obvious­
ly, then, she had known all about Shozo ' s fondness for cats
before she came to l ive w ith him. Moreover, since coming, she
too had shown a ffection for Lily, though not to Shozo ' s extreme
extent. She had never said a word a gainst Lily for barging in on
the couple's da ily meals together as the cat had just done today.
And when, like today, Shozo took time over his evening bottle

8
of sake to play with Lily, Fukuko usually enjoyed watching their
circus-like performance and sometimes even tossed the cat a
scrap or two herself, or made her j u m p for one. Thus, Lily's
interposed presence had the effect of binding the newl y-wed
couple more closely, making their supp ers together times of
laugh ter and rela xation; certa inly she had ca used no trouble or
bother. But what was the p roblem , then? Everything had been
fine up to yesterda y-or, rath er, up till just now, until Sh ozo's
fi fth or sixth cup . Had some little slip of h is upset h is wife, to
make the situation sud denly chan ge so completely? Or was she
starting to feel sorry for Sh inako? Was that why she demanded
that he hand over his cat to his ex-wife?
It was, of course, true that when Sh inako left she had asked
for Lily as part of the set tlement, and afterward sh e had dis­
patched Ts ukamoto several times with the same request. But
Shozo had decided it was best not even to discuss the matter,
and s tead ily refused to do so The point of Sh inako' s message
.
via Tsukamoto was that, though she should really have no
regrets about leaving a man heartless enough to d rive his own
wife from h er home and then d rag in some other woman to take
her place, yet somehow she could n't fo rget h i m . No matter how
hard she tried to hate and resent him, it was simply impossible.
Tha t's why she wanted someth i ng to rem ember him by.
Could n't she p erha ps have Lily as a kind o f souvenir? It's true
that when they were living together, sh e had resented all the
love tha t Shozo had shown the cat and had sometimes mis­
treated her a bit on the sly; but now every single thing from
their old house wa s filled with memories-and Lily esp ecially!
Shinako wanted at least to have Lily, in place of the ch ild they'd
never had, so she could lavish her a ffection on h er. That would,
to some extent, make up for all the sad nes s and loneliness of her
l ife . . . .

9
 " S o you see," Tsukamoto would concl ude, " it ' s j ust a matter
of that cat, Mr. Ishii. You can't h el p feeling sorry for her, can
you, when you hear how she feels and all . "
B ut Shozo's reply w a s unva rying: "You can ' t trust a word that
woma n says . "
Shinako specialized in d riving hard barga ins; and she was
crafty-there was n o reading her. Whatever she said was to be
taken with a large quantity of salt. In this case, for example, her
tender words about missing Shozo and loving Lily were very
susp icious, coming from such a tough, s tubborn character. Love
Lily, indeed! Why should she? P robably she j ust wanted to take
her off somewhere and torment h er, out of sp ite. Or maybe the
aim was j u s t to get back at Shozo by taking s omething he valued
a way from him. No-that was too childish a revenge for her. At
any rate, the ra ther simpleminded Shozo was unable to guess
h er real intentions, which made him feel all the more uneasy
and resentful. Who was she to make all these selfish demands
on him, anyway? O f course, he had been in a weak p os ition,
especially s ince h e wanted to get her o ut o f the house a s soon as
p ossible. That's why he'd accep ted most o f her req uests . B ut
he'd be damned if h e would let her take Lily now, on top o f
every thing else! And so Shozo contin ued to evade, with his char­
acteristic variety o f roundabout a rguments and excuses, even
Tsuka moto's most insistent p leadings. Fukuko naturally was in
complete a greement with this p olicy, and indeed took an even
harder line than did her h usband himsel f.

" So tell me the reason ! I haven't a clue what this is all about."
Shozo reached out for the sake bottle and helped himself to
another cup. Then, g iving h is th igh a s ma rt slap, h e glanced ner­
vously around the room and said, half to him self, " D on't we have

10
any mosquito coil s ? " I t was getting dark, and a sm all cloud of
mosquitoes was advancing toward th e veranda from below the
wooden fence nea rby, with a high-pitched hum. Lily had been
curled up beneath the table, with an air of having slightly over­
in dulged. B ut when the couple's talk began to turn to her, she
slip ped down into the garden, insinua ted herself beneath the
fence, and d isappeared, as if out of a feline sense of delicacy.
The e ffect wa s comical , though in fact Lily always absented her­
self fo r a while a fter eating a really large meal.
Fukuko went into the kitchen without saying a word and
returned with a mosqu ito coil, wh ich she lit and placed under
the d ining table. Th en, in a gentler tone than before she asked,
"You gave all the mackerel to the cat, didn ' t you ? You coul dn't
have had more than two or three yourself. "
" I really don't rem ember. "
" I was counting. Th ere were thirteen fi sh on that plate. Lily
ate ten , so that means you ate three. "
"What if I did ? "
"You think there's nothing w rong with th at? Well, th ink
again . Now, I'm not going to get j ealous over some ca t. But you
insisted I make marinated mackerel because you l ike it, even
a fter I told you I can't stand it myself. Then you hardly touch it,
and give it all to that ca t ! "
This was t h e burden of Fukuko ' s complaint. . . .

In the towns along the O saka -Kobe ra ilwa y line-N ishi­

nomiya, Ashiya, Uozaki, Sum iyoshi-horse macke rel and sar­
d ines taken fro m the ocean nearby were brought for sale
almost every day, " fresh-caught," as the fishmongers called out
on their round s . The p rice was from ten to fi fteen sen per
bucket, wh ich wa s just enough to feed a fa mily of three or four.

11
When sales were good, several fishmongers would appear each
day. D uring the summer, the fish were each only about one inch
long; and, though they gradually grew in size as a utumn ap­
p roached, in their smaller state they were unsuitable for either
frying or broiling with salt. They had to be roasted plain, mar­
inated in a soy and vinegar sauce , and eaten bones and all
with some shredded ginger on top . But Fukuko had obj ected to
p reparing them this way, since she disliked the soy-vinegar
marinade. She l iked warm , oily foods; it depressed her to have to
eat cold, stringy dishes l ike horse mackerel . Confronted with
this all-too-typ ical fussiness on Fukuko's p art, Shozo told her to
make what she liked for herself. He wan ted mackerel, and he
would fix it on his own. W hen a fish-seller came around , he
called him in and bought some.
Now, Fukuko was a cousin o f S hozo's; and, given the cir­
cum stances under which she became his wife, there wa s n o
need for h e r t o worry about plea sing a difficult m other-in-law.
S o from her second day o f married l ife , she did j ust as she
pleased in everything. All the same, she could hardly s tand by
and watch her husband trying to wield a kitchen knife, s o in the
end she made the marina ted fish for both of them, though
under p rotest. To make ma tters worse , they had been d ining o ff
mackerel for fi ve or s i x d a y s running. T h e n , t w o or three days
ago, it had struck her: Shozo wa sn't even eating the food he'd in­
sisted on having, ignoring his wife's compla ints; instead, he was
giving it all to the cat! The m ore she thought about it, the
clearer it all beca m e : the mackerel were s mall, with little bones,
easily chewed; there was no need to fillet them, and they could
be served cold; and one got a lot for one's money- in other
words , they were an ideal food to serve to the cat on a daily
basis . They weren't S hozo's favorite dish, but that eat 's! In
this househ old, the husband, ignoring his wife's p references,

12
planned the evening menu with his pet alone in mind . Fukuko
had been prepared to sacrifice her own ta s tes for her hu sba nd's
sake, while in fact it was for the cat tha t she cooked; she had
become a compa nion to the cat.
"Tha t's not true! I always plan to eat them myself, but tha t
Lily j u s t keeps a fter me, a nd I end up tossing them to her one
a fter the o ther. "
"What a liar! You pretend to like them just so you can give
them all to Lily. Your ca t means more to you tha n I do!"
" How can you sa y tha t?" Shozo spat the words out with a
grea t show o f indignation, but Fuku ko's fi nal comment had
clearly devasta ted him.
"Am I more im portant, then ? "
" O f course you are! Don ' t b e silly. "
"Then show me, in stead of just talking about it. O therwise
how can I believe you ? "
"All right. S tarting tomorrow , I won't buy a nother mackerel.
Tha t should sa tis fy you . "
" Forget about that, and just get rid o f Lily! Once tha t ca t is
out of the way, everyth ing'll be fi n e."
She cou ldn't mea n it. B u t he mustn ' t treat the matter lightly
or she migh t get even more worked up . Shozo wearily rear­
ra nged his limbs into the formal sitting posture, with his knees
close together, leaned forward , placing his ha nds p olitely on his
knees, and said in a pitiful, plead ing sort of way, "You mean
you 'd s end her off to a p lace where you know she'd be mis­
trea ted ? How could you suggest anyth ing so cruel ? Please, don't
,.
say things like tha t. .. ."
"There, you see? Tha t cat is more importa n t to you.I tell you,
if you d on ' t do something about her, I'm leaving! "
" D on ' t b e s1'II y . . . . "
"I'm not going to be put in competition with some an imal . "

13
 Sudd enly tears welled u p - from an ger, perhaps. They seemed
to take Fukuko herself by surp rise, for she hurriedly turned her
back on her flustered h u sba nd.

On the m orning S hin ako ' s letter arrived under Yukiko' s name,
Fukuko's fi rst thought was how nasty it wa s o f her to try to
make trou ble between her and S hozo like this. D id she really
think Fukuko was fool enough to be taken in by such an obvious
trick ? Her plan clearly was to make Fukuko so uneasy about Lily
that she'd be glad to give her u p . Sh inako would then clap h er
h ands and say, ( ( Well, look at that! Jealous o f a cat, are you ? You
u sed to make j okes about me, but it looks as if you ' re not too
sure how you stand with your hu sband e ither! " Or she may have
hoped that at least the letter would stir up a little trouble in the
family-and that would suit Shinako j u s t fine. But Fukuko
would foil those plan s : the best thing would be to show the
woman j u st how l ittle effect her mes sage had had by making a
happy marriage even happ ier. And they would make it crys tal
clear that they both loved Lily equally and would certa inly not
consider handing her over to Shinako. Yes, that was the thing to
do!
Unfortunately, though, the letter had come at a bad time, just
when several days o f a steady mackerel diet were weighing
rather h eavily on Fukuko's spirits, tempting her to try, j ust this
once, to teach S hozo a good lesson. She was not really as fond of
cats as her husband imagined. Her a ffections were forced by two
con sideratio n s : the desire to accommodate S hozo's tastes and to
spite Shinako. She had convinced h ersel f, as well as others, that
she was a tru e cat lover, esp ecially during the p eriod when she
h ad not yet e stablished h erself in Shozo' s household but was
plotting with O-rin, her p rospective mo ther-in-law, somehow to

14
get rid of Shinako. Even after becoming Shozo's wife, she had
managed to maintain her reputa tion as a cat fa ncier by lavish ing
a ffection on Lily. Grad ually, however, she had begu n to find the
p resence of th is small animal in her hou sehold hateful.
I t was of a Wes tern breed , with soft, silky fu r; a p retty female,
unusually elega nt in form and features. When Fukuko had
visited the house as a guest and taken Lily on her lap, she'd
thought, "What a lovely ca t! And how odd of this Shinako per�
son to find her a nuisance . . . . Ma ybe when a woman is losing
her husband's love, she can't h elp res enting even the fa mily
ca t! " This wasn't out of sp ite-Fukuko rea lly felt that wa y as she
sat stroking th e cat. But now tha t she had succeed ed Shinako as
mistress o f the house, her form er rival's atti tud e d id not seem so
ridiculous a fter all. Not, o f course, tha t she was receiving the
same kind of trea tment Sh inako had; no, she was being well
looked a fter by Shozo. Only, his fondness for cats wa sn't of the
o rdi nary kin d ; it was defin itely excessive. It might be all very
well to like ca ts, bu t it was going too far to transfer a fish from
master's mouth to eat's, or to pull a t either end o f it in a kind of
tug�of�war (and in front of one's own wife, too).
Even the very fact of Lily being p resent at their d inner ta ble
annoyed Fukuko, to tell the truth. Her mother�in�law was tactful
enough to finish her evening meal early and then go up to the
second floor, leaving Fukuko to enjoy her hu sband ' s com pany
alon e; bu t then tha t cat would sneak in and grab Shozo's atten�
tion away from her. Sometimes in the even ing she though t the
cat was blessedly absent, bu t at th e sound o f the d ining table's
legs being unfold ed, o r at the clatter o f d ishes, Lily would sud�
denly appea r. O n those ra re occasions when she did not pres ent
herself, Shozo, ou trageous ly, would call her in a loud voice: " Liii�
ly . . . Liiily . . . . " Up to the second floor, back to th e rea r en�
trance, even out into the street in fron t he would go, calling her

15
name a gain and a gain, until she reap p eared.
" S he'll be back soon - wh y don't you have a little sake?" Fu­
kuko would say, lifting the warm flask; but h e would hesitate, un­
able to settle down. At such times , all h e could think of was Lily:
it didn't occur to h im to wonder what h is wife was thinking.
Then there was the business o f Lily coming into their bed at
night- Fukuko didn't care much for that either. Shozo had
raised three cats in all , but Lily was the only one clever enough
to crawl in under the mosqu ito net, as he p roudly said. And in­
deed it was so: flattening h er head a gainst the tatami mat, the
cat would slip in under the bottom o f the net. U sually she would
curl up next to Shozo's mattress; but when it was chilly, she
cl imbed onto the q uilt and then worked her way down from the
p illow deep into the bedclothes, slipping under them as she had
with the mos quito net. Truly, husband and wife could h ide no
secrets whatsoever from Lily.
Still, Fuku ko had ma naged to keep her real feelings about the
cat h idden, partly because there had been no clear opp ortunity
to take off the mask of cat fancier and show her actual disl ike,
but also becau se of vanity-her rival , a fter all , was only a cat.
" Lily's just someth in g for h im to play with : I 'm the one h e loves.
H e'd be lost without me. I mustn't do anything s illy, anything
that would cheap e n m yself in his eyes. I 've just got to relax and
s top blaming that harmless little animal . " And so she tried to
change her attitude and go along with her h usband's wishes;
but Fukuko was not b y nature a very long-suffering person, and
it was h ardly to be exp ected that she would put up with this
situation indefinitely. Then, j us t as her displeasure was slowly
beginning to mount a gain, and to show itself at times in her ex­
pression, there was the incident of the marinated mackerel . H e r
husband, in order t o please that c a t , insisted on a d ish that she
p ersonally could n ' t stand; and h e d id this b y pretending he was

16
fond o f it h imself, putting o n a n act for her ben efit. O bviously,
wh en wife and cat were put in the balance, the cat won . She had
tried to ignore the fa ct, bu t now he was rubbing her nose in it.
There was no room for va n ity any more.
The arrival of Shinako's letter just then should have had the
effect of fa n n i n g her j ealousy; but, on the contrary, it served to
dampen the explosion of emotion tha t was just about to occu r.
Had Sh inako only kept silent, Fukuko would have insisted on set­
tling o nce and for all the matter of Lily 's unwelcome presen ce,
wh ich she felt she could n 't end ure a nother day, by having her
sent off to Sh inako. But to hand over the cat now, after the
other woman's attempt to stir up trouble with that in sidious
letter, was unth inka ble-it would seem like giving in. I n other
word s, Fukuko was caught between her resentment of her hus­
ba nd, and of Shinako: which emotion should she yield to ? If she
told her husband about the letter, it would seem as i f she were
allowing herself to be egged on by Shinako (though that was cer­
tainly not the cas e); so, ra ther than be made to look ridiculous ,
she'd keep it a secret . The question then was, who was the more
hateful? Shinako's methods made her an gry, of course; but her
husband's behavior was u n forgiva ble. Esp ecially wh en she had
to witness it with her own eyes day after day-it d rove h er wil d .
B esides, Shinako's warning- ' ' D o b e careful . . . or you may find
yourself losing out to Lily in the end "-had had a greater effect
on her tha n one m ight have thou ght. O f course, she did n 't really
believe for a moment that anything like that could happen; but
if she could o nly chase Lily out of the house entirely, she
wouldn't even have to worry about such silly th ings. On the
other ha n d , for her to do that would give great satisfaction to
her rival , wh ich was an unbearable though t. When her hostile
feelings toward Sh inako gained the upper han d , she would
decide it was better to put up with the cat ra ther than fall in

17
with that woma n ' s cunning schemes. And so, until she sat down
at the dinner table this evening, she had been fretfully tossing
about among these alternatives. B ut when she watched the
usual game-playing and counted the mackerel a s they vanished
one b y one from the plate, she suddenly lost control and decided
it was her husband she should vent her anger on.
At first, she spoke merely out o f spite, with no real intention
of carrying out her threat to drive L il y from the house. It was
mainly Shozo's attitude that complicated matters, and made t he
i ssue compelling. Since Fukuko had every reason to be angry
with him, it would have b een best for S hozo simply to agree to
do as she wanted, without any fu ss. I f he'd shown his willingness
to let her have her own way, she would have felt b etter at once,
and p erha p s not have in sisted on her demand a fter all. But
Shozo wou ld try to excuse the inexcusable and evade the w hole
issue. It was a bad habit o f his: h e could not bring himself to say
a clear "no" to anything. His strategy was at all costs to avoid
upsetting the other p erson , to remain noncom mittal until he
was p ressed to the wall; and then, at the critical moment, to
shift p ositions . He would p retend to be about to agree to some­
thing, but never in fact say a firm "yes . " He seemed timid, yet
cun ning and tenacio u s in his own way, too. Fukuko couldn ' t
help noticing h o w , though he gave in t o h e r on other things
easily enough, when it came to Lily he'd try to pass it off by say­
ing "What does it ma tter ?-it's j u st a cat," w hile refusing to
back down . Obviously his love for Lily wa s even stronger than
Fukuko had imagined. The issue could not be left unresolved.
"Listen, S hozo . . . ," she started in again that night, a fter crawl-
ing under the mosquito net. "Now, turn this way and listen ! "
" O h, I ' m so sleep y . . . j ust let m e get some sleep . . . . "
" N o . Not till we settle this cat busine s s . "
" Does i t have to b e tonight? Wait till tomorrow . . . . "

18
 The light from the bulb hanging outs ide in the eaves ca st a
fa int rad iance through the cu rta ins of the four full-length glass
panels at the front of their shop, revealing the vague outlines of
the fu rn iture and obj ects within. Shozo had been lying on his
back, the quilt pushed aside; but as he spoke he turned on his
side, fa cing away fro m his wife.
"Don't you turn your back on me!"
" Please j ust let me sleep. A mosquito got inside the net last
night a n d I could n ' t sleep a wink . "
"Well , then , will you do a s I say? I f you want t o get to sleep,
hu rry up and deci de ! "
"G o d , you ' re mean. . . . D ec1'd e w h a t?"
.
"Don't think you 're going to fool me with that sleepy act of
yours. Are you going to give Lily away or not? I want an an swer
right now . "
"Tomorrow . . . . I 'll deci d e tomorrow . . . ," said Sh ozo, as he
began to breathe the deep, relaxed breath of sleep .
"Liste n ! " Fukuko sat up abruptly, turned toward Shozo, and
gave his bottom a good strong p inch .
"Owww! What're you doing?"
"You! -always covered with scratches fro m Lily, and now you
say a little pinch fro m me hurts ?"
" O uuuuch ! Stop tha t ! "
" O h , this is nothing . . . . I f that cat can scratch you, so ca n I -
1 '11 scratch you from head t o foot ! "
"Owww! . . . Oh God . . . . Stop i t ! "
Shozo kept on shouting as h e j u mped u p and tried t o protect
h i m self fro m h is wife's attack. He was trying to keep h is voice
down, though , so as not to let his mother up stairs hear. Fukuko
kept at it, now pinch ing, now scratch ing-th ere was no tell­
ing wh ich it would be . Face, shoulders, chest, arms, th ighs,
everywhere-the attacks kept coming, and each time Shozo

19
dodged to avoid one, a d ull thud resounded through the house.
" How's that? "
" O h, please . . . . Plea se stop ! "
" A re you awa k e n o w ?. "
" Y e s , I ' m awake . . . . O uch! . . . That hurts ! "
"All right, then . Give m e an ans wer, yes o r n o . "
" . . . I t h urt s.'"
Grimacing, rubbing various p a rts of h is body, S hozo left the
question unan swered.
"At it a gain, are you ? Any more of your tricks and you 'll get
this," cried Fukuko , as she scratched h is cheek as hard as she
could with two or three fingerna ils. S hozo' s pain this tim e
seem ed p erfectly genuine, and h is " O www" had a tearful q uali­
ty to it. Even L ily was s hocked , and dashed out from under the
mosqu ito net.
"Why're you p utting me through this ? "
" Hal S ince it's for L ily, you should enjoy it. "
" Why're you still goin g o n l ike tha t ? "
" I'll g o on as m u c h as I wan t tc, t ill y o u make up your mind.
Now, are you going to get rid o f Lily, or m e- wh ich ? "
"Who ever said anything about getting rid of you ? "
"Then you 'll g ive Lily away?"
" It's not a matter o f one or the other. . . . "
" O h no you don't-you've got to d ecid e . "
Fukuko grabbed h im b y h i s s h irtfront a n d began to poke him
in the chest. "Well, wh ich'll it be? Answer m e . . . now! Right
now ! "
" D on 't b e so rou g h . "
"I'm not l etting you off tonight , no matter what. So let's have
an answer-and make it qu ick! "
"All right, all right, have it your way. I 'll give L ily away . "
"Y o u ' re sure ?. . . . "

20
 ((Yes, I ' m sure . " Shozo closed his eyes and assumed an
earnest, resolute expres sion. ((All I ask is that you wait one week.
I suppose you'll get angry at me for saying this, but she's been in
the fa m ily for ten years. You can't expect me to toss h er out to­
day, just like that-even if she is ju st an animal. Why not let her
at least stay on e more week, so I ca n give her her fa vorite food
and do what I can for her- then I won't feel so bad about giving
her away? Well, how about it? You could cheer up and be nice
to her for that long, could n't you ? Cats can get nasty if you don't
trea t them right. . . . "
Shozo made h i s appeal with such ap parent sin cerity that she
found it impossible to refuse: ((All right, one week, then."
((Of cours e . "
( ( Give m e your hand . "
( (Wha t ? " asked Shozo; but before the word was out of his
mouth Fukuko had sei zed his little finger and hooked it with her
own, sealing the bargain.

( (M o th er . . . . "
One evening two or three days later, while Fukuko was at the
nearby publ ic bath, Shozo left the counter he'd been tending at
the front of the house and went into the living quarters at the
back, where his m other was eating h er supper at her own small
table . Bending down beside her, he began hesitantly: ( ( Mother,
I ' ve got a little fa vor to ask. "
His m other sat hu nched over the table, eating her usual din­
ner of cold rice (boiled each morning almost to the cons istency
of gruel, then left in its earthen pot till m ealtime) top ped with
salted sea weed .
((You see, all o f a sudden Fukuko sa ys she can't stand Lily,
and she wants me to give her to Shinako . . . . "

21
 "Yes, that wa s quite a racket you two were making the other
night . "
" Did you h ear u s ? "
( ( I n t h e middle of t h e night, thum ping around like that ? . . .
Why, at fi rst I thought it was an earthquake . Was it because of
the cat ? "
"Yes, a n d j u st look at this . . . . " Shozo rolled u p his sleeves
and h eld out both arm s for her insp ection . "Look, I'm a mass
of scratches and bruises. S ee, there's even some here on my
face . "
"Why' d she d o this t o you ? "
"Jealou sy. I t ' s crazy-says she's j ealous because I 'm too fond
o f Lily. Have you ever heard of such a thing? She must be out of
h er min. d. "
" B u t Shinako had things to say about that too, did n't she?
Anyone' d be j ealou s , the way you carry on about that cat . "
" H mp h ! " Shozo had been used t o being indulged b y his
mother since early childhood, and even now the habit p ersisted.
He flared his nostrils like a sp oiled chil d and said p etulantly,
"Oh, Mother, you always take Fukuko's sid e in everything. "
"Now, Shozo, it doesn 't matter whether it' s a cat or a human
being : if you pay too much attention to someone else and for­
get all about your brand-new bride, why, it's only natural she's
upset . "
"That' s n o t i t a t all! I ' m always thinking o f Fukuko . She
mea n s more to me than anything. "
"Well, then, why not let her have her way o n a little thing like
this ? . . . I've heard all about it from her alrea dy. "
"When was tha t ? "
" She was talkin g about i t yesterday. She said s h e ca n't s tand
having Lily around any more, and that you'd already promised to
send h er o ff to Shinako within five or six days . . . . Is that true?"

22
 "Yes, well, I suppose I did. But tha t's what I wanted to talk to
you a bout. Could n ' t you kind of talk to her, and persuade her, so
that we would n ' t actually have to go that fa r?"
( ( She says if you don't keep your promise, she'll leave."
"That's ju st a threa t . "
( (Maybe s o , but since she ' s s o set o n i t , would n't it be better to
agree to it? There ' s go ing to be trouble if you break your prom-
ISe . "
.

Shozo made a sour face, pursed his l i p s , a n d looked a t the

floor. He had counted on getting h is mother to calm Fukuko
down, but his calculations were going badly awry.
"With her temper, she just might run o ff, you know . That'd
be all ri ght, I suppose; but I can 't have her fa ther saying tha t he
won 't let his daughter stay here because the husband cares more
about the cat than his bride! It puts me in a bad position . "
( ( So you're also tell ing me you want m e t o get rid of Lily?"
( (Just send her o ff to Sh inako for a while, till Fukuko calms
down a bit. Then you can bide your time and bri ng her ba ck
when Fukuko is in a better mood. That's the way to handle it,
dear. "
The old lad y knew that once the cat had been given away, it was
h ighly unlikely either that Sh inako would ever agree to send her
back or that Shozo would be allowed to accept her if she did. But
ju st as Shozo liked to act the part of the pamp ered son, so too
his mother continually tried to man ipulate him, saying whatever
seemed most likely to soothe him under the circum stances,
humoring him like a d i ffi cult ch ild . And, in the end, she always
got this son of hers to do whatever it was she wan ted .
She contin ued to wear an old-fashioned l ined kimono with a
sleeveless coat lightly pa dded with cotton fo r warmth, and knit­
ted split-toe d socks, at a time when young people were already
beginning to wear serge. Thin and slight o f build, she looked like

23
an old woman whose vitality wa s completely spent; yet h er mind
was s till sharp : she never made a slip in what she said or did . The
neighbors used to say, in fact, that " th e old lady does a lot better
than her son . " People were also of the opinion that it was she
who was p ulling the strings when Shinako was driven fro m the
house, and that S hozo him sel f still had some lingering affection
for his first wife . What with one thing and a nother, there were
man y in the neighborhood who disliked old Mrs. Ishii, and s ym­
pathy in general was with Shinako . To these criticisms, Mrs.
I shii responded that no matter how much a mother-in-law might
dislike her son ' s wife, if the son was satisfied with h er, she would
never leave or allow hersel f to be driven out. If that had hap­
pened, it was, o f course, because Shozo had got sick o f her and
her ways. And, certainly, that was true . Yet it wa s also an
undeniable fact that, w ithout the aid o f his mother and Fu­
kuko' s father, Shozo would never have had the courage to drive
his wife out all on his own.
Actually, Mrs. Ishii and Shinako had somehow failed to get
along from the very first. The daughter-in-law, who had a strong,
unyield ing character, took care not to make any slip s that would
give occa sion for criticism, and worked hard at serving her
mother-in-law in the ap proved mann er. Mrs. I sh ii, however, was
anno yed at this display o f fa ultless behavior: " S h e doesn't seem
to have any bad points in particular, but somehow I don't feel
any warmth in what she does for me . . . . You see, she doesn't
have a gentle, loving nature that really wants to make an older
person's life a little pleasanter- that's why. " The very fact that
both mother- and da ughter-in-law were such strong person­
alities led to disha rmony between the m . S till, for the first
year and a half, things see med to go well enough, at least on the
surface. B ut then Mrs. Ishii started going o ff to stay with her
elder brother (this uncle of Shozo's wa s named Nakaj ima and

24
lived in Imazu) for two or three days at a time, on the grounds
that she didn 't enjoy h er daughter-in-la w's company. After she
had been away for a while, Shinako would go to I mazu to see
how she was, only to be told to ' ' go back home and send Shozo
to get m e ! " Then , when Shozo came, his uncle and his cousin
Fukuko would join forces with h is mother to make him stay on
and on , even a fter nightfall. Shozo was vaguely aware that there
mu st be some hidden motive in all this, yet off he went wherever
Fukuko suggested-to a baseball ga m e at Koshien Stadium, to
the beach for a swim, to Hanshin Park. As he drifted along enjoy­
ing whatever pleasures came his way, he gradually found him­
self slipp ing into a very curious relationship with his cou sin .
His uncle's business was the manufacture and sale o f sweets ;
and, in addition t o a sm all factory in lmazu , he owned five or
six properties that he'd built to rent out, along the national
highway. But, though he was very comfortably off, his daugh­
ter had beco m e a real problem . Perhap s it was becau se she had
lost her m other so early. At any rate, a fter she left secon dary
school in the middle o f her second year (le ft , or was asked
to leave), she had been unable to s ettle down. She ran away
from ho m e at least twice, and that fact had got into a Kobe
n ewspaper, so her m arriage prosp ects were sl im. B esides, she
herself wasn't interested in ma rrying into a stiff, respectable
family. For all of these reaso ns, then, Nakaj ima was very eager
to settle Fukuko's fu ture so m ehow-a fact that I shii O-rin was
qu ick to notice. Fukuko was like a daughter to her; she knew
what kind of a girl she was , and did n 't care about the flaws in her
character. Of course , it wouldn't do to have a daughter-in-law
who was "loose," but she wa s now at an age when more discre­
tion could be expected o f her. Once she had a hu sband, she
wasn't likely to be unfaithful to h im- and even if she was , it
wouldn't m atter m uch. The point was that two of the rental

25
properties along the national h ighway belonged to h er, which
meant an in co1ne of s ixty-three yen p er month . S ince Naka j ima
had made the pro p erties over to Fukuko some two years earlier,
O -rin calculated that the accu mulated earnings would amount
to 1,5 12 yen , apart from interest. Fukuko would be bringing that
much w ith her a s a dowry, not to mention the regular s ixty-three
yen in ren ts. If you were to put all that in the bank, you would
have quite a tidy sum a fter, say, ten years. This is what O-rin
had in mind.
Of course th ere wa s no point in being greedy for her own
sake, w ith only a few years left to h er; but what about that
feckless son of h ers ? How did he propose to get through the com­
ing years ? She wouldn't be able to die in p eace, leaving that
question unanswered . The old Ash iya road was less tra veled
with each passin g year, now that the Hankyu railway had started
operating and a new h ighway had opened up, so there was
noth ing to be gained by h anging on and trying to make a go of
their kit chenware shop h e re. But to move som ewhere else they
would h ave to sell the present shop; and even supp osing they
could do that, she had no clear plan where to move to or what
kind o f business to set up. Shozo was by nature incapable of con­
cern ing himself w ith such th ings-he d idn't p articularly worry
about being p oor, and he wouldn't apply h imself to business.
When h e was th irt een or fourteen he had worked a s a mes senger
at a bank in Nishinomiya while attending n igh t school; then
he'd been em ployed as a caddy at the Aoki golf practice range.
When h e got a bit older h e started as a n apprentice cook. But
nowh ere did h e last long; and while h e was frittering away his
time l ike th is, h is father died. S ince then h e had settled down as
the owner of the kitchenware store- leaving all the work to his
mother. In stead of looking for so me sort of job l ike any other
man, h e talked about opening a c c club-ca fe" by the h ighway,

26
and thought o f having his uncle put up the money for it, until
he was set s traight. Apart fro m that, the only things he really
wa nted to do were ra ise cats, pla y a li ttle bill iards, fiddle abou t
with potted bonsai trees, and flirt with waitresses at cheap ca­
fes .
Then, about fou r years a go, at the age o f twe nty-six, he ha d
married Sh inako, who was working as a maid in a rich family's
house in the Ash iya hills . Tsuka m oto, the local tatami-maker,
had acted a s go-between. From the time o f his marriage, the
family business got worse and worse, and it becam e difficult to
make ends meet from m onth to month . S ince they had been
living in Ash iya for two generations now, it was possible to put
off payments of m oney owed the local shop s for a time; bu t the
monthly land rent of fi fteen sen per fou r square yards had gone
unpaid for close to two years and by now a mounted to over a
hu ndred and twenty yen. There was j ust no way they would be
able to pay it. Sh inako knew she couldn't cou nt on Shozo for
help and so tried to supplement the fam ily inco m e by doing
s ewing at home. And not only that-she even began selling off
items o f the trou sseau she had scrimped and saved to buy out o f
h e r m eager salary a s a m a i d . Befo re long, m o s t of t h e things
were gone . A fter all that, it was really too cruel o f the m to try to
d rive her out-no wonder the neighbors' sympathies were all
with her. But fro m O -rin's p oint of view, what had to be done
had to be done; and the fact that Sh inako was s till childless after
some years p rovided a convenient excu se. Fukuko's father, for
his part , was pleased a t the thought o f his daughter finally set­
tl ing down . And si nce it also allowed him to rescue his nephew's
fa m ily fro m their fin an cial pligh t- well, everyone seemed to
benefit! Knowing he felt this way, O-rin was all the more deter­
mi ned to carry out her plan .
Thus both parents certa inly played a part in the beginn ing o f

27
the affair between S hozo and Fukuko. Still, eve n w ithout paren­
tal e ncouragement, it m ight have happ ened, s ince S hozo was a
likable sort. H e wa s n ' t p art icularly good-looking, but there was
someth ing childlike about him, even at this age, and he had an
easygoin g disposition . As a result, the ladies and gentlemen who
came to the golf range were fond of him , and he got more in tips
and p resents at the mid-year and year-end gift-givin g seasons
than anyone else did. He was pop ular at the cafes too, and soon
learned the knack o f e n j oying himself in a leisurely fashion w ith
very little outlay. Inevitably, indolence had b ecome a habit.
At any rate, O-rin had laid her plans with care and thus man­
aged to land this nice young bride for h er son, w ith a fine fat
dowry thrown in ; so she and Shozo would have to do their best
to make sure that the young lady didn't fl y o ff somewhere­
flighty creature that she was . In these circumstances, who cared
what happened to that cat ? B esides, d eep down , O-rin was sick
to death of the l ittle beast. Lily had originally belonged to a
Western-style restauran t in Kobe where S hozo was work in g as a
live-in apprentice. When he quit that j ob , he brought her back
home w ith him; and how filthy the house had been ever since!
S hozo cla imed that his cat never " made a mess," always using
her litter-box when Nature called. Well, wonderful-but she
mad e a point of coming home to use the box even when she was
out o n the p rowl. Naturally the thing stank and filled the whole
house with its n as ty s m ell . Lily also had the habit o f swann ing
about the house w ith sand from her l itter-box still clinging to
her hindquarters, leaving a gritty wake on the tatami mats o f the
rooms through wh ich she sailed . On rainy days especially, the air
in the house beca me close and the smell was very strong. And
on such days Lily would return from her walk outdoors, tracking
mud in from outside and leavin g her footp rints here and there.
Shozo also boasted of her clevern ess in being able to slide

28
open doors , partitions, a nd paper screens, just like a human be­
ing. Open them she could ; but, a nimal that she was, she fa iled
to close the m. So on cold days someone had to follow h er abou t,
closing each and every d oor, part ition, and screen. Worse still,
she left the paper screens full of holes and the wooden doors
covered w i th scratches . Another sore point was tha t fi sh-raw,
bra ised, or grill ed- could not be left u nwatched for any length
of time without its being gobbled u p . Even for the short time it
took to set the table, a ny such food would have to be put into a
cupboard or screened shelf. Worst o f all , though, wa s the fa ct
tha t while Lily had well u nder control what em erged from her
rear end, the same did not hold tru e of the opposite end : she oc­
cas ionally threw up. Th e cause wa s Shozo 's pass ion for having
her do acroba tics at the dinner tabl e . He would keep tossing her
tidb its un til she was stuffed; then , when the table was moved
after supper, one usually found lots of hair and half-eaten fi sh
heads and tails scattered on the floor.
Yet, even though Lily and her habits had given O-rin a lot of
troubl e-and u n til Shinako j oined the fa mily it wa s Shozo' s
mother who d id all t h e hous ework and cooking-she'd p u t u p
w i t h it, because of someth ing that had happ ened fi v e o r six
years earlier. She had bull ied Shozo into giving the cat to a
grocer in Amagasaki; but one day, after a full month had passed,
Lily had shown up at the house in Ashiya , having come back all
tha t way on her own. Had she been a dog, there would have been
nothing strange about this; but for a cat to have made the return
trip of ten to fi fteen miles out of love for her form er owner was
genuinely touch ing. As a resul t, Shozo's attachment to Lily
became twice as s trong as before , and even his mother seemed
to sympathize. Or p erhaps she had begun to feel tha t th ere wa s
someth ing unca nny about this particular cat; at any rate, she
s topped trying to p ersuade Shozo to get rid of her. Then, after

29
Shin ako came, Lily's p resence b ecame rather useful to O-rin as
a means of getting at her daughter-in-law (Fukuko, of course, had
had the same idea). In fact, O-rin even favored th e cat with a n
occasional k i n d word .
So Shozo wa s stunned to see his m other now sudden ly taking
Fukuko's side in the argu ment over Lily .
( (Well, but even if we d o give Lily away, she'll come right
back," he pointed out. ((After all, she mad e it all th e way from
Amagasaki tha t other tim e . "
( (Yes, but this t i m e she's not going t o a complete stranger' s , s o
who knows h o w she 'll behave? A n d if she does return, w e can
always let her stay. A nywa y, send her off for n ow . . . . "
( ( O h , what a mess-1 d on ' t know what to d o . " Shozo s ighed
several times a nd was about to try a new tack w ith his mother
when suddenly th ere was the sound o f footsteps fro m the street.
Fukuko wa s back from the p ublic bath.

( ( You d o u n d erstand, Tsukamoto, d on't you ? You have to

carry this a s carefully as p ossible-don't swing it around any
which wa y. Cats get car-sick too, you know . "
( ( I know-1 got you th e first t i m e . "
( ( O h , and there 's this." Shozo h eld out a s mall, flat package,
wrapped in newspaper. ( ( I t ' s the last time I 'll be seeing her, you
s ee, and I wanted to give her something really n ice to eat, as a
kind of send-off. B u t if I feed her j u st before she's taken away,
it'll b e v ery bad for h er d igestio n . She loves ch icken , so I went
and bought some and boiled it for h er. Now, when you get to
Shinako's p lace, p lea s e b e sure and tell h er to give this to Lily
righ t away. "
( (All right . A n d I 'll take good care o f h er o n the way, s o don't
worry . . . . Will that be all then ? "

30
 "Just a moment. " Shozo opened the lid of the basket and
lifted the cat out for one last cuddle. " Lily," he said, rubbing his
cheek against hers, "mind you be a good little cat and do what
you 're told a fter you get there. She promised she wouldn't be
mean to you like before . She'll love you a nd take c·a re of you, so
there's nothing to worry about . Okay? . . . Understand?"
Lily, who disliked being held anyway, pawed wildly in an at­
tempt to escape from Shozo's too ardent em brace. Placed back
in the basket, she poked and prodded about two or three times
and then suddenly settled down, as if res igning herself to captivi­
ty. Watch ing her, Shozo felt even sadder.
He had wanted to see her off as fa r as the h ighway bus stop,
but Fukuko had forb idden h im to take one step out o f the house
for the next few days (except to go to the public bath). So, when
Tsukamoto left with the basket , Shozo sat by h ims el f in the
shop , looking despondent.
H is wife had forbidden h im to lea ve the house because she
wa s a fra id tha t, in his anxiety about Lily, he might drift over to
the neighborhood wh ere Shinako lived, were he left to h imself.
And, to tell the truth, Sh ozo too felt much the same concern .
Thus the unsuspecting couple began to sense Shinako's real
motives only after they had handed over th e cat.
Was that it ? Was Sh inako planning to lure h im back, with Lily
as the bait? If Shozo wa s found wand ering in the vicin ity of her
house, d id Sh inako think she could somehow grab hold of h im
and win him back w ith her fe min ine wiles? The very thought
filled Shozo with resentment at his ex-wife's cun n ing; at the
same time, he felt all the more worried about Lily being used as
a tool in such a plot. His only hope was tha t Lily m igh t escape
from S h inako's house in Rokko on the Ha nkyu line and com e
back home, as she had from Amagasaki some years before. Ac­
tually, it was w ith the thought that Lily m igh t re member the

31
route take n and so find her own way back that Shozo had asked
Tsukamoto, busy with work a fter a recent flood, to make the
effort to com e in the morn ing rather than at n ight . E ven now,
Shozo vividly recalled that time long a go when Lily had re­
turned from Amagasaki. It was at dawn one day aroun d the mid­
dle of autumn that the slumbering Shozo was awakened by a
familiar " m eow, meow . . . . " He was single at the time, and slept
upstairs while his mother slept o n the ground fl oor. The shut­
ters were still closed at this hour o f the morning; but so mewh ere
nearb y a cat was me wing, and as Shozo listened, half asleep , it
sounded uncann ily l ike Lily. They had sent h er off to Amagasaki
a whole month ago, so how could she b e h ere now? Yet th e
more h e listened, the more it sounded like h er. H e h eard the
scratch and p atter o f paws on the tin roof outside his room at
the back . . . . Now it was j u st outside his window . . . . H e had to
know. Leaping up from his quilts , he pushed open the shutters.
There o n the roof just in front of him, restlessly moving back
and forth, was a n extremely weary-looking but u nquestionably
identifiable Lily!
Shozo, hardly trusting his own eyes, called hesitantly: "Lily . . . . "
"Meow," she replied, looking up, her large, lovely eyes wide
with happ iness . She ca me to a p oint j u st b elow the bay window
where he was standing; but when h e reached out to lift her up,
she slipp e d away, dartin g two or three feet in the opp osite d irec­
tion . She didn't go fa r, though, and at the sound of "Lily! "
would give a "meow" and reapproach . Again Shozo would reach
for her, and again she would slip from his grasp . It was p recisely
this asp ect of a eat's character that Shozo loved . She m ust care
for him, since she went to so much trouble to return . Yet, when
she was safely back at her old fa mil iar home and gazing up at the
face o f the master she hadn't seen for so many weeks, what did
she do if he reached out for her? Run away. Perhaps, knowing

32
his love for her, she enjoyed playing upon it like this; or perha ps
she felt a bit awkward at their first meeting a fter such a long
separation, and her shyness took this form . In a ny case, L ily kept
on moving back and forth across the roof, replying with a "meow"
each time Shozo called her name. R ight away he noticed how
thin she'd become, and as he looked more carefully he saw too
that her fu r had lost its sheen of a month before . Her head and
ta il were covered with mud, and bits of pampas grass stuck to
her here and there. The grocer who had take n her i n was known
to be a cat lover, so it wa s unlikely he would have mistrea ted her
in any way. No, Lily's p itiful state was obviously due to the
"hardships of the road " she had su ffered on her lonely j ourney
back from Amagasaki. She must have walked all night to have ar­
rived home at such an early hour-but it was certa inly more
than one night's j ourney. N ight a fter night she must have
walked, a fter fleeing from the strange house some days before .
Losing her way, wandering d own dark byways without knowing
where they led, until at last she rea ch ed home . . . . The tu fts of
pampas grass proved that she had n ' t come stra ight back along
the highway, wh ich wa s lined with houses and other build ings .
H o w p iercing the winds at dawn and dusk would have felt t o a
cat th at, typ ically, d isliked the cold. Besides, showers were com­
mon at that time of year, and she must have sometimes crept
into th ickets to escape the ra i n , or hidden in fields to eva de pur­
suing dogs. She had been lucky to survive the j ourney.
I ma gining all th is, Shozo wan ted to hold Lily a nd gently
stroke her, and so he kept reach ing out to catch hold of her.
Gradually Lily, thou gh seeming st ill a bit shy, began to bru sh
her body aga inst Shozo's outstretched hands, u ntil at last she let
her master have h is wish.
Later Shozo learned that Lily had d isappeared from the place
in Amagasaki about one week be fore . Even now, years after-

33
ward , h e couldn't forget the sound o f her voice a n d the look on
her face that morning. And there were many other memories :
there w a s , for example, the d a y he fi rs t brought the cat home
from Kobe. H e 'd j ust quit his last job as apprentice cook at the
Shinkoken a n d return e d to Ashiya. H e was twenty that year; his
father had d ied not long before, a n d the forty-ninth day me­
morial service was about to be held. Shozo had already kept a
mike or "three-colored " cat in the kitchen o f the restaurant and,
when that died, a j et-black tom called " B lacky. " Then one day
the man from the butcher shop told h im about a cute little
female cat of a European breed , about three months old, that
was available; it was Lily. When h e quit the restaurant, Shozo
left Blacky behind but could n 't bring himsel f to give up the n ew
kitten . So he took her back to his house in Ashiya, care fully stow­
ing her in a corner of a cart he had borrowed, together with his
wicker trunk.
According to the owner of the butcher shop, the English
called this particular typ e of cat a "torto iseshell, " and indeed
the d istinct black spots spreading with a l ustrous sheen over the
brown coat did resemble the polished surface of a turtle's shell.
C erta inly Shozo had n ever had such a lovely cat before, with
s uch a magnificent coat. E uropean cats are generally free from
the stiff, square-shouldered look of Japanese cats; they have
clean, chic-looking lines, like a beautiful woman with gently slop­
ing shoulders. Japanese cats also usually have lon g, narrow
h eads, with slight hollows beneath the eyes a n d p ro m inent
cheekbones, but Lily's head was small and compact. Her wonder­
fully large and beautiful gold -colored eyes and nervo usly twitch­
ing nose were set within the well-defined contours o f a face
shaped exactly like a cla m shell placed upside down. B u t it was
n ot her coat or face or body that so attracted Shozo to this kit­
ten. If it were only a matter of outward form , he h im sel f had

34
seen Persian a n d Siam ese ca ts tha t were even more beau tiful. It
was Lily's p ersonality tha t wa s so appealing. When firs t brought
to Ashiya, she was still terribly small, small enough to be held in
the palm of one hand, but her wild tom boyish ways were just
like those of a seven- or eight-year-old girl, a primary-school stu­
dent at her most misch ievous. She was much l ighter than now
and could j u m p to a height of three or four feet when her
master held some food above her head during d inner. If h e were
seated, she could reach it so easily that he often had to stand up
in the m iddle of his meal to make the ga me interesting. He
began train ing her in such acroba tics from the moment she ar­
rived . The morsel of food h eld at the end of his chop sticks
would be ra ised little by little-three feet, four feet, then five
feet-and each time Lily successfully made the j u m p . Finally
she would leap onto Shozo's kimono at about knee height and
·
nimbly cra wl u p h is chest to his shoulder, then traverse his
outs tre tch ed arm like a ra t crossing a ra fter, till she could reach
the very tip of the chopsticks. Sometimes she would leap onto
the curta ins in the shop window and climb qu ickly up to j u st
below ceiling level, cross fro m one side to the other, and then
crawl down, a ga in cli nging to the curtains. Aga in and again she
did it, revolving like a wa terwh eel .
Fro m her kitten days she had a charm ing, lively exp res sion;
her eyes and mouth, the movements of her nostrils , and her
breathing all showed the shifts o f her emotions, exactly like a
human being. Her large , bright eyes in particular were always
roving about; whether she was being a ffectionate, or mis­
chievou s, or acquis itive, there was always som ething lovable
about h er. When she got an gry, Shozo fou n d her quite fun ny:
sm all as she wa s, she would round her back and bristle her fu r as
cats do; her tail would rise straight up and, p rancing and pawing
the ground with her little feet, she would glare fiercely at her

35
foe. I t was l ike a child im itating a n adult, and no one who saw
h er could keep from smiling.
Nor could Shozo forget Lily's g en tl e, a p p ealing gaze when she
fi rst had kittens. One morning about six months a fter arrivin g at
Ashiya, she s tarted following Shozo arou n d the house, mewing
p laintively- sh e sensed she was about to give birth . He spread
a n old cushion in the bottom of an empty soft-drin k carton a n d
placed i t at t h e back of th e closet. T h e n h e p icked h er up and
carried h er to h er bed. S h e s tayed in the box only briefly, soon
opening th e clos et d oor and em erging to follow him about again,
m ewing all the while. H er voice was not the one he wa s used to
h earing. It was still " m eow," of course, but this " m eow" had
anoth er, p eculiar meaning to it . I t soun d ed a s if she were saying
" Oh , what shall I do? I don't feel w ell, suddenl y . . . . I ' m a fraid
som eth ing very odd is about to happ en to m e . . . . I 've n ever felt
a nything l ike this before ! What do you think it could be? Am I
going to b e all right ? . . . A m I ? "
When Shozo s troked her h ea d and said "There's nothing to
worry about. You're going to be a moth er, that's all," she placed
h er forepaws on his knee as if to clin g to h im , uttered one
"meeoww , " a n d looked at h im a s though trying h er best to
u nderstan d what h e was telling h er. Shozo carri ed h er back to
the clos et and placed h er in her box. " Now you s tay right h ere,
okay? You're not to com e out. Okay? You u n d ersta n d ?" Having
made this l ittle sp eech , he closed th e door and started to s tand
u p , when th ere was another p laintive " m eeeoow . " I t s eemed to
be saying "Wait a moment. Don't go away . " S hozo melted at
the sou n d a n d opened the d oor j u s t a crack to p eek in. There in­
the fa rth est corner of the closet, which was filled with a j umble
of trunks and cloth-wrapped bundles, was the box with Lily' s
head sticking o u t . " M eeooow," s h e cried, gazing at h im. " S h e
may b e just a n animal," thought Shozo, "but what a loving look

36
she has in those eyes o f hers ! " It was s tra nge, but Lily's eyes
shining in the closet's dim recesses were no longer those of a
mischievous little kitte n . In that instant they had become truly
feminine, full of an inexpressible sa d n ess a nd seduction . Shozo
had never seen a woman in childbirth; but he was sure that i f
s h e were young and beautiful, s h e would call t o h e r husband
with just the same pained, reproach ful look as this. Any number
o f times h e clo sed the closet door and bega n to walk away, only
to go back for another look; a nd each time Lily would poke her
head out of the box and p eer at h im , like a child playing
p eekaboo.
All this had hap p ened as much as ten yea rs ago, and Shinako
had only appeared on the scene six years later. So, in the in­
terven ing p eriod , Shozo had lived on the second fl oor of the
Ash iya house with only th is cat for com pany (apart, of course,
from his moth er). When he heard p eople with no knowledge of a
eat's character saying that ca ts were not as loving as dogs, that
they were cold and selfish, he always th ough t to himself how im­
possible it was to u n derstand the charm and lovableness of a cat
if one had not, like him, spent many yea rs living alone with one.
Th e reason was that all cats are to some extent shy crea tures :
they won 't show affection or seek it from their owners i n front
o f a third p erson but tend ra ther to be oddly s tando ffish. Lily too
would ign ore Shozo or ru n off when he called h er, if his mother
were presen t . B u t when the two of them were alone, she would
climb up on his lap w i thout being called and devote the most
flat tering a ttention to him . She o ften put her forehead against
Shozo 's fa ce a nd then pushed as hard as she could ; at the sa me
time, with the tip of her rough little tongue she licked away at
him-cheeks, chin , the tip of h is nose, around his mouth­
everywhere.
At n ight she always slept beside him and would wake him up

37
in the m orning. This too was done by licking h is face all over. I n
cold weather she would in sert h erself under the top quilt n ear
Shozo's p illow and then w ork her way down into the bedding.
She n estled a gainst Shozo's chest, or crawled toward his groin,
or lay against his back, wherever, until she found a place where
she could sleep com fortably. Even a fter fi nally settling down in
one sp ot, she o ften cha n ged her p os it io n if it beca me the least
bit uncom fortable . Her favorite posture seemed to be to lie fac­
ing Shozo, with her h ea d on his arm and her face against his
chest; but if h e moved even a fraction her rest wa s d isturbed,
and she would burrow o ff in a nother d irection, looking for a bet­
ter spot. Accordingly, whenever she got into h is bed, Shozo had
to extend one arm a s a p illow and then try to sleep in a n obliging
way, moving a s l ittle as possible. S o positioned, he would use his
other hand to stroke that area of the n eck which cats most love
to have fondled; and Lily would immediately respond with a
satisfied p urring. She m ight begin to b ite at his fi nger, or gently
claw him, or d rool a bit- all were s igns that she was excited.
Once when Shozo broke wind under the quilts, L ily, who was
sleep ing on top , toward the far end o f the bed, awoke with a
start and, thinking p erhap s that some d ubious creature with a
very o d d sort o f voice was hiding there, b egan search ing through
the q u ilts in a great flurry, h er eyes full o f suspicion.
The n there wa s the time when Shozo tried to p ick up a n un­
willing L ily: as she broke from his grasp and clambered down,
she let fly w ith an evil-smelling fart which caught him full i n the
face. Admittedly, Shozo had by m ischance clutche d w ith both
hands at L ily's belly, full to the b ursting point with the meal she
had j us t eaten . And u n fortunately her a n us at that point was
s ituated j ust below his face, so that the "breath from her
bowels " blew stra ight up at him. The stench was so bad that
even a cat lover like Shozo was forced to toss her to the floor

38
with an ( ( Ugh ! " The proverb ial ( (wea sel's last fa rt" must sm ell
something l ike that. At any ra te, it wa s an extremely stubborn
sm ell wh ich , once it cl ung to your nose, was not to be d islodged
for th e rest of the day, no matter how often you rubbed or
wa shed or scrubbed away with soap.
Wh en ever Shozo had an argument with Sh inako over the cat,
he was apt to say sarcast ically, ' ' A fter all, Lily and I are so close
we've sm elled each other's fa rts ! " B ut wh en you 've spent ten
years togeth er, you do develop excep tionally strong ties, even
with a cat. The odds were, in fact, that he really d id feel closer to
Lily than to e ither of h is wives. As it happened, he had only
been married to Shinako for a total of two and a half years,
spread over four calendar years. A nd Fu kuko had been in the
household barely a month . Naturally, then , it wa s Lily, with
whom he'd lived so long, who wa s more intimately bound up
with many mem ories of his; who form ed, in fact, an im portant
part of Shozo's past. Wa sn't it only normal to find the thought
o f giving h er up a fter all those years painful? There was no
rea son for p eople to call him eccentric or cat-cra zy, as i f he'd
completely lost his h ead . He felt ashamed o f h imself for having
knuckled under so eas ily, for being so weak and helpless as to
hand h is dear friend over to someone else as if she meant
nothing to h im , just because o f Fukuko's bullying and h is
m other's preachings. Why hadn't h e tried to make th em see
rea son, boldly and directly, like a real man? Why had n 't he been
firmer, m uch m uch firm er, with both his wife and his m other?
He m ight still have lost, and seen the sa m e result, but by not
having put up even that mu ch of a fight, h e had certa inly fa iled
in his du ty to Lily.
Suppose for a m o m e n t that Lily had not come back after be­
ing sen t off to A m agasaki . . . . Th at time, h e had him self a greed
to her being given to th e other fa m ily, so he would have been

39
res ign e d to it. Yet when he'd finally man aged to catch Lily as
she stood meowing on the tin roo f that morning, and h el d her in
his arms, rubbing his cheek against h er, he'd thought, "What a
terrible thing I did ! I t was downright cruel. From now on I 'll
never give h er away to anyone, no matter what. . . . I 'll keep h er
here to the e n d . " H e had not only vowed this to himself but felt
that h e ' d made a firm p romise to Lily a s well. And now, when he
considered how h e had d riven her out a seco n d time, h e was a p ­
palled at h is o w n callousness.
What made it sadder s till was that Lily h a d in the past two or
three years clearly b egun to age, the signs of decrep itude app ear­
ing in the way she carried h erself, the look in her eyes, the color
and con d ition of h er coat. And no wo nder: when Shozo fi rst
brought h er home in that cart, h e was still a youth of twenty;
n ext year he would be almost thirty. In terms of a eat' s life, ten
years would p robably b e equivalen t to fi fty or sixty. So it was
only natural that Lily should have lost her old vitality; and yet
when Shozo - recalling as if it were only yesterday h ow the kit­
ten would climb up to the top o f the curtains and p erform h er
tightrop e act-looked a t Lily now, scrawny-flanked, walking
with h ead droop in g a n d wobbling from side to side, he felt an in­
describable sadness. I t was if he were being given a p ersonal
demonstration of the B u d d h ist truth that " all things p a s s away . "
There were many signs o f Lily' s rap id declin e : o n e o f them,
for example, was her n o lon ger being able to j u mp up with ease
to Shozo ' s h eight and snatch a bite to eat . I t didn't have to be
food at mealtimes, either; any time she was shown something,
she would make a leap for it. But each year the nu mber of leaps_
grew fewer, a n d the h eight she reached lower. Recently, if she
were shown a b it of food when she was hun gry , she would first
check to see if it was something she liked or not, and then jump;
and, even so, it had to be h el d no h igher than a foot or so above

40
her head . If it were any h igher she would give up the idea of
j u mp ing and either cli mb up Shozo's body or, when even that
seemed too much fo r her, simply look up at him with those
soulful eyes, her nose twitching hungrily. "Be kind to me. I'm
starving, and I really do want to jump up and take that food. But
at m y age I just ca n ' t do it any more. S o please, don't be mean;
j u st toss it down to me-now." She made her wordless appeal as
if know ing exactly how weak her master's character was. When
Shinako got that sad look in her eyes, it didn't bother S hozo very
much; but for some reason, when it was Lily, h e wa s strangely
overcome with pity.
She'd been such a cha rm ing and lively kitten-so when did
her eyes begin to take on that mournful look? It must have been
at the time she was about to give birth to her first litter, wh en
she poked her h ead out of the ca rton in the corner of the closet
and looked out helplessly at him. From that day on, her eyes
were shadowed with a sadness wh ich gradually d eepened as she
grew old er. Looking into Lily's eyes, Shozo som etimes found
himself wondering how it was that a li ttle animal, no matter how
clever, could have a ga ze that seemed so full of m eaning: was
she really th inking sad thoughts at such moments? The ca ts
he'd kept before, the three-colored one and Blacky, had never
once had this sort of poignant expression-p erhaps they were
too stupid fo r tha t. Yet it wa sn't that Lily had a part icularly
gloomy or m elancholy temp erament. When she was a kitten she
wa s very tomboyish, and even after becom ing a m other she
could hold her own in a fight; she was a spirited cat, even a bit
wild sometim es. B u t when she approached her master to be
stroked, or lay basking in the sun with a bored look on her face,
her eyes seemed full of a p rofound sadness. Sometim es they
even beca m e m oist, a s if with tears. When she was younger, that
m istiness in her gaze seemed to have something volup tuous

41
a bout it. B u t as she grew older, her bright e yes beca me cloudy,
and mucus formed in the ir corners. Her sadness was so evident
it was painful to see.
Perhap s this wasn't the way her eyes w ould naturally have
looked , but wa s ra ther the result of the envi ronment in which
she'd been ra ised. A fter all, p eople ' s faces and characters often
change when they've suffe red a lot, and w h y shouldn't it be
the same w ith cat s ? The m ore Shozo thought about it, the more
guilty he felt toward Lily. For a period of ten long years he'd
made her lea d a lonely, dismal existence w ith only h im self for
company. O f course he had loved a n d cared for her; but when he
had brought her home, it was just h e a n d his m other living
there, a far cry from the lively bustle o f the Shinkoken's kitchen .
A n d then, s ince h i s mother d i sliked her, Lily a n d h e h a d h a d to
s hare the lonely intimacy of a room u p stairs. A fter six years had
passed in this fa shion, S hinako e ntere d the household as his
bride; and this intruder began to treat Lily merely as a nuisance,
making her p os ition still more uncom fortable and hum iliating.
S ho zo felt even guiltier about s omething else he had done. He
s hould at least have let Lily keep a nd raise her kittens, but he'd
a dopted a p olicy of find ing homes for them a s soon as p ossible
a fter their birth, so that not one rema ined in the Ishii house.
D espite this, Lily kept o n having kitten s . S he had three litters
for every two of the average cat . Shozo had no way of knowing
who her partner was, but the kittens were o f m ixed breed, and
s in ce they retained something of the look o f a tortoiseshell,
there were quite a few w illing takers . Still, at times S hozo had to
spirit some of them o ff to the sea shore, or leave them under the
pine trees o n the Ashiya River embankment. It goes w ithout say­
ing that this was done out o f concern for his mother's feelings;
but S hozo himself believed that Lily's rap id aging m ight be due
in part to her giving birth so o ften. If h e couldn't p revent her

42
from becom ing pregnant, he could at least keep her from nurs­
ing so many kittens. It was from this point of view that he dealt
w ith the matter. And, truly, Lily grew visibly older each time she
had a litter. When Shozo saw her w ith her belly bulging like a
kangaroo's and that m ournful look in her eyes, he would say in a
miserable voice, " You stupid cat . I f you keep getting pregnant
all the time, you 'll be an old granny before you know it . " If it
had been a tomcat, he would have had it neutered, but the vet
warned him tha t the same sort of op era tion was d ifficult with
females. "Well , th en, how about doing it with X rays ? " The man
j u st laugh ed at this suggestion . Everything Shozo had done wa s
for Lily's sake; he'd had no inten t ion of treating her unkindly.
Yet it wa s undeniable that taking all of her offspring from her
like that had turned her into a lonely, u n fortunate ca t .
Looking back, Shozo realized tha t he h a d p u t Lily through a
lot. She had been a co m fort to him over the years but had not
had a plea sa nt life h erself. Part icularly in the last year or two,
with qua rrels between Shozo a nd h is wife, and money troubles
o ften crea ting household problems into which Lily was some­
how always drawn, the cat had beco me demoralized , confused
a bout her place in the fa m ily and uncerta in wha t to d o .
When h is mother u s e d to send for Shozo to c o m e a nd take
her home fro m Fukuko ' s house in I mazu, it was Lily ra ther than
Sh inako who tried to keep h im fro m going, cl inging to the skirts
of his kimono w ith a pleading look. And when he shook her off
and set out anyway, she followed along a fter him for a block or
two, as a dog would . Sh ozo, in turn , would try to com e ba ck
fro m Imazu as qu ickly a s possible out o f concern for the feel­
ings, not of Shinako, but of Lily. If he had to s tay away for two
or three days, it seemed to him on h i s return that she looked
even m ore forlorn than usual-or was it only his imagination?
Perhaps Lily wa s not long for this world . . . . The om inous

43
thought had o ften bothered him recently-he'd even seen her
d eath in several d rea m s . Shozo himself appea re d in them, sunk
in grief a s if h e 'd lost a parent, brother, o r sis ter, his face wet
with tears; and it occurred to him that, if he really did lose Lily,
he would be j ust a s hea rtbroken a s in those d rea ms. And as one
thought led to a nother, he felt fru stra tio n , shame, and a nger all
over aga i n : how could he have han d ed her over so tamely ?
Sometimes he was sure he felt her reproachful gaze fixed o n
h i m fro m s o m e corner or other. I t was t o o late n ow for regrets ,
o f cou rse, but how cou ld h e have been so cruel as to drive that
sad old creature away? Why did n 't he let her die here at home,
.
1n peace ?. . . .
( ( D o you know why Shinako wanted the cat so badly?" asked
Fukuko with an a ir of emba rrassment, as she looked at her hus­
band across the dinner table that evening. Shozo sat dejectedly
sipping at h is sake in the now strangely silent, desolate room .
( ( H m m m . . . . I d o n ' t know . . . , " he replied , his face ma sked
with incom p rehension.
( ( S he thinks if she has Lily, you 'll come over to see her. That's
it, don't you think ? "
( ( O f course n o t . What a stupid idea . . . . "
' ' I 'm sure that's it. It h it me today, for the first time . . . . And
don't you b e taken in by her tricks ! "
((No, no, d on ' t worry, I won 't be . "
"You 're sure about that n ow ? "
"There's n o n eed to make such a fu ss about it, " said Shozo,
giving a complacent little laugh and taking another sip of sake.

"Well , I 'll have to be on my way-lots of work to d o today."

Tsuka moto placed the basket in the en tra nce hall and left .
Shinako then carried it u p the steep, narrow s ta irs and entered

44
the sm all four-and -a-half-mat room on the second floor that she
had been assigned . She made sure the sliding door and glass win­
dow were shut tigh t , then set the basket down in the center of
the roo m and opened the lid . O ddly enough, Lily made no im­
mediate attempt to jump out of her cramped container. She
craned her n eck and began looking all arou nd the room in a
strange, wondering way. Only after some time did she venture
out with slow, cautious step s and begin to sniff here and there,
as most cats would in the same situatio n .
" Lily . " Sh inako tried call ing to h e r t w o o r three t i m e s , but
rece ived no m o re than a brief, cold glance in return. The cat
went to the door of the room and to the closet and in vestigated
their smells; then to the window, where she sniffed at each of
the panes o f glas s, one by one. Then it was the turn o f Shina­
ko' s sewing box, cushion, and yard stick, as well as some clothes
she had begun to sew. Everything in the room was given the
most thorou gh goin g-over. Meanwh ile, Shinako remembered the
parcel of chicken she'd j u s t been handed by Tsukamoto and
tried placing it, still in its paper wrapp ing, in Lily's path; but the
cat seemed uninteres ted , giving it the briefest o f sniffs before ig­
noring it. With the eerie, ru s tling sound that a eat's feet m ake on
tatami, she completed her investigation of the room, then went
back to the slid ing door and tried to open it with her paws.
( ( Lily, you're my cat now and you mustn't run off som ewhere ! "
Sh inako blocked t h e exit, s o Lily again began t o pace t h e room,
h er feet making that curiou s sound. She went to the window fac­
ing north, cl imbed onto a box of scraps and swatches of cloth
that happened to be there, and, stretching as h igh as she could,
looked outside.
The day before had been the last day o f S eptember, and it was
one of those bright autu m n morn ings. There was a sl igh tly cold
wind blowing, wh ich made the leaves of the five or six poplar

45
trees that s tood in the vacant lot behind the house tremble, giv­
ing glimp s es of th eir white undersides. B eyon d them could be
seen the p eaks of M t s . Maya and Rokko. It was a very different
view from the one u p s tairs in Ashiya, an area that was more
crowded with hou ses. What could Lily have b een feeling as she
gazed at it? Sh inako fou n d h erself recallin g how often she and
Lily had been left b ehin d , just the two of them, in the Ashiya
house. Shozo and his mother would b oth have gone off to Ima­
zu, not to return for some time, and Shinako would be bolting
down her lon ely meal of hot tea over cold rice when Lily, drawn
by the sounds of food being eaten, would com e n ear. Oh yes,
she'd forgotten to feed the cat- it must b e hungry . Feeling sorry
for the creature, she would p u t some of the tiny d ried fish used
for making s tock on the remains of her rice and place it before
her. Used to more elaborate fare than this, Lily gave no sign of
b eing happy or grateful, a n d ate o nly the merest bit. Then
Shinako would get an gry , and any affection she was b eginning to
feel for the cat would van ish. When n ight cam e, Shinako spread
the futon and waited for her husban d , who might or might not
be back that n ight. At the s ight o f Lily moun ting Shozo's quilts
and lazily stretching out full length, as if it were her righ t,
Shinako felt something akin to hatred, and roughly rou sted the
sleep ing cat and d rove her o ff.
So she had ven ted h e r spite on the cat a good d eal in the old
d ays; yet h ere they were , sharing a room together again-per­
hap s , after all, they had some link from a former life. When
Shinako had first settled in this secon d-floor room after being
d riven out o f the house in Ashiya, she too had gazed at the
mountains from that n o rthern window, full o f longing for her
h u sband. S o she could u n derstand , in a way, how Lily felt now,
looking out o f the same window. Suddenly S hinako felt on the
verge of tears.

46
 "Lily dear, com e over h ere and have some of th is . . . . " She
opened the clo set d oor and took out the various things she had
p repared . Tsuka moto's pos tcard had arrived the day before, so
th is morning she got up early and went to the da iry for fresh
m ilk and then rea d ied a few bowls and dishes, so as to be able to
enterta in her long-awaited and hon ored guest. Realizing that
this particular guest would also requ ire a litter-box, she had
rushed out the p revious n ight to buy a shallow pan. That was
easy; but unfo rtunately she had no sand, so she'd gone to a con­
s truction s ite some five or six blocks away and, under cover of
darkn ess, m ade off w ith some of the sand u sed in making con­
crete. Th is too was qu ietly s towed away in the closet.
Shinako took out the m ilk and a d ish of rice with d ried bonito
shavings over it and a sligh tly cracked and ch ipped lacquer bowl .
She poured the m ilk into the bowl and spread newspaper in the
cen ter of the roo m . Then sh e opened the packet fro m Shozo
and set out the boiled ch icken meat, in its ba mboo-shoot sheath
wrapp ing, toge ther w i th the other d elicacies . Fin ally she began
calling, " Lilyyy . . . L ilyyy, " clinking the d ish against the m ilk
bottle. The cat, however, remained p ressed aga in s t the win­
dowpane, pretending not to hear.
" Lily ! " Now S h inako was getting excited. " What are you look­
i n g at out there? Are n ' t you hungry?" According to Tsukamoto,
the cat had not been fed th i s morn in g becau se Shozo was wor­
ried she m ight suffer from motion sickness. If so, by now she should
be begging to be fed ; the first clink of a d ish or bowl should make
her come ru n n ing. B u t , on the con trary, she seemed not even to
h ear the sou n d , or to feel hu ngry at all. Was she that eager to
escape, then ? Sh inako had been told about Lily's celebrated
return from Amagasak i, so she knew she would have to keep a
sh arp eye on her for a while. All she wanted, and had exp ected,
was tha t th e cat would eat and do her business in the lit ter-box.

47
I f th is was L ily's attitude fro m th e very start, though, there was
a good chance she really would ru n away. Now, Shinako knew
that, in winning a n an imal's trus t, patience is absolutely neces­
sary; n on etheless, in h er eagerness to see Lily eat someth ing,
she found h erself dra ggin g the cat from the window by force,
carting h er to the m iddle of the room, and then push ing her
nose down over each of the waiting dishes in turn . Lily kicked
wildly, put out her cla ws, and began to scra tch, so Shinako had
to give u p a nd let her go. The cat returned to the window and
climbed up onto the box of scra p s .
" Lily! Look, h e re a re all your favorite foods, can't you see?"
Shinako stubbornly p u rsued the cat, going back and forth with
the chicke n , m ilk, and other th ings, p ressing each one against
Lily's nose. But today, at least, even the s mell o f her favorite
dishes had no power over her.
It wasn't as i f she had been given to a complete s tranger, a fter
all. The two o f them had lived under the same roof and shared
meals togeth e r for several years; sometimes they had been left
alone with each other for three o r fou r days, wh ile the rest were
off in I mazu. And now to be so cold to Shin ako! M a ybe she still
res ented Shinako for mis treating h e r occa sionally . . . . But this
only made th e woman an gry again . " Cheeky li ttle th ing! " If the
cat did man age to ru n away, not only would all her careful plans
have been in vain but, wors e , those p eople in Ash iya would be
clapping their hands for joy: "The j oke 's on h er," they'd say.
Anyway, it was a test o f endurance she was now engaged in
with the cat; there was noth ing to do but wait till the other's
resistance broke down. Why, with the food and l itter-box set
righ t in fron t of h er, th ere was n o way Lily could h old out. She
was s tubborn, all right; bu t she would get hun gry, and she'd
have to go to the toilet too.
But e nough o f this - it was going to be a bu s y day for Shinako

48
since there was a bit o f sewing tha t absolutely had to be done by
this evening, and she h a d n ' t touched it yet. Now, re membering,
she went and sat beside the sewing box. She took up a man's
pad ded silk kimono and set to work; but a fter barely an hour,
she bega n to worry about the cat again and to steal occa sional
glances at h er. Fi nally L ily moved to the fa r corner of the room
and crouched there, pressed against the wall, motionless. It was
as i f, a nimal though she wa s, she knew th ere could be no escape
a nd had given up even the thought o f it. She seemed like a man
who, h em m ed in by some great sorrow, has cast all hope aside
and res igned him self to d eath. It made Shinako unco m fortable
to watch her, and at last she quietly wen t over to make sure the
cat was still alive. S h e picked her up, ch ecked her brea thing, and
tried p oking her a b it . No ma tter what was done to her, Lily
o ffered no resistance; but her body was t ight and stiff to the
touch, like an abalone's. What a s tubborn cat she wa s ! With
things as they were, would she ever settle down and accept her
new home? Perhaps she was putting on an act, wa tch ing for
S hinako to let down her guard . She behaved as though she were
resigned to her fa te; but this was a cat who coul d, if need be,
open a heavy wooden door on her own, so if she were left to
herself she might well be able to slip away. Shi nako began to feel
that, as fa r as ea ting and excreting were concern ed, i t was not
only Lily she had to worry about but hersel f as well. How could
she go downstairs fo r m eals, or even to the toilet ?
When noon ca m e and h e r younger sister, Ha ts uko, called from
the bottom of the stairs to tell her that lunch was ready, Shinako
an swered and ro se to her feet. Th en for a while she wandered
restlessly arou nd the roo m . Finally she tied three m uslin wa ist­
cords together and wound them arou nd Lily, from shoulder to
armpit and then crosswise to the o ther side. She wound and re­
wound the long s trip of cloth several times, to make sure it would

49
be neither too tight nor too loose, b e fore tying a secure knot on
Lily' s back. Taking up the loose e n d , she began to walk around
the roo m a ga in until she h it on the idea o f fastening it to a light­
cord that h u n g down from the ceiling. The n , fre e from worry,
she went d ow nsta irs.
D uring lunch , though , she b eca me anxious again and, fin­
ish ing as q uickly a s she could, went back up stairs to have a
look. Lily, still trussed up, h a d made her way to the far corner,
where she crouched , hunched down even smaller than before .
Shinako had though t it m ight be better if she wasn't in the room
for a while. Left to h erself, Lily would eat h er foo d and probably
do her business as well. That was what Sh inako wa s hoping for;
o f course nothing o f the sort had happened . With a sharp click
of her tongue, she went a n d sat beside her sewing box, glaring
resentfully at the dishes o f food pointlessly placed in th e middle
of the room , and at the im maculate litter-box, in whose sand
there was not a trace of moisture. But it d id occur to Sh inako
that it would be unkind to leave the ca t trussed up like that for
too long, so she got up and crossed the room to untie the cord.
A fter doing so, she tried p etting Lily, cradling her in h er arms,
and urging her to eat something (without m uch exp ectation of
success). She also shifted the position o f the litter-box . She went
through the same motions any number o f times, until finally it
was dusk. Aroun d s ix o 'clock Hatsuko called from downstairs to
say that supper was read y , and S hinako stood up, cord in han d .
Thus the entire day w a s spent in d ealing with the cat, and as the
long autumn n ight drew on, she realized she still hadn't done
her day's sewing.
At eleven, Shinako tidied the room and then tied up Lily. She
put h er to bed on top o f two thick cushions and p laced h er foo d
and litter-box nearby. She then spread her own bedding, turn ed
out th e l ight, and tried to go to sleep . But as she lay there ,

50
various though t s ran through her head : if only Lily would eat
somethin g-a bit of ch icken, a little m ilk, anything-by morn­
ing . . . . If she could open her eyes tomorrow and find one of the
d i shes e m p ty, or the sand in the box j ust a little wet, how happy
she'd be! As wishful though ts like th ese kept Shinako wide
awake, she s tra ined in the darkne s s to hear Lily's brea thing; but
there was absolute silence, not one sou n d . It wa s so quiet, in
fa ct, that it got on her nerves, and she ra ised her head from the
p illow. There was a fa in t glow near the window, but unfortunate­
ly the corn er where Lily should have been sleeping wa s pitch­
dark. Sudd enly re membering, she groped above her head and
found the cord tha t wa s stretched diagonally fro m the ceiling.
Giving it a tug, she was rea s sured- there was som ething at the
other en d . Just to make certa in, though , she turned on the light.
Yes, Lily wa s there all right, but her scrunched-d own, hu nched­
over form looked as sulky as it had in the daytime. Her food and
litter-box too were untouche d . Shinako turned out the ligh t in
disgust. Soon she began to d rowse off; and when, a little later,
she awoke, the day had dawned. There, on top of the sand in the
litter-box, was a la rge, u n m istakable turd ; and the d ishes of milk
and rice were completely empty. "Wonderful ! " cried Sh inako . . .
waking from the d rea m .
Was it, th en, really such a back-breaking task t o win over a
ca t ? O r wa s Lily a particularly stubborn ca se? If she were still an
in nocent little kitten, no d oubt she'd come around easily. But an
old cat wa s like a n old human being-it was probably a terrible
shock for it to be taken to new surroundings with d i fferent wa ys
and custo m s . The shock m ight even kill it. Sh inako had taken on
the ca re of this cat, wh ich she didn't even like, fro m a particular
m otive; she hadn't rea lized it would be this m uch trouble. She
seemed doomed to suffer more than her share, even to the ex­
tent of losing sleep over an animal that had been, in a sense , her

51
e nemy in the past. Yet, when she thought o f the link that bound
them together, her anger fad ed; and she felt, rather, that both of
them were to be p itied. After all, when she had fi rst left the
house in Ashiya to come here, she'd had a miserable t ime, spend­
ing her days alone and depressed in this small up stairs room .
She had wept every day a nd every n ight, when her s ister and
brother-in-law were n 't watching . S h e had had n o energy for t wo
or three days and had hardly eaten a thing. S o it was only natural
that Lily too s hould m is s Ashiya terribly. After being loved and
p etted so m uch by S h ozo, it would b e p ositively u ngrateful of
her not to feel that way. A n d to b e chased from your comfort­
able, fam iliar home and taken to live with someon e you didn't
really like, at L ily's age- it was bou n d to be painful. If S hinako
really wanted to make Lily feel at home, she would have to con­
s ider her p resent feelings, and try to give her a sense of security
and trust. Anyone would be upset if they were forced to eat
when they were thoroughly depressed. Yet, by shoving the
litter-box at her, S hinako had in e ffect said " I f you ' re not going
to eat, then at least p is s , damn it! " It really wasn't very kind of
her. And even if that could be overlooked, she had certainly
gone too far in tying L ily up. If you want someone to trust you,
you have to begin by showing trust in them. Lily could only have
been more frightened a fter that-even a ca t would hardly feel
much like eating when all t russed up . Probably it made uri­
nating more d i ffi cult, too.
From the very n ext day S h inako stopp ed tying the cat up. If
she ra n a way, she ra n a way, and there was a n end to it . From
time to time she would leave Lily by herself for five or ten .
minutes; she still crouched stubbornly in her corner, but for­
tu nately seemed to have n o urge to escap e . However, it turned
out that S hinako had let her guard down too soo n . It happened
when she went down sta irs for half a n h our, thinking to enjoy a

52
n ice, leisurely lunch for a change . Sud denly she heard a sound
from the second fl oor, and when she ru shed back up to see, she
found the sliding d oor open about five inches . Lily m u st have
gone out into the corridor, passed through the six-ma t room that
faced south, and then ju mped out onto the roof fro m a window
tha t had, unluckily, been left ope n . There wa sn't a t race o f her
now.
Shinako wa s on the point of giving a very loud shriek, but
nothing ca m e out. When she realized tha t all her painful e ffort s
had been for naught, that in fa ct Lily had esca ped, all thoughts
of pursuit left her. She fel t almost rel ieved, as if a burden had
been lifted fro m her. Obviously she wa s no good a t dealing with
an imals, and the ca t would have run off sooner or later anyway;
so perha p s i t was best to get it over with right away. Actually,
she fel t more relaxed now, and no doubt her work would go
m ore s m oothly. She'd be able to sleep more easily at n ight too.
Even so, she went out to the vaca n t lot behind the house and
searched here and there a m ong the weeds, call ing "Lilyyyy . . .
Lilyyyy . . . . " B u t th ough she did this for a while, she knew in
her heart that Lily wouldn't be wa sting her time there in the
back lot.

The n igh t Lily ra n away, and the next n igh t, and the next,
Sh inako, fa r from en joying a good nigh t's res t, wa s unable to
sleep at all . Perhaps because she wa s a tem peramen tal wo 01 an,
she often found i t hard to sleep, despite being only twenty-six.
When she wa s working a s a maid, i f something un plea sant hap­
pened, she j u s t couldn't get to sleep; and for a long time after
moving to her sister's house, she'd been getting no m ore than
three or four hours' rest each n igh t , probably because the roo m
wa s n e w to h e r . A t l a s t , about t e n d a y s ago, s h e h a d begun t o be

53
able to sleep a little better. Why, then , had insomnia set in
again, ever since that n ight? Was it beca u se she was concen­
tratin g too much on her sewin g, trying to catch up on the work
she'd neglected on account of Lily? The long h ours she was put­
ting i n left h er shoulders stiff and h er n erve s on edge.
On top of everything else, Sh inako wa s begin n in g to suffer
from the cold, even though it wa s still only the begin n i n g of Oc­
tober. She had alwa y s been sen sitive to cold weather, and now
h er feet p articularly bothered her; even a fter she got un der the
qu ilts, the chilly feeli n g h u n g on. S he suddenly remembered
how h er h u sband's cooln e s s to ward her had b egun . It wa s en tire­
ly due to her proble m with the cold. S hozo, who slep t d isgusting­
ly well, would be a sleep within five m inutes of gettin g into bed,
o nly to be abruptly woken b y the icy touch of S h inako ' s feet. It
infuriated him, and h e would order her to " sleep over there . "
Eventually, they got into the habit o f sleepi n g separately, and in
this th e ir q uarrel s over the use of a hot-water bottle in cold
weather also played a part. The rea son was that S hozo ' s con stitu­
tion wa s j u st the oppo site of his wife' s-he always felt twice a s
warm a s the average perso n . H i s feet e sp ecially felt hot, and h e
clai m ed he couldn 't sleep i f they didn't p rotrude a b i t from the
bottom of the quilts, even in winterti m e . S o he h ated getting
into a bed that had been warmed w ith a hot-water bottle, and
wouldn 't stay put for even five m i n utes. O f course this wa sn't
the funda mental reason for the d i sh armon y between the two;
but, all the sa me, the u n den iable differences in their physical
makeup provided a good e xcuse for h u sband and wife to sleep
a part .
S h inako was now sufferi n g fro m a terrible stiffn e s s that spread
fro m the right side of h er n eck down to h er shoulder. S he tried
m a ssaging the sore area, switchi n g fro m sleeping on her right
side to her left, a nd cha nging the po sition of h er p illow. Every

54
year during the change o f sea sons from summer to fall she wa s
both ered by pain from a bad tooth in h er lower righ t jaw, and
begin ning last night she had felt a few twinges . Indeed, she had
heard that Rokko was fa r col der than Ash iya in win ter, with the
wind s blowing straight down from the mountains . Even now, in
October, the nights were quite cold, so although the two towns
were located in the same general area between Osaka and Kobe,
Sh inako felt as if she had come to some d istant mountain coun­
try. Curling up like a shrim p , she rubbed her feet, slightly numb
from the cold, together. In her Ashiya days sh e had begun warm­
ing the bed around the end of October (even if it meant quarrel­
ing with her hu sband); but with weather like this, she m ight not
be able to wait till then this year. . . .
Giving up any h op e of getting to sleep , Sh inako switched on
the light and picked up last month's copy of The Housewife 's
Friend, wh ich she'd borrowed from her sister. As sh e turned on
h er side a n d began reading, she noticed it was exactly 1 :00 A.M.

Sh ortly a fterward she heard the steady sound of ra in, first ap­
proach ing from some d is tance , then passing d irectly overhead.
" Oh, a shower, " she said to h ersel f, as more ra in drew near. As it
passed over the house, there was a pa ttering on the roof, wh ich
gradually fa ded away. Th en the ra in came on again . But wh ere
wa s Lily now, Shinako wond ered . . . . I f she'd made it back to
Ashiya , tha t wa s fine; but if she had lost her way and was caught
by th e ra in on a night like this, she'd be soaked to the skin.
Sh inako had not yet actually informed Ts ukamoto o f Lily's dis­
appearance, and it had been weighing on h er m ind ever since
that nigh t . She knew of course that it would have been better to
let him know sooner; but sh e had put it off, vexed at the thought
of the sl igh tl y sa rca s tic resp onse she could exp ect from h i m : " Ex­
cuse me, ma'a m , but Lily's been back for some time now, so you
don't n eed to worry yourself any longer. You've gone to a lot of

55
trouble over her, and I s upp ose you won't be needing h er any
more now. "
O n the other hand, if Lily had gone back to A sh iya, surely
they wouldn't have waited for word fro m Shinako, b ut would
have contacted h er from their side by now. Yet there had b een
no message, so perhaps Lily wa s wand ering lost somewhere. It
had taken her exactly one week to get back from Amaga saki,
but Rokko wasn't nearly as far from Ashiya as Amagasaki wa s ,
and she'd b e e n brought there only three d a y s before, s o s h e
shouldn't have l o s t h er w a y . O nly, Lily's a g e had begun t o tell on
h er recently : she was not as quick-witted a s she had been, and
h er movements were slower. It m ight well take her four days
now to make a j ourney she used to do in three. Even so, she
should arrive sa fely back in A shiya by tom orrow or the next day
at the latest. Then just think how happy those two in Ashiya
would be-and how they'd gloat! Why, Tsukamoto h imself
would probably join in the chorus : "Now look at that. Not only
was she j ilted by her h usband, but by h is cat too ! " Oh yes . . .
and no doubt h er sister and brother-in-law would b e thinking
the same thing, down there on the first floor. In fact, everyone
who heard about it woul d - she'd b e a laughingstock.
The shower passed over the roo f again w ith its patter of rain­
fall, and then th ere was a sudden thud, of something bumping
against the window. "The wind ' s come up . Oh, Lord . " But just
as the though t crosse d her mind, something that seemed a bit
too heavy for it to b e the wind banged twice in succes sion
a gain st the glass, and Shinako h eard a faint " meow" from
somewhere. Surely not now, a t this tim e o f night . . . it couldn't
b e . . . . Startled , and thinking it must be h er nerves, she strained
her ears . " M eow . " There it was again; and, right a fterward,
another bang a gainst the window. S hinako j umped up and
rushed to open the curtain. Now she clearly heard a " meow"

56
from j us t outside; and with another loud bang a shadowy black
something fl it ted by. Wa s it true, the n ? . . . Could it really be
so? . . . She knew that voice. She hadn't heard it even once dur­
ing Lily's stay with her in th is second -floor room, but she re­
membered it well fro m the days in Ashiya.
Hurriedly unlocking and opening the window, she leaned out
and scanned the dark rooftop by what l ight there wa s from the
overhead lamp in her roo m . For a moment everything wa s
blackn ess. She supposed that Lily had climbed onto the small
half-balcony with its ra il ing and, m eowing, kn ocked at the win­
dow. That would account for the banging sound and the fl eeting
black sha dow a m o m ent ago; but as soon as the window wa s
opened from inside, the cat m ust have run off som ewhere.
( ( Lilyyyy . . . ," Shinako called out into the darkn ess, taking
ca re not to wake the couple down s ta irs . The roof tiles were wet
and glea m ing, so she had been right about the shower of a few
m inutes before; yet the clea r n ight sky with its twinkling stars
made it seem unreal now . On the broad, pitch-black flanks of
Mt. Maya, which rose directly before her, the lights of the cable
car had long since been extinguished, but some light could be
seen in the hotel perched on the summit. Placing one knee on
the low balcony, she leaned preca riously out over the roof and
called ( ' Lilyyyy . . . " again. There ca m e a ( ( m eow" in reply, and
two glowing eyes m oved slowly across the tiles in Shinako's direc­
tion.
( ( L 1"l y.I "
( (M eow. "
( ( L 1" l y.I "
((M eow. "
Again and again she called her name, and each time Lily
an swere d . Th is had n ever happened before. The cat seemed to
know who wa s really fond o f her and who felt a secret d islike;

57
thus, when Sh ozo called, she always an swered, but Sh inako she
comple tely ignore d . Tonight, however, not only did she take th e
trouble to a nswer any nu mber of times, but her voice gradually
beca me extra ord inarily sweet and coquettish . She would come
d irectly ·un d er the ra ilin g, looking up a t Shinako with her
gree n ish, glowing eyes and swaying a little from side to side;
then slip some d istance away . No d oubt that p articular tone of
voice was mean t partly a s an ap ology for past rudeness to a p er·
son she h erself hadn't much l iked but whose favor she was hop·
ing for from n ow on. The cat was d eterm ined to m ake Shinako
un derstand that she'd had a complete change o f h eart and was
now looking forward to enj oying the lady's patronage and protec·
tion.
As for Sh inako, she was as hap p y as a ch ild at receiving such
gentle, friendly respo n s e s from the cat for the very first time.
But, though she kept on calling to h er, every a tte mpt she made
to catch hold o f h er ended in failure. She d ecided to move away
fro m the window for a wh ile to see what would happen, and,
sure enough , Lily at last leapt n imbly into the roo m. Then , to
Shinako's utter astonishment, she walked stra ight over to her as
she sat on the bedd ing and p laced her forep aws s quarely in the
woma n ' s lap .
What could this mea n ? . . . A s Sh inako sat there amazed, Lily
looked up at her with a gaze full of sadness a n d , pressin g herself
again s t her breast, p u sh ed with her forehead at the collar of the
woma n 's flannel n ightgown. Shinako fou n d h erself rubbing her
cheek again s t Lily's head; and before long the ca t s tarted l icking
at her chin, h er ears , the tip of h er nose, around her mouth ­
everywhere. Shin ako h a d heard p eople s a y that when a cat was
alone with its owner, it would sometimes kiss and rub its face
against that p erson , showing its love in much th e same way a s
huma n s d o . W a s this what they were talk ing about? When

58
Shozo was off enj oying h imsel f with L ily where no one could see
them, wa s th is wha t they were doing? Shinako smelled the
p ecul ia r, dusty odor of cat fur and felt all over her face th e prick­
ly, tickl ing friction of a ca t's rough tongue against h er skin . She
felt a sudden surge o f love and, crying "Lily," held her tightly
in her arm s . In the m id s t of her emotion, though, she noticed
someth ing glea ming col d a n d wet here and th ere on Lily's fur.
Ah, so sh e d id get ca ught in that ra in just now . . . . Now Shina ko
u n ders tood .
All the same, w h y d id Lily choose to come back here, rather
tha n go to Ash iya ? Presumably she wa s hea ding for home when
she escaped, but then los t her wa y and so turned back. To
wa nder fo r three days trying to reach a place less than ten miles
away only to give up and come back seemed awfully feeble for a
ca t like L ily; but p erh aps the poor th ing had becom e th at
d ecrep it. Her sp irit may have been as s trong as ever, wh ich wa s
why she made h er escape; but with her senses of s ight and smell
and her memory functioning at only half their former levels, she
wouldn't have been able to tell how sh e ' d been brought from
Ash iya , wh ich roa d s she'd taken, from what d irection . Wa nder­
ing hither a n d th ither, comple tely lost, she must at last have d e­
cided to turn back. In the ol d days, if sh e had made up h er mind
to get somewhere, she would have plunged ahead, come hell or
h igh wa ter. Now, however, her confidence was gone; and if she
en tered an area she didn't know, she lost her nerve and her legs
began to t remble. Proba bly, then, Lily hadn't been able to get
very fa r a fter all, and had been hanging about the Rokko area
fo r some time. I f so, she could very well have been h iding
somewhere nea r S h inako's secon d-floor window . . . last n ight,
the night before . . . p eering in, wo ndering if she should ask to
be taken in again or not. No doubt she had spent a good long
time crouched there in th e da rkn ess ton igh t, th inking about it,

59
and had d ecided to let out that m eow and knock at the window
because the light in the roo m had suddenly been turned on j ust
as it began to rain .
At a n y rate, it was good that she had co m e back. O f course
she'd done so because of the d iffi culties she'd encou ntered, but
at least it showed she d id n ' t regard Sh inako as a total s tran ger.
And wasn't it a kind of sixth sense that had made Sh inako
h ers el f switch on the light and read a magazine at such an unusu­
ally late hour on this p articular nigh t ? Not only that-her inabil­
ity to sleep for the past three n ights must have been due to some
vague sense that L il y would return . This thought made the tears
come, and she gave the cat a nother tight hug: " Oh , Lily, Lily . . . .
You mustn't go away again, ever! " Throughout all this, the cat
remained unu sually quiet, appare ntly content to be h ugged for
as long as Shinako desire d .
T h e w o m a n felt t h a t s h e could n o w tell t o a n uncanny degree
what this s ilent old cat with her m ela ncholy eyes was feel ing.
"I know you ' re h ungry, but it's too late tonight. If I ru m ­
maged around in the kitchen, I suppose I could fi n d so mething;
but it's not m y house, you see, so you'll j u s t have to wait till
tomorrow morn ing . "
With each word , Shinako rubbed h e r cheek against Lily's
head; then at last she set her down and closed the window, which in
her e xcitement she had forgotten to do. She p iled cu shions for a
bed a n d took fro m the closet (where it had sat unused since that
terrible n ight) Lily's l itter-box. All this time Lily was following
her a rou n d , entwining h ers elf between Shinako's legs . If the
wo man s tood still even for a moment, Lil y ran to her and, bend- .
ing h er h ea d to one side, rubbed the base o f her ear against
Shinako' s cal f.
"Yes, yes, I know . . . . Now co m e over h ere a n d go to sleep . . . .
That's right," Shinako crooned as she carried Lil y to her

60
cu sh ions. Then she hurriedly turned out the ligh t and crawled
into her own bed. Within less than a m inute, though , she
s m elled that fa m iliar odor of du sty fu r somewhere near her
p illow; and a soft, velvety, fu rry thing began s ilently working its
way under the top quilt. Lily pushed with her head , burrowing
down to the foot of the bed wh ere she roamed about for a wh ile
before cl imbing back u p . Putting her h ead inside the breast of
Sh inako' s n ightgown, she s topped m oving, and after a while
began to purr, very lou dly and hap p ily.
Ah yes - S h inako had often heard just this sort of purring from
Lily while in Shozo's bed ; lying to one side, listening to it, she
had felt inten sely j ealou s . If the purring seemed louder than
usual tonight, d id tha t m ean Lily was in an especially good
m ood? Or was it j u s t that it sounded louder when it was right
next to you in your own bed? Feel ing Lily's cold, wet nose and
the curiously soft and p u ffy pads of h er feet against her breast
now for the first time, S hinako' s reaction was m ixed-it fel t
odd, yet made her hap py. Fu m bling in the darkness, she began
to stroke Lily's n eck, at wh ich the cat purred even louder and
occasion ally gave a sud den little bite to the t ip of Shinako 's in­
dex finger, hard enough to leave teeth marks . Although she'd
never experienced th i s before , she knew it was a sign of intense
p lea sure and excitement.
From the next day it was clear that Lily had becom e fa st
friends with S h inako and trusted her from the heart. Milk, dried
bonito shavings over rice- everything, in fact, was consumed
with pleasure; and several times each day the cat' s dropp ings ap­
p eared in the sand o f the litter-box. As a resul t , the four-and ­
a-half-m at room was always filled with an unpleasant odor,
but Shinako found tha t it revived in her variou s unexpected
m emories. She felt as if the good old days in Ash iya had
somehow returned . It was only natural: the air in the house

61
th ere had been h eavy with this same smell from m orning to
n ight. Every slid ing screen, p illar, wall, and ceiling in that house
was permeated with it. H a d n ' t she spent clo s e to four years
together with her h u sba nd and m oth er-in-law, putting u p with
all sorts of irritating and p a in ful things, and breath ing in this
same s m ell all th e while ? And yet, though at the time she had
cursed the a w ful stink o f it, what sweet memories it now
brought back to h er! Then, she had hated the cat in p art
because of the s m ell; now, she loved it all the more for the sa m e
reason. From th is p o in t on , Shinako slep t w ith Lily i n h er arms
almost every n igh t and a sked herself how she could ever have
h ated th is lovely, d oc ile little creature. The woman she had
been came to seem to h er now a very mean and nasty s ort of p er­
son-a real monster, in fact .

It is n ecessary to say a few words h ere about Shinako's

motives for sending th at d isagreeable letter concern ing the cat
to Fukuko and th en p ressing th e matter so insisten tly via Tsu­
kamoto . To be p erfectly h onest, th ere was an element of mal­
ice and sh eer p leasure in making trouble, as well as the fa int
hope that Shozo m ight pay a v is it to Rokko, d rawn by Lily's
presence . But her real p urpose was connected not with these im­
med iate prospects and pleasures, but with something much fu r­
ther down the lin e : in half a year, p erhap s , or one or two years at
the latest, Shinako foresaw serious trouble between Shozo and
Fukuko . H er own marriage to Shozo had been a mistake, into
which sh e'd been led by Tsukamoto's p ersuasive words as go­
between . Now, when she considered what a lazy, good-for­
nothing, w eak-willed man h e was, she realized it may h ave been
all to the goo d , being cast asid e by someone like th at. I f, even so,

62
she felt hum iliated and unable to resign herself to what had hap­
pened, it was because she knew that the two of them, man and
wife, had not grow n tired o f each other but that a th ird party
had successfully sche m ed to d rive her out. Yet if she came righ t
out and said this, Tsuka moto and others would th ink, even if
not directly say to her, tha t it was her vanity speaking: "Of
course it's true that rela t ion s between you and your mother­
in-law were n ' t perfect," she imagined them saying, "but then
th ings weren't going all that well with your husband either, were
they? You said he wa s an idiot, and trea ted him like a ba ckward
ch ild ; he sa id you were selfish and dom ineering, and that you
depressed h i m . Watch ing the two of you qua rrel all the t ime,
anybody could tell you 'd never get along. Anyway, if your hus­
band really loved you, he would n't have taken another woman
on the s ide, no matter how much he wa s pushed by some ' third
par t y. ' "
But if people said or thought that, it was because they didn't
un ders tand Shozo's character. As Sh inako saw it, i f he were
pushed hard enough by that "th ird party, " he would have no
choice in the matter. He wa s easygoing-perhap s " sp ineless"
would be the better word : if someone told him this person �as
better than that one, he would readily go along with it. But he
certainly wa s n ' t the type to fi nd himself a new woman a nd then
get rid of his p res ent wife-he d id n ' t have tha t much gu mption.
Shinako had had no illu sions tha t he was madly in love with her,
but then again she had never felt disliked either; so i f the people
a round him ha d n ' t put the idea into his h ead and set the whole
thing in m otion, her marria ge would never have broken u p . All
h e r t roubles were due to scheming a r rangements on the part
o f O-rin , Fukuko, and Fukuko's fa ther. Deep inside her there
sm old ered a feeling of resentment at having had her ma rriage

63
virtually h acked apart. A m ore m a ture p erson might have re­
s igned h erself to what had happened, but Shinako sim ply could
not let things stand as they were.
B ut if she felt so s trongly, why couldn't she have done some­
thing a bout it at the tim e when, as she vaguely s en sed h er­
s el f, O-rin and th e others were beginning to act ? . . . Or why
didn't she at least put up m ore o f a fight when she was finally on
the verge of being kicked out? People said she should b e a good
match for her m other-in-law when it cam e to plotting a nd plan­
ning: why, then, did she j ust furl her flag and q ui etly leave
without a s truggle? It wasn't at all l ike her usual, stubborn s el f.
H owever, she had m otives of her own for acting as she did.
Th e truth was, she found h erself in her p resent s ituation be­
cause at first she had been a bit too careless. S h e had underes­
t imated the danger to her m arriage, assuming that O-rin n ever
really intended to accept this oversexed former j uvenil e d elin­
quent as a w i fe for her son; and feeling sure as well that fickle,
" easy" Fukuko would not p ut up w ith a man like Shozo for very
long. Though she m a y have been a l ittle off in her calculation s ,
h e r view t h a t the t w o o f t h e m wouldn't s t a y together long w a s
unchanged. O f course Fukuko was y o u n g and had the kind o f
looks m e n liked . S h e had no real ed ucation t o boast o f, b u t s h e
had attended a girls ' s econdary school for a year o r two. M o s t i m ­
portant o f all, she would bring with her a con s iderable dowry.
Shozo could h a rdly b e expected to throw down h i s chopsticks at
this carefully p repared feast; and no doubt h e would consider
h imself a very l ucky m a n , for a while.
But Fukuko wo uld soon d iscover that Shozo could not satisfy
her, and would lose no time in finding others who could . No,
Fukuko was certa inly not a on·e-m a n woman; she wa s already
notorious for that, and things would be n o different now. When
it beca m e too obvious, even ea sygoing S hozo would have to say

64
something, and O- rin herself would be forced to give up on her.
Even i f Shozo was blind to all this, su rely O-rin, with her reputa­
tion for shrewd n ess, could not have fa iled to see what would hap­
pen. Greed , however, had played a big part in O-rin 's th inking
on this subj ect, so she may have felt com p elled to do wha tever
wa s necessary.
Shinako decided it wa s poin tless to put up wha t would almost
certa inly be a fu t ile s truggle; it seem ed better to let her enemies
win this one battle, and then quietly la y plans fo r the future.
She had by no m eans given up; but she was ca reful not to
b reathe a word o f her real feelings even to Tsuka moto. Outward ­
ly, she tried to appear m iserable, so tha t everyone would sym­
pa thize with her, wh ile in her hea rt she wa s d etermined to get
back i n to the Ash iya house again, no matter wha t. She'd show
them all! It wa s this hop e tha t kept her going th rough every­
th ing.
In add ition, it must be adm itted tha t, though Shinako though t
S hozo completely un reliable, she couldn't b ring herself to hate
h im . Incapable of deciding things for him self, h e wavered on,
turn ing now to the right , now to the left, according to what
the people arou nd him sa i d . In this business, too, he was obvi­
ously being man ipula ted by that bunch . When she looked at it
in this way, she couldn't help feel ing sorry for him, and con­
cerned - it wa s like watch ing a toddler trying to walk on his ow n .
And, after all, there was som ething bas ically innocent and child­
l ike about h i m . If you thought of him as a normal male ad ult,
his beha vior wa s o ften i n furiating; but handle him like some­
one not qu ite on your own level, and the m ild, agreeable, charm­
ing side of his nature ca m e to the fore . Shinako had found
herself helplessly bound up with him in this kind o f relationship,
and had poured into it every item o f value she had brought with
her in her troussea u . Th en she'd been tos sed out, a fter being vir-

65
tually stripped nake d . It was because she had done so much for
the Ishii h ouseh old that she was so full of resentment. Hadn't
she for the past one or two years p rovided more than h alf the in­
come for th e fam ily, " weak woma n " though she was ? Fortu nate­
ly for them all, she was good w ith a n eedle and thread and had
taken in s ewing from the neigh bors. Working far into the night,
she had managed somehow to tide them over. Without her work
and income, wha t would O-rin have done, for all her lofty airs ?
O-rin was d isliked throughout the neighborhood, and certainly
n o one who knew his character trusted Shozo, so the local
shopkeep ers would have clamored for payment o f the mass of
overdue bills . Only p eople's sympathy for Shinako and her dif­
ficult position allowed the l shiis to make it through the season
for settling bills at the end of the yea r.
And yet that u n grate ful mother and son, the pair of th em,
blind e d by greed, had dragged in a woman like that! No doubt
they thought they'd been very clever, exchanging their dumb ox
for a fine-looking h orse; but let them just wait and see whether
that woman could ru n the household p ro perly. B ringing a dowry
with her was all well and good, but it would probably make her
even more selfish and willful as a wife, wh ile Shozo would get
even lazier with her income to count on. In the end all three
members of the new fa mily would be disap pointed, and this
would give rise to endless quarrel s . Then Shozo would at last
recogn ize th e real worth o f his previous wife : " S hinako was
never slo p p y like this . . . . Remember that time when she did
such-an d-such, or that other time when she d id so-and -so? . . . "
And not only Shozo-wh y, even O-rin would come to admit her
mistake and regret what she'd done. As for that other woman,
a fter throwing the household into total confusion, she'd just up
and ru n o ff. It was clear to Shinako that that ' s how the sorry tale
would end; she could guara n tee it. And to think that the lshiis

66
couldn't see it-some p eople were so bl ind! Laugh ing scornfully
to herself, she had made up her m ind sim ply to wait. At the
same time, p rudent as always, she thought of hedging her bets
by keep ing Lily with her as she waited .
I n terms o f formal education, Shinako had always fel t a bit in­
ferior to Fukuko, who'd at least had the advan tage of a year or
two of secondary school . B u t if it ca m e to a true test of wits, she
wa s co nfident she could beat either Fukuko or O -rin; and when
she ca m e up with the idea of getting hold of Lily, she wa s really
quite pleased with her own cleverness. For if she had Lily, she
wa s sure that when Shozo thought of the ca t, he would also,
unavoidably, think of her; and his pity for Lily would un­
con sciou sly turn into sympathy for Sh inako as well. Thus a kind
of e motional link would be ma inta ined ; and when his relations
with Fukuko began to sour, his though ts would turn with love
and longing to Lily, wh ich also meant to his former wife. Hear­
ing that she had still not remarried and wa s leading a lonely life
with only the cat for company, most p eople would feel sorry for
her; and Shozo too could hardly take it a m iss. Th is would prob­
ably reinforce h is d islike of Fukuko; and so Sh inako, without do­
ing a thing, would succeed in breaking up their ma rriage and
hastening her ow n rema rriage to Shozo . . . . . . . . Well, it would
be wonderful if things worked out so p erfectly for her-and she,
at least, expected that that's the way it would be. Th e only p rob­
lem was whether the p eople in Ash iya would m eekly hand over
the ca t . Shinako was co nfident that everyth ing would be all
right, however, if she could s i mply fa n her rival's j ealousy a bit.
Th e letter she had sent Fukuko wa s therefore written with great
care and calculation; it wa s n ' t j u st an exercise in spitefulness or
troublemaking. Those p oor fools in Ash iya , though , couldn't
begin to understand her real rea sons for asking for a cat she
didn't even like. When she though t of them making a grea t,

67
childish fu s s about it, a nd bothering the ir hea d s with silly
theories and su spic io n s about her motives, she felt an irrepress­
ible sen se o f her own superiority.
S ince that w a s th e way things stood, her d isapp ointment
when the precio u s cat ran away and her d elight when she u nex­
p ectedly returned were equally intense; and essentially these
reactio n s would seem to have stemmed from Sh inako' s well­
calculated long-term strategy rather than from any real a ffection
for Lily . Yet their life together there o n the second fl oor since
the n ight of the eat's return had produced some very u n ex­
pected results. Night a fter n igh t, a s she lay in bed with this furry
little creature in her arms, Shinako would be a ma zed at how gen­
u inely lovable a cat could be and wonder how she could have
failed to realize it in the old days. The thought troubled her con­
science and filled her with remorse. In her A sh iya days, she had
conceived a d islike for the cat from the very begin n ing, which
made her blind to Lily' s charms . The reason for her d i slike was
o f course j ealousy; because o f that, Lily at her most winning
seemed merely hateful. She hated the cat for crawling into her
husba n d ' s bed o n cold n ights, and resented S hozo for allowing
it. Yet when she thought back on it now, she realized there was
nothing to hate, nothing to resent. Had n't she herself been
suffering a lot fro m the cold lately, sleeping alone? A cat, having
a higher bod y temp erature than a huma n , would obviously be
even more sen sitive to the cold. They say cats s u ffer from the
heat o nly on the three hottest days in midsummer. Was n 't it
perfectly natural, then, that a n eld erly cat l ike Lily would be
drawn to the warmth of so meon e ' s bed in the middle o f au­
tumn? And, more to the point, how won d erfully warm the bed
seemed to S h inako herself, now that she \Va s slee p ing with Lily .
I n other years, she would have been unable to sleep without a
hot-water bottle by now; but th is year she felt not the slightest

68
bit cold, and had n o need for one-and all thanks to Lily! Night
by n ight, the prosp ect of doing without her was becom ing more
unth inkable.
Before, Shinako had also disliked Lily for her sel f-cen tered­
ness, for changing her attitude depending on whom she was deal­
ing with-in short, for being two- faced . But all of that wa s due
to her own lack of love. Cats have a wisdom of their own­
they und erstand at once how someone feels about the m . Lily's
behavior p roved it: as soon as Shi nako changed her attitude and
began to feel real a ffect ion for her, the ca t ca m e right back and
behaved in the most friendly way possible. Hadn't Lily in fact
sen sed the change in Sh inako 's feelings more qu ickly than she
herself had ?
Sh inako knew that she'd never felt or shown such tender a ffec­
tion towa rd anyone till now-not to a human being, and cer­
tainly not to a cat . One rea son wa s that O-rin and other p eople
had told her so o ften that she was hardhearted, she had come to
bel ieve it herself. B ut when she cons idered how much trouble
she had put herself to recently for Lily's sake, she was surprised,
won dering where these warm and gentle feelings had been
hid ing all this tim e . She remembered how amazed she used to
be to see S hozo doing everyth ing for the cat himself: planning
her da ily m eals; going to the beach to get fresh sand for the
l itter-box every two or three days; brushing her and looking for
fleas whenever he had spare time; always alert for any signs of
a dry nose, o r a wa tery s tool, or loss o f fur. I f there was the
slightest abnormality, the appropria te medicines were admin­
istered. Watching him being so attentive, Sh inako would get
more and more bad-te m p ered : " Look at that lazybones rush ing
arou nd taking care of his ca t ! " Yet now it was she who was do­
ing all these things for Lily. Moreover, she was doing them in
someone else's house. She had agreed to pay her sis ter and

69
brother-in-law for the cost o f her own meals, so she wasn't in the
humiliating p osition of a total dependent; still, she was keep ing
the cat in an environ ment where she h erself didn't feel com­
pletely at home.
If it had b een her own house, she could have foraged in the
kitchen for leftovers to g ive Lily; but here it was impossible , so
she either had to save her own food for the cat or go to the mar­
ket especially to get s omething for h er. H e r s ituation req uired
that she be extremely frugal, and even th e s mall sums expended
on Lily' s food involved real sacrifices o n her p art. The litter-box
p resented another p roblem. The house in Ash iya was only five
or six blocks from the sea, so it was easy to get sand; but Rokko,
on th e H a nkyu line, wa s far from the coa st. The first two or
three times, S hinako was able to collect some sand at a cons truc­
tion s ite nearby, but recently, ala s , no ready supply of this sort
had b een ava ilable. I f she left the sand unchanged, however, the
s mell was dreadful, even p enetrating to th e fi rs t fl oor, which
made h er rela tives unhappy. So she was obliged to s neak out of
the house late at n ight, shovel in hand, and scrabble around in
the nearb y fields for earth, or steal the sand at the bottom of the
childre n 's slide in a local grade-sch ool playground. O n nights
like these, she o ften had to contend with barking dogs and
s tran ge men who seemed to be following h er. But s ince it was
for Lily's sake, she w illingly p u t up with it, though nothing else
could ever have induced her to do things as distasteful as th is.
Over and over she a sked h erself why she couldn ' t have shown
even h al f this much love for the little creature when she was in
Ashiya . I f only she had made the e ffort, p robably her marriage
would not have broken u p , and she would never have had to go
through all this misery . H o w deeply she regretted it all now. She
realized that it was n o good bla ming anybody else-it was she
who had been at fa ult. Her hu sband had come to hate her

70
because she was the sort of woman who could n ' t even love a
sweet, innocent animal like this . And the "th ird party" had been
able to take advan tage of this great fa iling of hers .
When November ca me, it wa s appreciably cold er at dawn
and du sk, with the winds that sometimes blew down from
Mt. Rokko at night pen etra ting th e house through cracks and
crevices arou nd the doors . Sh in ako and Lily pres sed closer
together and clung tigh tly to each other as they slept, trembling
fro m the cold. Finally, unable to endure the ch ill any longer,
Sh inako began to use her hot-water bottle-to Lily's great
delight. Every n ight the woman lay in her quilts, lovely and
warm from both the hot-water bottle and Lily's body, and lis­
tened to the eat's conten ted purring. She would bring her
m outh close to the eat's ear as she lay curled at her breast and
whisper: " You 've been much m ore loving than I have, haven ' t
you ? . . . " ; or, ( ( Now you're lonely too, a n d it's m y fault. . . . I ' m
sorry, Lily . . . . " ; or, ( ( B u t it'll b e only a little while now. Put up
with this for just a bit longer and you'll see-we'll both be able
to go back to Ashiya, together. And this time the three of us will
get along fine . . . . " If th e tears began to come, though there was
no one but Lily to see her in that p i tch-dark room in the m iddle
of the nigh t, she would qu ickly draw the top quilt up till it
covered her h ea d .

Wh en Fukuko announced that she was going to visit her fami­

ly in I m a zu and left the house a little after four in th e afternoon,
Shozo, who had been p ottering about with the orch id plants
on the back veranda, stood up as though he'd been wa iting for
this chance and called out ( (Mother-" in the d irection of the
kitchen . His m other was doing the washing and apparently
cou ld n't hear him because of the splashing and scru bbing, so he

71
called out again in a louder voice " Mother! . . . Take care o f the
shop for me, will you ? . . . I'm going out for a bit. "
The splashing a n d scrubbing sounds abruptl y ca me to a stop ,
and h er firm voice was heard from b eyond the paper screens :
"What'd you say? "
"I'm going out for a bit. "
"Where to?"
"Just close by."
"What for? "
" D o y o u have t o a s k all these questio n s ? " For a moment
Shozo flared his nostrils a nd a s sumed a p etulant expression.
The n , as if thinking b etter o f it, h e said in his m ore characteristic
good-little-boy tone of voice :
"You don't mind i f I go and play a l ittle billiard s for th irty
minutes or so, do you, Mother?"
" B ut didn't you promise not to play b illiard s ? "
" O h , c o m e on, j ust t h i s o nce . . . . I haven't g o n e for over two
weeks now . . . . Come on . . . plea s e . "
"I d o n ' t k n o w whether y o u should o r n o t . A s k Fukuko about
it whe n she gets back . "
' ' B ut why?"
H i s mother, s quatting b y the wa shtub at the back of th e
house, could tell from the oddly blustering tone that h er son was
angry, and she formed a clear picture o f the p outing, spoiled-child
look on h is face.
"Why do I have to ask my wife every time I want to do
a nyth ing? Can't you tell whether someth ing's right or wrong
without asking Fukuko ? "
"Yes, o f course I ca n ; b u t she p articularly asked me t o keep a n
eye on y o u . . . . "
"Then you 're sp ying for h er! "
"Don't be silly. "

72
 She paid no m ore a ttention to him and went on with her
vi gorous wash ing and scrubbing.
( (Are you my m other, or Fukuko's ? Which is it? Hunh?
Which ? "
uNow s top tha t . Shouting like tha t, d o you wa nt the neigh­
bors to hear? "
uw ell, then, leave the wash ing till later a nd co me here for a
second . "
((All righ t, all righ t , I 'll keep m y mouth shut. Go wherever you
please-! don ' t care ! "
((Now, don ' t talk like that, Mother. Just com e h ere for a sec­
ond, will you ? "
Wha t was he thi nking of? Sh ozo suddenly ra n t o th e ki tch en
en trance where she wa s still crou ched by the drain and, taki ng
her by a wrist that was covered with soapsuds, virtually dragged
her along to his part o f the house.
((Here. This is a good cha nce for m e to show you something . "
( (Wha t're you making all t h i s fu ss abou t ? . . . "
((Take a look a t th is!"
Shozo opened th e closet door in the in ner six-mat roo m that
served as his a n d Fu kuko's living room , to reveal a large p ile of
red material cra m m e d i n to a dark space between a wicker trunk
a nd a chest of drawers placed in a corner at th e back.
uWha t do you think tha t is ? "
uTh a t7. . . . "
( ( It's all Fukuko 's d irty laun dry. She shoves her th ings in
there, one on top of the o ther. She never does any washing, so
the dirty thi ngs just pile up there, a n d now you ca n ' t eve n open
the drawers in tha t ches t! "
( (Tha t's s trange . . . . I alwa ys send her th ings out to the laun-
d r y , so- ' '
( ( B u t su rely you don't send out her undies ! "

73
 " Ohhh. Are those . . . undies?"
"That's righ t ! Why, j u st look at how sloppy she is-and her a
woma n ! It's shocking. I bet you n oticed too, but you n ever say a
word to h er. You ' re after me all the time; but when it comes to
Fukuko, you p retend not to notice, no matter what she does.
Isn't that so ? "
"How could I k n o w there were things l ike t h i s shoved in
h ere ?. . . . "
"Mother!" Shozo cried out in amazement despite h imself. O­
rin had crawled into the closet and started p ulling out p ieces of
dirty laun dry.
"What a re you doing?"
"I thought I'd j u st tidy u p a little, dear."
" Stop that! They're filthy. Stop it right now ! "
"Never you mind, dea r. Just leave i t t o m e . "
"What i s t h i s ? A mother-in-law p icking up her daughter-in­
law 's dirty undie s ? I'm not a sking you to do that, Moth er; I ' m
a sking y o u t o make Fukuko d o it! "
O-rin acted a s though she hadn't h eard h i m . Taking five o r six
roun d red bundles of E n glish flannelette fro m the dim depths of
the closet, she ca rried them to the kitchen entrance, using both
a rms to do so, a nd put them in the washtub .
"Are you going to wash th ose for her?"
"Don't you worry about it-this isn't a man's busines s . "
" W h y w o n ' t you l e t h e r at least w a s h h e r own u nderwear-
will you tell me that, Mother?"
"Oh, be quiet! I'm j u st p utting them in the tub to soak. When
Fukuko n otices them here, she'll get the idea and wash them
herself, I ' m sure . "
"Tha t's stupid. She's n o t the type t o ' notice . ' "
Desp ite what she said a bout Fukuko washing the things later,
Shozo was sure his mother intended to do it for h er, and the

74
thought made him all the m ore upset . Without bothering to
cha nge out of h is rough work cloth es, he scu ffed into a pair of
wooden-soled sandals in the en tranceway, hopped on h is bicy­
cle, and was o ff.
He wa s tell ing the truth when he'd sa id earl ier that he wan ted
to go and play billiards; but now he felt so irritable that he d idn't
give a damn about it any more. Ringing the bell on his bicycle
fu riously, he set off w ithout a ny particular dest ination in mind,
going s traight along the path by the Ash iya River in the direc­
t ion of the new nat ional highway. After he crossed Narih ira
B ridge, h e turned h is ha ndlebars toward Kobe. I t was still a little
befo re 5 :00 P.M . , but wh ere the h ighway va nished in the dis­
tance, the late autumn sun was already beginn ing to set. A
th ick ba nd o f rich color stretched across the western horizon,
and the sun's ra ys fell almost parallel to the su rface of the road.
People and cars alike were bathed in a reddish l ight and ca st
im m ensely long shadows beh ind them as they passed. Shozo
wa s fa cing straight into the sun as he rode along, so he was
forced to turn h is head away and look down to avoid being
blinded by the glare of the paved roa d, wh ich shone like steel .
He passed in front o f the public market at Mori and wa s near­
ing the Shoji bus stop when suddenly h e caught a gl impse of
Tsukamoto, the tata m i-maker, hard at work sewing a mat that
lay on a low platfo rm before h im , j u s t outside the walls of a
hosp ital beyond the railway tracks. Shozo p edaled over to him,
looking more cheerfu l than he had up to th e n .
' 'Are y o u busy ? " h e asked.
"Oh, h ello there," a n swered Tsuka m oto, glancing a t him
without stop p ing h is work. H e pl ied h is needle as if he were
de term ined to fin ish the j ob before sunset, s tabbing it sharply
into the tata m i, then ya nking it out again.
"Where're you o ff to at th is hour?"

75
 " O h, nowh ere special. I j ust ca m e over this way . . . . "
"Was there something you wan ted to talk to m e about? "
"No, n o thing really . " S hozo was s ta rtled at h i s own answer;
but i t was too late now, so, with a n a mbiguou s , forced s m ile
which produced a few uneven wrinkles on his brow, he con tinued:
" I was just p a ssing, so I d ecided to say hello . . . . "
" I see . " Tsuka moto i m m edia tely looked down and wen t on
sewing, as i f to say h e really could n ' t be bothered w ith this
fellow standing there in fro n t of him with his b icycle. Now, fro m
S hozo ' s p oi n t o f view, n o matter how busy h e m ight be, i t
would n ' t have h u r t Tsuka m oto t o ask " H ow 've you b een late­
ly?" or " Have you go t used to not having Lily around any
more ? " o r som ething of the sort. He felt m ortified. After all, he
was doing his best to hide his longing for Lily fro m Fukuko : he
would n ' t a llow even the " Li" of " Lily" to pass his lips in her
p resence. H is almost lim itless a ffection had, t hen , to re main
p ent up in side h i m ; and when he ran across Tsukamoto by
chance like this, he honestly expected to find h i m a sympathetic
listener who m he could u nburden h i m self to, and so obtain
some comfo rt and relief. D id n ' t Tsuka m oto realize that he
ought a t l ea s t to say a few consoling word s to S hozo, or at any
rate to a pologize for not having been in touch with him s in ce
that day? B ecause in the first place, when S hozo agreed to hand
Lily over to S hinako, Tsuka moto had made a solemn p ro m ise to
go and visit the cat occas ionally on his behalf, to find out j u s t
how s he wa s being treated. He was supposed t o take s tock of the
s itua tion in Rokko and then report back to him. This was o f
course a p riva te agreement between t h e t w o of the m , kept s trict�
ly secret from O-rin and Fukuko . It wa s only on this condition
t hat S hozo had been w illing to let go of his p recious Lily; and
yet not once had Tsuka moto kept his p ro mise! He just took ad-

76
va ntage of a person and then pretend ed to know noth ing more
about it.
O r maybe he wasn't playing the innocent, but wa s simply too
caught up in his everyday work to not ice other people 's feel ings.
Shozo felt an urge to put this cha nce meeting to good u·s e and
give the fellow a piece of his m ind. But it wa s hard to bring up,
q u ite ca sually, the topic of his cat with someone working busily
away right there in front of h i m . And if he did ma nage to, wasn 't
there a good chance that it was he who'd get yelled at rather
than the other way a rou nd, as it should be?
As the light gradually fad ed around him, Shozo stood there
with a bla nk look, a pparently fa scina ted by the large needle in
Tsuka moto's hand-the only thing that glittered as it caught the
remaining ligh t . There weren 't many houses in the area , even
though it was by the nat ional highway . To the south was a pond
wh ere frogs were ra ised for eating, while to the north there was
only a la rge stone ( ( H igh way Jizo " ; this Buddhist gu ide of the
souls of the d ead was brand-n ew, having ju st been erected in
mem ory of people killed in tra ffi c accidents on this road . B ehind
the hos pital were a number of rice field s, and far beyond them
rose the mountains that s tretched alon g the Ha nkyu line. Until
just a little while before, their man y-layered folds had been
dist inct beneath a clear blue sky; now a thin, gra y, twil ight mist
wa s begin ning to conceal th e m .
( (Well , then, I 'll be goin g . . . . "
.
( ( D rop over some t 1me . . . ."
( (I 'll be over soon, when I have more time. " Pla cing one foot
on the pedal , S ho zo took two or three awkwa rd steps and then
ca m e back, as if he j u s t could n ' t res ign him self to leavin g th ings
as they were: ( ( Look, sorry to bother you, but actually there is
som ething I m eant to ask yo u . "

77
 " O h ?. . . . W h a t ?. "
" I was thinking o f going over to Rokko now . . . . "
Tsukamoto, who was j ust standing u p a fter fi nishing one
tatami, dro p p ed it back onto the p latform w ith a thud and said ,
in astonish ment:
" To do what ? "
"Well, a fter all, I've n o idea how she's been doing since then,
you k now . . . . "
"Are you serious? Act like a man- leave h er be ! "
"You don't u nderstand, Tsuka moto . It's not that way a t all . "
"That's why I told y o u at t h e t i m e to think it over carefully.
And you said 'I won't m is s that woman a b it. It makes me sick
j ust looking at h er. ' "
"Now, hold on, Tsukamoto. It's not S h in ako I'm talkin g about
-it's the cat . "
"The cat, you sa y ? " A s mile suddenly app eared around the
tatam i-maker's eyes and o n his lip s . " Ohhh, the cat. . . . I see . "
" That' s right. Y o u remember, don't you ? - you promised t o
g o over once in a while t o see if S h in ako' s taking good care o f
h er. "
" Did I say that? Well, a nyway, I 've been real busy this year,
what with all the fl ood damage, so-"
" O h , I know; that's w h y I'm not a sking you to go over there
for me. "
This remark was meant to be q uite sarcastic, but the hearer
didn't seem to n otice.
"You still can't forget about tha t cat, eh ? "
" How could I forget a bout her? Ever since you took h er away
I 've been worried sick. I s that Sh inako m is treating h er? Has Lily
got used to it over there ? I even have n ightmares about it. And I
can't say a w ord about it in front of Fukuko, which j us t makes
me feel worse and worse-here . . . . " S hozo struck h im self on the

78
chest an d barely managed to suppress a sob. "To tell the truth, I
wanted to go and see for myself at least once before now, but for
the last m o n th or so they've hardly ever let m e go out alone.
B esides, I don't l ike the idea of having to m eet Shinako . . . . Do
you th ink there's some way I could j u s t slip in and see Lily,
w ithout Shinako knowing an yth ing about it?"
" I think that'd be d i ffi cult. " Tsuka m oto laid his hand on the
tatami resting on the platform, as if to say he'd had quite
enough of this conversation. " You'd be sure to be seen. And if
people though t it wasn ' t the cat you 'd gone to visit, then you'd
·

be in real hot water . "

"Oh, I woul d n ' t want anybody to think that . "
" S o j u s t forget i t . O n ce you've given something away, that's
the end of it, no matter h ow you feel about it. . . . You see that,
don't you, I shii?"
" L isten," began Shozo, not replyin g to Tsukamoto's question
but introducing a new top ic. " D oes Shinako spend her time on
the second floor, or the first ? "
" S econd floor, I think; b u t of course she comes downsta irs too
sometim e s . "
( ( Does n ' t s h e ever leave t h e h ouse?"
( ( I don ' t know . . . . She does som e sewing work, so I suppose
she's mos tly at h o m e . "
( ( What time does s h e g o to t h e bathhouse?"
( ( I wouldn't know . "
" I see . . . . Well , sorry t o have bothered you . "
( (Ishi i ! " Tsukam oto fou n d himself addressing the rear e n d of
Shozo's bicycle, wh ich had t raveled some three or four yards
just in the time it took the tatam i-maker to lift his hand iwork
from the platform and rise to h is feet. "Are you really going
there ?"
"I don't know what I ' m going to do yet, but anyway I'll go

79
over to the neighborho od and take a look. "
"It's u p to you, but don't come ru nning to me if there's some
p roblem later. "
"And don't you say anything about this to Fukuko or m y
moth er, all right ? "
Then Shozo cros sed to t h e other s i d e of t h e tracks, his h ead
s waying from side to side.

B ut would h e really b e able to brin g it o ff as h e h op e d ­

avoid ing all contact w ith t h e members of t h e household i n
Rokko and y e t man agin g a p rivate meeting with Lily? Fortunate�
ly there was a vacant lot beh ind the house, with tall weeds and
p oplar trees o ffering places to hide in; h e would just h ave to wait
p atien tly un til Lily came outside. U n fortunately, however, it
was already so dark that it would be d iffi cult to spot h er even if
she did emerge. Also, H atsuko's h u sband could b e expected
back from work soon , and the kitch en would be busy with
preparation s for the even in g m eal, so he couldn't hang about
the vacant lot forever like a b urglar on the prowl. Maybe it
would be best, then , if h e came back anoth er day, at an earlier
h our. B ut whether he could actually see Lily today was of sec�
ondary importance to Shozo now; what he really enj oyed was
the chance simply to go wherever he liked without his wife's
knowledge for the first time in quite a while. I f he let this op�
p ortunity slip , it would be p erhaps two weeks before he had
another. Fukuko regularly went to her father's p lace to squeeze
some p ocket money out of him, but that was gen erally onl y
twice a month, around t h e first a n d the fi fteenth. When she
went, she was always asked to s tay for supp er, which meant she
woul d n ' t be back in Ashiya till eight or n ine o'clock at the
earliest . Today was one of those days, so Shozo knew he could

80
enjoy a n o ther three or four hou rs of freedom . If he were willing
to put up wi th hunger and col d, he could a fford to s tay at least
two hours in that e m p ty pa tch of land. S o p erhaps he would
be able to meet Lily there after all, as sum ing she still kep t to her
old rou tin e of going out for a s troll after supp er. Yes, and he
rem embered n ow - she liked to find a spot where there was grass
grow ing and eat some of the green bla des after h er meal; so th e
vaca nt lot looked all the more p rom ising as a meeting place.
These were his thoughts as he rode past the Kanan School
and s topped in fron t of the Koku suido radio shop . H e peered in­
side and made sure th e owner was there before opening th e
glass door abou t halfway and offeri ng a friendly "Good after­
noo n . "
" I ' m awfully sorry," he w e n t o n , "bu t I wonder if you could
lend me twen ty sen . "
"Will twenty s e n do?" The shopkeeper recogn ized Shozo, of
course; but he looked doubtful, as if he wan ted to say that the
two of them were n ' t close enough to warrant this sudden ap­
pearance and casual demand for money. S till, he coul d hardly
refuse to lend h i m such a s mall sum, so he took two ten-sen
coins from his p ortable cashbox and, wi th ou t any further com­
m ent, put them in Shozo's outs tre tched han d . The you ng man
p ro m p tly ran across the s treet to the Kanan m arke tplace and
bought a bag of bea n - j a m buns and a parcel wrapped in bamboo
shea ths, wh ich he placed in his breast p ocket .
" D o you m ind if I use your kitch en for a bit?" h e said, o n
re turning to the ra dio shop .
Now Shozo seemed a good-na tured person, b u t he had no
scruples abou t imposing on o ther p eople. He was used to mak­
ing requests like this, so when the shopkeeper asked "What
for?" he simply an swered " I need to do something," grinned at
the man, and headed for the kitchen. Without unwrapping the

81
packet o f chicken meat, h e put it in to an aluminum pan full o f
water, l i t t h e shopkeeper's g a s burner, and proceeded to boil it .
Then, with twenty or s o thank-yous and awfully-sorrys, he went
on to a sk for the loan of a lamp for his bicycl e : "I hate to keep
bothering you, but do me this one last favor, will you ? "
" Sure, take this along, " said the man , bringing o u t fro m the
back of the shop an old paper lantern from some caterer's, with
the words " M iyoshi-ya o f Uozaki-cho" inscribed on it .
"Wow, that's a real antique ! "
"I don't really n eed i t . Y o u can return i t any time it's conve­
nient . "
Since it still w a s n ' t pitch-dark outside, S h o z o s e t off with the
lantern stuck into his sash . When h e cam e to a large signboard
with the w ords " Path up M t. Rokko begin s h ere, " in front of the
Rokko stop on the H ankyu line, h e left his bicycle at a t ea shop
on the corner and climbed the not very steep slope that led to
the house h e was looking for, some two or three blocks further
up. Goin g around to the north side, behind the house, h e
entered t h e vacant lot and s a t crouched on his heel s in a thick
clump o f grass and weeds about two or three feet high , holding
his breath in anticipation .
Shozo ' s plan was to wait there patiently for, say, two hours,
munching on the bean-jam buns he'd brought with him. I f Lily
appeared, he'd give h er the chicken as a special treat, and then
perhaps enjoy a little cuddle with her- have her jump up onto
his shoulder and l ick him around the mouth - for the first time
in weeks.
H e would have worn an overcoat i f he'd known where the
q uarrel with his m other would lead him today; but h e had left
home in a hurry, and it was pure chance that had made him take
the road west and bump into Tsukamoto, which resulted in his
coming this far. With only a woolen undershirt beneath his thick

82
cotton work clothes, h e reall y felt the cold . H e hu nched his
should ers and looked up at the night sky, which by now was
filled with glim m ering s tars. Cold blades of grass brushed against
his bare feet in their wooden -soled sandals; he touched his
shoulders and the top of his cap and realized that a heavy dew
wa s fall in g. Well, no wonder he felt so ch ill y! If he s tayed squat­
ting here for two whole hours , he'd probably ca tch cold . . . . But
the smell of fish being grilled came wafting from the kitchen,
and Shozo felt sure that Lily could sm ell it too and would appear
from somewhere or other at any moment. He felt a strange ten­
sion as he began to call out in a small voice, ( ( Li iiily . . . Liiiily. "
H e tried to think o f some signal he could give that would be
understood only by the cat, a nd not by the p eople in the house.
In fron t o f the clu mp of weeds wh ere he was crouch ing, there
was an arrowroot plant covered with leaves, from the midst of
wh ich ca m e an occa sional gleam of some sort. Presum ably it was
a drop of dew or som ething, refl ecting the light from a distant
la m p . But even while acknowledging th is, Shozo's h eart leapt
within him at each gl eam, hoping that it m igh t be the glow of
Lily ' s eyes : ( ( Is that h er? Would n ' t it be wonderful!" H e could
feel his heart beating fa s ter at the thought, and a kind of ch ill in
the p it of his stomach; but the next moment would bring dis­
appointment.
Odd as it may sound, Sh ozo had never experienced this sort
of agitation and impa tience before, even in his relations with
other human beings . Fooling around with cafe waitresses was all
he'd been capable o f. The clo sest he had co me to a love affair
was when he was seeing Fukuko on the sly, hiding it from Shi­
nako. Yes, that pleasant, vexing, oddly exciting, and unsettled
feeling had been his neares t approach to love. Even so, his
m other and Fuku ko's fa ther had quietly guided the two of them
through it all and p u t up a good fron t toward Sh inako, so th ere

83
had been no need for h i m to go to unreasonable lengths-none
of this s quatting in the chill even ing dew and sustaining himsel f
with bean-j am b u n s ! And for th at very reason, h is affair w ith
Fukuko had always lacked a certain seriousnes s : never had his
desire to see her or meet her been anything like as intense as his
feelings for Lily were now.
Shozo was aware that both h is mother and his wife trea ted
him like a child, a ra ther backward child who would never be
able to make it on h i s own ; and he was very unhap p y about it.
B ut h e had n o friend h e could air h i s grievances to; and as h e
w a s forced t o keep th em bottled up, h e came t o feel somehow
lonel y and h elpless. This made his love for L ily all the grea ter.
Those lonely feelings that n either Shinako nor Fukuko nor even
h is mother could understand-it was only L ily, w ith those sad
eyes of hers, who could pierce through to them and offer com­
fort. And Shozo was sure that h e was the only one who could
read her sorrow , the unhappiness th at the cat had deep within
her but could n ' t express d irectly to human beings. I t was over
forty days now s ince the two of them had been sep arated from
each o th er. A t fi rs t, i t was true, h e had tried not to think about i t
a n d t o resign himself t o her absence as quickly as poss ible. B ut
his resen tmen t toward h is mother and h i s present wife kep t
building up, and there were fewer and fewer outlets for his p ent­
up anger. The result was that h is longing for Lily reared its head
again and would not be suppressed. Given Shozo ' s position , it
was natural that all the interference with h is com in gs and go­
ings, the s trict seclusion that was enforced on h im , should have
the effect of fan ning h is love for the absen t cat. Even had he
wan ted to forge t h er, h e was given no chance to do so.
A noth er source o f worry was the fact that h e had heard
nothing at all from Tsukamoto. Why, after making all those prom­
ises, didn't he get in touch ? If he was too busy with his work,

84
then it could n ' t be h elped; but perhaps that wa sn't it at all­
what if Tsukam oto was hiding something fro m him, trying to
keep him fro m worrying? Ma ybe Sh inako had been trea ting Lily
badly, and she was now in a terrible state, suffering a breakdown
of some kind . . . . Or she migh t have ru n away a nd be com plete­
ly lost, whereabouts unknown . . . . Maybe she became ill and
died there in Rokko. Who could tell ? Ever si nce Lily had been
taken away, these were things Shozo had often drea m ed abou t.
He would wake up with a s tart in the middle o f th e night, th ink
h e h eard her m eowing som ewhere nearby, and, pretend ing to go
to the toilet, quietly get up and open the shutters. After he'd
been taken in by these phantoms a nu mber of times, he began
to wond er, with a shiver of fear, if the vo ice he heard and the
fi gure h e saw in his drea ms m ight not belong to Lily's ghost .
H a d she fled fro m Rokko and then died som ewhere by the road­
side, leaving only her sp irit to make its wa y back to its master's
house?
Yet, no matter how sp iteful Shi nako was or how irresponsible
Tsukam oto m ight be, surely they wouldn't remain silent if
som ething awful rea lly had happened to Lily. After all, the fa ct
that there was no news was proof that all was well ! Each time
any unlucky thoughts suggested themselves to Shozo, h e kept
on denying them like th is. And, despite his worries, he'd had
another reason fo r fa ithfully following his wife's orders not to
visit Rokko : apart fro m being strictly watched, he was deter­
mined not to fall into the trap Shinako had set for h i m . H e
wa sn't sure even now j u s t what her real motive h a d been in tak­
ing Lily; but he susp ected that Tsukamoto's fa ilure to report to
him might have been due to a sugges tion on her part: she may
have hoped to make him so anxious that he would be lured into
coming to Rokko . And though he wan ted somehow to make
sure tha t Lily wa s all righ t, he'd be dam ned if he'd let that crafty

85
woman get h i m in her clutches.
Just imagining the superior, knowing look h e was sure she
would put o n - " Ah , so fi nally you 're here ! "- filled h im w ith
loathing. But Shozo too had always had h is own type of cun­
n ing, which took the form of a skillful use of the appearance of
weakness-his seem in g to be the sort o f p erson who would do
what ever others told h i m . It wa s this that had allowed him to get
rid of Shin ako : outwardly, he seem ed j u st a puppet in the hands
o f O-rin and Fukuko, but in fact h e d etested Shinako m ore than
all th e rest of them ever could . Even now, h e felt that he'd d o ne
the right th ing, that she had it com in g to her; h e didn't feel the
slightest trace o f p ity for h er. And right this m inute she was
probably there in that roo m beyond the window on th e second
floor, where the light was on. As h e crouched among the weed s ,
looking up at the light, that mocking, know-it-all face of h ers
fl ashed before him, arousing m ore feelings o f disgust.
After coming all th is way, he wanted at least to h ear Lily's
sweet "meow," even if only from a d is ta nce, before h e went
back to Ash iya . Just to kn ow she wasn't in any trouble would
bring him some p eace of m ind and m ake the trip worthwhile.
And, taking things a step further, if h e were to creep up to the
kitchen en tra nce and take a peek inside . . . . With a bit of luck,
perhaps h e could call Ha tsuko out for a little chat in private, give
h er the chicken m eat he'd brought, and learn from her how Lily
had b een getting on. . . . But these pleasant thoughts were
brought to a h alt b y the sight o f that light i n the window, a nd
the thought o f that face. Shozo began to go weak at the knees . I f
h e wasn't careful, H atsuko m ight get the wrong impression and
actually s u m m o n her sister from th e second fl oor. And at the
very least she was bound to tell her a bout it a fterward . ( (Well,
my pla n is b eginning to work," Shinako would say in her self­
satisfied way. No-he wasn 't having any o f that!

86
 So he would have to continue squa tting pat iently in th is va­
can t lot, wa iting to seize his chance when Lily happened by. On
the other hand, since he'd wa ited this long alrea dy without
results, it was temp ting to give up . He had eaten all the bean­
jam buns in his bag. Besid es, he was sure an hour and a half had
already passed, and he was beginning to worry about wha t
would happen back in Ash iya . I f it was just his mother th ere, it
would n 't be a problem; but if Fukuko returned before he did,
he'd never be allowed to go to bed and would end up covered
with bruises. More alarm ing still wa s the thought of being kept
un der even stricter sup ervis ion from then on.
Anyway, it was s tra nge that not once during the hour and a
half he'd b een waiting here had the fa intest sound o f meowing
come from the h ouse. Wa s it possible that th e n ightmares he'd
been having so often lately had come true, and Lily wa s no
longer here ? If the fi sh he had smelled grilling a little while
before had in fa ct been for the fa mily supp er, Lily would surely
ha ve been given something at the same time; and when she'd fin­
ished ea ting, she would come out to n ibble on some grass. But
she hadn 't come out, which seemed very odd . . . .
At last Shozo, unable to bear it any lon ger, rose fro m the
clump of weed s and stole toward the d oor in the back fence .
Press ing his fa ce to a chink in t h e wooden door, he could see
that the shut ters on the first floor had been closed. The sound of
Ha tsuko ' s voice as she apparently put her children to bed came
to h im in sna tches; apart from that, th ere was nothing to be
heard. If only he could catch a glimpse of Lily's shadow aga in st
the panes o f that second -floor window, how happy he would be!
B u t, beyond the gla ss, all he could see was a white curta in hang­
ing motionless, its upper part less brightly lit than below.
S h inako must have lowered the overhead lamp as she d id her
n ight's work. Shozo ima gin ed the p eaceful scen e : the woman

87
busily s ewing in the lamplight and Lily qu ietly curled up beside
h er, fa st a sleep . In the long autumn night, the steady lamplight
h eld L ily and h er, j u st the two o f them, in its warm circle, leav­
ing everything els e in the room a s far a s the ceiling dimly
obscured . . . . As the night deepened, the cat b egan to snore
faintly while the woman w ent on with her silent sewing-a
forlorn but touching scene . . . .
I f that was the world h idden b ehind that window- if, by some
miracle, Lily and she had become the best o f friends- i f Shozo
was actually shown the scene he had j u st imagined-would h e
b e able t o fi gh t down a feeling o f j ealousy? To tell the truth, i f
Lily had completely forgotten about t h e p a st a n d was quite con­
tent with her p rese nt situation, it would make him angry . O n
t h e other hand, if s h e w ere b eing a bused, or i f s h e w ere dead, h e
would feel even worse. S ince h e would feel bad i n either case,
p erhap s it would be b est a fter all to learn nothing . . . .
Suddenly h e heard th e clock o n the first fl oor strike the half
hour: " B ong . . . . " It was half past s even. The realization made
him start, as if someone had given him a sudden push. He took
two o r three step s away from the fence, then came back and
took out the packet of chicken he'd been keep ing carefully hid­
den inside his clothes, and b egan wandering about with it, from
the w ooden door to the garbage can, back and forth. He wanted
to leave it in a place where only Lily would find it : if he put it in
the weeds, some dog would p robably sniff it out, and i f he left it
right h ere, someone in the fa mily would see it. Wasn't there
some way h e could - no , h e had n o time to worry ab�ut this
now. If he didn 't make it home within thirty minutes at the
latest, there'd almost certa inly b e another row . "And just where
have you been till this hour o f the night, mister? " H e could h ear
Fukuko's voice even now, as if she were right b eside him, and h e
could see the look o f rage on her face. H u rriedly h e opened the

88
packet a nd put it am ong the arrowroot leaves; he placed pebbles
on top of the open bam boo wrapping, on both sides, and then
arra nged some of the leaves over it as cover. Then he ra n as fa st
as he could across the vaca nt lot and back to the tea shop where
h e had left h is bicycle.

That evening, Fukuko, who had returned about two hours

a fter Shozo did, was in an extremely good mood as she told the
Ishiis about ta king her younger broth er to a boxing match. And
th e next day, fi n ishing supper a little earlier tha n usual, she an­
noun ced u We'll be going o ff to Kobe for a bit"; and hu sband
and wife set out for the Jurakukan, an en terta inment area in
S h inkaich i .
I n O-rin's experience, Fukuko was always in a good mood just
a fter sta ying with her fa ther-that is, for th e five, six, or sev­
en days she had her father's money in her pocket. During
this period , she spent as m uch mon ey as she pleased, usually
trea ting S hozo to a m ovie or a mus ical a couple of times at
lea st. As a result, the two of them got on extremely well for a
while, like any loving couple. B ut after about a week had passed
and m ost of her money was gone, Fukuko would begin to laze
about the house doing noth ing except snacking and reading
magazines; and then she'd occa sionally s tart in on her husban d,
when she thought he needed it. And Shozo, on his side, would
act the part of the fa ithful, loving husband only so long as his
wife wa s in fu nd s . When the money ra n out, th ere wa s a nota ble
cha nge in attitu d e : his replies became halfh earted and his man­
ner ra ther lis tles s . The one at a real d isadvantage at th ese times
wa s O-rin , who was drawn into her son's and daughter-in-law's
qua rrel s fro m both ends. Naturally, then, every time Fukuko ra n
off to lmazu, O -rin felt immen sely rel ieved , knowing that there

89
would be p eace in the fa m ily for some time a fterward .
And now a nother such p eaceful week had b egu n . One eve­
ning three or four days a fter they had visited Kobe, Fukuko said
to her h u sband, seated across the supper table fro m her: "That
movie the other day wasn't any good at all, was it?" She enj oyed
drinking sake, and there was a little rosiness n ow around her
eyes. "What did you think of it ? " she continued, lifting the s mall
bottle on the table. S hozo snatched it fro m her hands and
poured for her.
" H ere, have another. "
"No, no, I can 't . . . I ' m drunk already . "
" O h , J. U S t one m ore . . . . "
" I t never tastes as good, drinking at home. I have a n idea­
let's go somewhere tom orrow!"
"That'd b e n ice . . . . Yes, I 'd really like to do that . "
" I 've hardly used any o f my p ocket money yet. After all, the
other n ight we ate a t home and then just went and saw that
movie. So I ' ve still got plenty."
"Well, where could we go?"
"I wonder what's playing at Takarazuka this month . . . . "
"A m us ical, I sup pose. " I f they did go to the all-fe male revue
at Takarazuka, S hozo could look forward to a good soak in the
old hot spring there; but, even so, he didn't seem very keen o n
the idea .
" I f you 've got so much money left, couldn't we find some
place m ore fu n than that?"
"Well, think o f some other p lace, then . . . . "
" What about going to see the autu m n leaves?"
" A t M inoa, you m ea n ? ' '
"M inoa ' s n o good - it was co mpletely fl ooded l a s t time. I was
thinking it'd be n ice to visit A rima . . . . It's been ages s ince we
went. . . . What do you say?"

90
 "Yes, when was it we were there ?"
"Just about a year ago- no, wa it a second. We heard those
singing frogs, re member?"
"That's right. S o it's been a year and a half now . "
Their though ts drifted back t o the time j u s t after their affair
had begu n . One day they had arranged to meet at Takim ichi,
the la st station on the main line; they had then gone to Arima
on the Kobe-Arima tra m and spent a half-day amusing them­
selves in a room upstairs at the Gosh o-no-bo inn. B oth of them
clearly re m embered that pleasant su mmer day spent d rinking
beer and dozing as they l istened to th e cool sound of a m ountain
strea m .
"Well , th en, should w e make it upsta irs a t the Gosho-n o-bo
again?"
" I t 'll be even n icer now than in the su m m er. We can see the
autumn leaves, have a long, hot bath, take ou r time over
supper- "
" Oh, yes - let's! Good , it's all settle d ! "

They had planned t o have a n early lunch the next day, but
Fukuko d id n ' t even s tart to get herself re ady until arou nd nine.
" God, you r hair looks terrible," she said, looking at him in the
m i rror she was u s ing.
" P roba bly. I haven't been able to go to the barber for over two
weeks now . "
"Then wh y don't you ru n over and get it cut? B e back in thir­
ty minute s . "
"Tha t's impossibl e ! "
" I don't w a n t t o be seen with you looking like th at. Now hurry
up and go. "
Sh ozo ran to the ba rbe rshop , about hal f a block to the east of

91
h i s own shop, with the on e-yen b ill h i s wife had given him flut­
tering in h i s l e ft hand. Fortu nately, there were no customers
ahead of h i m , and he greeted the owner of the p lace, who
emerged fro m a back roo m , with the words "Make it qu ick,
p I ease. "
"Are you going somewhere?"
"To Arima, to see the autumn leave s . "
"That'll be nice . . . . Y o u r wife going too?"
"Yes. We're going to have an early lunch and leave right away,
s o she told me to get my hair cut and b e back in thirty m inutes."
Thirty m inutes later S hozo left the shop, hardly hearing the
barber's good wishes directed at his back: " H ave a n ice trip.
Take your time, and enj oy it!" H e arrived in fron t o f his house
and, happy a s a clam , had just set foot inside the shop , when the
ominous sound o f his wife's voice fro m somewhere within froze
him to the spot:
"And why did you hide this till today, M other, m a y I ask? . . .
Why did n ' t you tell m e something like this had happened? . . .
Have you j u st been p retending to b e on m y s ide, and really been
l etting h i m carry on like this the whole t i m e ? ' '
Shozo could tell t h a t Fukuko w a s i n qu ite a s tate by the
p eculiarly shrill tone in which all this was sa id. H is m other had
clearly been driven into a corner. She tried to defend herself
with a word or two now and then, but she m u m bled as i f un sure
of herself, and Shozo could hardly catch a thing she said. Fu­
kuko' s voice, however, res ounded through the house.
" What? . . . It doesn't mean h e went there? Don't m ake m e
laugh! H e uses somebody else's kitchen to boil chicken i n , a n d
you say m a ybe it wasn't for Lily ? ! Where do y o u think h e took it,
for God ' s sake ? And what about that paper lantern ? You m u s t
have seen h i m bring it back a n d h i d e it a w a y in there - you did,
didn ' t you ? "

92
 It wa s most unusual for Fukuko to grab his m other and
screech at her like th is. The cause apparen tly wa s that, in the
short time Shozo was at the ba rbe r's, someone from Koku suido
had come to collect the m oney and the old lantern he'd bor­
rowed . After riding home that night with the lantern dangling
on the fron t of his bicycle, he had, in fa ct, decided to hide it on a
high shelf in the stora ge shed , so as to avoid any embarras sing
questions from Fukuko. Unfo rtuna tely, his mothe r p robably
knew about it, and when the man from Kokusuido ca m e by she
must have gone to re trieve it. But why had he come for it, after
saying that Shozo could re turn it any time? He couldn't care
that much about an old paper la n tern, surely. Maybe he just hap ­
pened to have other business in th e neighborhood . . . . Or wa s
he an gry because he hadn't got his twenty sen back yet? And
wa s it the old man him self or a shop assistant? Whoever it was,
Sh ozo couldn't see any reason fo r h im to talk about the chicken
business.
44If it was just the ca t , I wouldn't say a word . Even if he says
h e ' s going to see Lily, it's not just Lily-that's what makes me so
m a d ! And you, Mothe r- you th ink you can gang up with him to
make a fool of m e and get away with it?"
Fa ced with a n attack like this, even O-rin was at a loss for
wo rd s and had to p ull back. It seemed unfair that his old mother
should have to bear the brunt of Fukuko ' s temper when it was
meant for h i m , and he felt sorry for her-but also just a little
p leased : it served her right . At any rate, he was sure that if he'd
been in the room with them , Fukuko would have gone berserk;
and with the feeling of having barely esca ped the tiger's maw,
he got ready to ru sh outside as soon as danger threa tened .
44 • • • No, I get the p icture now! You let him go off to Rokko,
and now you ' re making plans to drive me out . "
These words were followed immed iately by a grea t thu d .

93
 "W a 1" t .' "
"Take your hands o ff me ! "
" B u t where are you go ing?"
"I'm going home. We'll see who's being unreasonable about
this-"
"But Shozo 'll be back any m inute now- "
From the thumpin g and thudding, it seemed the two women
were moving toward the front o f the house as they struggled
w ith one another. Shozo, p a nicking, shot out into the street and
ran as fast a s h e could for five or six blocks. H e couldn't have
said wha t h a p pened a fter tha t : before h e knew it, he had
rea ched the bus s top o n the new n ational h ighway. He was still
holding tightly in one hand the coins he'd received a s change at
the barbershop .

It was around l :00 P.M. that same day. Shinako, a woolen

shawl p ulled on over her everyday kimono, had gone out by the
back door at a brisk trot, saying she was going to deliver the
sewing she'd done that morning to her custo mers in the
neighborhood. Hatsuko wa s alone, working in the kitchen, when
the paper screen slid open about a foot and a breathles s Shozo
stood p eering into the room .
" O h - " she cried, about to spring to her feet.
Shozo made a qu ick little bow, forced a s m ile, and said "Ha­
tsu ! " Lowering h i s voice and lookin g n ervously behind him, he
;
continued ra p idly " Sh inako j us t left, didn ' t she? . . . I saw her
back there, but she didn't no tice me. I was hiding by those ·
poplars over there . "
"Was there something you wanted t o s e e m y s ister about?"
" Certainly not! I came to see Lily. " Now Shozo ' s voice
changed, becoming charged w ith emotion, full of pain and

94
sadness: "Ha tsu, tell me, please, where is she? I'm sorry to
bother you, but please let me see her, just for a few second s ! "
" I s n ' t s h e around t h e back somewhere ? "
"That's what I though t , so I 've been wa ndering arou nd and
stand ing under those trees for over two hours now. But I
haven't seen a trace of her. "
"Then ma ybe she's upstairs . "
"Will Shinako b e com ing right back, d o you think? Where did
she go ?"
"Just over there, to deliver some sewing. It's only two or three
blocks away, so she won't be long . "
" O h God, what 'll I d o ? What a mess ! " Shozo shook himself
violently a nd stamped his foot as he cried out. Then, rubbing his
hands together as if in p rayer, he said " Please, Hatsu, I'm beg­
ging you . . . . Look . . . it's the only favor I'll ever ask you . Just
bring her to me-pleas e ! "
"What are you going to do if you do see her?"
"I'm not going to do anything. If I ca n just see that she's all
right, that ' ll be enough . "
" You would n ' t be th inking of taking her back with you, would
you ? "
"Would I do som ething like that? . . . If you 'll j u s t show her to
m e, I swear I'll never com e and bother you again. "
Hatsuko seemed ama zed and gave Shozo a look that bored
right through h i m . Then, w ithout a word, she went upstairs and
at once ca m e halfway down again. Thrusting her head toward
the kitchen, she announced : " She's up here. "
" S h e IS ?. "
.

" I can ' t p ick her u p , so you'd better come yourself. "
" You th ink it 'll be all righ t ? "
"Yes, but be qu ick about i t ! "
" O f cou rse . . . . Well, I'll go u p the n . "

95
 " H urry.I "
As Shozo went up the s teep, narrow s tairs, h i s heart began to
pound. He was thrilled to be allowed at last to see his cat, but he
wondered how much she had changed. He was grateful for the
fact that she hadn ' t died by the roadside somewhere, or got lost
and disappeared, but wa s h ere, safe in this house. H e wondered,
though, if she m ight have been ill-treated and wa s now just skin
and bones . . . . Surely she wouldn't have forgotten him in the
space of six weeks; but would she come to him i m m ediately with
a warm and lovin g look? O r would she p erhaps run away from
him out o f shyn ess, a s she had that other time? . . . Wh en they
were in Ashiya , a n d h e ca me back after bein g away for two or
three days, Lily would cling to him and lick him all over, a s if
to say she'd n ever let him leave her again. I f she did that this
time, it would be more than h e could bear to have to shake her
off. . . .
" H ere she is-" The curta ins were drawn , shutting out the
bright a fternoon l ight. Shinako, cautious as ever, must have
closed them before she left. As a result, the room was vague
with shadow. I n the dimnes s S hozo could make out a charcoal
bra zier of S h igaraki ware and, beside it, his b eloved Lily, s eated
on a p ile of cush ion s , h er fro nt p aw s folded u n der h er, her back
rounded, h e r eyes drowsily half-closed. She was not a s thin as h e
h a d fea red, and t h e sheen of h e r coat showed that she'd been
receiv ing excellent care. O ther evidence that she wa s being well
looked after was the two cushions obviously reserved for h er;
also, she seemed to h ave just finished her lunch, including a raw
egg-the eggshell and a rice dish, which had been licked quite ·
clean , were in a corner on some newspaper. Next to them was a
litter-box, j u s t l ike the one she had used in Ashiya. Shozo sud­
denly noticed the distinct ive smell, which h e 'd forgotten over so

96
many weeks . B e fore, it had p ermeated the p illars , wall s, floors ,
and ceilings of his house; now, it filled this small roo m. Sadness
welled up inside h i m , and he cried out "Lily!" in a strangled
voice . The cat, seem ing to notice his presence at las t , opened
two dull, lis tless eyes and cast an extremely unfrie ndly glance in
S ho zo's d irection . Apart from that, there wa s no expression of
emotion . Fold ing her forepaws still more deeply under her, and
tw itching the skin on her back and at the base o f her ears as if
she were cold , she closed her eyes again with a look that ex­
p ressed the need for sl eep, and sleep alone .
The weather that day was good , but the air was still p ierci ngly
col d , so Lily p robably d id n 't rel ish the idea of leaving the char­
coal bra zier' s side. Then, too, her stomach was full, which would
make moving even more of a chore. Shozo well understood
this eat's indole n t na ture and was used to her occa s ional un­
friendliness, so he wasn't particularly surprised. But when he
saw her l is tless eyes with masses of mucus coll ected in the cor­
ners and the wa y she crouched there, looking strangely dejected,
he felt (was it only his imagination playing tricks ?) that in the
short time s ince they'd parted, Lily had aged tremendously­
she had a d oomed look. It was the look in her eyes that esp ecial­
ly struck him . Though she usually seemed quite drowsy in cir­
cums tances like this, toda y was d ifferen t : her eyes were like
those of someone taken s ick a t the side of the roa d-all vitality
gone, utterl y exhausted .
" S he does n ' t re me mber you. She's just an an imal, a fter all,"
said Hatsuko.
"Nonsense. She's p retend ing not to know me because there's
som eone else wa tch in g . "
" I won d er. . . "
.

" I t's true . . . . That's why, sorry, but I 'd like you to wait out

97
h ere for a b it, a n d let m e j u st close the door . "
"Why? What are you going t o do ? "
'' Noth ing. I ' m j u st going t o , well, hold h e r o n m y l a p for a
w h 1'l e . "
"But S hi nako w ill b e back any m inute . "
" H atsu, would you watch the gate fro m that roo m there and
let m e know the m o m e n t you see her? Pl ease . . . . "
Shozo p u t h i s hand o n the door and even as h e spoke was slip­
p ing into th e room , leaving Hatsuko shut outside.
" Lily," h e said, moving forward to sit opposite her.
At first the cat just bl inked at him with a p eevish look that
seemed to say " Shut up! I ' m having a n ice a fternoon nap . " B u t
as h e wiped away t h e mucus fro m h e r eyes a nd took h e r on h i s
lap a nd stroked h e r n eck, she seemed t o a ccept it all w ith quite
good grace; and a fter a while she actually began to p urr .
" H ow've you been, L ily? Are you feeling all right? I s she tak­
ing good care of you - h m ? "
Shozo showered all sorts o f loving words o n h er, hoping
she would remember how th ey used to fl irt w ith each other,
and s tart to p u sh a gainst h i m with h er head, or b egin to lick his
face. But L ily j u st continued to s it there w ith her eyes shut,
p urring, n o matter what he sa id. A s S hozo kept patiently
s troking her back, h e h i m sel f cal m e d down a b it and began to
l ook around the roo m . S hinako's p recise and fastidious nature
showed itself i n every deta il . Thus, even i f she was going to b e
o u t for only t w o or three m inutes, s h e would carefully close the
curtains, as she had now. Moreover, though the s mall four­
a nd-a-half-mat roo m was filled with various objects-a dress­
ing table, a chest of drawers, the things she n eeded for her
needlework, and the eat's dishes and l itter-box- there was no
d isorder: everyth ing was i n its place. If you looked i n s ide the
brazier where the iron was thrust, you saw that the ashes laid

98
over the glowing coals were raked into careful lines. Even the
enameled medicine pot on its tripod over the brazier gleamed as
if it had j u st been p olished .
B u t the s tra ngest thing o f all wa s those eggshells in Lily's d ish.
Sh inako had to earn her own keep now, and it couldn't be ea sy.
Yet, despite her poverty, she wa s making sure that Lily wa s well
nou rish ed. And look how much th icker Lily's cushions were
than Sh inako 's own . How on earth had she come to take such
good ca re of a cat she'd once detested?
Shozo realized now that his own character was to blame for
driving h is ex-w ife out, and for causing this cat too a great deal
of pain. And now, this very morning, he hadn't even been able
to enter h is own house and so had drifted over here. As he lis­
tened to the sou nd of Lily's purring, and was half choked by the
smell of her litter-box, he was stirred by strong emotions. Yes, it
was true-Sh inako and Lily were both to be p itied . B u t wa sn't
he to be p it ied even more? He, who had no home to call his
own ?
Just then, there was the sound of ra p id footstep s .
"Shinako i s right at t h e corner!" said Ha tsuko, flinging open
the door.
"Oh m y God ! "
"You ca n 't go out the back . The front-go round to th e fro nt !
I 'll get your sandals for you. Now hurry, hurry ! "
Shozo tumbled down t h e sta irs a n d rushed to t h e front en­
tra nce. He scu ffed into the san dals Ha tsuko had flung onto the
floor and scuttled out into the s treet. Just as he did so, he caught
a glimpse o f Sh inako from behind as she turned to go in a t the
back door. They had just m issed each other! As if pursued by
som ething d readful, he ra n at full speed in the opposite direc­
tion .

99
THE LITTLE
KINGDOM
K aij ima Shokich i was tra n s ferred to a post at the primary
school in M . C ity, G. Prefecture, about two years ago, when he
was th irt y-six. He wa s a true "child of Edo" (as the cap ital was
once called), having been born in Asakusa's Shoten-cho area .
From childhood he had enjoyed learning, a taste perhap s in­
herited from h is fa ther, who had been a specialist in Ch inese
s tud ies during the days of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was th is
fondness for learning, however, that had made him fa il in later
life, as he now sadly recogn ized . No matter how unsuited he
m ight be to making h is way in the world, if only h e hadn ' t in­
s isted on trying to become a scholar- if instead he'd ap pren­
ticed h imsel f at some shop and worked hard there-by now he
m igh t have beco m e a resp ectable m ercha nt of some kin d . At the
very least h e would have been able to support his fam ily com fort­
ably. It had been a great m is take from the beginn ing, h is at­
tem p t to beco me a scholar despite the fa ct that he came from a
fa m ily so p oor that there was no question o f h is going on to m id­
dle school. When he finished higher-level prim ary school in his
m id-tee ns, his fa ther urged him to find a place as an apprent ice
somewhere; but he refused, and instead entered the Teachers'
Tra ining College in Ochanomizu.
I m med iatel y a fter graduat ing at the age of twen ty, he beca me
a teacher at the C. Primary S chool in h is home area, w ith a
salary o f eigh teen yen per m onth. O f course at the time he had
no intention of re maining a primary-school teacher forever: he

1 03
would support himsel f in this way for a while a n d continue to
study hard on h i s own. He would work on his favorite h is to rical
subjects-on the histo ry of Japan and C h ina; and fin ally he
would even beco me a Doctor of Letters ! H is ambitions were
tha t high .
Kaijima's fa ther, however, d ie d when he was twen ty-four, a n d
shortly a fterward he married; little b y l it tl e his former drive a n d
ambition were worn away. In t h e fi rs t place, he was very much
in love with his w i fe . Up t ill then he had been so engrossed in his
studies tha t he n ever even looked at a woman. Now, as he ex­
perienced more and more of the joys of married l i fe, he gradual­
ly grew contented with his not very distingu ished lot; without
even being aware of it, he wa s beco ming more l ike the mass of or­
d inary men. Meanwhile, children were born , h i s salary rose a l it­
tle, a n d in the e n d he lost all his earlier determination to suc­
ceed a n d make a name for himsel f.
H i s elde s t daughter wa s born at the time o f his transfer to
the H . Primary School in S hitaya Ward, where he made about
twen ty yen a month. O ver the next fi fteen years he continued to
teach, being sent to various schools throughout Tokyo, from the
S. School in N ihombashi to the T. School in Akasaka , and so on.
H e rece ived p romotions, and reached the grade o f "licensed
schoolmas ter" w i th a mon thly salary of forty-five yen ; but his
fa mily's l iving expenses had increased a t a far grea ter rate than
his salary, with the result that h e wa s getting poorer w i th every
passing year. Two years a fter his eldest daugh ter, his first son
was born . Then, one a fter another, there ca me a total o f six
children, until fin ally, seventeen years a fter he began his career
as a teacher, he moved with his en tire fa m ily to G. Prefecture, a t
which time h i s w i fe was p regnant w i t h their seven th child .
Kaij ima had been born a n d raised i n Tokyo and had spen t half
his l i fe there. If he now made the sudden d ec ision to move to

1 04
the provinces , it was because h e could no longer cope with the
p res sures of daily life in the metropolis. H i s last position in
Tokyo was at the F. Primary School in Kojimachi Ward, located
on the exclusive h igh ground to the west of the Imp erial Palace,
where many of the nobility and high offi cials had their res­
idences . Virtually all his pupils were well-bred children from
m iddle-class fam ilies or above. So the sa d, shabby sight of his
own ch ildren, who were attending the same school , was d istress­
ing: no matter how p oor he and his wife m igh t be, he wanted at
least to see his child ren neat and well dressed . ( ( Daddy, buy me
a d ress like hers ! " ( ( I ' d like a pretty ribbo n ! " ( ( B uy me those
shoes!" a nd in sum mer ( ( Let's go somewhere cool ! " -when they
pestered him for things like this, he felt all the more oppressed
by a sense of his own inadequacy as a parent. I n addition, he
was respons ible for the care of his old wi dowed m other. B eing
honest, conscientious, and warmhearted , he worried constantly
about these things and was overwhelmed with feelings of guilt
toward the m embers of his fam ily. Far better, then, to leave ex­
p ens ive Tokyo beh ind and lead a more relaxed life in a p rovin­
cial town. By doing so, he hoped to be able to give his family
some sense o f security and p eace. He chose M . City in G. Prefec­
ture because it was his wife's hometown and there was someone
who could h elp h im find a new position there.
M. was a small city about seventy miles north of Tokyo with a
popula tion o f some fort y to fi ft y thousa nd, and was well known
for the p roduction of ra w silk. It lay in one corner of the broad
Kanto Pla in, at a point where the flatlands met the foothills of
the central mountain range and began to narrow and close in on
themselves . The outskirts of the city on all four sides were given
over to m ulberry fields as far as the eye could see. On a clear day
beneath bright blue skies M t . H . , famous for its hot springs, and
Mt. A . , with its huge, im posing mass, could be seen from every

1 05
thorough fare, towering beyond the rows o f tiled roofs . I n the
town itself, the cool, blue waters of the T. River fl owed swiftly
through a man-made waterway. The main road, along which ran
a tram for the I. hot spring, had a b righter and l ivelier aspect
than that of most country tow n s . All in all , the city had great
charm.
It was at the beginn ing o f May that K a ij ima and his defeated
l ittl e fa m ily fi rst came to M . , and the city and its surro undings
were at their most beautiful: it was a b rilliantly sunny day . The
Kaij imas, used to living for so long in a squalid back-alley tene­
ment in K a nda's Sarugaku-cho, felt a s i f they had been delivered
from the depths of some dark, fetid p it and brought out sudden­
ly into the clear light of day . They s ighed with pleasure . The
children went every day to play on the lawns of the park where
the castl e had stood, o r in the shade o f the cherry trees growing
thick along the riverbank, or at the edge o f the pond in the A.
Garden, where wisteria in full bloom hung heavily in great
clusters. Kaij ima, h i s wife, a nd his mother, now well into her s ix­
ties, felt a sense of sudden rel ease; and apart from their yearly
visit to Kaij ima's father's grave, they had no n eed or desire to
see Tokyo ever aga i n .
T h e D . Primary S ch ool where he n o w taught w a s on the
northe rn edge of the city, and behind the playground the fields
of mulberry trees stretched into the dista nce . Gazing from the
classroom w indow at the b right rural scene, struck by the distant
beauty o f Mt. A . enfolded in violet-gray mist, he taught his daily
classes with a sense of exh ilaration . When he a rrived, he was as­
s igned to teach the third-year boys' class; and h e co ntinued to
have the same group through their fourth and into their fi fth
year, so his contact w ith them spanned three calendar years .
There were no very well-bred, ca re fully d ressed children of the
sort he'd had a t the F. S chool in Koj imach i; but M. was the

1 06
prefectu ral cap ital, a fter all, and not a simple coun try town, so
he did have some boys from fairly weal thy fa milies, as well as a
few who were unusually bright. There were also some naughty
lads who were m ore tricky and unma nageable than any he had
dealt with in Tokyo.
Two of the boys- th e son of Mr. Suzuki, who owned a textile
mill and was an officer in the G. Bank, and the son of Mr.
Nakamura, the p resident of the S. Hydroelectric Power Com­
pany-were particularly bright, and one or the other o f them
was always at the top of the class during the years Kaijima was
in charge of it. Among the "bad boys ," the cl ear leader wa s
N ishim ura , whose fa ther was a pha rmaci st. Then th ere wa s
A rita, a doctor's son; he was the cla ss cryba by, "Mama's little
boy," whose parents spoiled him with fa ncy clothes and so on.
B ut Kaijima had always liked children and by now had spent
al most twenty years looking a fter the m , so he was genui nely
in terested in all his p upils , in their variety o f cha racter and
outlook; and he trea ted everyo ne with the sa m e im partial kind­
nes s . Occasion ally he meted out some quite severe physical
pu nishments or gave them a real ton gue-la shing. Nevertheless,
h e had a good rep utation a mong the students them selves, his
colleagues, and the parents becau se, with his many years' ex­
p erience, h e obviously knew a great deal about children. H e was
known to be an honest, si ncere, and competent schoolmaster.

I t was in the spring, t wo years after Kaijima had come to M .

City. At the beginning of t h e school year i n April, a new pu pil
joined the fi ft h-year cla ss he was in charge o f: his name was
Num akura S hokich i. He was a s tocky, h eavyset boy with a dark
com plexion and a rather melancholy look in his eyes ; round­
s houl dered, square-faced, and with traces of a scalp infection

1 07
visible h ere and t here on h is very large, pointed head. H is father
had apparen tly drifted over from Tokyo to work a t the textile
mill that had recently been built in one section o f the city. It was
evident from his rather common-looking face and grimy clothes
tha t he wa s not the child of wealthy parents. Kaij ima felt in­
tuitively at their first encounter that this boy would be badly
behaved and p oor at his studies; but when he actually had the
chance t o obs erve him in class, he found he wasn't so lacking in
ability a fter all. M oreover, he seemed more docile than one
would have thought-a calm, quiet, taciturn lad .
Then one day Kaijima was strolling around the grounds dur­
ing n oon recess watching the p u p ils hard at play (this was a habit
of his, s ince he firmly believed that if you wanted to learn
something about a child 's p otential, you s hould pay more atten­
tion to what he d id on the playground than to his behavior in
class). H e discovered that his own class had d ivided into two
group s and were playing a t war. That in itself was not unus ual,
but he was struck by the way they were d ivided up. Of the fi fty
pupils, forty were in one group and only ten in the other. The
first was led by Nis himura, the p harmacist ' s son, who directed
his troops with great earnestness as he sat astride two boys who
served as h is horse. The leader o f the secon d, much s maller
group wa s , to Kaij i ma's surprise, Nu makura Shokichi, the new
boy . This usually quiet lad was on horseback too; and with loud
s houts and eyes bla zing he commanded his troop s to a ttack,
himself taking the lea d in charging into the enemy's massed
ra nks .
Numakura had been a t the school barely ten days- how,
.
then, had he come to w ield such p ower? H is curiosity imme di­
ately aroused, K a ij ima followed the battle with the greatest in­
terest; and, as he watched , a boyish smile sp read across his face .
For, in no time, the larger force began to give way, breaking for-

1 08
mation and fi nally fleeing wildly in all d irection s . I t wa s true that
the members of Nu makura 's small army were all extremely
s trong boys-playground heroes; but the sheer cowardice shown
by their opponents was am azing. They seemed particularly
a fraid o f N umakura h imself: no sooner d id he come charging
at them on his horse than they wavered and collapsed, not
daring to put up a real fight at all. In the end, even the op posing
gen eral, Nishim ura, quailed un der that baleful gaze, surren­
dered , and wa s taken p risoner. Yet the victor himself d id not
use any violence; he m erely broke through the enemy lines re­
p eatedly fro m several d irections, shouting orders to his troops
and invective at the other side: "Right-let's do it again ! This
time we'll do it with seven m e n . S even 'll be en ough for u s ! " And,
sending three of h is soldiers over to the enemy side, he joined
battle aga in; and aga in Nishim ura's army was soundly beaten.
The th ird time, the seven were reduced to five; even so, Nu­
makura 's l it tle band prevailed a fter a fierce struggl e.
From that day on, Kaijima began to pay sp ecial attention to
this n ew boy. In the cl as sroom, though, there wa s nothing to set
him apart from any of the oth ers . H e did quite well, whether he
was made to read aloud from a text or to do some calcula tion;
and he never fa il ed to do h is hom ework. S ince he wa s always
bent silently over his desk, his eyebrows kn it together in a rath­
er d iscontented-looking frown, Ka i j ima found it impos sible to
guess wha t the boy' s character was really like. At any rate, he
d id n ' t seem to be a troublem aker, the sort who makes fu n of the
teacher, incites his clas smates to m isch ief, and gen erall y sp oils
the atmosphere of the cla ss. He may have been " the boss" of
the clas s, but was clearl y not the usual t ype.
One m orning du ring the eth ics lesson, Ka ij ima told them the
s tory of N inom iya Son toku, the early n ineteenth-century sage .
Usually when h e taught, he spoke quietly, in a rela xed, affec-

1 09
tionate way; but when it ca m e to the ethics lesson , his man­
ner changed, beco m in g noticeably m ore serious. It was th e first
class o f this particular day, and brigh t rays o f su nlight strea med
through the w indows. Perhaps because the air in th e roo m wa s
so fresh, the boys' mood too seemed more alert and attentive.
"Today I ' m going to talk about Master Ninom iya Sontoku, so
I want you all to be quiet and listen carefully . " H earing h i m
begin i n th i s solemn way, t h e class b eca m e p erfectly still, fix­
ing th eir atten tion on h i m . Eve n talkative N ish i mura, who was
often rebuke d for chatting with his n eighbor, today gazed up in­
tently at th e teacher' s face, his brigh t, in telligen t-looking eyes
only blinking now and th en . For some time, only the voice of
Kaij i ma addressing his p u p ils could be h eard ringing out over
the mulberry fields arou n d the school, whil e in th e classroom
itself th e fi fty boys sat listening w ith close attention , not making
a soun d .
" . . . A n d what did Master Ninom iya s a y the n ? H o w did h e
suggest the Ha ttori fa m ily could restore their waning fortunes?
His instructions to th e entire Hattori clan could be s u m med up
in the s ingle word ' frugality' ! "
Kaij i ma continued to s p eak w ith a more fluent and forceful
eloqu ence than u sual, u ntil he h eard the sou n d o f someone mut­
tering to his n eighbor in one corner o f th e clas sroom wh ich ,
up to that p oint, had been completely s ilent. His face hardened
for a moment. Now, j u st when everyon e was quiet and p aying
such good a ttention-and indeed all the boys today seemed un­
usually keen to listen-who was d is turbing the cla s s with this
unwelco m e chatter? Kaij i ma made a point o f clearin g h i s throat
nois ily before continuing his lecture, d irecting a brief glare
toward the o ffending corner. There was s ilence for a m inute or
two , a n d then the low wh isp ers started u p a gain . The sound
grated on his nerves like twinges fro m a n aching tooth. Inwardly

1 10
furious, he turned abrup tly to look in its d irection every time he
heard the voice; but it would stop at once, so he could n't tell
who was responsible. However, the noise ca me from the right
rear corner of th e room, the area wh ere Num akura had his desk;
a nd the teacher beca m e convinced that he was the culp rit . If it
had been someone else-and particularly if it had been a mis­
ch ievous boy like Nishimura-Kaij i ma would have pounced
on him and given h im a good scolding. B ut somehow Numakura
seemed hard to scol d . H e was-how should one put it?-a child,
yet n ot a ch ild; and bawling him out would seem both unkind
and rather bad-mann ered on the teacher's part. For one th ing,
he didn't really know the boy as yet-he still hadn't had a
chance to talk with him in a friendly way, apart from asking and
a nswering questions in class. S o Kaij ima d ecided to ignore the
whole ma tter if poss ible : he would let h im off th is time-th e boy
wouldn't go on talking much longer. . . . B ut, on the con trary,
the voice grew louder and louder until finally he could clearly
see Num akura 's lips moving.
" S om eone's been blabbing away there in that corner-now,
who is it?" Kaijima was unable to control him self any longer,
and as he spoke he struck the top of h is d esk with his ratta n
poin ter. "Num akura ! It's you, isn't it? You're the one who' s
been talking ! "
" No, sir, i t wa s n ' t m e . . . . " He stood u p without the slightest
s ign of fear and l ooked around at the boys sitting near h im .
"He's the one w h o wa s talking," he continued, sudd enly point­
ing at a boy called Noda who was si tting next to h im , on the
left.
"Oh no. I saw you talking, and it wa sn't with Noda . It was
with Tsurusaki, there on your right. Wh y are you lying like
th I. S ?. "
Ka i j ima's fa ce red dened with a n anger h e ' d never felt in class

111
before . Noda, whom N umakura wa s trying to blame for his own
offense, was a good-natured, well-behaved student. When Nu­
makura pointed at him, h e blinked in astonishment for a mo­
ment, then fixed an anxious , pleading look o n the other boy. At
last, s eeming to come to some s ort of d ecision, he rose t o his feet
and, h i s face p ale and his voice tre mbling, said, " Sir, it wasn't
Mr. Nu makura . I was th e one who was talking."
M os t o f th e other pupils turned to look at N oda with mocking
glances , wh ich made Kaij ima even angrier. N oda h ardly ever
chattered in class. Almost certainly h e was being fal sely accused
by Numakura, who was n ow swaggeringly sure o f his position in
the class. Suddenly presented w ith the dilemma, Noda must
have d ecided h e had to take th e blam e for " th e boss. " If h e re­
fu sed, he was sure to be bullied by Nu makura later. I f this was
true, a s Kaij ima s u sp ected, then N umakura was all the more con­
temptible. There could be no q uestion of letting him off without
a full investigation and proper pu nishment.
"I'm asking Nu makura , not you . Everyone else should be
quiet!" Kaij ima brought h i s stick down on th e desk again with a
thwack. "Nu maku ra ! Why are you lying? I saw you talking, so
you'd better tell the truth. Come on, own up -you know you 're
in the wrong. I f you ap ologize for what you did, I won't give you
a bad time . . . . B u t you're not only lying, you 're even trying to
blame somebody else for it. That's the worst thing you could
do. If you don' t cha nge your ways now, young man, you won't
amount to a nything when you grow up ! "
N umakura re mained completely u ndaunted, glaring u p at Kai­
j ima with those gloomy eyes of h i s . H is exp res sion had the
tough ness, malevolence, and ferocity that one often finds in
young delinquents.
"Why don't you answer? Do you u nderstand what I j ust said?"
Tu rning over th e ethics textbook wh ich lay op en on the desk

1 12
before h i m , Kaij ima moved swiftly to Nu maku ra ' s desk. He
flexed the ra t ta n rod with both hands, making it pla in tha t
he would u se it if necessary before he'd fin ished with this boy.
Th e others held their brea th; the ten sion was palpable. A hush
fell over the roo m , a silence quite different from before, l ike
that p receding a sudden storm .
"Wha t's wrong, Numakura? Why don ' t you say something?
How can you be so stubborn, a fter all I ' ve sa id?"
Just as the rod ' s tip seemed about to fly out and s trike him
o n the cheek, the boy spoke :
" I ' m not being stubborn . " H is low, hu sky voice carried a tone
of calm resolve, and h is thick black eyebrows were drawn to­
gether even more t ightly than before . "It really wa s Noda who
wa s talking, sir. I ' m not lying."
"All righ t-get over here ! " Kaijima gra bbed the boy by the
shoulder and began roughly dragging him forwa rd with a grim
look on his face. " Get over here and stay standing below the
podium u ntil I say you can move. If you say you 're sorry for
what you ' ve done, I ' m rea dy to forge t it. B u t if you go on being
p igheaded , you can stay there all night!"
" Excu se me, sir. . . . " Noda s tood up again . Num akura seemed
to give him a sw ift, sidelong glance as he did so. "Really, it wasn't
Mr. Nu makura . Please let me stand there instead of h i m . "
"No, there's no p o i n t i n pun ishing you . You a n d I can have a
little talk about th is la ter. "
As the teacher s tarted tugging at Nu makura again, another
pupil got u p : " S ir. . . . " It wa s Nishi mura, the naughtiest boy in
the cl ass. In stead of his u sual cocky, back-street manner, there
shone in his fa ce a noble courage and re solu t ion, like a re tainer
about to lay down his life for his lord . H is exp ression was so
grave that it hardly seemed possible he was o nly a boy o f eleven
or twelve .

1 13
 " I ' m not going to punish someone for things he hasn't done.
I 'm p unishing N u makura beca use he's guilty. Now , those of you
who aren't involved, keep quiet! "
Kaij ima was furious. He could n ' t understand why everyone
was trying to cover up for Numakura , p articularl y if they were
being b ullied and intimidated b y him; i t only made it harder
to explain.
" You- I 'm tellin g you to move, so hurry up ! "
" S ir. " Yet another student rose t o his feet. " I f you 're goin g to
make Mr. Numakura stand there, let me stand w ith him . " To
the teache r's amazement, it was N aka mura, a gifted studen t and
head of the cla s s .
"Wha t ? " Kaij ima was stunned, and found himsel f relaxing h i s
grip on Numakura ' s shoulder.
" S ir, let me stand w ith him too ! " O n e a fter the other, five or
six p u p ils left their seats and moved forwa rd to form a small
group around the podium. Then ca me almost every student in
the class, pressing fo rward and surrounding the teacher, all of
them repeating " M e too, s ir, me too ! " There was no trace of
malice in their attitude, no a pp arent desire to embarrass their
teacher. Like N ishimura , they were j ust intent on offering them­
selves to save N umakura.
An gry and upset, and hardly knowing what he was doing, Kai­
j ima was on the point of shouting at them: "All right- I'll make
you all stand there then ! " Had he been younger and less ex­
p erienced, h e surely would have in his present state. B ut , true to
his reputation as a vetera n teacher, he could not allow himself to
lose con trol completely in fron t o f these fi fth graders. At the
same time, he couldn't help feeling secretly astonished at the
s trange a uthority w ielded by this new boy.
" Look, " he said, w ith obvio us frustrat ion , "Numakura has
done something wrong and I'm trying to deal w ith it. Why are

1 14
you obj ecting like thi s ? You're wrong, all of you ! " Then, feeling
there was no other wa y, he aba ndoned h is attempt to punish the
boy.
The matter seemed to have been settled with the teach er's
final admonition to the cla s s . Yet Kaij ima could not put the
Numa ku ra a ffair out of h is m i nd; it s tayed with him as a p rob­
lem to be stud ied and resolved . Fifth graders in p ri mary school
are, a fter all, innocents. At the age of eleven or twelve, chil­
dren tend to ru n wild, ignoring th eir parents' ad vice and their
teach ers ' orders . Yet the whole class now seemed to accept
Num akura as their u nquest ioned leader, and to be will ing to do
wha tever he sa id . Not only Nishimura, who had thrown his
weight around as the class "boss" until Numakura's arrival, but
even honor students like Naka mura and Suzuki took ord ers
fro m him, whether out of fea r or real devotion; and if he was
fou nd to be at fa ult in something, they volunteered to be pun­
ished in h is place. Gra nted h is great physical strength and
courage, h e wa s still just a snotty-nosed kid, the same age as his
companions; yet h is classm ates were clearly fa r m ore impressed
by the words "Mr. Num akura said such-an d-such " than by the
statement " Teacher said so-an d-so. " In h is long years as a pri­
ma ry-school teach er, Kaij ima had encountered some extremely
will ful children and even you ng delinquents who were al m ost
unmanageable, but he had never co me across anything like this
Numaku ra business. How had h e made him sel f so popular with
the entire cla ss? How did he manage to dom inate so com­
pletely a group of fi ft y lively students? It was unprecedented,
in any of the many schools with wh ich Kaij i ma had been ac­
quain ted .
I t was not necessarily a bad thing to have brough t the whole
class under one's con trol, to be able to order them about as one
chose. If this wa s the result of Nu makura's moral leadersh ip and

115
natural a uthority, there would n ' t b e the sli gh test reason to
rebuke h i m . K a i j i m a was only a fra id tha t the boy might be some
sort o f evil p rodigy, a truly wicked child who could not b e dealt
with b y any of the usual method s . Perhaps even the bes t el­
ements in the class were being forced into u n w illing obedi­
ence . . . . Perhaps N u makura would use his p ower gradually to
promote evil ways and vicious habits a mong the other pup ils . . . .
With that d egree o f p ower and in fl uence, i f h e did set out to cor­
rup t the cla ss, i t would be d isastrous . Fortunately Kaijima's
eldest son, Keita ro, was in the same class, and b y asking some
casual-sounding ques tions, the teacher was able to rea ssure him­
self tha t his m isgivings were u n n ecessary.
In response to his fa ther's ques tion s, Keita ro fi rs t p aused as if
wondering whether h e s ho uld say anything or not, and then gave
a brief, hesitant reply: "Numakura's n o t a bad kid, Father. . . . "
"Are you sure - really? I ' m not going to u s e what you say
against h i m , so don ' t be afraid to tell the truth. What happened
during the ethics lesson the other day? N umakura m isbehaved,
and then tried to bla m e it on Noda, didn't h e ? "
In answer to this, K e i ta ro gave t h e following explanation . I t
was of course a bad thing t o d o , b u t N u makura hadn't really
meant to get a n yo n e in to trouble . He had m e rely been trying to
test his followe rs ( m ea n in g everyon e in the cla ss) to see how
loyal and devoted they actually were. And as a result of what
hap p en ed, h e was able to satisfy h i m self that each and every boy
in the class was p repared to sacrifice h i mself for h i m ; and tha t
even the teacher could do nothing a bout i t . Noda, who had been
the firs t to take the bla m e tha t day in response to Numakura�s
directive, as well as N ishimura and Nakam u ra who had followed
suit, later received offi cial recogn ition fro m h im for their m eri­
torious service as " th e m o s t loyal m em bers o f the class . "

116
 This much, at least, was clear from Keitaro's accou nt, if one
read between the lines. Asked just wh en a nd how Nu makura
had acqu ired so m u ch au thority, however, he was unable to
com e up with any d e fi nite explanation; but it seemed tha t Nu­
m akura was a genu inely brave, bighearted , a nd chivalrous lad,
a nd that these qualities had gradually made him their natural
ruler. In term s of purely physical strength, he was not necessarily
unbeatable- Nish imura would probably have won in a wrestling
match between the two. But Numakura never bullied the
weaker pupils as Nishi mura often did; so if the two of them quar­
reled, most of the children would supp ort the new boy. Also,
though h e m ight be weaker in wrestling, when it came to a real
fight Nu maku ra was exceptionally tough . H e exuded an air of
authority, a sp irit o f command, and whatever cou rage his oppo­
nent might p ossess was virtu ally swallowed up. Thus, though
th ere was a stru ggle for power between him and Nishimura
shortly a fter h e ca m e to the school, the latter soon had to con­
ced e defeat; a nd not only ( (conced e"-he willingly beca m e Nu­
maku ra ' s obed ient und erling. There was a generou s, friendly
s id e to his ch aracter, too. As a result, even those who at first
were hostile to him ended by gla dly obeying his ord ers . Even
Naka mura and Suzuki, the h onor students, who never read ily
gave Nishimura their allegiance when he was ( (bos s," now be­
ca m e the most loyal of Numaku ra 's followers , flattering and
hu moring him to stay in his good graces . U ntil Num aku ra ar­
rived , Keita ro had looked up to these two boys; now, however,
they had begu n to seem very ord ina ry. Their grades might be ex­
cellent, but put them alongsid e Nu makura and they were like
child ren thrust into the presence of an adult .
For these reasons, then, there was no longer any opposition
to Numakura whatsoever; everyone happily sub m itted to him.

117
O nce in a whil e h e would issue a n order that w·a s clearly ar­
bitrary or selfi sh, but for the most p art his methods were fair. All
he wa n ted was that his rule be firmly established; once that was
done, h e hardly ever abused h is p ower. If one of his followers
bullied a weaker p up il or did anything else mean-sp irited, he
applied severe sanctio n s . B oys l ike Arita were therefore gladdest
of all that N umakura was now in control .
Having heard all this from Keitaro, Kaij ima couldn ' t help feel­
ing an even greater interest in N umakura . If what his son said
was true, then the boy was certainly not a troublemaker: he
might b e "the boss" of the cla ss, but he wa s a n admirabl e one.
There was a chance, in fa ct, that this w orking-class lad was des­
t ined for great things. Some m ight argue that it was wrong to
let a boy turn his cla s smates into underl ings and boss them
around - that harm w ould come from letting him get away w ith
such behavior. Yet, if the others were read y to obey him, s urely
there was no need to interfere; and even if the teacher did try to
step in, how could he expect to be e ffective? No, it would be far
better to p raise N umak ura-praise h im for having a fine sense
of j u stice a n d chivalry desp ite his a ge, and encourage him to win
even m ore p op ularity at school . Kaijima would guide him in­
to being a n influe nce for good, to the benefit o f the whole
class.
With this in mind, the teacher summoned N umakura to his
desk one day a fter cla s s : "I d id n ' t call you up h ere to give you a
scolding. I n fact, I 'm really imp ressed-even a n adult would find
it hard to accomplish s o me of the things you're doing. To get
every pupil in the class to obey you isn't an easy j ob, even for a
teacher; but you're d o in g it. It's actually ra ther embarrassing ! "
This warmhearted teacher wa s saying w hat he really felt.
Here he was, w ith twenty years' exp erience in education, being
outdone by j ust a boy when it came to controll ing the class. And

118
it wa sn't o nly h i m s elf-he wondered i f there wa s a prim ary­
school teacher an ywhere who could do as good a job as " B oss
Num aku ra " did at infl uencing childre n and winning their obe­
d ience. "We p ride ourselves on being 'educators , ' " he thought
to himself, "but should n ' t we feel ashamed, considering how
much Numakura has accomplished? Our a ffection for our s tu­
dents and their respect for us don 't begin to come up to his
standard. There's a sin cerity, a purity, in children which we
ca n 't match , and so we're cut o ff-unable to join them in their
ga m es as equals. We can lea rn a lot from Nu makura-we need
to work to be accepted as their 'pals , ' not held in awe as
't eac h ers ' . . . . "
Al oud, h e con tinued: " I ' d like you to keep up the good work­
pu nish the ones who m isbehave and encourage the ones who're
doing well , so the whole group ca n grow into fi ne , well-man­
nered you ng m en . I'm asking for your h el p , Num akura . We
ca n ' t have a class 'boss' who's a roughn eck and leads the others
into bad wa ys; but if you're will ing to work like this to make the
cl ass better, you 'll be a real h elp to me . . . . What about it-do
you understand what I'm sayi ng?"
The boy appare ntly found it hard to take i n th is u nexpected
sp eech and s tood looking up at the teacher's gently sm il in g l ips.
Then after a fe w moments h e seemed to gra sp what Kaij ima
m eant, and said with the brightest of s m iles "I un derstand, sir.
I'll do just as you say. " He could hardly conta i n his joy and ex­
citem ent.
Kai j ima him sel f felt a certain ela tion as well . H e really did
know how to deal with boys . H e wa s skillfully guiding Numa­
kura , a lad who could becom e qu ite unmanageable if h e wasn ' t
ha ndled properly. H is long exp erience i n t h i s j o b was paying off.
The thought made him feel good .
The next morning when he went to school, the teach er found

119
firm evidence tha t his "Numakura Control Plan" was already
workin g even better than he'd e xp ected, and his secret sense of
elation grew. The evide nce lay in the fact tha t from that day
on the atmosphere in his cla ssroom was completely, and un­
can nily, tran s formed. There wa s no need for him to admonish
any of the p u p ils, for all the din and chatter had ceased. The
chil dren were as s il e nt as the dead. There was not a cough;
everyone seemed to be holding his breath . It was so s tra nge that
Kaij ima gla nced d iscreetly at N umakura and fo und that, from
time to time, he took a small ledger from his p ocket, looked all
aroun d the classroo m , a n d marked down what app eared to be
de merit p oints a gainst any boy who wasn't sitting up p roperl y at
his desk. ( ( Ah , yes ! " thought the teacher, u nable to repress a
smile. The new class rules were e n forced and observed more
s trictly with each pass ing day, and, j udging from the expressions
on the p up ils' faces, all o f them were p raying fervently that
there should b e no slip o n anyone's p art .
( ( H ow is it that this cla ss has b ecome so well behaved lately?
You're so nice and quiet, I'm really impressed. No, not j ust im­
p res sed-a mazed ! " One day, Kaijima put o n a show of wide­
eyed surprise for the benefit of his p up il s . The children, who
had been waiting for some such words o f p raise, gave a great
sho ut of happy laughter when they heard their teacher's com­
ment.
( (When you're good l ike this, you make me feel p roud o f you.
Even the teachers of the other classes have noticed-and the
p rincipal tool H e o ften says that you're so quiet and cons cie n­
tious you're a model for the rest o f the school. So you should all
be aware o f what a fine rep utation you have and do your best to
keep it, not j us t for the time being but always . B e careful you
don't j ust make a good start and then give up halfway along, all
right ? "

1 20
 Th e ch ild ren greeted this with another burst of cheerful laugh­
ter. Num akura, however, m erel y locked eyes with Mr. Kaij ima
and grinned.

Almost i m m ed iately a fter the birth of their seventh child, his

w i fe's health b egan to suffer, and she sometimes had to take to
her bed. I n the summer of that year, she was at last d iagnosed as
having tub ercul osis. It had onl y been for the first year or so after
m oving to M . City that life had seemed a bit eas ier for the fami­
ly. The latest i n fant was always sick, and Mrs. Kaijima no longer
had any m ilk with wh ich to nurse it. Kaij ima's m other' s chronic
asth ma worsened with every year that passed, as d id her tem­
per. The fa m ily's circu msta nces seemed to beco me more and
m ore d i fficult-and now the news of Mrs . Kaijima's ill n ess had
plunged them all into d eeper m isery.
Each month, a full week before the ap proach of the thirti­
eth, Kaij ima would beco m e anxious and d epressed . When he
thought back to their d ays in Tokyo, where, though p oor, they
had all been h ealthy and in good spirit s , it seemed a better time
for them than the present, at leas t . They had m ore ch il dren
now, and prices had rise n ; so the fa m ily exp enses were not a
wh it lower than they had been in Tokyo-and that was not in­
cl uding the cost of the va rious medicines they need ed. Then
too, when h e was young, K a i j i m a could d epend on gett ing some
fa irly large increases in salary in due course; now, however,
there was nothing to look forward to.
"Yes, and d id n 't the fortun e-teller say that you were moving
in a bad d irection when you left Tokyo for h ere? That there'd be
no end of sickness in the fa m ily? I said at the time we should go
som ewhere els e; but oh no, that was just s illy sup ers tition ac-

1 21
cord i n g to you. And now look-look what's becom e o f us ! "
A s Kaijima s a t there sighing, wondering what t o d o , his
mother woul d p es ter h im with p eevish rem a rks like this. H is
wife p retended not to h ear and, holding back her tears, said
noth ing.
One day toward th e end of J u n e, Kaijima returned home in
the evening a fter a teachers' m eeting at school to hear the
sound of one of his children sobbing by the bedside of his wife ,
who had been lyin g ill with a fe ver for two o r three d ays . " So,
som eone's been scolded again . " Kaij i m a und erstood the situa­
tion at once as h e step p ed over the threshold, and the tho ught
pained him . Recen tly th ere had been a tense, unsettled atmo­
sph ere in th e house. His mother and his wife were constan tly
p icking on the children, who for their p art were fretful and
diffi cult because they were given n o pocket m oney at all.
"Why don't you answer when your gra n d mother asks you a
question ? S urely you haven't been s tealing things, j ust because I
can 't g ive you any e xtra money? . . . "
I t was h i s wife's voice, and h er words were broken by h ollow
coughs. Amaze d at what h e h eard , Kaij i m a threw open the d oor
to th e sickroom and fou n d Keitaro being closely questioned by
his m other a n d gra n d m o ther. H em m e d in on both sides, the boy
looked stiff a n d unco m fortable .
" Keitaro! What have you done now? D i d n ' t I tell you j us t the
other day that you're not to give your m o ther any trouble when
she's ill l ike th is? You're the eldest, but you j us t won 't under­
s tand, will yo u ? "
K eitaro rem a ined silent with h i s h ead b e n t ; fro m time t o time
he released grea t drop s of pent-up tears onto the tata m i mats.
" For the last two weeks I ' ve been n oticing something stra n ge
about K eitaro 's behavior. . . . A n d now look what sort of p erson

1 22
he's turned into ! " Kaijima's m other too had tears in her eyes
and spoke in a choked voice as she ga zed at her son.
Kaij ima began to question Keitaro and soon d i scovered his
mother had ample grou nds for being angry. The boy should not
have had even a n extra penny left this month after buying the
basic school supplies. Yet he wa s bringing home various things,
sweets and so -o n , from som ewhere or other. A little while ago
his mother had noticed that h e had five or six colored pencils
and, th inking it odd, had asked him wh ere he got the m . From
som eone at school, he sa i d . Then the day before yesterday he'd
co m e home in the even ing, hidden h im self in a corner of the cor­
ridor, and begu n stuffing something into his mouth. H i s grand­
m other sneaked up on him and discovered that his brea st pocket
wa s cram med with packets of s ticky rice cakes . Come to think of
it, Ke itaro had stopped nagging his parents for spending money
lately, wh ich was unusual. And once the women's susp icions
had been aroused i n this wa y, they remembered several other
worrying things . The wh ole situa t ion wa s so odd that they had
d ecided to look into ma tters a little more closely at the next op­
portu nity. Then, today, Keitaro had come home with an elegant
fa n wh ich m u s t have cost at least fi ft y sen . This too was alleged
to be ( ( from a frien d . " B u t when asked who this friend was, and
when and wh ere h e gave the fa n to Keitaro, the boy just hung
his head, re fusing to reply. B eco ming even more suspicious,
they grilled him until a t last they squ eezed a con fession out of
h i m : it was n ' t a gift but a purchase! Yet when asked just where
he had got the money to buy something like this, he still refused
to say, no matter how harsh they were with h i m . He only kept
stubbornly in sisting that he ( (hadn't s tolen any money from
a nybod y . "
( ( I f you d i d n ' t s teal i t , then where d id it c o m e fro m ? Tell me
that. . . . Tell me!" H is grandm other beca m e so furious that she

1 23
seemed to forget her own illness and to be on the p oint of hit­
ting Keitaro.
Kaijima, listening to all th is, felt a chill p a s s over him, as if
he'd been doused with cold water.
" K eitaro, wh y don't you tell the truth? I f you stole it, j u st
come right out and say so . . . . You know I want you to have the
sort of th ings a ny boy wants; but w ith things as they are, with so
much sickness i n the fa m ily, I j ust don't seem to b e able to look
after you the way I should . I know it's hard on you, but you j ust
have to p ut up with it. I don't like to think you're the type o f boy
who'd s te al someo ne els e ' s prop erty, but sometimes we all act
on imp ulse-we don't intend to, but suddenly we fi nd ourselves
doing someth in g rotten . I f that's what happened, tell me the
truth now, and I'll forgive you this one time. Tell the truth ,
apologize to your grandmother, and p romise yo u'll never do it
again . . . . Keitaro! Why don't you say someth ing?"
" . . . B ut Father, I . . . I didn 't s teal a nybody's money . . . . "
The boy began to cry a gain.
" B ut you say you bo ught all th ese things-this fan, and the
colored p encils, and the sweets the other day. So where did the
money come fro m ? How can I believe you if you won ' t tell me
tha t ? I ' m not go ing to stand for m uch m ore of this, young man.
Be s tubborn now and you 'll regret it- yo u understand that, don't
you, Keitaro ? "
A great wail suddenly burst fro m t h e boy. H is mouth worked
convulsively, but for a time h is blubbering made it impos sible
to catch what he was saying. At last, though, K a i j i m a realized
that his son was o ffering excuses, a wkwardly repeating the same
thing over and over through h is tears : " I t ' s not real m oney- it's
j ust fake stuff. . . . " The boy drew fro m his p ocket a cru m pled
bill, h oldi n g it up and rubbing the tears fro m his cheeks with the
back o f his hand.

1 24
 H i s fa th er took the bill and spread it out on his lap . It was just
play money fo r children, with the word s "One Hundred Yen "
printed in mediu m -sized type on a sm all slip of Western-style
paper. It beca m e clear that Kei taro had another four or five of
them hidden away in h is pocket: fi fty yen, one thousand yen,
even ten thousand yen - the larger the amount, the bigger the
s ize of the type and the bill itself. And in one corner on the back
of each bill was a p ersonal seal th at read "Numakura . "
"This i s Num aku ra ' s seal! D i d he print these bills?"
Kaijima guessed the general nature of the situation and heaved
an inw ard sigh of relief; s till, he rem ained suspicious.
" U nh . . . unh," said Keitaro, j erki ng his head up a nd down
a n d crying e ven harder. At last, after a whole even ing spent first
in calming the boy and then in coaxing the story out of him, Kai­
j i m a was able to get to the bottom of the business about the play
mon ey. Nu makura ' s p ower had, as he'd foreseen, continued to
grow , and by now had resulted in an extraordinary, yet al most
unn oticed, situation.
From what Keitaro revealed, it seemed that despite the ap­
p arent succes s o f the "Numakura Control Plan " on wh ich Kai­
jima had so prided himself, it had recently begun to produce
several un welcome side e ffects. Num akura, having received un­
exp ected praise and encouragement from his teacher, became
tremendously p leased with h i m self and began to act with even
more than h i s usual self-confi dence . First of all, h e made up
his own class-list a nd started keep ing a d etailed record of each
boy's daily behavior, giving strict marks accord ing to a system
o f his own d evis ing. " Present . . . Absent . . . Tardy . . . Left
Early"-he record ed such things as a matter o f course, with the
air of authority of a regu larly appointed teacher. In addi tion,
ab sentee students were requi red to provide reasons for their
absences; and secret i n vestigators were dispatch ed to determ ine

1 25
wheth er th ese excu ses w ere in fact valid or not. Pupils could not
get b y with any old excuse: if they w ere late for cla s s because
they'd dawdled o n the way, or had faked being sick i n order to
have th e day o ff, the s ecret agents would b e o n to them at once.
H earing this, it suddenly dawned o n Kaij ima that there had
been n o cases o f absence or lateness at all rece ntly . Even Hashi­
moto, the s ickly son of a kitchenware d ealer i n the C. district,
came to school every day. He looked p al e and listless, and yet,
to h i s teacher's amazement, he was always there. Everyone,
in fact, had beco m e very stu diou s . Kaij ima had been extremely
pleased.
A total o f s even or eight ch ildren had been appointed a s in­
vestigators . They hung about n ear the houses of p u pils who
were known to b e lazy, quietly tailed them when they went out,
and generally kept them u nder th e strictest observation . There
was, of course, a range of punishments prep ared for those who
disobeyed orders. In theory everyon e was subj ect to these
p e nalties, i ncluding the head of th e class and even Nu makura
himsel f.
As the variety o f p u n ishments grad ually increa sed , the m eth­
ods of applying them b ecame more complex, a nd the nu mber
of i nvestigators grew . In time, it beca m e n ecessary to a p point
various oth er typ es of o ffi cials . The clas s leader selected by Kai­
j ima was s i mply set aside and i n his p lace a strong, tough lad was
made I n s p ector. Then there w ere the o ffi cials i n cha rge of the
attendance record s , the playground, a nd recreation . A S p ecial
Assistant to President N u makura was a ppointed, as were a
Magistrate and a n Assistant Magi strate. Th ere were also subor­
dinates assigned to carry out the h igh o ffi cials' orders: Vice­
President N ishi mura, for example, being the second-i n-com­
mand, had two aides working for h i m . And even the honor
students, N akam ura and S uzuki, who at first were ruled out for

1 26
being too weak, gradually won Nu makura ' s re spect and beca me
Pre siden tial Advisers.
Next Numakura devised a syste m o f awards a nd honors. Lead
medals were bought at a toy store, and the Presidential Advisers
were in stru cted to supply appropria te designa tions for the va­
riou s grades. Numakura then p resen ted the medals to especial­
ly deserving followers. Soon there wa s ye t another official, in
charge of all these decorations. Then one day Vice-President
Nishi mura proposed th at they appoint someone as Minister of
Finance and begin issuing currency-a plan rea dily approved by
the President h i mself.
I m m ediately they named a boy calle d Na ito, th e son of a li­
quor dealer, to this post. H is duties for the moment con sisted in
sh utting himself up on the second floor of his house with two
assistants as soon as cla s ses ended every day, and printing bills of
va rious denom inations ra n ging fro m fi fty to one hundred thou­
sand yen . The fin ished products were sen t to the President to be
stamped "Nu makura , " a fter wh ich th ey became legal ten der.
All the pupils received a salary from th e President, the amount
depend ing on their ra nk: Nu makura ' s own m onthly salary wa s
five m illion ye n ; the Vice-President's wa s two million ; and the
m inisters each received one m illion, with their subordinates get­
ting ten thousand ye n .
The children soon began to use their newfound wealth to buy
and sell things a mong them selves. Someone as rich as Nu­
makura could buy wha tever he liked from his followers. This
meant tha t i f, as o ften ha ppe ned, the President decided to re­
quisition one of the m ore expensive toys that a fe w of them
possessed, it had to be ha nded over, however un willin gly. Na­
ka mura , for exa mple, whose fa ther wa s head of the S. Hydro­
electric Power Company, sold h is Ta isho zither to Numakura
for two hu ndred th ousa nd ye n . The Arita boy had to give up

1 27
the air rifle his father had j u s t b rought him from Tokyo­
Nu makura ' s o ffe r of five hundred thou sand yen was one he
could not refuse.
At first these tran sact ion s w ere carried out in a ran dom
fas hion in the school playground, but eventually they b ecame
'
large-scale op eration s : every day a fter school a market to whi ch
everyone ca me was set u p in an op en a rea o f a p ark, or in a
gra ssy place on the e dge of town, or at Arita's house in the T.
district. Finally Nu makura made a law requ iring a n yone who
received p ocket money from h is p arents to buy good s with that
money and b ring th em to the market. After that, the children
were absolutely forb idden to u s e an ything other than the b ills
issued by the President, the only exceptions being for small
p u rchases of everyday n ecessities in local shops. Na turally under
these circu m stances boys from rich fa m ilies were always forced
to b ecome sellers; but the buyers would in turn s ell the goods to
other children . Thus, gradually, the w ealth of the citizens of the
Numakura Rep ublic became more equally d istribu ted, and w ith
access to the republic's currency even the p oorest boys had
money to spen d . Though in itially the tra n sactions were done
half in fu n , the results were so good that b y now everyone was
full of p raise for the President's enlightened rule.
Such, at least, was the p icture Kaij ima formed from the bits o f
information h i s s o n p rovid ed . Apparentl y a very broad range of
items wa s b ou ght a n d sold in the children's market; Keitaro
himsel f listed over twenty kin d s of things w hen question e d that
even ing- Western-style pap er, n otebooks, p hotogra p h albums,
picture p ostcards , rolls of film, sweets, cakes, roast sweet p ota­
toes, milk, soft d rinks, all kin d s of fru it, children's magazines,
books of fa iry tales, p a ints, colored p encils, toys, san dals, clogs,
fan s , medals, purses, knives, a n d fountain p e n s . Virtually all

1 28
o f the boys ' needs and wants were met by this array of goods as­
se mbled at the m arke t.
Keitaro, as the teacher's son, received special treat ment from
Num akura and was never short of money. Probably Num akura
knew the d i ffi cult situation the fa mily was in and generously de­
cided to help him out . At any rat e, the boy always had about a
m illion yen in h is p ockets, wh ich was roughl y the same amount
as one of the min isters m ight have. He'd been able to buy all
sorts of things, in ad dition to the colored pe ncils, sweets, and
fan that h is grandmother had d iscovered and questioned him
abou t.
Numakura, however, was worried that this currency system of
his, i f discovered, would draw down Mr. Kaij ima' s wrath , even if
his other measures did not. And so he made the children prom­
ise never to show the bills in their teacher's presence, and to
be very careful that he not somehow find out abou t the new
syste m . A special regulation was devised , providing severe pun­
ishment for anyone who ratted . This put a particular strain on
Ke itaro , since he was the most likely susp ect; and, sure enough,
when accu sed ton ight of bein g a thief, he had cracked and re­
vealed everything. No wonder he'd been so stubborn, and wailed
and cried: he was scared of the punish ment that would be
meted out tom orrow.
"Don't be such a coward . There's nothing to cry about. If
Numakura gives you a hard time, I'll teach him a lesson he 'll
never forge t. . . . But what a sorry bunch you all are! I ' m going to
give the whole class a good talking-to tomorrow . . . . Never mind,
never min d - I ' m not going to say you told on th e m . "
A s his fa ther scolded o n , Ke itaro shook h is head, a s i f he
hadn't heard a word : " It's no good! Everybod y's susp icious of
me already . . . . There's probably an agent listening to us right

1 29
now ! " And a gain the boy burst into tears .
Kaij ima sat there stunned for a few moments. What i f h e d id
call Numaku ra out and reprimand h i m fi rst thing tomorrow­
what then ? How should he handle the whole a ffa ir? What
should h e do? H e was so shocked and a mazed that he was barely
able to fra m e these questions to h i m self.

O n e day toward the end o f autumn that year, Ka i j ima's w i fe

coughed u p a large amount o f blood; she took to her bed, and it
was obvious she would have to stay there quite a while. H i s
mother' s asthma t o o g o t worse and worse as t h e weather grew
colder. The air in M . C it y was rather dry, p erhap s because it was
so close to the mounta in s , and this seemed to aggravate both ill­
nesses considerably . The house had only three room s , of e ight,
six, and fou r and a half mats' s ize; and the two women lay side
by side on their quilts in one o f them, coughing and sp itting
p hlegm.
The eldest daugh ter, H atsuko, who was a fi rst-year m iddle­
school studen t , by now was doing all of the cooking for the fa m i­
ly. She would get u p while it was still dark to light the kitchen
stove, carry food trays to her sick mother and grandmother, and
look a fter her brothers and s isters . A fter drying her hands, which
were chapped and cracked with the cold, she set o ff for school .
During the noon recess she ca me home a ga i n and spent what
time she had p reparing lunch. Then, in the a fternoon, there was
washing to be done and the baby's diapers to be changed. Her
father coul d n 't bear to watch her doing all this by herself, so
he tried to help by fetching water from the back and giving
her a hand w ith the clea n ing.
One m ight suppose that the fam ily's misfortunes had reached

1 30
their p eak, but in fact th ere was every sign that there was worse
still to com e . Kaij ima began to fear that he too had ca ught tuber­
culosis . He even found him self hoping that, if th is was so, the
children would also become infected so that the whole fa m ily
could die together, leaving no one behi nd. And, indeed, Keitaro
had begun to have night s weats recently, and to cough in a
p eculiar way.
With all his mou nting p roblems, Kaij ima frequently lost his
temper in the classroom nowadays. He became irritated over
trifles; the sl igh test thing set his nerves on ed ge and sent the
blood rushing to his hea d . At times like these he felt like break­
ing off the lesson a n d ru nning outside som ewhere. One day he
caught one of the pupils with some of Numakura ' s bills in his
hand . ( (You 've still got those things, a fter what I told you? . . . "
H e found him sel f shouting at the child ; his heart wa s beating
wildly, darkness welled up around him, and h e seemed on the
verge of falling dow n .
The students, with Num akura i n t h e lead, bega n t o make fun
of their teacher, doing spiteful things that they knew would
up set him . Even his son wa s shunned: he lost all his friends,
a nd a fter co m i ng home from school would spend the rest of the
day moping in the Kaijimas' cramped rooms.

I t wa s a S u nday a fternoon toward the end o f November. Kai­

j i m a ' s wife had had a fever fo r two or three days and wa s lying in
bed, thin and haggard-looki ng. Their baby lay in her arms. It had
been fussing since around noon, but now it was getting m ore
and more cross and had begun to screa m .
( ( Don't cry . . . . There, there, don't cry . . . . Shhhh . . . hush
now . " The mother m u rmured these word s from time to time in

131
a tired, l istless way. B ut in the end she fell silent, a s if she no
longer remembered or cared, and only the baby's shrieking echoed
through the house.
Kaij ima , who sat facing his desk in the e ight-mat room next
door, felt an unpleasant ti ngling in his ears and a slight trem­
bl ing o f the paper sliding screens each time the baby shrieked.
He fel t as i f something oppre s s ive were wrapp ing itself around
his waist and up across h is back; waves o f irritat ion coursed up
his body, starting at his feet. B u t he endured these almost
unbearable sensation s in s ilence and d idn't budge from his desk.
" Let it cry if it wants to . . . . All you can d o is leave it b e until
it wants to s to p . " It seemed as i f all o f the m - father, mother,
gra ndmother- had com e to the same despairing conclusion .
That morning, they'd d i scovered tha t there w a s not a drop of
milk for the baby, instead of the two or three days ' supply they
tho ught they had. At the same time, a still more painful fact was
brought home to them : until Kaijima got his salary two days
later, they would n 't have a penny in the house. Each of them
was a fra id to speak of it, and tried s ilently to read the others'
minds. As always at times like this, Hatsuko prepared some
sugared water and cooked a bit o f rice gruel, but the baby for
some reason would not touch any o f it. "Mma-mma, Mma­
mma , " it said , and burst into louder, angrier screa m s than ever.
As he listened to the baby's voice, Kaijima seemed to move
beyond sorrow into some broad open place where there was
neither pleasure nor p a in . I f it wanted to cry, let it cry as hard as
it co uld. " H arder- cry harder! " He heard the words deep inside
himself. Then , in the n ext instant, his nerves b egan to tingl e
w i t h tension and h i s b ody seemed to be lifted into t h e a ir. H e
w a s a ware o f h im self o n l y from t h e shoulders up . After a while,
he rose abrup tly from his desk a nd began to pace fretfully back
and forth.

1 32
 ( ( All right. I d o n ' t have to be afra id to ask just because there
are a few u n paid bills . . . . H is son is one of my pupils, a fter all .
I f I say I wa nt to p u t it on my bill, he'll say 'Any time 'll do­
wheneve r it's convenient, sir. ' There ' s nothing to be ashamed
o f. I 'm just too timid, that's all . . . . "

H is head full o f such thoughts, he walked round and round a

single spot in the small room, go ing over the same things en dless­
ly in h is min d .
Around d u s k he wa n dered outdoors and started off i n the
direction of the Naito Liquor Store in the K . d istrict. As he
came up to it, a clerk who wa s standing in front of the shop
bowed h is head in greetin g. Kaij ima stop ped for a moment in
the road and, smiling, returned the bow. Behind the store
counter, in one corner of a shelf packed with canned goods and
bottles of liquor, he caught sight of two or three cans o f milk.
B u t Kaiji ma walked on, as if he ha d n ' t n oticed.
On the way back, nearing his house, he realized the baby was
still crying. I t s ear-splitting howls ca rried ten ya rd s or more
through the quiet tw ilight . Giving a start, Kai j ima turned back
again and began walking without any idea of where he was
going.
The winds from Mt. A., wh ich was one of the bes t-known
fea tures of the city, blew along the stree ts in cold bla sts that
warned of the winter soon to come. B e neath the embankment
of a park that fa ced th e river, five or six boys sat crouched in
the darkness, playing some ga me or other; wha tever it was, it in­
volved a grea t deal of earnest wh isperin g.
( ( Oh no, Naito, that's no good . You 're trying to cheat me. I've
only got three left, so I 'll sell you one for a hundred ye n . "
( (That's too much . "
( (Too much ? You 're cra zy! Righ t, Mr. N u makura ? "
( ( Yeah . Na ito's trying to p ull a fa s t o n e . You said you didn't

1 33
want to sell 'em, but h e in s ists, and then tries to b eat the p rice
down. If you want to buy, pay the p rice, Naito."
When h e heard this last vo ice, Kaijima stopped in h is tracks
and turned to look at th e m .
" H ey, w h a t are you kids doin g ? "
T h e b o y s were a bout to make a r u n for i t , ready to scatter i n
all d irection s ; but Kaij ima w a s t o o close - they n ever would have
made it.
"So he's got us, and he's gonna give us a lecture-okay, big
deal . " N u makura ' s attitude was plainly written o n h is face.
" Ho w about it, Numakura-how about letting me j oi n your lit­
tle group ? What've you got for sale at your market? Give me
some money and I'll j oin the game . "
Kaij ima had a broad s m ile o n h i s lips a s h e spoke, but h i s eyes
were s trangely bloodshot. The children had n ever seen such a
look o n their teacher' s face before.
" O kay, let's get s tarted. No need for you guys to hold back­
from today on, Teacher's going to be Mr. N umakura ' s man! I ' m
takin g orders fro m him now, j ust l ike t h e r e s t o f y o u . So you see,
there' s nothing to b e shy about. . . . "
Numakura staggered back a few steps, his eyes round with sur­
prise. B ut he recovered quickly, went up to Kaij ima, and w ith
the cool assurance of a playground "boss" addressing one of his
young underlings said, " You mean that ? Okay-l'll give you
some o f this money h ere . . . . There you go, o n e m illion yen."
He took that amount from his wallet and handed it to Ka i j ima.
" H ey, this is fun ! Teacher's gon n a j o in our grou p ! " shouted
one o f the ch ildren standing there, and several others clapped
the ir hands excitedly .
"Teacher, Teach er, what can we do fo r you ? Just tell us what
you wan t ! "
" C igareeettes . . . maaatches . . . beeer . . . sakeee . . . soft

1 34
d rii inks . . . . " Someone shouted out the names of various goods,
im itating the vend ors in the kiosks at tra m stops.
"Me? I ' d like a ca n o f m ilk-do you sell that in your market ?"
" M ilk? We've got some in the store at home-I 'll bring it to
the m arket tomorrow for you . And you ca n have it for just a
thousand yen , since you ' re our teach er. " It was Naito, the son of
the liquor st ore own er, who was speaking.
" Okay, fine. A thousand yen 's cheap . . . . * Well , I 'll be back
tom orrow, so don't forget the m ilk . . . . "
" Got i t ! " Kaijima thought to himself as he m oved away.
"Tricked 'em in to selling m e some m ilk. Good work! I really am
pretty good a t dealing with children . . . . "
O n his way home from the park, Kaijima passed in front of
the Na ito Liquor S tore. Sudd enly, he went inside and asked for
a ca n o f m ilk.
" Let me see . . . . The price was, uh, a thousand yen , wasn 't it?
H ere you a re - l 'll put it right here . " N o sooner had he taken out
one of Numakura 's bills than he gave a start a nd blinked, as if
waking from an a w ful d rea m . His face turned red .
" M y God, I must be cra zy! " he told himsel f. "An yway, I
caugh t it in time, thank h eaven s . But what a stupid thing to say!
I don't wa nt people thinking I 've gone m a d - I 'll have to think of
. . . . ."
some th 1ng
Kaijima ga ve a loud laugh a n d spoke to the shop clerk: "Just a
joke, of course, pretending it's real money. But keep it a nyway.
On the thirtieth, you can g ive m e back this chit, and I 'll give you
the thousa n d yen in ca sh . . . . "

* A t housand yen in real money was approxi m a t ely a cabine t minis t er's an­
nual salary a t t he t im e .

1 35
PROFESSOR
RADO
 I

I t would be the first time for the reporter from the A . Journal to
meet Pro fessor Ra do, a n d it was with consid erable curiosity that
he had been waiting for som eth ing over an hour. There wa s still
no s ign of his host . The student houseboy who had let h im in
had an nou nced ' ' I ' m a fra id the professor is not awake yet . . . . "
Th e reporter had h eard that h e slept late in the morning, and
had planned his visit accordingly. But it was twelve-thirty by
now! How could anyone sleep till past noon at the end of March,
when the early ch erries were already about to bloo m ? Feeling
ra ther hungry as he thought about the p rofessor and his habits,
h e ga zed through the gla ss doors of the sitting roo m into the
garden, bright in the n oon sun shine.
It was not a very big ga rden for a house in the suburbs of
Tokyo , but it was qu ite well cared for. The path leading from
the low front ga te w ith its brick p illars to the front porch was
lined on both sides with carefully pla nted azalea bushes, and
beyond there was a law n . There was also a rectangular flower
bed, bordered with t iles. Perhaps Pro fessor Ra d o, bachelor that
he was, did a little ga rden ing with the h elp of his houseboy and
maid? But it was not o nly the ga rden that wa s well looked a fter:
the room wh ere the journalist now sat was extremely neat,
clea n , and plea sant. I n the course of his work, he had seen a
grea t many reception roo ms, in the homes of scholars, politi­
cians, and bu sinessmen; but the professor ha d clearly p rofited
from h is long stay in the West -the way the pictures were hung

1 39
and the furniture was p laced, th e color scheme o f walls and cur­
tains, all had b een carefully thought out. It was a s imple, cozy
roo m, but also s mart somehow; it had been clea ned till there
wa s not a speck of du st, and the cha ir covers and tablecloth were
pure white, a s if th ey'd only just been laundered . From all this,
it seemed s a fe to assume that the professor was a fa stidious p er­
son-or was it the way o f m iddle-aged bachelors to be rather
fussy about such things?
The gen tlema n from the A. Journal had not come to a sk the
professor about anyth ing in p articular-that is, h e was th ere
only to gather material for a series called "Visits w ith E m inent
Figures in the Academic World" wh ich was app earing in every
issue. So it had not been altogeth er a waste of effort for h i m to
gather information a bo ut the p ro fe s sor's interests before their
meeting, especially s ince the reporter knew his subj ect to be a
difficult man, an egotist who rarely gave a kind reception to jour­
nal ists who ca m e to interview h i m . When in a bad mood, h e
would barely speak a word , a p parently; so the reporter had made
the journalistic j u dgment that h e should begin by talking about
the pro fessor's p ersonal interest s . H e had l it h i s th ird Shikishima
cigarette and, having surveyed the garden, had begun to take
another careful look around the room when he heard a creaking
sound from the corridor, and an old man's h eavy footsteps.
Then there was the sound of someone clearing h is throat­
"Ahh emm, ahhemm " -and at last Professor Rado entered.
"Ah, th is is a diffi cult man all right, j u st like they said . " The
thought flashed through h is m ind a s h e swiftly put his half­
s moked ciga rette in an ashtray, rose fro m h i s cha ir, and ex-_
pressed his respect for the professor w ith a deep, stiff, m ilitary­
style bow . The latter was a man of about forty-five or -six, or
p erhaps forty-three or -four. With h i s hair carefully parted over
a pyra m id-shaped head, h e didn't really look his age, i f one

1 40
ignored the two or three white ha irs that appeared at his
temples. His fa ce, however, wa s not so much fl eshy as swollen,
with a n un healthy pa llor to it; and this gave him a sullen, angry
look. His eyel ids too were pu ffy, wh ich made him seem even
m ore severe. Whether because he had j u st woken up, or because
he really wa s u nwell, his face had the unpleasant color of some­
one su ffering from a kidney d isease.
" S orry to have kept you wa iting."
"Not at all. . . . Plea se forgive me for disturbing you r rest . "
T h e professor took a seat, so t h e j ournalist also allowed h im-
self to sit down, slowly and reverentially.
( (This is a very n ice, quiet neighborhood , isn't it? Ha ve you
been living here for a long time, sir? "
( ( Long? M m m . . . . Not really . . . . "
( (About how many years? Two or three? . . . Three or four,
perha p s ? "
( (Yes, well. . . . " And h ere the conversation broke off. No mat­
ter how pol itely and humbly the reporter put his questions, the
professor gave only vague half-a n swers. I n addition, his voice
wa s extrem ely low, with a nervous tremor to it, and he swal­
lowed the ends of h is word s . He had the reputa tion of being an
arrogant man; but w ith h i s habit of looking away from the per­
son he was speaking to, and qu ickly avert ing his eyes if they hap­
pened to m eet the other person's, there was a certa in girlish
timid ity or even cowa rdice in h i s man ner.
The re porter resigned him self to saying nothing for a while
and concentrated instead on a care ful observation of his clothes.
Having seen the house, he had expected its owner to ap pear
prop erly dressed, in keeping with the appearance of the gard en
and sitting room ; how ama zed he wa s , then, at the professor's
garb, which seemed to him strange to the po int of weirdness.
That odd-looking ba ggy garm ent, for exam ple, like something a

1 41
court j udge, or a p os t-office cle rk, m ight wear-what was it?
From the waist up, it looked l ike a Ru ssian p easant's blouse or
some s ort o f Chinese coat, but the cut of the collar and the
sleeves w ith d rawstrings attached were d i fferent fro m either. I t
might h ave been the s ort o f dressing gown that Westerners wear
over their paj amas, excep t for those drawstrings. The material
was certainly a very thin, l ight s ilk weave, u nusual stuff, not of
Japanese manufacture; but it must have seen many years of use,
to j udge from its grimy shee n - it was s o filthy that even the pat­
tern was ind isce rn ibl e . The collar was open, revealing a flannel
undersh irt and yukata beneath . The p rofessor was s till in h is
nigh twear, then, a n d had p robably p ut the baggy overgarment
on to cover the fact. He may h ave felt that it didn't matter with
ju s t a second-rate j ou rnalist; but , in any event, this lazy, sloppy
look wa s o ddly ou t of p lace in the clean and o rderly atmosphere
of the room itself. N or d id it d o the wearer much cred it. He
could at least have kept his collar decently closed; instead, it
gaped wide, givin g a clear view from his n eck down to his chest.
The rep orter fou n d it h ard to admire th i s sort of seediness.
Looking at the professor's chest, h is guest also n oticed how
fat h e was in general . This fatness, though, was either a kind
of swell ing, as w ith his face, or else sheer flab-it did not appear
to be a healthy stoutn es s . Also, he noticed how from t ime to
time the p rofe ssor gave a belch smelling strongly of miso bean
sou p . For someone who, h e knew, had traveled in the \Vest, this
seemed surp ri singly bad-mann ered, but p resu mably h e was s till
feel ing full a fter a hasty late b reakfast. "Ahhh . . . . I bet it's not
his kidneys but h is stomach that's givin g h i m trouble, " thou ght
the rep orter. And, comparing h is own belly's emptiness w ith the
other's bloated s tate, h e felt a t once envious and disgusted.
" E r, Professor, I see you have a fl ower bed over there in your
gard en . . . . "

142
 "Yes. " As h e spoke, h e fl icked a cov ert glance at the j our­
nal ist's face, th en d irected h is gaze off into the d i sta nce-pre­
sumably looking at the bed in questio n . The light strea med in
fro m the gard en, casting a ray of sp rin g sunshine even onto the
professor's ashen face.
"The weather's got quite warm, hasn't it? I t sh ould be j u st
righ t for gard e n in g soon . . . . "
There was no response, so the reporter was forced to add
another word or two:
"What sort of flo wers, mainly, do you have in your gard en,
Profes sor? "
"Oh, noth ing sp ecial . . . . "
"And do you do the pla n t ing you rself?"
" Uhh . . . well . . . . "
" I see . " H e d id n ' t , of course, but h e convinced h im self h e did.
" Perhaps we could talk a bit more about this part icular sub-
j ect-about flowers, and garden ing . . . . "
" U n nh . . . . E xcept I reall y don 't have m u ch interest in that
kin d of th ing . . . . "

"Yes, but, for exa m ple, what sort of flowers d o you like, or
d islike, or- "
" I like most flowers, I suppose . . . . That's about i t . " The pro­
fessor gave a nother belch, swallow ing it down alon g with the
end of h is sen tence.
What a we ird character he was! The reporter had met some
d iffi cult p eople in h is line o f work, but never anyone as odd as
this. He sat s taring into the professor's face with an a mazed ex­
press ion on h is own, as if con fronted with some rare sort of
a n i mal. The subject appeared not to m ind in the least being
s tared at, and s im ply turned as ide, ignoring his vis itor. "Talk ing
is too mu ch t rouble, but you can look as m u ch as you l ike," he
seemed to be saying. D id this man have any normal feelings or

1 43
reaction s w hatsoever? E verybody m akes a show o f s m iling polite­
ly when they meet others socially, but not this p erso n . And even
his u n frien dliness was different fro m the usual kin d : his occa­
sional attempts to s m ile seemed to vanish as soon as they bega n .
A sort o f twitching would sometimes start aroun d his m outh ,
and this s p a s m was the only indica tion that h e ' d been trying at
all. He app eared to be pulled in two d irections at once: " Perhaps
it's wrong o f m e not to s m ile-but I don't feel like it ! "
M oreover, whatever questions h e was asked, h e m aintained
the same bored, lis tless exp ression. He looked as i f h e were hop­
ing the reporter would s top this stupid in terview and hurry up
and leave. Yet he never came right out a n d said " Go home"; he
only gave the occa s ional loud s igh, clearly intended to be h eard .
He was like a t i m id p erson who has fallen into the clutches o f an
in sura nce salesman : p repared to go o n for a couple of days i f
necessary, patiently repeating h is nonco m m ittal replies until at
last the salesman gives up and leaves.
" Excuse me, but may I ask you a little about your daily life
then , Pro fessor? For exam ple, what time you get u p in the morn­
ing, what time you go to bed, when you usually do your re­
search . . . . A few words on th is subj ect, if you wouldn 't m in d . "
The reporter had grown a bit bolder and, su re that the pro­
fessor could fi n d no excuse for not an swering this typ e of ques­
tion , he took fro m his p o cket a n otebook and Eversharp p en cil.
" Well, what about it, s ir? I am sorry for d isturbing you l ike
this when you' re so busy, but - "
" I ' m n o t particularly bu sy."
"Oh, really ? . . . Well, then, you gen erally get u p arou n d what
time? I've h eard that you 're not an early riser. . . . "
" I get u p late . "
" I see . . . . About what time ? Eleven ? Twelve ? "

1 44
 " U nn h . "
" I see . . . . Thank you . " The reporter scribbled something in
his notebook.
" Presum ably you stay up fa irly late at nigh t . "
" I g o t o b e d I a te . "
" I see . . . . About what ti m e ? ' '
"Aroun d th ree ."
" Really, around three? . . . B u t on days wh en you go to th e uni­
vers ity, I sup pose you have to get up som ewha t earlier?"
" Uhh . . . . Oh well . . . not really . "
" I n tha t case, are all of your lectures i n the a fternoon? . . . Oh,
I see, th ey are . . . . And how many ti mes a week do you go in to
teach , Professor? "
"T WICe.
. "
" I see . . . . And wha t days would those be, plea se ? . . . Wednes­
day and Friday . . . . And on the other days, wh at sort of things
do you do m ostly? I suppose you must spend most of your time
rea ding in your study . . . . "
" U nnh . Well, th ings like th a t . . . . "
"And wh at kind of books do you u sually rea d ? . . . Almost en­
tirely specialized works, on philosophy?"
" Uhh . . . . Yes, well . . . . "
The re porter, who had been doing little more than beating
the air about h i m , led on by th e professor's " Uhh's" and "Yes,
well 's," now recalled something im portan t and rush ed to put his
question :
" O h , yes! There ' s a rumor th at you m igh t be leaving the uni­
versity quite soon, sir. Is th at the ca se?"
" U nn h , pOSSI' bl y . . . . "
"For what rea son? . . . Wo uld it be some d issatisfaction on
your part with the un iversity itself? . . . "

1 45
 "Well, you know . . . . Goin g t here's poin tles s . "
" So you ' re go ing t o devote all you r t im e a n d e ffort t o your
own writing, is that it?"
"Well, if I feel like it. . . . Maybe I 'll write fo r some magazin e
or som eth in g . . . . "
" I see . " Having come to a d ead end a ga in , th e reporter cast
around for some oth er top ic, twisting his shoulders as though try­
ing to wriggle out of a p it he'd fallen into.
" Errr . . . fo rgive m e for asking a question like this out of the
blu e, but your daily life, Profes sor- spending your days shut u p
i n your s t u d y w i t h your books, quiet, solitary-you know, t h e
life of a bachelor schola r-!' d really like to hear your views on
this whole way o f life . . . . "
Knowin g the p rofessor would not give an immedia te, fluent
response t o this question, the reporter p lu n ged on :
" I suppose it's better really n ot to have all the cares of fa m ily
life when you ' re enga ged in in tellectual activit ies , isn ' t it?"
" U nnh, it is . "
" O n th e other hand, don't you sometimes feel a bit lonely
living like th is ? "
" I 've g o t used to i t . "
" So, then, you would say t h a t t h e single life IS less com­
plicated, m o re conge n ial?"
" Un n h . . . less co mplicated . . . . "
" . . . A n d m o re con gen 1a .
. l?"
" U n nh . "
"Yes indeed, I see . . . . Still, you m us t have the occasional
visitor- students, or frien d s ? "
" H a rdly ever. "
" O h , really? Your house, now- it's, what shall I say?- it looks
very well kep t . Who, if I m ay ask, does all the clean in g, and . . . ?"
"The houseboy."

1 46
 ( ( O h , the houseboy does the clea ning? And how many maids
do you have ? "
( ( T wo. "
( ( S o you have one hou seboy, and two maids, and then there's
yourself o f course-so there're four people living here? . . . "
( ( That's righ t - fou r. "
( (And o f cou rse that would be all yo u'd need, living by your­
self, as you d o . . . . Fra nkly, seeing your house like this, even
someone like myself can unders tand why you feel that it's less
complicate d , and more congenial, to live this way . . . . "
(( ''
This t i m e t h e p ro fessor d id n ' t bother to reply at all. A n d when
the re porter heard what he thought to be a sigh, and looked
care fully, he saw that the professor's nostrils were open a little
wider than before. He was ya wning.
Was this an ind irect way o f telling him to leave? The report­
er h i m self was getting quite hu ngry and had a good mind to
withdraw at this point, even without any urging from his host.
All the same, being only human, he couldn't help rese nting the
brusque recep tion he'd been give n, and showing some stubborn­
ness in return. Wa sn't a little obstructionism called for? He'd
l ike to prolong th is rubbery d ialogue for another twenty or thirty
m i n utes, if he could . And so he decided to take his time about
co nclu ding the conversa tion. The profes sor, having finished
ya wning, was looki ng toward the flower bed again, with the
same bored expression. The light from outside fell strongly on
his face, making h im na rrow his eyes. The petulant, self-satisfied
look this gave him rem i nded the other man of a cat basking in
the sun.
( (As I recall, the re ce nt crackdown on ra d ical id eology has
caused a number o f proble ms fo r people in political and aca­
demic circle s . Now, what are your views on the matter, sir?"

1 47
 " U h h . . . uhh . " From then o n , no matter what h e was asked,
the pro fessor s imply gave a sort of groan. From rad ical thought
to methods of preventing the disse mination of Russian pro·
paganda; from un iversal su ffrage to the relation between dem·
ocra cy and government by philosop hers ; and finally even to
the M in istry o f Education 's p ro posals o n orthogra phic re form
and the use of ro man izat ion in writing the national language­
the journ alist brought up all of these topics, only to have each o f
them i n turn dism issed w ith t h e s a m e noncomm ittal "uhh's"
and "aah ' s . " It was like trying to wrestle w ith oneself.

A few minute s later, the reporter took h is leave; but, still feel·
ing resentful and also knowing that he didn 't really have enough
material for an article yet, he walked around the low wall sur·
rounding the grounds a fter he'd pas sed through the front gate.
He wanted to take another close look at the layout o f the house,
from the outside this time. It was a fa irly new Western·style
buildin g, w ith gray painted walls ; a single·storied structure, it
seemed j ust the right s ize for four p eople. The reporter followed
the wall to the rear of the house, which faced a h illock over·
grown w ith shrubs and small trees ; h ere the wall gave way to a
sparse hedge o f C h inese hawthorn, through wh ich the garden
and house could be seen quite well. That room over there, with
smoke coming fro m its chimney- that must be the professor's
study. And indeed it was like him to have chosen such a roo m,
facing north, w ith little sunlight, and there fore gloomy.
I n the m idst o f these refl ections, the reporter heard a clanking
sound, like a pump brin ging water u p from a well . S urprised, he
looked in the d irection the sound was coming from and saw a
girl o f fi fteen or s ixteen crouched by the edge o f the well, still
wea rin g h er cotton n ightie and bu sily brush ing her teeth. After

1 48
she had fi n ished, she filled a m etal basin with water and gave her
face a perfunctory wash w ith the help of a hand towel . Then , in­
s tead of going to the k itch en, she walked briskly toward a door at
the back of the house wh ich opened onto the garden. Slipping
o ff her worn-down wooden clogs with their bright red thongs
a nd leaving them on the top most of the s tone steps lea d ing up
to the door, she disappeared into what he took to be the s tudy.
The reporter had only had a gl impse of her as she passed in
front of the h ed ge through wh ich he was peering, so he couldn't
say for sure; but it seemed to him s trange that a m a id should be
just getting up and brushing her teeth at this hour. B esides, with
the kitchen entrance on the other side of the house, surely it
was a bit odd for her to be going into that room, and in her
n ightie! S o what was she, then? One of the " two maids" the pro­
fessor had m entioned ? A you ng parlormaid? Yes, well, to some
exten t she did look like one; yet there was som eth ing in the way
she carried herself, a certain nonchalance, that had l it tle of the
serva nt about it. H er co m plexion was a bit pallid. So was she
p erhaps the p rofessor' s ( ( l it tle som ething"? But su rely she wa s
too much of a child for that-a mere fi fteen or sixteen . . . .
At any ra te, the rep orter's curios ity was not of the type to be
so ea s ily satisfied . Fo rtunately there was no one in the back
garden, so h e sl ipped through the small wooden ga te set into the
hedge and, h id ing himself in the shade of som e large yatsude
plants that happ ened to be growing there, h e crept to a p o int d i­
rectly beneath the window of the room in questio n . Carefully
cran ing his neck, h e could see that the two cu rta ins d id not
quite meet at the center of the w indow, leaving a sm all gap for
him to peek through . Putting one eye to this open ing, he saw
that the room wa s in fa ct the s tudy. In one corner was a s tove
with coals g iving o ff a warm red glow. Along the walls were
bookcases reach ing to the ceiling, packed full of books. The

1 49
cen ter of the room was dominated by a h uge desk like a butch­
er's chopping block; and on it lay Professor Rado, face down ,
with that p eculia r coat of his rolled up to h is waist, exposing the
flannel p a ja mas h e was wearing un d erneath . A n d as for the
young girl, she was sitting on the p rofessor's back, with both legs
dangling down fro m the desk. Occas ionally she gave h is head a
sharp little rap , or s queezed h i s cheeks hard, or shoved her fin­
gers into h i s mouth. She d id n ' t seem to be just playing, though .
Th e expres sion she wore was a very serious, even gloomy one:
she seemed to be carrying out some sort of duty she'd been
assigned. H er face-a n d her hands and fee t as well-were p ale
and delicat e . Professor Rado's face was the sa me nondescrip t ,
ashen color as before, in t h e sitting room; a n d though he w a s
letting th e girl p inch and p rod h i s p u ffy cheeks a s much as she
liked, h e looked very bore d .
S o o n the girl, still s itting on t o p o f h im , picked u p a little rat­
tan cane a n d sen t several strokes swish ing through th e air onto
h is fat buttocks, wh ile fi rmly grip p in g him by the hair with her
other han d . I t was then, for the first time, that a somewhat
livelier look came into the p rofessor's eyes, and h e let out a kind
of moa n .
T h e reporter p eered a t t h i s scene for a good h a l f hour, until,
in a rather curious fra me of min d , he made h is silent escape
from the back gard e n .

1 50
 II

There i s a ru mor going around that Profes sor Rado has rece ntly
taken a wife . There 's no guarantee that it is true; but it would
not be unlike him to marry on the sl y, withou t tell ing anyone,
and act as if noth ing had happened. At any ra te, no one really
knows the t ruth about it; but the word is that, by some stra nge
twist of fa te, the reporter from the A. Journal is involved in it all .
A n d , i n p o i n t of fact, he w a s t h e original source of t h e rumor.
Ever si nce his rubbery dialogue with the professor, the jour­
nalist had been too daunted to attempt a nother interview. He
knew only that sho rtly after h i s visit the p rofessor had resigned
fro m th e un iversity, a fa ct he learned from th e pages of the
newspaper. " Oh yes, he wa s saying he'd like to quit teaching
and conce n trate on writing; so now he's retired ," he thought to
himself at the time. It wa s o nly out of casual in terest tha t he
wo ndered wha t kind of writing the man had been engaged in
s ince th eir last m eeting, or what sort of research he m ight be pur­
suing currently; but he supposed he was publ ish ing articles in
some academic jo urnal or oth er. After several years the reporter
too changed jobs, moving fro m the A. Journal to the B. News,
where he wa s in charge of art icles on the p e rforming arts .
Then, a t eight or nine one evening in Ma rch of last yea r, this
arts-page rep o rter-as h e now was-happened to be in Asakusa
Park and decided to take a look at the Muyusai variety troupe
wh ich was p e rfo rm ing j u s t then at the Showa Theater. He
didn ' t really care for this type of sho w; but the troupe included

1 51
several former singers from the old d ays of musical revues, and
there were two or three whom he'd been on close terms with . It
was to see these old fa miliar faces , then, that h e went into the
theater. A fter visiting the dressing room, h e was standing in the
wings wa tching the show for a few minutes when h e saw some­
thing very strange and u nexpected .
"That's odd- Professor Rad o, in a place like thi s ? " At first h e
thought it m u s t be a mistake . I n t h e interval between different
acts, some sort of ballet turn was being p erformed on stage by
five or six youn g actresses . From the wings, the rep orter could
see a confu sion of n aked legs lifting and kicking, and beyond
them, in a seat at the very front, the face of one spectator in par­
ticular. Th e m ore the rep orter looked at him, the more h e
seemed to be, in fact, Professor Rad o . O f course it was hard to
tell for sure because of the line of footlights that blazed between
the stage and the man ' s face; but that half-op e n mouth with its
row of white teeth and the little s mirk that contracted h is
features as h e watched th e show were exactly l ike the weird at­
tempts at a s mile he'd seen the p rofes sor make that aftern oon
some years before. From wh ere h e stood, the reporter could not
get a clear view of anything from the n eck d ow n . O nly that face
emerged above the s tage's level h orizon, like a severed head set
there for viewing. The p rofessor's face h a d , surely, been sallow
and swollen, whereas this one was a rud d y color- in that re­
spect, they seemed different; but it may j ust have been due to
the reflection from the footligh t s . As the rep orter considered
these p ossibilities , the footlight s went out and colored ones
came on-red, blue, green, p urple. Professor Rado' s head changed
colors too- from red to blue to green to p urple. It was quite a
sight.
I n any case, the whole thing was certainly very odd . No mat­
ter h ow eccentric h e was, it was hard to credit that he would

1 52
actually co m e to Asakusa Park at such an hour to see a varie­
ty show. This m isa nthropic bachelor scholar who ough t to be
holed up in h is gloomy, north -facing study-if it really was him,
he must have some special motive for being here. Th e reporter
from the B . News, full of the curiosity that went with his call ing,
moved from backstage arou nd to the front of the theater and
peered i n at the au d ience from the corridor. He could see th at
the sm all audi torium had cheap seats in the center of th e first
floor and superior, Western-style seats a level higher on either
side.
The man in question was sitting at the very front of the more
expensive section , virtually alongs ide the orch estra pit. Pre­
su mably this was the best place for observing any slips made by
the performers, and al so for enjoying a view of the dancers '
legs. At the same time, anyone sitting there had to accept the
fact that he too could be eas ily obs erved from other parts of the
hall- just as was the case with the sp ecial boxes for distin­
guished guests at the old I m p erial Theater. That evening in par­
ticular, th e better seats were quite emp ty, and as one looked
across at the m , there was only this solitary figure, like a lone
island in an empty sea . He was weari ng an inverness and a hunt­
ing cap ; and now, during the interm i ssion, he had pulled down
the brim of his cap and inclined his h ead so that his face was
half hidden by the coll ar of his coat. Clearly he did n ' t feel com­
fortable here. The reporter sl ipped into a seat behind him and
from there peered beneath the cap 's visor.
" I s that you, Professor? I hope you've forgiven m e for in­
truding that time some years back . . . . "

Actually, he was not yet co m pletely sure this was the man. But
neither was h e certa in that, even i f it was the p rofes sor, he
would come out and admit his identity; and so he addressed him
sudd enly like this, hop ing to d raw him out.

1 53
 " Uh h . . . . " The m a n shrank back a little, as i f startled, then
looked over his shoulder, glaring at his questioner. From that
"uhh" alo ne, the reporter knew it had to b e the p ro fessor. It was
this amb iguous response, som ewh ere between a normal reply
and a belch, that had so fru strated the reporter before. There
could hardly be another animal in all creation that e mitted such
a vague, indecisive sound.
" E r . . . I ' m not sure i f you 'd remember m e or not, but I'm the
reporter fro m the A . Journal who paid you a visit once-oh,
about three or four years ago now, I suppose . "
" O h yes ?. "
" I ' m no longer w ith the A . Jou rnal-! now work for the B .
News. E xcuse m e , b u t . . . " H e bowed politely a n d offered his
card, which bore the t itle " Reporter, Perform ing Arts, B. News. "
Pro fessor Rado, keeping one hand in the breast o f his kimono
and h oldin g a cigarette w ith the other, cast a cursory glance at
the p roffered card but m ade no m ove to take it. The j ournalist
could not very well w ithdraw it, so a brief clash of wills en­
sued. After a bit, however, the professor seemed to feel the
awkwardness of the s ituation and, throwing aside h is cigarette,
reached out for the card, albeit w ithou t m uch enthusiasm . As
he put it into his sleeve p ocket, he looked at it briefl y for form 's
sake, and a slight flicker of interest passed over his normally ex­
p ressionless face- though this the reporter fa iled to n otice.
"Well , it's n ice to see you , Pro fessor! . . . Er. . . . Is there some-
one with you this evening? . . . "
" Uh h . . . . No . . . . "
" I see. Then you 're by yourself?"
" Uhh . . . . Unnh . . . . "
" Really? . . . Then you ca me this far for the exercis e ? . . . "
" Uhh . . . . U nnh . . . . "
Another rubbery dialogue was underway. The rep orter, how-

1 54
ever, was used to it by now and was quite unflappable.
" B ut isn ' t this quite a d is tance from your house, sir- you are
st ill living in the same place, I take it?"
" U n n h , the same place . "
" I s that s o ? D o you often come t o the park, then ?"
" Uhh . . . . No . . . . "
" Really? So you ca m e all the way here tonight on purpose,
just to see this show?"
This was what he had really been wanting to ask; but it wasn't
so easy to s queeze a clear, precise answer out of the p rofes sor.
"Wh y no, I wou ld n 't say ' o n purpose ' . . . . "
" I t may seem a s tra n ge question , but does this sort o f en ter­
tainment appeal to someone like yourself more than, say, the
average play or film would ?"
" . . . Well . . . I wouldn't say it appeals to m e esp ecially, you
,.
k now, b ut . . .
This last " you know, but . . . " phrase conta ined a certain hint
o f human warm th, even if only very slight. I n the p rofessor's
case, it ind ica ted that he was in an exceptionally good mood .
The reporter, finding it s tran ge, glanced up at the other's face
and saw so mething s tra nger still: this man, who never looked di­
rectly at the p erson h e was speaking to, wa s for some reason ga z­
ing s tra ight at h i m now-s hyly, to be su re, with a timid, girlish
ga ze, but s till right at h i m . And on his lips wa s a n a m iable smile!
It may have been a n a ttempt to mask his embarra s s ment at hav­
ing been discovered in a rid iculous situation . At any ra te, it was
extraord inary. Almost creepy.
Then the next item on the program began, and the two men
fell s ilent and turned toward the stage. The reporter had by now
changed seats and was sitting right beside the p rofessor. The en­
tire troupe was p erform ing a musical comedy, em ploying special
magic effects, entitled " Growing Young Aga i n . " It was apparent-

1 55
ly the grand finale o f the evening. The j ournalist was thoroughly
bored by this kind of thing, but he p retended to be watching
with rapt attention, wh ile actually observin g his companion in
the n ext seat. As u sual, the professor's expressio n betrayed no
noticeable interest in what h e was watch ing, yet h e never looked
away and seemed in fact q u ite intent o n the p erformance. For a
man whose p ermanently gloomy face made one wonder j ust
what p leasure h e could find in life to b e watch ing a thing like
this so patiently surely implied a n element of enjoyment, even if
h e gave no o utward sign of it . If so, then what was it that he
found appealing? S ch olars, the reporter had d iscovered, o ften
took pleas ure in very simple, childish things , so p erhap s the p ro­
fessor s imply liked the variety acts thems elves . Or was there one
p articular girl in the troupe to whom h e had taken a fancy?
Drawn by curios ity, the reporter kept him comp a n y till the
very end. The p ro fessor, for his p art, had watch ed each boring
number on the p rogra m w ith quiet determination right up to
the fi nale. N aturally the two of them left the thea ter together
and began walking in the direction of H irokoj i.
H Er, are you going back by tram, Professor?"
H Uhh . . . . Unnh . . . . "
HThen I 'll see you a s far as the tra m stop . . . . "
B e ing seen o ff may well have been both ersome to him, but
s ince, as always, he gave n o clear a nswer, the reporter brashly
tagged along. H e was rackin g his brains try ing to find some topic
to keep the conversation going, when suddenly there came a
sound from the p ro fessor's mouth : H Uhh . . . "-followed by a sort
o f rumbling in h is throat.
HYes ? ' ' cried the reporter, welco m in g this show of enthusiasm
o n the part o f his companion, who seemed to be trying to say
someth ing .
4 4 Uhh . . . . B y t h e way . . . . "

1 56
 ' ' Y es ?. "
( ( you report on the p erforming arts? . . . "
' ' Y es . . . . "
( ( Are you always going to places like th at?"
((I wouldn't say always , but I have quite a few friends in tha t
trou pe, and I hap pened to be nearby, so I dropp ed in . "
( ( I see . . . , " said th e professor, a n d after a moment's pause
continued: ((Th ere's somebody called Ikuno Mayum i-da nced in
tha t last number. . . . "
( ( Oh, reall y ? Wh ich one was he?"
( ( No, no. It's a woman-tall, with bobbed hair, wea nng a
costu m e made out of the America n flag . . . . "
( ( Ohhh, is th at so? . . . I ' m afra id I don't know her. You say th e
na m e is Iku no Mayum i?"
( ( Unnh, tha t's what it says on th e progra m . "
H m m . . . . H e'd have t o keep a n eye o n this fellow. The ac­
tress he'd mentioned was except ionally good-looking, fro m any­
body's point of view. The j ournalist him self had seen her on
stage ton igh t for th e first time and was surprised to find such a
beautiful girl in the trou pe. She was probably twen ty-two or
-three; her legs under the sh ort skirt were shapely, and her whole
body wa s well proportioned. The only defect one m ight com­
plain of wa s that h er features were too typ ically ( ( Greek " : there
was noth ing cute, in the usual sense, a bout h er. She had an a ir
of refine ment, but a certain doll-like stiffness went with it .
( ( Oh? W ell, I suppose she must be a pup il of Muyusa i's. Th ere
are quite a few former mem bers of th e old musical revu e in that
company; bu t if she were one of th e m , I should have recogn ized
h er. "
( ( Uhh . . . . " Aga in that ru m bling from th e profes sor' s throa t.
( ( Listen, d ' you th ink you could fi nd out a little about her for
m e ?. "

1 57
 " I beg your p ardo n ? "
"There's something mmmm . . . so mething a bit odd
about h er . "
"Odd?"
"You d i d n 't n otice ? "
"What do you mea n ? I didn't notice anything in particular. . . . "
" S he was the only actress who d id n ' t have a s ingle line to say,
was n ' t she?"
" Really? How observant o f you . "
"It's always that way. "
" O h ? So you've seen her quite a few times, then ? "
" Uh h . . . . Unnh . . . . "
"You've taken quite a fa n cy to her, have n 't you ? " The word s
almost slipped from h i s mouth, but h e c he cked the imp ulse and
i n stead gave the p rofe s sor a little more line:
"Maybe she's a deaf-mute . "
" A n d there ' s a nother odd thing: she's n ever s howed h e r bare
feet- not even once ! "
" H er bare feet?"
" U nn h . . . . "
They had at last reached the tram s top , but the professor
showed n o s ign s o f wa nting to get on; instead, h e began to walk
in the d irection of Ueno, talking to h i s compan ion all the while.
The word s dripped fro m his lips with a pp alling slowness, so that
it was n o easy task to listen patiently until he'd fin ished and
some sort of comprehension was possible. But p iecing together
the odds and ends of his fragmentary speec h, and a dding his
own conj ectures, the reporter came up with roughly the follow­
ing account.
Muyusai's troupe was constantly on tour, going from the
h ome islands t hrough Korea and Manchuria a n d then back
again. Ever since d iscovering Ikuno Mayumi two or three years

1 58
earlier, the professor had gone to see her p erform whenever the
troupe ca me to Tokyo . Sometimes he went to see the same pro­
gra m on two or three evenings in succes sion, and a fter a while
he b ega n to not ice something. The roles Mayumi played-for
insta nce, the beautiful woma n who is sawed in half, or the
Headless B eauty, or the woman in the magic trunk-all req uired
h er only to s m ile, without saying a word . In addition, she
sometimes ap peared in ballet or mu sical numbers in which,
aga in, she always played wordless parts only. At first the pro­
fessor thought that, though lovely to look at, she must be so dim
that she could n ' t learn the simple lines required. All the same, it
was odd that she never said a single word -so p erha ps she was
deaf-and-dumb? But no, this didn't seem to be the ca se; for
though she never sang solo in the mus ical revu es, she did some­
times j oin in the choru s . Thinking she m ight just be mouth­
ing the songs, he took pains to get a seat as near the front as
possible and so was able to ascertain with his own ears that she
was indeed singing in her natural voice.
There was, h owever, one single occasion on wh ich Mayumi
played a role tha t obliged her to say some lines, and fa irly long
ones at tha t. It was the part of an old beggar woman with a
harsh , nasal voice. S h e came on s tage covered with dirt and with
a kerchief over her head, and p robably the only p erson in the au­
d ience who saw through the d isguise was the p rofessor. The res t
of the sp ectators had no idea it was Mayumi, and greeted every
line d elivered by the begga r woman with peals of laughter. That
was how true to life her nasal speech seem ed : the role was a
great hit. Yet for some reason Mayum i ' s name did not app ear on
the progra m ; instead, there was the name of some non existent
actress. The p rofessor slapped his thigh , pleased at the thought
tha t he had at last fou nd out the secret th is beaut iful actress was
hiding. Ah, so that was it! Some d i sease- syph ilis, perha ps-

1 59
must have eaten away the inside o f h er nose.
B u t there was one more thin g h e did not un derstand, nam ely,
why the girl never showed her bare feet. Actually, it wa s this
that had first cau gh t his attention and particularly bothered
him, since he was by natu re a devout admirer of the female foot.
The other girls, when emerging from the magic box or ca binet,
were usually bare-l egged from the cal f down, but Mayumi al­
ways wore thin stockings. Wh e n five or six girls were doing a
dance n umber together, the others were, again, all barefoot,
while she alone wore l ight silk ballet slippers. S in ce she could do
a toe dance gracefully, there was n o que stion of her being lame.
Th en one time in a garden-party scene, a great nu mber of ac­
tresses app eared o n stage in light cotton summer kimonos with
bare feet; but even here Mayumi was wearing split-toed tabi
sock s . T h i s p rompted t h e p rofe ssor to think t h a t it was only a n
affectation o n her p art, that s h e probably j u st disliked showing
her naked feet. Yet h e s till wa s n ' t entirely convinced, and the
solution to the mystery of Mayumi's feet re mained in doubt.

"Well, it's an interesting story. I would n ' t mind looking into it

a bit myself, if you'd like . "
" U h h . . . . U n n h . . . . I ' d a ppreciate tha t. . . . "
"Nothing to it. I can find out j u st by a sking a member o f the
trou p e. "
"And you won't put it i n the newspaper?"
"No, no, of course not. I mea n, it'd be cruel to write about
that voice of h ers , w ith her be ing so good-looking . "
That evening the p rofe s sor impressed on the j ournalist ear­
n estly, variou sly, and a t great length how important it was for
him not to p u t anything in the pap er, and how a nxious he was
to hear the results o f the investigation in p erso n . H e made the

1 60
same point again when h e said goodbye as he board ed the tra m
a t Ueno : ( ( So it'll b e all right, then? I ' m cou nting on you ! "
Professor Rado and t h e B eautiful Actress with t h e Nasal
Voice: here wa s something to arouse anyone' s curiosity! It
would make an incredible hu man-interest story for the third
page of his pap er-what a p ity he'd promised not to use it. Part­
ly for the sheer fu n of it, th en, the reporter bega n to pursue his
investigation, casually making inquiries among his fri ends in the
troupe. It turned out that the professor had been quite right :
there was something wrong with Mayu m i ' s nose, resulting in
that peculiar twa ngy sou n d . On the other hand, no o ne had any
positive i n fo rmation about her feet. The reason was that she
had never let anyone backstage see her barefoot; ap parently she
even insisted on taki ng her bath in ab solute privacy. So while
there must be something the matter with her fe et , no one could
say ju st wha t . There had been one actress who was esp ecially
close to h er; and this woman wa s supposed to have said that, on
the sole occasion when she ma naged to take a bath together
with Mayu m i , she had caugh t a gl impse of her feet and noticed
that one or two toes on either the right or the left foot were miss­
ing. Once that story had sp read among the company, the ge n­
eral view wa s that she suffered not only fro m syph ilis but from
leprosy as well . Thus, despite her great beauty, she wa s natu­
rally unwilling to have much to do with other p eople; and the
men in the trou pe also kept their distance fro m her. Or so the
story went.
((I don't know whether it's true or not, but everybody just
feels uncom fortable around her and stays away, " one of the ac­
tors told the rep orter.
( ( Well, but what about her skin color? Does it have a purplish
sheen to it, in a s trong light? I mean, is it sort of shiny?"
( ( Not at all. She's got a very pale, delicate complexion . Just

1 61
lookin g a t it, it's really p retty . . . . Some people say that's a bad
s ign-her skin looks too good. "
"If i t is true, I feel awfully sorry for her . "
"More than that-it's a real waste! You d o n ' t find girls as
good-looking as tha t j u s t anywhere . "

One afternoon two o r three days later, the reporter p a id a visit

to Profes sor Rado a t his house in the suburbs and found him­
self facing him o nce a gain across the low table in tha t well­
reme m bered sitting room .
" I s n ' t there some doctor she goes to regularly somewhere ? "
the p rofe s sor asked a fter hearing t h e report on Mayumi. H i s
face w a s , as usual, d ull and expressionless, but he d id n ' t seem
p articularly shocked by the news.
" Some doctor?"
" Uhh . . . . Unnh . . . . You could find out for sure by asking
h lm
. . . . ."
"Tha t's a ra ther tall order, sir. She p robably doesn't have her
own doctor. "
"I wonder about those m issing toes . . . . Leprosy leaves a par­
ticular kind of sore, you know . . . . "
"Tha t'd be hard to find out, too - they say she doesn't let
a nybody see her feet. . . . "
" H m ph . " The p ro fessor looked toward the flower bed outside
and continued: " I can find out for m yself if I have to . . . . Uhh . . . .
I n fact, I could do it without m oving a s tep fro m here, if I only
had the p roper material s . . . . "
" B y p roper m a terials , you mean . . . ? "
"The leprosy bacteria are co ncen tra ted m o s t heavily i n nasal
mucu s . If we had a handkerchief or paper tissue she'd blown her
n ose on, we could tell . "

1 62
 " Really?-1 didn't know tha t . I m ight be able to get hold of
one by asking somebody in the trou pe to help-the next time
she has a cold or someth ing . . . . "

( ( Uhh . . . . Would you d o tha t , then? I 'd pay whoeve r it was

fi ft y yen for it. . . . "

About two weeks la ter, the journal ist succeeded in s tealing

one of Mayu m i' s handkerch iefs with the a id of a certa in actor;
the fi fty yen was re portedly d ivided equally between the two of
them . B u t there was never any word from Profes sor Ra do as
to the re sults of the m icro scopic exam ina t ion; and after the Mu­
yu sai trou pe split up in June while on tour in the provinces,
Mayu m i ' s wherea bouts were u nknow n . Neverthele ss, the ever­
curious re porter decided to pay th e p rofes sor a visit one day
around the end of Augu s t . It seemed h ighly unlikely that he
would know anything about her, but still . . . . At any ra te, the
would-be caller wa s turned away at the door, the houseboy inform­
ing h im tha t it wa s ( ( not co nvenient for the p rofes sor" to see
h i m just the n . He went two m ore times and always got the same
reply, so he hit on the idea of bribing the parlormaid he had
sp ied upon tha t time se veral years before, who wa s still working
in the house. Accord ing to her, the profes sor had recently mar­
ried , and his bride wa s a woman some twenty yea rs you nger
tha n h im s elf. The new la d y o f the hou se was undeniably pretty;
but she also seemed to be very pleased with herself-probably
proud of her good looks-and she had always acted very col dl y
towa rd the maid s . In fa ct, she had never spoke n a word to a ny of
them : when she needed som ething done, she gave the orders to
her husband by m ea n s o f a nod or a look, and he would then tell
the maids wha t to d o . Yet when the two of them were shut up
in their room toge th er, the maids could ca tch fa int sounds of

1 63
them blatherin g away at each other, through the t ightly closed
d oor. The long a n d short of it was that their n ew mistress was
"right proud of h erself. "
"Well, o f all the d irty . . . ! Using somebody a s much a s h e
likes , a n d then turn ing h i m away at h is front door! Just who does
he think h e i s ? " The rep orter wa s a n gry, so an gry in fact tha t h e
d ecided t o climb over t h e hawthorn hedge at th e back a n d sneak
up u n der the n orthern window. The bushes w ere covered w ith
su mmer leaves, and the gla ss panel a n d curtains were half
open - j us t right for p eeping through. This gave him quite a
good view o f what was goin g on inside.
On top o f the chop p in g-block d esk where the parlormaid had
once p erched, there n ow sat M me . Mayu m i, paj ama-clad , swing­
ing h er legs to a n d fro . Pro fessor Ra d o, w earing his p ostal clerk's
s mock, was u n d erneath, o n h is knees, fi ddlin g at h er naked left
foot with both h a n d s . The rep orter was j u st barely a ble to see
what th e professor was h olding-a toe, made o f wax or rubber,
and almost indistingu ishable from the real thing!
" S ee? It looks j u st like one o f your own toes. What do you
think? . . . D oes it fi t all right ? It doesn't h urt, does it?" The pro­
fessor spoke in a sweet, coa xing voice as he fi tted the obj ect onto
Mayu mi's foot.
"Whny nho, h inht doesnh't h urnt ha binht. "
And now for th e fi rs t time the reporter h eard Mayumi's voice,
drip p in g from those sculp ted lip s .

1 64