Fish of the Seto Inland Sea

‘To send Tetsu home might be a solution,’ his wife said, ‘but you will not be popular. Even if you gave her money, her relatives would bear a grudge against you, and they are not a small family. It will not be good for Shuichi’s future.’

That was true. The little boy would need as much sympathy and help as possible as he grew up. In this part of the country, where tangerines grew in the winter sun, everything was easy-going, and a peasants’ uprising was unlikely. But society was changing. The Socialist Party had been launched and the People’s Newspaper was in circulation. There were strikes in the factories and mines. Shobei was afraid that when Shuichi grew up, the life of a landowner would not be as easy as it had been.

It was not just the material side of life that was under threat. Although Shobei himself was not directly involved in politics, he was recognised as one of the most powerful men in the area. Officials came from the local government to ask his opinion. Candidates for any government office were said to have to get his unofficial approval as the first step. For a person in such a position, a scandal about a member of his household being treated unkindly had to be avoided.

Shobei said to his wife, ‘You are thoughtful. If you have a suggestion, say it.’ It was the first time he had asked his wife’s opinion on a weighty matter since they had married a long time ago.

‘I think you should pay Tetsu’s father’s debt. It could not be too large for you. If the problem is drinking, the chances are that he will not be able to go back to his business. Pension him off. Then, make Haruko the rightful successor to Rinji san. No one will say you are cruel.’

Shobei folded his arms. He was not reflecting on what his wife had just said. He was simply impressed.

The duty of telling Haruko about the adoption fell on Tei-ichi.

‘You know your Rinji ojisan and Tetsu obasan, don’t you?’ Tei-ichi began.

Haruko had never seen her uncle except at formal family gatherings. The furtiveness of his demeanour as he talked to elderly relatives was plain even to the children. Beside Shintaro he had always been an undistinguished son and a mediocre brother. For the children, he had never been a respected uncle nor a friend.

The relationship between his wife and the children was even more vague. With the sensitivity of the young, they felt she was not quite one of them. Haruko once heard grandmother Miwa say to Tetsu, ‘Tetsu san, wear your kimono a little longer. The mistress of the Miwa branch family has to look graceful.’

Haruko noticed that Tetsu wore her kimono as Shige and Kiyo did, showing her ankles, while Miwa obahsama and Ayako wore theirs long so that the hem almost touched the floor. Only the white toes of their tabi were seen peeping in and out as they walked.

Interpreting Haruko’s silence as expectancy of what was coming, Tei-ichi pressed on.

‘As you know very well, Rinji ojisan and Tetsu obasan do not have children, and they want someone to succeed them. Miwa ojisama thought that you would be a very good person to become their child and carry on their name.’

Haruko was bewildered and stared at Tei-ichi. She did not understand.

In spite of himself, Tei-ichi felt uneasy as his granddaughter gazed at him.

Haruko did not look as though she was going to be tall and slender like Ayako. She would be more like Kei, dainty and lively, but she had inherited her mother’s eyes. They were large and liquid, and the fold of her eyelid was not common among the people around them.

He looked away. He felt that he was unable to explain to a ten-year-old why it was advantageous for the family to inherit Rinji’s property. It was too pragmatic for the innocent.

‘It will be to Shuichi’s advantage in the future,’ he said, and felt the remark struck a chord.

Haruko did not understand why becoming Rinji’s child would help Shuichi, but the children were not in the habit of asking questions of grown-ups.

‘Of course, your Rinji ojisan’s house is not far away, and you don’t have to stay there all the time. Even your surname is not going to change. It is just that when you grow up, you will succeed him.’

‘Do I have to call them otohsan and okahsan?’ Haruko asked anxiously.

‘No, you don’t have to, if you don’t want to.’

She had not grasped the full implications and Tei-ichi’s tone was reassuring. She could do nothing but trust her grandfather.

‘For Shu-chan’s sake, I will do it.’

‘Thank you,’ Tei-ichi said solemnly.

As Haruko came out of her grandfather’s study, she saw Ayako sitting on the verandah. The sun was shining on her thick coiled hair, making it look deep purple. She was bending over a cloth spread on her lap and peeling a persimmon. More fruit lay in a shallow bamboo basket placed near her. Sachiko and Shuichi were sitting on either side of her. Sachiko moved closer to her mother and made a place for Haruko on the same zabuton.

Ayako had a kitchen knife in her right hand and skilfully turned round and round a persimmon held in her left hand. An orange ribbon grew longer and longer and hung from her hand. When the fruit was peeled, she cut it into four pieces, put them on a plate and stuck a toothpick into each one.

As she handed the plate around, a waft of clean gourd water scent that Kei made for the family as a lotion passed over the children.

Ayako picked up the last piece left on the plate and ate it herself.

‘Very sweet,’ she said smiling at the children. She picked up the peel from her lap and put it in the basket. Then she bent down again to peel another fruit.

‘M-m-m,’ Shuichi uttered. Ayako put down the persimmon she was holding and held out her palm to let Shuichi spit out a stone. She wiped her hand with the cloth and picked up the fruit again.

Haruko suddenly thought that it was unfair that she was to be taken away from her family while the other children could live peacefully in such a loving atmosphere. Why did she alone have to go to her uncle’s house when she hardly knew him?

‘I have to go and live with Rinji ojisan,’ she said, and unexpectedly tears started to roll down her cheeks. They were warm and salty. Ayako looked up.

Sachiko said, ‘Why?’ and started to cry herself. ‘Oh, no, I don’t want you to go away,’ she wailed.

‘I don’t want you to go away, either,’ Shuichi cried, too.

Ayako put down the knife and said, ‘Look, you don’t have to go, if you don’t want to. Don’t cry,’ and put her arms around the three children, holding them tight. ‘There is nothing sad about it. It is to keep our family together. There is nothing to worry about at all. God will be with us always.’

Desperation surged through Haruko. She felt the helplessness of her mother without realising it. Still in his mother’s arms, Shuichi stroked Haruko’s hand. She smiled at him. She had to go to Rinji ojisan’s house. She would go because that would help Shuichi.

In Rinji’s house, there were no thick pillars blackened by time and polished by generations of hands like the Miwas’ main house or the Shirais’. Each room was elaborately decorated but small.

‘Come this way,’ Rinji said, and took Haruko to a tiny room built into the garden. ‘Use this as your own. See, you have your own room. Pleased?’ and he left her.

She sat on the tatami floor. Takeko would not be able to stay here, she thought, as she imagined how dark and quiet it would be at night. She untied the furoshiki she had brought with her and, since there was no desk, spread her school books in front of her. Crouching, she opened them.

As it was getting dark and cold, Tetsu came.

‘We will eat now,’ she said, and led the way to the kitchen. A simple meal of rice, miso soup and cooked beans was ready for two. A bowl of pickles was in the centre of the table. Tetsu ate without speaking. She picked up a piece of pickle with her chopsticks and noisily crunched it. Kei and Ayako would certainly frown. It was good manners to take a piece from the bowl into your own plate and eat it. When Tetsu finished eating, she poured tea into her rice bowl. At the Shirais’, tea was served in a tea cup.

‘I will show you how to wash up,’ Tetsu said. Haruko had never done any washing up and she noticed that Rinji and Tetsu did not have maids. Getting water from the well was not easy, but she felt grown up. When the washing up was done, Tetsu followed Haruko to her room and showed her where the futons were kept. Obviously Haruko was not going to be given a lamp and there was nothing to do but to go to bed.

She wondered how Sachiko was. Neither of them had ever slept alone. Sachiko had a habit of wetting her bed, and she often crawled into Haruko’s bed early in the morning. When Ayako was away and the wind woke them up, all three children slept huddled under one cover. What would Sachiko do? When Shuichi woke up in the middle of the night with nightmares, would Kei be able to hear him scream and sob?

The sliding door was opened and a man’s voice said, ‘You have to get up.’ Haruko jumped out of bed. At the Shirais’, Kiyo softly called them from outside before she came into the room. Each child had a shallow box into which Ayako or Kei would put the clothes they needed for the day. Haruko found that she had gone to bed without changing. She had to go to school in a wrinkled kimono. It was grey and cold. She shivered.

‘From today, you are a child of this family,’ Rinji said. ‘You have to learn lots of things. To get up early is the first important thing. One shouldn’t be idle. Now, the first duty of the day is to clean the verandah.’

‘Children have to be disciplined,’ he had told Tetsu. ‘The worst thing that can happen to a child is to be spoilt.’ He was determined to educate Haruko to be an obedient and hard-working woman capable of managing a house.

Tetsu came out with a bucket of water and a floor cloth and left them in front of Haruko without speaking.

‘I will show you how to clean the floor,’ Rinji said. In front of the astonished Haruko, he knelt down on the floor with his knees apart and his heels together. Supporting himself on his spread-out left hand, he moved the cloth with his right hand from left to right and then, having turned the cloth upside down, wiped the boards this time right to left. He continued this way gradually going backwards. His bottom swayed rhythmically with the motion and Haruko thought it was most undignified. It was comical, too. It was something that she certainly had to tell Sachiko. Ayako would smile and Kei would laugh, Haruko was sure.

In what period of his life had Rinji taken up cleaning the floor, Haruko wondered. She had never seen a man doing housework. At the Shirais’ even Matabei, who did almost everything else, was not expected to clean inside the house.