Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900

by Shirane, Haruo, ed.

  GEISHA MUSICIAN: What style that string has. Perfect sense of timing. (She loosens the other two strings and puts her shamisen back into its case, which she pushes out into the hall. She then makes five or six gracious remarks.)

  JESTER AND GEISHA MUSICIAN: Well, good-bye for now. (They leave. Soon the jester comes back in.)

  JESTER (to the woman): Please take care of yourself!

  TEAHOUSE MAN: Here are some radishes. They’ve been pickled perfectly. (He’s talking about some lightly pickled long white Hadana radishes from the south of Edo.) Here, I’ll give you some.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Thanks.

  CUSTOMER: Well, thank you all for coming over. (He taps his pipe to clean it.)

  JESTER: You know, I could swear I left my shoes at the entrance downstairs.

  TEAHOUSE MAN: Sorry. I put them in the shoe box with all the others.

  JESTER: Much obliged. (Everyone leaves. The maids bring up trays of food and place them just outside the standing screen at the head of the high-ranking courtesan’s bed. Her two young female assistants come into the room. One has her hair twisted up and held in place with an ordinary comb. She’s wearing the short cotton robe that the house sent her. It’s so dirty it looks deep-fried, and the long, hanging parts of her sleeves are tucked into her sash. She’s kidding around with the other girl, whose head is shaved.)

  YOUNG FEMALE ASSISTANT: Never mind. It’s all right. I’ll do it for you.

  CUSTOMER: Matsuno, you got here just in time. Pour me some, will you? (He holds out a large cup.)

  MAIN COURTESAN: Hey, no more saké. You’ve been at it long enough.

  CUSTOMER: Don’t worry about me. I feel like another drink, so I’m going to have one. Matsuno, be a good girl and pour me some, quick.

  YOUNG FEMALE ASSISTANT: You’ve had enough already. (She watches the high-ranking courtesan and doesn’t pick up the saké server.)

  CUSTOMER: Pour me some, will you?

  MAIN COURTESAN: Well, all right. Hold out your cup. (She picks up the long-handled saké server herself and pours so hard that some of the saké splashes out of the cup. When the man tries to drink what’s left, she knocks the cup out of his hand with her long pipe. The saké spills onto the hand-warming brazier.)

  CUSTOMER: I give up. You’re crazy! (He fans the fire in the hand warmer with his wide sleeve, trying to revive it. Then he takes out four or five pieces of tissue paper.)

  YOUNG FEMALE ASSISTANT: Oh, look at that! (She wipes up the saké with the paper. Just then another high-ranking courtesan drops by, opening the sliding door halfway and looking in. She’s wearing only an inner robe made of many pieces of the same color. She’s just beginning to prepare herself for a performance and has white makeup on her neck, but she hasn’t made up her face yet.)

  VISITING COURTESAN: Hi there. I hear your guest stayed over and is still here. Please enjoy yourself. I really envy you, you know. (She comes in and hunkers down beside her courtesan friend, who’s still lying under a quilt.)

  CUSTOMER: The weather’s wonderful outside. I must be crazy. I’ve been here since last night.

  VISITING COURTESAN: It just shows how true your feelings are. (She lights a pipe and gives it to her courtesan friend.)

  MAIN COURTESAN (one hand reaching out from her robe): Thanks. (To the visiting courtesan) You’re visiting me, so I should be the one entertaining you. But here you are doing what I should be doing. Are you going down to wait for customers on the first floor this afternoon?

  VISITING COURTESAN: No. Some clerk who has the day off is coming to see me this afternoon.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Turn around and let me see your hair. Hey, you look stunning.

  VISITING COURTESAN: It’s a shame I had to have it done today. (Tomorrow is the twenty-seventh, when the women in the house wash their hair.)

  CUSTOMER: How about a cup of saké?

  VISITING COURTESAN (frowning slightly and shaking her head): No. (She turns to her courtesan friend.) The only reason I came is to see you. Honest. I heard you were here, so I threw on a few things and came right over. Well, please make lots of love. (She starts to get up, but the man pulls at the skirt of her robe.)

  CUSTOMER: Won’t you stay a little longer? If you go, all the beautiful blossoms will scatter.

  VISITING COURTESAN: Do you think pretty words can fool me? I’ll have to watch out for you. (She leaves. A young apprentice passes her on her way in. Her hair’s done up well, but she has on too much white makeup. She wears a dirty dark green wadded cotton robe.)

  APPRENTICE COURTESAN: Excuse me. I’m here to see the high-ranking courtesan. (The woman doesn’t answer.)

  APPRENTICE COURTESAN: Excuse me. I need to see the courtesan.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Well, what is it? You sure know how to make a racket.

  APPRENTICE COURTESAN: It’s Hatsuyama. She wants you to let her have some of the radishes.

  MAIN COURTESAN: All right, take what you need. (The young woman picks up some of the pickled radishes that the teahouse gave her. Just as she’s leaving, another apprentice comes into the room.)

  SECOND APPRENTICE COURTESAN: I’m very sorry to bother you, but could you spare a sheet of thick paper?

  MAIN COURTESAN: You’re such a dear! You come and ask for so many different things. Well, go ahead, take it.

  SECOND APPRENTICE COURTESAN: Thank you so much. (She goes out.)

  THIRD APPRENTICE COURTESAN (from the hall): Hey, Hanazaki wants to know where the robe she lent you is.

  SECOND APPRENTICE COURTESAN: I hung it out to dry on the latticework in the hall. (Suddenly a bell rings, surprising some of the more casual courtesans. The house is about to open for afternoon business,115 and all but the high-ranking women rush around and go down to the first floor and sit in the parlor, where they can be seen from the street through latticed windows. Their apprentices begin to play background music on their shamisens. Afternoons are even lonelier than midnight on the second floors of these houses. A special sadness pervades the place. The room where the customer has stayed overnight is so empty it seems hushed. He and the high-ranking courtesan now are alone behind the standing screen.)

  CUSTOMER (referring to the man from the teahouse): That Sensuke, today he was being super-nice to you. He’s trying to persuade you to get me to give him a nice cloak.

  MAIN COURTESAN: That’s just like him. I can’t stand any of the people who work for that teahouse. Just because you’re hard up right now and can’t give them any big tips or presents doesn’t give them the right to treat you that way—to be so demanding. All they care about is money. It makes me furious.

  CUSTOMER: That’s not the way they think. You’re just imagining things.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Listen, will you? When I’m over at that teahouse, they completely ignore my apprentices. They treat them as if they didn’t even exist. So these days I’m really careful to tip those teahouse people well. Recently, I got angry twice while performing on the second floor over there. They have an attitude problem.

  CUSTOMER: Just ignore them. You don’t really listen to them, and then you lose your temper. If I could just pay the teahouse the rest of the money I owe, then all your problems would disappear just like that.

  MAIN COURTESAN: They sure would. How much do you still owe them?

  CUSTOMER: More than thirty gold ryō. I never go upstairs with women at the other houses. They wouldn’t let me stay over, anyway. But if I can’t come up with at least twenty or thirty gold ryō, you know what that means? I’m wiped out. (He looks fairly depressed.)

  MAIN COURTESAN (looks down without saying anything. Finally she speaks): I think about your situation a lot. I know how unhappy you must be. It’s because you kept coming to see me for so long and spent so much. It was all because of me. I guess you must really dislike me now. Have you stopped loving me?

  CUSTOMER: Of course not. When my parents disinherit me for this, I’d be very happy to beg in the streets as long as we’re together. But a high-class courtesan like you might not want
to . . .

  MAIN COURTESAN: Do you still think of me only as a courtesan? I think of myself as your wife, you know. How about showing a little sympathy? If you really feel that way about me, though, I have an idea. I’ll pawn my second-best bedding. I can get seven gold ryō for that. And I think I’ll be able to get three out of my other steady customer. I should be able to get another three more from my other customers. I’ll give it all to you. So you do something too. At least take care of the other half. I don’t care what happens to me. Even if I have to borrow on my contract and stay here longer, I’ll do it—as long as it’s for you.

  CUSTOMER: I didn’t realize you loved me that much. Really, I’ll never forget your offer as long as I live. But let me try to handle it by myself. If I can’t, let’s talk about it some more. How about that?

  MAIN COURTESAN: Well, take care of it as soon as you can. The other day the matron called me over and yelled at me again. But the criticism can’t stop me from thinking about you. If it could, I wouldn’t have kept on like this and gotten you into debt. Even my own mother couldn’t stop me from seeing you. Actually, a little while ago my mother came to see me again. She said I looked really thin and then started crying. And the managers of the house, they’ve given up on me completely. But if they stop you from coming up to the second floor to see me, I’ll refuse to work, and they’ll have to sell my contract to another house. I’ll refuse to work, I really will. I haven’t sold my soul to them, after all! (Discouraged, the man is unable to say anything.)

  MAIN COURTESAN: Oh, I hate this. These days, everything is going wrong. I just want to leave this place as soon as I can. I guess we’re really bad for each other. They won’t let us be together, and we can’t bear to be apart. So how’s your mother doing? I’ve been so upset by all this, I haven’t asked how she is. Please give her this Buddhist charm. Make sure she gets it. I asked someone to go all the way to Nichiren Temple in Horinouchi to get it for her. It’s supposed to be really effective. I’ve also offered a prayer for her at Kishimojin Earth Mother Shrine in Iriya. The day before yesterday I gave up eating everything but vegetables. It’s not easy. But I’ve made a big vow, and I’m praying very hard.

  CUSTOMER: I’ve been very bad to my parents, I really have. The reason my mother’s sick is because she’s so worried about me. She gets even worse when I stay here like this. I’m surprised some god hasn’t punished me yet.

  MAIN COURTESAN: There are so many things to worry about. Really, I’d like to die as soon as I can. (She rubs her cold forelocks against the man’s face and wets his face with her tears. An afternoon performance is getting under way in one of the rooms at the back of the second floor, and they can hear someone singing a soft, soulful song. It’s about the lovers Sankatsu and Hanshichi making their journey toward a love suicide: “Make up your mind, there’s no more need for tears—I’m not crying, and you, now, too . . . “)

  CUSTOMER: You know, I’m getting very depressed. Let’s talk about something else. We’ve said everything there is to say about this.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Really. I agree. If we’re not alive, we haven’t got anything. Listen, let me take care of that cloak Sensuke’s been pestering you for.

  CUSTOMER: Well, if you could. Yes, that would be very nice.

  MAIN COURTESAN: I’d better do it soon. Before he starts spreading more bad rumors about you. (The man doesn’t answer. The woman stares at him.)

  MAIN COURTESAN: Hey, are you asleep? Wake up! (She blows smoke in his face, and he wakes up coughing.)

  CUSTOMER: I didn’t sleep at all last night. (He goes back to sleep.)

  MAIN COURTESAN: Hey, don’t do that. Don’t sleep now. Sleep at night. Open your eyes!

  CUSTOMER: Please. I’m begging you. Let me sleep just a little.

  MAIN COURTESAN: Well, then, do whatever you want. It’s none of my business. (She turns her head and looks the other way.)

  CUSTOMER: All right, I’m sorry. If you dislike it that much, I won’t. I really won’t. But hey, how come you made me fall for you like this? I’ll never forgive you for it, you know. (He pulls the woman close.)

  MAIN COURTESAN (smiling): Why did you make me fall for you? (They’re lying together now. She puts her arm under the man’s head and kisses him hard on the lips.) My period didn’t come last month. So you’re making things pretty hard for me. (She puts her arm around him.) Hey, you dirty old man! Untie your sash first! (She loosens the man’s sash and tosses it beyond the bedding. Then she unties her own sash and holds her body tightly against his. Outside the big bell tolls at sunset.)

  THE AUTHOR KYŌDEN: Damn! They’re really getting it on!

  COMMENTARY:

  If the courtesan

  has a true heart

  the man’s finished116

  If you fall in love the way this man has, your assets will hollow out like a bad tooth that hurts everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. You’ll have nothing left at all. The man’s gotten used to expensive performances, and even now he hires a jester and musician on credit. The teahouse that handles his account must be getting quite nervous. By now both the woman and the man have begun to act natural and no longer try to impress each other. They stop using nice stationery and write to each other on any coarse, recycled paper they happened to have, and they don’t bother to use polished phrases. Instead, they say directly what’s on their minds. Before the woman knows it, she finds she likes the same food the man likes, and she even picks up some of his mannerisms. She stops appearing at performances for other customers, and more and more of them give up on her. Finally she and the man are left with only each other and have nowhere to turn. When the woman’s matron and the other courtesans drop by to warn her about what she’s doing, it only makes her love the man all the more. The two lovers begin to feel as if they’re the only ones in the world. They talk nonsense and resent it when people try to give them advice. People grow cold toward them, and then nothing seems interesting any more.

  Finally the woman tells the man not to come and to stay at home for a while. The man tells her she ought to have many different men pay for her performances, and he gives her advice on how to control some of the men he knows. After the woman finally says good-bye to the man and sends him home, she’s so depressed the next day she can’t even eat, and she refuses to sit in the downstairs parlor with the other women. Back at home, the man sees the woman’s face everywhere, even on the statue of Amida Buddha in his living room. To others, both lovers look like complete fools, but if you asked them, they probably could tell you why their feelings are perfectly natural. How hard it is to give up the delusion-filled way of love between men and women! Didn’t the old hand Yoshida Kenkō117 write so himself?

  [Sharebon, kokkeibon, ninjōbon, SNKBZ 80, translated by Chris Drake]

  ________________________

  1. Hanamachi, a conventional epithet for the licensed quarters.

  2. In Buddhist cosmology, Hoku-shū (Skt. Uttarakuru), the Northern Continent, stands far to the north of Sumeru, the central continent that we of this world are said to inhabit. Here it is a humorous reference to the New Yoshiwara licensed quarter, a walled area of some twenty acres to the north of Edo proper, which was rebuilt here after a fire destroyed the original Yoshiwara in 1657. Yoshiwara in this story refers to the rebuilt licensed quarter.

  3. Two signets, one engraved with the two Chinese characters jin sei (human life) and the other with the two characters ichi raku (only pleasure), are imprinted next to the author’s pseudonym to form this four-character motto.

  4. The Yanagibashi (Weeping Willow Bridge) area in Edo, where the Kanda River empties into the Sumida River, was the site of numerous boathouses whose boats could be hired to convey customers up the Sumida to the vicinity of Yoshiwara.

  5. The Honda hairstyle, a very popular men’s hairstyle of this period, involved shaving the middle third of the head in a U-shape from the forehead back to the crown and sweeping the remaining hair back from the sides and up from the back into a
short ponytail, which was then doubled over forward to form a loose topknot lying on top of the head, near the crown. In a hirobitai, or broad-forehead Honda, the shaved area was wider than usual.

  6. The kosode, rendered here simply as “kimono,” was a full-length robe with very generous sleeves. It was the basic garment for both men and women during the Edo period. It was worn either with or without the trouser-like divided skirts known as hakama.

  7. Ordinarily a gentleman would carry a “nasal-tissue case,” which was a sort of paper billfold in which to hold money, documents, and kogiku: smallish squares of paper for various uses. The fashion was to fold one’s tissues in thirds.

  8. That is, a single crest reproduced in five places: one in the center of the back, one on each side of the chest, and one on each sleeve.

  9. Apparently the two men study some art together—very likely Chinese literature, which was much in vogue among gentlemen of the time. This is perhaps the source of their acquaintance.

  10. The Man-About-Town uses the verb nagasu (literally, let flow), in the then-fashionable colloquial meaning of “let it go” and so forth.

  11. It would seem that the Man-About-Town is chiding Kakuhei, the Youth’s attendant, because he feels that Kakuhei should have immediately recognized Shōtō-ji (a Buddhist temple located near the licensed quarter) as sophisticates’ code for Yoshiwara and should have tactfully offered to withdraw. (The name Kakuhei, the first character of which means “corner,” or “angle,” suggests someone rather straitlaced and rigid, a “square.”) The Man-About-Town urges the Youth to remove his hakama because entering Yoshiwara without this more formal attire was considered sophisticated Yoshiwara etiquette.

  12. Judging by their physical description and manner of speaking, the Man-About-Town appears to be a member of the samurai class, while the Youth is probably the son of a well-to-do merchant family. Thus the Man-About-Town condescends to the Youth, who speaks deferentially to him. Since it was considered a mark of the fashionable Yoshiwara sophisticate to dress in clothing that was just comfortably worn, the Youth’s crisp new clothing identifies him as a neophyte in such matters. The Man-About-Town’s attire, however, is beyond fashionably worn and closer to scruffy. Thus, as was very common during this period, the Youth is the Man-About-Town’s nominal social inferior yet far surpasses him in affluence.