Kiku's Prayer Part 24

SEPARATION.

THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS at Nakagawa were in full bloom, as though they were a manifestation of Kiku's happiness. At night the blossoms were hazily lit by paper lanterns, and crowds of spectators pa.s.sed beneath them.

The calls of peddlers as they walked the streets selling c.o.c.kles and clams were audible throughout the day. The month for the Kite Compet.i.tion had again come to Nagasaki.

In the fourth month, the new government in Tokyo, in receipt of a report from Sawa n.o.buyoshi, held one of their frequent council meetings in the presence of the emperor and finally set out a policy for dealing with the Urakami Kiris.h.i.tans.

With this decision in hand, Kido Takayoshi arrived in Nagasaki as a government representative on the thirtieth of the fourth month to consult with Sawa, who had just been appointed governor of Nagasaki, on the best method to put the policy into practice.

The decision was a cruel one that dashed the overly optimistic expectations of the Kiris.h.i.tans. Even though it meant setting aside the objections from foreign diplomats, the government had decided to exile the Urakami peasants who were followers of the outlawed religion. The proposal of the hard-liners in the government, including Prince Arisugawa, kubo Toshimichi, and Kuroda Nagatomo,1 had emerged victorious: the Kiris.h.i.tans were to be punished decisively, first, as part of their plan to create a Shinto-based national polity centered on the emperor and, second, to a.s.sert the country's sovereign rights.

Before departing from Nagasaki, Kido gave orders to Sawa to select 114 of the Kiris.h.i.tans who had not apostatized and banish them to the three domains of Hagi, Tsuwano, and f.u.kuyama.2 On May 21, without any notice, orders to surrender were transmitted via the village heads to households in Motohara, Nakano, and Ieno.

"You are ordered to report to the Nishi Bureau tomorrow morning at 6:00 A.M."

When the notices arrived, Seikichi and some of the other young men merely laughed it off. "This is ridiculous! Just one more time we have to argue them down, and they won't be able to do anything to us!" The fact that they had come back unscathed after their second interrogation had bolstered their confidence.

Before dawn the following morning they set out for Nagasaki, accompanied, as they had been before, by family members. They pa.s.sed over Nishizaka Hill and arrived at the Nishi Bureau in Nagasaki, but the gate was tightly shut.

"Wait here!" Barked an official whom they recognized when he came out through the gate.

"Lord It, we were commanded to be here at 6:00 A.M.," k.u.maz responded snidely. k.u.maz was the first man who had apostatized during their initial incarceration, but now he was set on treating the officers as fools.

"I don't know anything about that. All I know is that the orders from the governor are that you are to wait here." With that, It disappeared.

Noon came and went. Still they were ignored. Evening came. The gate still did not open. Some of the Kiris.h.i.tans seated on the ground began to mutter and complain. Just then, It Seizaemon reemerged.

"We have no business with any of you who did not receive a summons. Go back to your homes right away. Leave!"

But even after the 114 Kiris.h.i.tans had gone into the government office, their families remained stubbornly in place. Without warning, several policemen armed with bludgeons came rushing out. Amid screams and angry shouts, the family members were driven away like animals. Nothing was the same as it had been the previous time.

The 114 who pa.s.sed through the gate of the government office also sensed inside that everything about the atmosphere this time was different from before.

On the previous occasion, there had really been nothing harsh in the att.i.tudes of the police. But this time they snarled, "Get out there!"

They were taken to the courtyard and ordered to sit on the gravel. Soon an official appeared, opened up a scroll of paper with both hands, and began to read.

"Whereas you are believers in a heretical religion and are in violation of Imperial law, there is every reason to punish you severely, but because you are illiterate peasants, out of the good graces of His Majesty you will be held in custody in distant domains."

He looked around at the group, then called out, "Sen'emon!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Sen'emon and twenty-seven others will be held in custody by Lord Kamei, Governor of Oki and holder of a 43,000 koku3 stipend in Iwami Province.... Moj!"

Moj did not respond.

"Moj and sixty-five others will be held in custody by the government steward, Lord Mri, holder of a 370,000 koku stipend in Su and Nagato Provinces.... Moichi and nineteen others will be confined under the direction of Lord Abe, Chief Paymaster and holder of 110,000 koku in Bingo Province."

The 114 prisoners listened blankly to the official's voice. What they were being told did not feel the least bit real to them. It felt as though they were having a nightmare.

"On your feet!" The entire group stood up, but several of them staggered.

We're being sent to a far-off province....

None of these 114 peasants had ever seen a place outside Urakami and Nagasaki. The hills and forests and terraced fields, the only scenery that Nakano and Ieno and Motohara had to offer, were an inseparable part of their daily activities, their very lives, in the same way that a snail cannot be separated from its sh.e.l.l. Their fathers and mothers, even their grandfathers and grandmothers, were born and raised, toiled and died, in these villages. Not one of them ever considered the possibility of leaving Urakami.

"Move!"

The group was herded out the gate. Beyond the gate, a column of soldiers carrying guns had appeared from nowhere. The family members who had followed them from Urakami had vanished like vapors.

"Where ... where are we going?" Sen'emon inquired of an officer who walked beside him.

"You'll be getting on a ship, so we're heading straight for hato." The officer pointed toward the harbor.

"We're going to get on the ship right now?"

"That's right. Didn't they just tell you that ...?"

This was the first moment it became real to them that they were being torn away from Urakami for the rest of their lives. The pain in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s felt as though they had been stabbed with a knife.

The ocean at twilight was black, and Mount Inasa rose like a purple dome before them.

"Runaways!!" An officer at the rear of the rank suddenly shouted. Three of the peasants had managed to escape.

"Get them!"

The three fugitives quickly ran between houses and tried to hide themselves in the encroaching evening haze. Several policemen pursued them.

The remaining prisoners were taken directly from the government office to the boat dock at hato.

The wind was strong, and the harbor waves were rough. At hato several barges bobbing in the water awaited them.

"On board! Quickly!!"

The 111 peasants climbed one after another into the barges.

"These fools tried to escape!" Two of the fugitives, their hands lashed behind them, were shoved to the edge of the water by policemen. As the others looked on, they were beaten and kicked, and finally were the last men put on board.

"k.u.maz got away!" One of the captured men whispered quietly to his fellow believers. "He can run fast, so he disappeared right away. I wonder where he's hiding right now."

Apparently the officers and the police had given up chasing k.u.maz; they ordered the boatmen to untie the mooring lines. The four barges, splashed by the waves, headed toward a steamship waiting in the middle of the harbor.

The evening haze gave way to night. Lights flickered faintly from the base of Mount Inasa and the streets of Nagasaki. It was pitch black in the vicinity of Urakami. But the gaze of every one of the 113 prisoners was directed toward that darkened village of Urakami.

They might not ever return home again. Perhaps they would be taken off somewhere and executed. If so, they would never again set foot on the soil of Urakami.

And what about their family members who had followed them all the way to the government office? Where were their wives and children, their fathers and mothers, in that thick darkness? Did they have any idea that right now their loved ones were being loaded onto a ship and taken far from them?

Every manner of thoughts clutched at their hearts. In earlier times the padres had told the ancestors of these peasants that G.o.d would grant happiness and triumph to those who believed in him, but in reality, all they had received was exile from their homes and separation from their families.

The waves lapped noisily against the barges. Eventually they drew near to the black hull of the steamship, its sails billowing.

"Mary full of grace ..." As soon as one of the prisoners began to recite the oraci to the Blessed Mother Mary, everyone else joined in. The officers and police who rode with them on the barges uttered no word of complaint.

"Look! There's a light at Urakami!" At that cry, everyone turned toward Urakami. There could be no doubt that the light was coming from the ura Church where they practiced their faith.

"Say, do you think the padres know that we're being led away like this?" someone asked. His voice was filled with loneliness and desolation.

"They don't know yet. If they did, they couldn't abandon us like this."

"That's true." They all looked down and were silent for a time.

But at that same moment, the priests at ura were in fact watching as the prisoners were transported on barges to the steamship.

Three women had come stumbling into the church to notify them what was happening.

The women were relatives of the 113 Kiris.h.i.tans who were being hustled away. Some of them had been among the families and relatives of the prisoners who had been driven off by policemen with bludgeons but, not wanting to return to Urakami, had hidden and waited for their loved ones to reemerge from the government office.

When these women saw their own husbands or siblings being taken to hato and loaded onto barges, they raced along the beach to ura to seek help from the priests.

As soon as he received the report, Laucaigne rushed to the French consulate in Nagasaki, but his efforts at intercession were fruitless. Governor Sawa stubbornly deflected all objections.

All the other priests stood in the church's garden gazing at the harbor. When they saw the barges lurching through the dark waters of the harbor toward the steamship, they rushed back to their house and ignited lights in the windows to let the prisoners know they were there. Those were the lights that the 113 Kiris.h.i.tans saw....

The priests' view of the port was cut off by the darkness of the night. By now the harbor and Mount Inasa had all been dyed the same blackish color, and they could no longer see anything. They couldn't even locate the steamship carrying the Kiris.h.i.tans.

Father Laucaigne returned from the consulate in a state of utter exhaustion. At his report, all the priests felt powerless, realizing there was now nothing they could do.

"If only Pet.i.tjean were here ..." At times like this, Laucaigne always wished that Pet.i.tjean were here. His timing was only a little off: he would be returning to j.a.pan in another two or three days....

"Let us pray for them."

All the priests knelt on the ground. Laucaigne prayed, "If it be possible, please let me take the place of these j.a.panese Kiris.h.i.tans. These simple peasants are about to suffer in Thy name. Please include me in their suffering...."

He thought he heard something far off in the distance, and he lifted his head. Father Cousin also seemed to have noticed, and he was straining to hear what it might be.

"ecoutez!" Laucaigne pointed toward the harbor.

They could hear faint voices mingled with the sound of the waves. It was the voices of many men singing.

Let us go, let us go

Let us go to the temple of Paraiso.

Let us go, let us go Let us go to the temple of Paraiso.

Their voices were m.u.f.fled by the waves, then audible again.

It was them! They were standing on the deck of the ship and raising their voices in song toward the church on the hill.

"Let's sing with them!" Father Cousin urged the others. The priests lifted their voices toward the shadowy harbor. Loud enough for the men in the boat to hear them....

As for Kiku- Right then she was crouched down in the night-swathed garden. Laucaigne and the other priests had completely forgotten about her.

She was motionless as a statue. With both hands covering her face, she braced herself to listen to the poignant hymn echoing quietly from the dark ocean in the distance.

Seikichi was one of the men singing that hymn.

There was no doubt about it. She had asked one of the women who had come running to the temple, "Was Seikichi with them?"

"Seikichi? Yes, he was there. You mean Seikichi from Nakano, right?" The response came down on Kiku's head like a giant tree crashing on top of her.

Everything had been smashed. The dreams Kiku had woven up until yesterday all tumbled like a falling tower, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Even her cousin Ichijir had decided it would be all right for her to marry Seikichi. With his support, eventually her father and mother and Granny would have a change of heart as well.

Each morning when she awoke, and each night in her bed, Kiku had savored this fantasy just as an infant nurses for a seemingly endless time at its mother's breast. Her dream of happiness had known no bounds. In her fantasies, Kiku had imagined herself nestled against Seikichi as they walked through a meadow of lotus flowers. She had even pictured them working side by side in the fields.

And now it was all gone. Everything had been obliterated. At that very moment, Seikichi was being held prisoner on a ship in the inlet just below her eyes, being taken to some unknown place.

Seikichi. Hurry and talk to the officers. Tell them you'll abandon your Kiris.h.i.tan beliefs. When you do, the officers will immediately let you off the boat and return you to the sh.o.r.e. Hurry and talk to them! Quickly! Quickly!

Kiku kept screaming inwardly. She couldn't bear hearing the singing of that hymn any longer. So long as the singing remained audible, Seikichi would feel pressured by the others and would not abandon his Kiris.h.i.tan faith. She stuffed her fingers in her ears and tried to blot out the voices.

This is all because of that evil woman. That woman!

Once again the face of that woman danced before her eyes. That alien woman called Santa Maria. That woman had ensnared Seikichi with some mysterious power and would not let him go. She had muddled his mind and led him down an evil path.

You'd better remember this! If you don't bring Seikichi back to me as soon as tomorrow, I'll get even with you! She directed the words toward that woman. I'm not surrendering to the likes of you!

She stood up and raced toward the chapel. An urge to smash the statue to pieces had swept over her.

Candles flickered at the altar in the chapel. Father Laucaigne and the other priests had just knelt and commenced their prayers.

Dawn broke. Kiku awoke to the chilly air and realized she was huddled in a corner of the chapel, sleeping like a puppy.