by A. L. Sadler
(Turns to go, but Heisaburo stops her.)
HEISABURO: Then let O Shigé go too and help her. She must not go alone.
O SHIGE: Yes, certainly I'll go. And that will be quite enough. O Tsu can go on with what she was doing.
O TSU: Oh, no. I'll go and wait. You stay here.
O SHIGE: No, no. Do go back to the kitchen, please.
O TSU: Very well. It’s very kind of you.
(O Tsu goes back through the curtain and O Shigé enters the house. As she goes in Gohei comes out. He is an elderly tradesman dressed in haori without hakama.)
GOHEI: What’s this you’re talking about? Did I hear you say that the Aritaya was under an obligation to Kakiēmon ?
HEISABURO: Yes. That’s what I said.
GOHEI: Well, you’re a fool. It was I who had the brains to think of taking the dishes he made to Nagasaki and selling them to the Hollanders, and so making his name known even in foreign countries. And then how about the fifteen years he spent trying to get the red designs of the Wan Li period of Ming? Kakiēmon could not get enough to eat then, and he might have starved to death if it had not been for my kindness in coming to his assistance.
O IMA: Yes, and we took his daughter in and looked after her as well. The least she can do is to work hard in the house for her living.
HEISABURO: That’s rather too much, mother. When father took O Tsu into our family there was no question of her becoming a servant.
GOHEI: Oh, you know that, do you.
HEISABURO: Well, I couldn’t help speaking out, especially as it is to your credit.
(He looks defiantly at them, when Nakasato Hyōdaiyu comes into the shop from the house. He is in haori and hakama with two swords, dressed as becomes a samurai of some rank.)
HYŌDAIYU: Oh, I’m afraid I have intruded on a private discussion of family affairs. Pray excuse me.
GOHEI: Not at all. We don’t mind in the least. (Turns toward the house.) Here! Why doesn’t someone bring the cushions?
HYŌDAIYU: Oh, please don’t trouble. (The maid brings in cushions and Hyōdaiyu sits down.) You have been most hospitable to us today and we have enjoyed ourselves very much, especially my stupid wife and daughter.
GOHEI: We invited you for our shrine festival, but I’m afraid it is a poor sort of affair, and you must find it rather tiresome.
O IMA: But please make yourself quite at home and enjoy yourselves as much as you can.
GOHEI: Yes, I fear your honored wife and daughter must be rather bored. You and Heisaburo had better go in and keep them company.
O IMA: Indeed it is most inexcusable of me to neglect my guests so much.
HEISABURO: I have a little business in the shop, so I will follow you in a few minutes.
O IMA: Then please excuse me.
(With a bow to Hyōdaiyu she goes in. Heisaburo goes to the shop.)
HYŌDAIYU: Well, Gohei Dono, as I was telling you a while ago, my daughter Chiyo is by maternal descent the grandchild of Narimat-
su Tōtōmi-no-kami, a warrior whose fame spread far and wide, and whose pedigree our family has in its keeping. And we are willing that she should become your daughter-in-law as you wish; and you understand, I think, the condition on which we consent.
GOHEI: The condition you allude to is, I think, er–a marriage allowance for your daughter and an annuity to be paid to yourself, is it not?
HYŌDAIYU: Indeed I blush with shame to mention such things, but please consider my straitened circumstances, I have had several proposals for my daughter’s hand from good samurai families, but I have been compelled to refuse them because my poverty has made it impossible for me to give her the outfit that would be necessary for the wife of a retainer of a feudal lord. So I think it will be better if she enter a family wealthy enough to provide for her even though it be only that of a townsman. And even my wife has come to agree with me on this point.
GOHEI: Truly it is an alliance beyond my most sanguine hopes, and I consider myself indeed fortunate. Position, of course, I have none, but money, I am happy to say, I do not lack, so I shall esteem it an honor to be permitted to assist in the way you suggest.
HYŌDAIYU: I am extremely obliged to you. The pedigree I will hand over to you on the occasion of the wedding ceremony, but as I thought you might like to see it I have brought it with, me today, and here it is. Please deign to take a glance at it.
(He takes it out of its wrapper and shows it to Gohei.)
GOHEI: Ah, what ancestors! A most ancient and noble family!
HYŌDAIYU: Truly Narimatsu Tōtōmi-no-kami was a loyal retainer of the Lord Nabeshima and did great services to his house; and as surely will the possessor of this pedigree be able to obtain admission to the rank of samurai.
(Enter Heisaburo from the left.)
HEISABURO: Kakiēmon of Minami-kawara has just been into the shop.
GOHEI: To borrow some money as usual, I‘ll be bound.
HEISABURO: Yes. He said he wanted some in a hurry, so I gave him what I happened to have on me and he went off.
GOHEI: H’m. How much did you lend him?
HEISABURO: He asked me for ten ryo, but I thought that seemed hardly enough, so I made it fifteen.
GOHEI: Well, artists are proverbially hard up, and he’s a good example. But you’ve just come in at the right time. Look here!
HEISABURO: What is it? Oh, a family tree.
GOHEI: Yes, that’s it. It is O Chiyo’s pedigree, rude though it is of me to speak of her in that unceremonious way, but her parents have done us the honor of acceding to our request that she may enter our house as your bride. A most illustrious match too for a townsman, isn’t it now?
HEISABURO: A splendid match indeed. (Handing back the pedigree.) I don’t think there’s any need for me to examine it.
HYŌDAIYU: Well, we’ll keep it until after the wedding.
(Puts it back into the breast of his kimono. Enter O Maru from the house.)
O MARU: The lady is waiting for you, sir.
HYŌDAIYU: Dear me! I have been talking here and forgot all about her. Please excuse me, Gohei Dono.
GOHEI: Certainly. Please go in.
(O Maru escorts him into the house.)
HEISABURO: Father, I ’m afraid I cannot consent to marry O Chiyo San.
GOHEI: Oh, indeed? You are still doting on O Tsu, I suppose. You are a spiritless sort of fellow.
HEISABURO: Yes, perhaps I am. So I ask you again, as I have done several times before, please let me marry O Tsu. It’s no good, I can’t fall in with this heartless plan of yours.
GOHEO: Oh, I see. You have a very fine sense of my heartlessness but none at all of your own unfilial conduct, it seems. You know very well that all my hopes for the future depend on your marrying Nakasato’s daughter, and yet you insist on defying your father, do you?
HEISABURO: No doubt it is extremely unfilial of me to upset your plans in this way, but if you will let me have O Tsu I will do everything I can to be a good son to you. You will not regret it, I assure you.
GOHEI: Then I am to understand that you mean to disregard my wishes altogether?
HEISABURO: In this matter only I must beg you to excuse me.
GOHEI: Very well then. Do as you please. If you want to marry O Tsu, marry her. But understand, I disinherit you! Don’t dare to cross my threshold again. And get out at once. I won’t have you here. Get out of my sight at once, I say.
HEISABURO: If you tell me to go then I will go.
GOHEI: Yes, go with your beloved O Tsu. But when you both come to beggary don’t repent when it is too late and say it would have been better for both of you, if you had done as your father told you! (Heisaburo stands with bowed head. His father continues in a more gentle tone.) Mind, I don’t say this out of unkindness. It’s for your own good. Now listen carefully to what your father is going to say. During these last twenty years my business has gone on increasing and I have been lucky enough to pile up a decent fortune, but whatever he has and wherever he goes a tradesma
n is still nothing but a tradesman. So I have been at some pains to try and better your position and get you admittance to the rank of samurai. Yes, and I have spent a lot of money over it too, but it was no good, because if you have no lineage or pedigree you can’t do anything. Well, then, this unattached samurai Nakasato happened to come here to Imari to live, and his daughter is descended from Narimatsu Tōtōmi-no-kami, a most distinguished name indeed, and a family connected with the house of the Lord Nabeshima. And fortunately he has no money, and so I was able to arrange this match and the pedigree will be ours. Ah, it’s a splendid match for you. But if you refuse to go on with it all our fine prospects go up in smoke. And as for O Tsu, whether you do as I wish or not, I intend to make myself responsible for her future and see her comfortably settled. Now look here, Heisaburo, it may be a bit unpleasant but won’t you do as your father wishes?
(Heisaburo is silent. Just then Eikichi comes in from, the right.)
EIKICHI: I have just been to the Daikoku Maru. She is sailing immediately to take advantage of the tide.
GOHEI: Ah, the Daikoku Maru is bound for Nagasaki, isn’t she? (Considers a moment.) Now, Heisaburo, what about your answer? Is it yes or no? I want you to decide now.
HEISABURO: I will do as you wish. And in return please do your best for O Tsu.
GOHEI: Certainly. I’ll answer for that. I’m so glad you see it in the right light. (Turns toward the shop.) I say, Yōkuro!
YŌKURO: What is it, sir?
GOHEI: Send someone to the Daikoku Maru at once and tell them that there is a passenger for Nagasaki, so they are not to start till he comes.
YŌKURO: Very well, sir. But who is it who is going to Nagasaki?
GOHEI: I am sending my son to the shop there for a while.
HEISABURO: Oh, I am to go there, am I?
GOHEI: Yes, as you have made up your mind it is best for you both to be separated.
YŌKURO: Well then, young master, you had better get your things ready at once.
(Yōkuro hurries Heisaburo into the house. O Ima who has been listening outside now comes in.)
O IMA: I was in such a state of wondering how things would turn out. I’m so glad Heisaburo has done the right thing. It is such a load off my mind.
GOHEI: Ah, you see what a clever fellow I am. Ha-ha-ha !
O IMA: Well, we must get Heisaburo to meet O Chiyo Sama before he goes. I’ll go in and tell him.
(Goes in. Enter Yōkuro from the right.)
GOHEI: Is Heisaburo ready?
YŌKURO: He’s indoors packing his things. Shall I go with him and see him off?
GOHEI: Yes, please do.
(Enter Hyōdaiyu from the left followed by his wife Asakaya dressed like a samurai’s lady and his daughter O Chiyo in a long-sleeved kimono. After them come O Ima, O Shige, and O Maru.)
HYŌDAIYU: So Heisaburo Dono is called away suddenly to Nagasaki. Well, I am sorry to hear it, for I had looked forward to having the pleasure of a talk with him.
ASAKAYA: And my daughter may perhaps be even more disappointed than my husband.
O CHIYO: And when will Heisaburo Sama be coming back again?
GOHEI: Oh, he will be home again in two or three months’ time.
HYŌDAIYU: Anyhow, the wedding will be at the end of the year.
ASAKAYA: Does that please you, child?
O CHIYO: Oh yes.
(Heisaburo enters from the house in his traveling dress.)
HEISABURO: Well, father and mother, I shan’t have the pleasure of seeing you for some little time, I’m afraid. Hyōdaiyu Sama, madam, O Chiyo Sama, please excuse my rudeness in running away like this. (Looks round.) Sister, where is O Tsu? I don’t see her.
O SHIGE: Oh yes, where is she? O Tsu San! O Tsu San!
GOHEI: Oh, that will do about O Tsu. The ship is just sailing. You had better hurry.
(Heisaburo gets up to go. O Tsu comes in from the curtained entrance weeping and trying to hide it.)
O TSU (with deep feeling): Good-bye, Heisaburo Sama. Please take care of yourself.
HEISABURO: O Tsu San!
(Goes towards her. O Chiyo comes forward with an incense box in her hand.)
O CHIYO: Please take this and think of it as though it were myself.
(Heisaburo looks embarrassed as she offers it to him.)
HYŌDAIYU: Don’t you care for my daughter’s parting gift?
GOHEI: Why don’t you take it?
HEISABURO (takes it, as he can hardly refuse): Oh, thank you. I am very much obliged to you.
YŌKURO: Well, come along!
(Goes offwith Heisaburo to the right. The others watch them go. O Tsu turns aside and bursts into tears. Silence. Curtain.)
ACT II
Kakiēmon’s pottery at Arita. In the middle of the stage is a thatched building eight yards long. The right half of it is raised and matted as usual, with mats faced with Loochoo material, and has a curtained entrance in front. On the opposite wall is a cupboard a yard long, the upper part closed with two sliding doors and the lower fitted with shelves on which pottery is standing anyhow. The sidewall is of plaster, and on this too is a double row of shelves full of unglazed pots. Next to this, to the left, is an unfloored space on the ground-level showing a plaster wall in front. Here also are shelves, one above the other; on the top shelf is an old basket, and on the lower one a row of jars and tea-bowls and other pots not yet fired. The sidewall has a window of bamboo lattice. In a corner of this part is a potter’s wheel, and beside it a pestle and mortar for pounding clay. Away to the right of this building in the background is seen a detached house. It has a door three feet wide, and beyond it a window with the shutter tightly closed. In front of it stands a persimmon-tree with ripe red fruit, and beneath it is a board on which several newly thrown plates and bowls stand drying. Outside all is a brushwood fence with a wicket-gate of plaited bamboo, and beyond the house there is a view of a mountain path and woods bright with the tints of autumn. It is three o’clock in the afternoon. Kurisaku is sitting in front of the wheel doing nothing and staring at the clay in front of him. O Tané has got up on to the mortar and is trying to fix a large cloth wrapper attached to a bamboo so as to stretch between the top shelf and the lintel of the room. The curtain rises to the strains of a rustic song.
KURISAKU: O Tané San, don’t do that, please. You are making it dark now.
O TANÉ: Yes, but I can’t have you keep on looking at me and saying things I don’t want to hear, so I am putting this up so that you can’t see me. There, that’ll do, I think. (Goes to get down.) Oh! I shall fall! (Squats down on top of the mortar. Kurisaku gets up and helps her down gently.) Yes, now it’s arranged like that you can’t keep on peeping. The days are getting short, so we mustn’t waste any more time. So get on with your work.
(Gets up on to the matted part to the right and begins painting a piece of unglazed pottery with cobalt.)
KURISAKU: It’s all very well to tell me to get on with my work, but if I can’t see your face I haven’t got anything to inspire me to work.
O TANÉ: Oh, do stop that growling and go back there and get on with your business.
(Leads Kurisaku behind the wrapper and then goes back to her place, takes up the vase and examines it. Kurisaku peeps through a tear in the wrapper.)
KURISAKU: O Tané San! Just another word. And then we won’t talk any more.
O TANÉ: So you can’t keep quiet then?
KURISAKU: I only spoke to get you to turn your face this way.
O TANÉ: Oh, there’s a hole that you’re looking through, is there? Really, you are a nuisance! Now, look here. If you speak another word to me till tonight I’ll have nothing to say to you for a whole month. D’you understand that?
KURISAKU: Oh, that’s awful. Well, if it can’t be helped I must resign myself to looking at the wall.
(Starts the wheel. O Tané goes on painting the vase. Enter Aritaya Gohei dressed in haori over his kimono and long tight trousers with leather-soled sandals on his feet.)
(Gets up into the room.)
O TANÉ: Oh, it’s Master Aritaya. You are very welcome.
GOHEI: Is your father in?
O TANÉ: Oh yes. He’s in his workroom.
GOHEI: H’m trying to get that red enamel as usual, I suppose. (Laughs ironically.) Well, he isn’t likely to succeed. By the way, I want a message taken to Riēmon. Don’t you think there is someone who can go with it?
O TANÉ: Yes. I’ll send Kurisaku. Kurisaku!
(Kurisaku comes out from behind the wrapper.)
KURISAKU (to Gohei): You are very welcome, sir.
GOHEI: My clerk Yōkuro is at Riēmon’s. Kindly go and tell him that I am waiting here for him.
KURISAKU: Certainly, sir. (Turns to Tané): All right, O Tané San, I’ll be off at once.
(Exit to the left.)
O TANÉ: I’m afraid it is very untidy, but won’t you please come in? (She steps down and goes over and knocks at the door of the detached room.) Father! Father! The master of the Aritaya has come! (After knocking several times she comes back again.) He will be here in a minute. Please take a seat. (Brings a kneeling-cushion.) I’ll go and get some tea.
(Goes in. The clerk Yōkuro comes in from the road on the left. He is in haori and tight trousers with his kimono tucked up.)
YŌKURO: I’m afraid I have kept you waiting.
GOHEI: Oh, Yōkuro! And how did you get on with that business?
YŌKURO: Oh, splendidly. You will be pleased. I have managed to buy over all the potters in Arita, and they are all at Riēmon’s house now, waiting for you to come and put your seal to the agreement.
GOHEI: Thanks. You’ve done well. But I say, Yōkuro, I am risking half my fortune on this venture, so we must consider carefully before we commit ourselves.
YŌKURO: Certainly, sir. But as I have already pointed out to you, the yearly output of the Arita potteries is considerably more than a hundred thousand, so we shall easily secure some tens of thousands profit. Not at all a bad transaction, and I don’t see where the risk comes in.
GOHEI: There’s none at present perhaps, but if this old chap here manages by any chance to succeed in turning out these dishes with the red decoration that he is forever working at, then the ordinary Arita ware won’t be worth more than a few coppers a bale. That’s where the risk lies in buying up all these potteries.
