Part 48 (1/2)

Asako trembled.

”What does it mean?” she asked. ”How did Takes.h.i.+ San become sick?”

”It was a _tenbatsu_ (judgment of heaven),” answered her cousin.

”Takes.h.i.+ San was a bad man. He was rude to his father, and he was cruel to his wife. He thought only of _geisha_ and bad women. No doubt, he became sick from touching a woman who was sick. Besides, it is the bad _inge_ of the Fujinami family. Did not the old woman of Akabo say so? It is the curse of the Yos.h.i.+wara women. It will be our turn next, yours and mine.”

No wonder that poor Asako could not sleep that night in the cramped promiscuity of the family dead.

Fujinami Takes.h.i.+ had been sickly for some time; but then his course of life could hardly be called a healthy one. On his return from his summer holiday, red patches had appeared on the palms of his hands, and afterwards on his forehead. He had complained of the irritation caused by this ”rash.” Professor Kas.h.i.+o had been called in to prescribe. A blood test was taken. The doctor then p.r.o.nounced that the son and heir was suffering from leprosy, and for that there was no cure.

The disease is accompanied by irritation, but by little actual pain.

Constant application of compresses can allay the itching, and can often save the patient from the more ghastly ravages of disfigurement.

But, slowly, the limbs lose their force, the fingers and toes drop away, the hair falls, and merciful blindness comes to hide from the sufferer the living corpse to which his spirit is bound. More merciful yet, the slow decay attacks the organs of the body. Often consumption intervenes. Often just a simple cold suffices to snuff out the flickering life.

In the village of Kusatsu, beyond the Karuizawa mountains, there is a natural hot spring, whose waters are beneficial for the alleviation of the disease. In this place there is a settlement of well-to-do lepers.

Thither it was decided to banish poor Takes.h.i.+. His wife, Matsuko, naturally was expected to accompany him, to nurse him and to make life as comfortable for him as she could. Her eventual doom was almost certain. But there was no question, no choice, no hesitation and no praise. Every j.a.panese wife is obliged to become an Alcestis, if her husband's well-being demand it. The children were sent to the ancestral village of Akabo.

CHAPTER XXV

j.a.pANESE COURTs.h.i.+P

_O-bune no Hatsuru-tomari no Tayutai ni Mono-omoi-yase-nu Hito no ko yuye ni_.

With a rocking (As) of great s.h.i.+ps Riding at anchor I have at last become worn out with love, Because of a child of a man.

When the Fujinami returned to Tokyo, the wing of the house in which the unfortunate son had lived, had been demolished. An ugly scar remained, a slab of charred concrete strewn with ashes and burned beams. Saddest sight of all was the twisted iron work of Takes.h.i.+'s foreign bedstead, once the symbol of progress and of the _haikara_ spirit. The fire was supposed to have been accidental; but the ravages had been carefully limited to the offending wing.

Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, disgusted at this unsightly wreckage wished to rebuild at once. But the old grandfather had objected that this spot of misfortune was situated in the northeast corner of the mansion, a quarter notoriously exposed to the attacks of _oni_ (evil spirits). He was in favor of total demolishment.

This was only one of the differences of opinion between the two seniors of the house of Fujinami, which became more frequent as the clouds of disaster gathered over the home in Akasaka. A far more th.o.r.n.y problem was the question of the succession.

With the living death of Takes.h.i.+, there was no male heir. Several family councils were held in the presence of the two Mr. Fujinami generally in the lower-house, at which six or seven members of the collateral branches were also present. Grandfather Gennosuke, who despised Takes.h.i.+ as a waster, would not listen to any plea on behalf of his children.

”To a bad father a bad child,” he enunciated, his restless jaw masticating more ferociously than ever.

He was strongly of opinion that it was the curse of Asako's father which had brought this sorrow upon his family. Katsundo and Asako were representatives of the elder branch. Himself, Gentaro and Takes.h.i.+ were mere usurpers. Restore the elder branch to its rights, and the indignant ghost would cease to plague them all.

Such was the argument of grandfather Gennosuke.

Fujinami Gentaro naturally supported the claims of his own progeny. If Takes.h.i.+'s children must be disinherited because of the leprous strain, then, at least, Sadako remained. She was a well-educated and serious girl. She knew foreign languages. She could make a brilliant marriage.

Her husband would be adopted as heir. Perhaps the Governor of Osaka?

The other members of the council shook their heads, and breathed deeply. Were there no Fujinami left of the collateral branches? Why adopt a _tanin_ (outside person)? So spoke the M.P., the man with a wen, who had an axe of his own to grind.

It was decided to choose the son-in-law candidate first of all; and, afterwards, to decide which of the girls he was to marry. Perhaps it would be as well to consult the fortune tellers. At any rate, a list of suitable applicants would be prepared for the next meeting.

”When men speak of the future,” said grandfather Gennosuke, ”the rats in the ceiling laugh.”