Kiku's Prayer Part 21

"Seikichi, I guess you've heard what they're saying?" Mataichi asked, almost in tears.

"They told me that if I didn't come back to the church, I'd be an outcast. I've never heard anything so ridiculous."

"But Seikichi, we've rejected Lord Jezusu and Santa Maria. I can put up with being shunned. But I can't bear having promised to turn my back on Lord Jezusu and Santa Maria."

Seikichi could not dispute what Mataichi said. He felt the same way himself. His heart was seared as though with molten lead for abandoning what he had been taught from childhood was the most beautiful, most pure, and most true of all things.

"Are you suggesting we should go to the village head and tell him we want to return to our Kiris.h.i.tan faith?" he muttered weakly, with a sigh.

The light rain drizzled over the three men. But they stood motionless, like cows that have been left standing in the field.

As the trio headed through the rain toward the village head's house, they saw the hazy gray figures of several other people moving through the fog. When they drew near, they recognized another three who had apostatized: Moj, his wife Kisa, and their son Shigeichi.

At this point, they knew without asking why this family was going to the village head's house. The six now trudged wordlessly along the wet road.

Catching sight of them, a dog tethered in the village head's garden began to bark. At the sound, the village head, Kanjr, stuck his head out the door and said, "Ah, you're back home!" Unaware of their intentions, he seemed to think they had come to offer their apologies, and with a forced smile on his face he said, "Well, come in, come in! How terrible that you've had such a rough time." Once Seikichi, with a weak shake of his head, explained their desires to return to the Kiris.h.i.tan faith, his look changed to one of shock and despondency.

"What?!" He was at a loss for words.

One after another, men and women a.s.sembled through the mist at the village head's house. Each of them had heard about the ostracism and had come to ask permission to return to the church.

"I see ..." Breaking his long silence, he stammered, "Well, I ... Because of my position, I'll have to report this to the magistrate. I a.s.sume you have no objection?"

"There's no other choice."

"You'll have to go back to prison."

No one responded. Their wretched life in jail came vividly back to mind. But their minds were thrown into confusion by the threat of ostracism, the agonizing prospect of being separated once again from their families, and their guilt at having betrayed Lord Jezusu and Santa Maria.

Someone cried out, "Sen'emon is still in prison by himself. If Sen'emon can endure it, we can, too!"

"Is that so?" The village head nodded. "You know, it's possible that the magistrate won't have any more time to deal with you.... The domains of Satsuma and Chsh have joined forces with a pledge to attack Edo. Things will change if the shogun loses that battle. And who knows what will happen to the magistrate?"

Seikichi and the other peasants had a hard time understanding what the village head was saying. Of course, even living un.o.btrusively as Kiris.h.i.tans in the shadow of the Urakami hills, they had heard something about a conflict between the emperor and the shogun, but they were utterly in the dark regarding the specifics of the situation.

"Ah-hah." Comprehending nothing, they merely nodded.

The rain grew fierce.

"You want to return to your faith no matter what?"

"Yes, sir."

The village head heaved a sigh.

It's possible that the magistrate won't have any more time to deal with you-This bleak p.r.o.nouncement by the village head also made oblique reference to the fact that peasant uprisings similar to the one here in Urakami were erupting in various parts of j.a.pan.

For the past two or three years, peasants and merchants in areas of the country plagued with unrest had been abandoning their centuries-old postures of submission and had incited riots. In Osaka and Edo, in Musashi, and in Shin.o.bu of Mutsu Province, farmers had been raising cries of "Reform!" as they stormed the homes of the wealthy and held rallies, and though the officials had finally been able to subdue them, for a time they were completely unmanageable.

In addition to these uprisings, this was also the period in which bizarre dances known as "Ee ja nai ka"-"Who cares?"-became the rage among the ma.s.ses. Men dressed as women, and women dressed as men filled the streets, dancing in a manner similar to the Awa Dances and chanting:

Who cares? Who cares?

Spread some paper over whatever stinks, If the paper rips, spread some more!

Who cares? Who cares?

Dancing with abandon, they paraded through the streets. The dance swept like a tsunami across the land, from Kant in the east to Kamigata in the west.

The rebellion of the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans and their return to the faith were of an entirely different nature from the peasant rebellions in other parts of the country and the Ee ja nai ka Dance phenomenon, but that was because the vague premonition that "it's pretty much all over for the shogun" had made its way to this impoverished village.

They knew nothing concrete about such matters, but in fact the shogun had already decided to surrender his political power.

The magistrate's office in Nagasaki was thrown into disarray as these pieces of news arrived one after another. Just as the village head had predicted, when the magistrate was notified that there was more trouble among the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans, who should have been stifled by now, he was at his wit's end. They're in revolt again?!

It Seizaemon, with a dumbfounded look on his face, went to seek advice from Hond Shuntar. "Lord Hond, what should we do about this?"

But with a sardonic smile Hond replied, "It's no longer a question of what to do. Of far more interest to me than the Urakami peasants is the problem of what will become of us, Lord It."

"What do you mean, 'what will become of us'?"

"If the shogunate falls, there will be no more military cla.s.s. What will you do then, Lord It?"

With a tragicomic look on his face, all It could say was, "Hmph."

In the tenth month of the third year of the Kei period, the shogunate restored ruling power to the emperor. By the Western calendar, the date was November 1867.

1. The "Glancing Back" willow was at the gateway of the old pleasure quarters in what is now Tokyo. Male patrons who had spent the night in pleasure were said to pause at the tree and glance back longingly toward the women from whom they had just parted.

2. Throughout the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the warlords who eventually united j.a.pan had to struggle with uprisings by militant Buddhist sects that feared-rightly-that they would be stripped of their power and wealth.

3. In 1637 and 1638, peasants in the former Arima fief, suffering from brutal taxation and starvation, rose up in rebellion against the anti-Christian government. The fief had originally been home to a Jesuit seminary and printing press, and although most of the peasants had publicly renounced their Kiris.h.i.tan faith, once the rebellion broke out, they declared themselves followers of Christ and fought vigorously until nearly 35,000 were killed in the siege of Hara Castle.

4. Bateren was the j.a.panese p.r.o.nunciation of the Portuguese word padre.

5. Iruman is from the Portuguese word irmos, brothers who ranked just after the padres. Initially most were European, but under Alessandro Valignano (15391606), visitor for the Jesuit missions in Asia, the number of j.a.panese iruman increased significantly.

THE REUNION.

THE SHOGUNS WHO had ruled j.a.pan for more than two hundred years had been defeated by the emperor....

When this news arrived, Nagasaki was flung into a spiral of confusion. Unlike surrounding domains, this province was under the direct control of the shogunate, a privilege that had been a source of pride to the residents for many years. For that very reason, when a rumor ("They're saying that those ruffians from Satsuma are going to attack us!") spread around the city that the military forces of Satsuma, which was part of the imperial faction, were marching on Nagasaki, the citizens trembled in fear. The ferocity of the military forces of the Shimazu clan in Satsuma had been legendary throughout Kyushu ever since the wars of unification in the sixteenth century.

Impulsive merchants threw together their belongings and fled in search of refuge. Some houses shut their doors tightly and huddled behind them, as though violence and pillage would break out in the city at any moment.

The Gotya shop was one such place.

In hushed tones the Master and Mistress discussed whether the best precaution might be to escape to their ancestral home on the Got Islands.

"If they close down the shop, what will happen to us?" Tome asked Oyone.

"Obviously they'll just throw us out," Oyone replied resentfully.

"Mitsu has a home to go to, so she'll be all right. But my family's so poor, I can't even think of going back there," Tome mumbled disconsolately.

Mitsu was filled with pity for Tome, who had once told her, "There's lots of families as poor as mine who have to sell their daughters as servants." Mitsu's nature was just a bit different from Kiku's: whenever Mitsu saw a sad, unfortunate person, she was filled with an overwhelming compa.s.sion toward them.

"I wonder what Kiku will do?" Tome asked. Mitsu knew that Kiku had not gone back to Urakami but that, for who knows what reason, had ended up working as a maidservant at the Nambanji. One early morning as Mitsu was sweeping at the entrance to the store, Kiku had come running breathlessly up to her. After explaining briefly that she had ended up working at the Nambanji, Kiku said, "So could you tell Ichijir that that's what I'm doing? I'll take care of myself, so there's no need to worry." Then, announcing she had to fix breakfast for Lord Pet.i.tjean and Lord Laucaigne, she ran off like a shot from a gun.

"There really isn't any reason to worry about her; she is Kiku, after all," Mitsu thought. Kiku was the sort of woman who would choose and pursue her own life's course.

But I'll never be like Kiku. From childhood, Mitsu couldn't help but envy the outgoing Kiku. But one day she came to the realization that she was not Kiku. That "one day" was the day Kiku was booted out of the Gotya.

For her part, Kiku was working with all her might at the Nambanji. Pet.i.tjean and the other foreign missionaries, as well as Okane and her husband, all thought very highly of her.

It was a real advantage for Kiku to be well liked here rather than having to return to her home in Magome. Were she to go back to Magome, she would have no way of knowing what was happening to Seikichi. Kiku had been told from her youth that even though Magome was right next to the Kiris.h.i.tan village of Nakano, there was an invisible and impa.s.sable chasm separating them.

Staying here, however, it was easy for Kiku to learn what was happening to Seikichi and his fellow believers. Pet.i.tjean and Father Laucaigne were kind enough to keep her informed.

It made no difference to Kiku that the shogun had fallen or that the emperor had taken the reins of government. It was of far greater importance to her as a woman that Seikichi be happy and that she might one day have the good fortune of becoming his wife.

"Kiku. Seikichi and the others have returned to Nakano." When Pet.i.tjean gave her that news, the clouds lifted from her face, and it suddenly became so light around her that it seemed as though sunlight was pouring down onto the flower garden.

But then he went on. "Kiku. Seikichi and his friends showed up unexpectedly at the village head's house, saying they wanted to become Kiris.h.i.tans again."

The blood rushed from her face. She hurried to the chapel and once again began spewing a stream of complaints to the statue of the Blessed Mother.

The magistrate's office, however, was on the verge of collapse itself and had no time to be bothered with the likes of Seikichi and his comrades. Joy returned to Kiku's face when she learned that the magistrate had decided to put them under watch and allow them to live their normal lives.

If that's the case ... then one day soon he'll be coming here to the Nambanji, she thought intuitively. Gradually that thought became a conviction in her mind.

"Kiku," one day Pet.i.tjean smiled and asked her, "would you be interested in going with me to France?"

In amazement, she responded, "France?"

"I'm only kidding, Kiku. But actually I am going back to France. I'll return to j.a.pan soon...."

Pet.i.tjean and the other Christian missionaries living in j.a.pan shared the view that with the fall of the shogunate, the new government that was being formed would likely be more tolerant of Christian proselytizing. As a result, they needed to confer with the church leadership in their homeland regarding the proper response to these new circ.u.mstances, and Pet.i.tjean had been chosen to perform that a.s.signment.

"But you'll be coming back to j.a.pan soon?"

"I will. j.a.pan is now my home, Kiku."

Although Kiku detested the Kiris.h.i.tan teachings, she was fond of the priests at the Nambanji. She liked Pet.i.tjean especially because he was the one who brought her here. Though she definitely disliked the way he reeked of b.u.t.ter, and she didn't care for the beard on his face....

The second month of the year came.

During the winter in Nagasaki, the morning peddlers sold sea cuc.u.mbers called trago. Other men walked about hawking Chinese cabbage.

About this time the troops from Satsuma and Chsh stormed in to occupy Nagasaki, blowing pipes and beating drums. The citizens bolted their doors, fearing random violence; the foreigners, preparing for any exigency, summoned aid from the warships anch.o.r.ed at sea while sailors were brought to land and positioned to defend the mouth of the harbor leading to ura.

I hear the magistrate has fled the city! The rumor spread like a flash throughout the city. The magistrate, Kawazu Sukekuni,1 had disappeared.

Several young men of promise from Satsuma and Chsh took charge at the leaderless magistrate's office and a.s.sumed the role of preserving peace in the city. Included among them were men such as Matsukata Masayoshi and Machida Minbu,2 who would become prominent leaders during the Meiji period.

Because they had feared violent behavior or looting, the anxious citizens of Nagasaki were relieved to discover how well disciplined the Satsuma and Chsh soldiers were. Shops that had locked their doors once again opened for business.

Every day when Kiku had some free time, she would stand in front of the Nambanji, stretching as tall as she could make herself and peering toward the beach, wondering whether perhaps Seikichi might be climbing the hill.

On cloudy days the inlet was cold and forlorn. On such days her feelings were also cold and forlorn. She was cheered somewhat on clear days by the sound of the waves pressing in on the sh.o.r.e. Those were the days when she had hope that Seikichi just might appear.

One day- The person Kiku saw climbing the hill to the Nambanji was not Seikichi but a samurai. It was It Seizaemon, looking particularly down in the mouth. Once he loses the backing he so grandly boasted of, such a man comes to look startlingly unkempt.

He walked past Kiku, apparently preoccupied. Kiku, of course, had no idea he had been the mastermind behind the painful tortures inflicted on Seikichi.

"Well, if it isn't Lord It!" With a slightly acidic smile, Laucaigne greeted the man who had been spying on the priests.

"I'm sorry to bother you. The truth is that I've had to swallow my pride and come to beg a favor from you." It smiled awkwardly and bowed his head servilely. He went on to explain that thanks to the generous good offices of Matsukata Masayoshi, he had been permitted to continue his work at the magistrate's office, but ultimately he would have to look for other employment. No one is as pathetic as a government worker who has lost his stipend. So his request was for the priests to help him get a position as a guard at some foreign country's consulate.

"I don't have the talents or the quick wit of someone like Hond Shuntar. I hear that he made a quick getaway to Yokohama and is up to something there...." There was spite toward Hond in his voice.

Striving to contain his amus.e.m.e.nt, Father Laucaigne promised It he would try to find him work. When the man left the Nambanji, the priest spotted another man climbing up from the sh.o.r.e. It was Seikichi.

It, walking with his head down and engrossed in thoughts about his own future, didn't see Seikichi coming from the opposite direction. But when Seikichi spotted It, he quickly hid himself behind the trunk of a camphor tree. Once the man was gone, he scrambled up to the Nambanji.

"Father Pet.i.tjean!" Happy but breathless, he called out for the priest. He did not know that Pet.i.tjean had left j.a.pan for a brief time.

Laucaigne came outside and, reflexively calling out in French, "Quelle surprise!" gave Seikichi a bear hug. Not one Kiris.h.i.tan had come to the church since the terrifying crackdown. Seeing Seikichi made Laucaigne's joy all the sweeter.

"We're being watched," Seikichi began. "Every single day, there's someone hiding out at the end of the Togitsu Highway. They're constantly watching to see where we Kiris.h.i.tans go."

Seikichi's report on his experiences in prison, his release, and his return to the faith came gushing out of his mouth like the words of a man who has had no one to talk to for a very long time. Laucaigne summoned his brethren, Father Cousin and Father Ridel,3 to hear Seikichi's account.