Pathway to Japanese Literature

A youth of about twenty, wearing a knitted undershirt over a woolen belly band, staggered to his feet and began waving one hand about like a conductor.

"I'm gonna perform naniwa-bushi now! Everybody listen up!"

He lurched over to the neighboring table, snatched up the white fan lying there, and started whacking it against the tabletop. At that table sat a man in a business suit - clearly some company employee - drinking with two companions who'd been seated earlier. The fan being battered about was the company man's property.

“Hey, hey, you—I just bought that fan today. Please handle it gently.”

The customers at the four tables in the bar turned their eyes to the white fan held by the Naniwa-bushi Youth.

The Naniwa-bushi Youth was shouting at the top of his voice, completely absorbed in his performance, so the company employee’s words never reached his ears.
He began pounding the table unrestrainedly with that fan.

“This is troublesome—if you keep hitting it like that, I just bought it today.”

The company employee exchanged glances with a plump, round-faced woman called O-kiku-san who stood behind his companions and laughed.
The company employee’s words reached the Naniwa-bushi Youth’s ears in fragments.

“Don’t worry about that,”

The fan was struck repeatedly again.
Everyone’s gazes were still fixed on that fan.
Both the company employee and the Naniwa-bushi Youth sat with their backs to the wall shutters on the entrance’s left side.
The lower half of the wall remained exposed with birch-colored cedar planks, while white wallpaper covered the upper half.
Flyers listing dish names could be seen posted on the wallpaper.
To the company employee’s left stood the entrance leading straight to the back, where two noren curtains hung.
From there emerged both dishes for the bar’s customers and large lacquered takeout containers that came and went.

A slender young woman named O-sachi-chan—with an oval face, bright eyes, and a graceful figure—emerged from behind the noren curtains, carefully adjusting her hair to avoid brushing against them.
She was holding a two-gō flask of heated Masamune in one hand.
“Yoshi-chan, this hits the spot!”

The Naniwa-bushi Youth noticed this for a moment.

"What're you on about? This here's a Rakuen!"

The shopfront had reed screens painted blue to form lattice walls, with two-tiered shelves built upon them displaying sake jars and vases. O-sachi-chan brushed past both the shelf and one of the company employee's companions, making her way to the table where three customers sat. The patrons there were all young men who carried themselves like barbershop apprentices. They erupted in laughter around O-sachi-chan. A clamorous draft blew from the electric fan mounted on the shelf.

“Hey, bring soda water instead.”

From next to the three-person table at the left side of the entrance came a voice speaking in an imperious manner.
There sat two customers leaning against birch-colored cedar planks as they talked.
One was a chubby baby-faced man with disheveled hair and an unkempt beard; his companion was a tall lanky youth sporting an anxious expression and long hair combed smooth.

O-kiku-chan - who had been standing before the Naniwa-bushi Youth - approached these two men.
The baby-faced man flicked an empty glass still containing its straw demonstratively.

“Hey, hey,”
“Ah, two of them, right?”
“Yeah,”
O-kiku-san slipped through the narrow gaps between patrons’ backs and headed toward the noren curtains.
“Two sodas,”
The baby-faced man suddenly stood up from his chair.
“Let’s go home,”

The lanky man from the group saw that and stood up.

"No—not going home. Restroom. Restroom."

The baby-faced man extended his left hand as if to hold someone back, then pressed his body against the edge of the open glass door and went outside.

Beneath the eaves where a white curtain hung, thread-like rain fell illuminated by electric light cast from within.
“Mr. Yamada, come on inside! People will see you out there!”

From inside, O-kiku-san called out loudly.

“Let them look! It’s not like I’m doing anything different.”

The baby-faced man went to the left corner under the eaves while laughing, stayed there for nearly five minutes, then slipped back inside.

“That cedar’s beyond hope now. No matter how much I do for it, it won’t sprout a single bud.”

O-kiku-san had just brought the replacement sodas.
Just then, the Naniwa-bushi Youth stopped his hoarse voice and placed the fan as if tossing it aside.
The company employee, who had already settled the bill, suddenly grabbed it and left with his companions, laughing all the while.

Before the Naniwa-bushi Youth lay four or five beer bottles.
He took the beer glass in his hand again but, perhaps tired, planted his left elbow firmly on the edge of the table and leaned against it.
Then, a small-statured man entered while folding his concentric-circle umbrella.

“Welcome,”

O-sachi-chan, who had escorted the company employee’s group to the exit, offered her courtesies.
He was that gentle-faced, handsome man who had come two nights prior—the sort one might call a young master from some estate—wearing an iron-gray gauze haori over white linen.

“Please have a seat,”

O-sachi-chan adjusted the chair where the private university student wearing a hat had been sitting on the left side of the company employee’s group.

The customer sat down with his head slightly lowered but fidgeted awkwardly over where to place the umbrella he held.

“Let me take that,”

When O-sachi-chan reached out her hand, the customer readily handed over the umbrella.
O-sachi-chan intended to prop it against the reed-covered wall beneath the shelf and take his order, but feeling somehow ashamed to speak in such an unrefined manner, she quietly drew near his side.

“Would you care to order something?”

“Can you make a vegetable salad?”

“We can make that.”

“Well then, I’ll have that and some sashimi.”

“Yes, that will be the sashimi and vegetable salad,”

O-sachi-chan, having confirmed this, went to the entrance of the noren curtains.

“One vegetable salad,”

Then, lifting the noren curtain’s hanging part with one hand, she went inside.

“Butterfly! Butterfly! A butterfly’s come!”

As one of the three customers shouted loudly, the baby-faced man suddenly looked up. A yellow moth flew near the head of the customer who had just entered, but buffeted by the electric fan's wind, it drifted diagonally upward toward the ceiling. The low ceiling covered in white wallpaper had small beer flags resembling national banners cut into rectangular strips arranged from both corners toward the center. The numerous small rectangular flags fluttered in the electric fan's breeze. The moth flew near those flags as if in distress.

“It’s a moth, not a butterfly!”

O-kiku-san, who had been attending to three customers, waved her hand above her head trying to catch the dirty moth.
The handsome customer leaned backward and silently watched the moth fluttering near O-kiku-san’s hand.

The moth flew away from beside O-kiku-san’s hand toward the area above the Naniwa-bushi Youth’s head.
O-kiku-san chased after it in frustration.

“Hey! Damn you! Hey! Take this!”

Beside O-kiku-san’s hand, which she moved while laughing, the moth flew as if struggling.
O-sachi-chan peeked out from beneath the noren curtain, holding a cup of sashimi.
The handsome customer stood up at the same moment.

“I’ll set it free. Don’t be so cruel.”

The moth fluttered into the extended hand of the Handsome Customer.
O-sachi-chan’s eyes went to the moth in that customer’s palm.

The capricious rainy season sky had cleared up completely from around noon, and the white dazzling sunlight had shone on the passageway until evening, but around eight o'clock it began to rain again.
The small-statured handsome man entered, seemingly having rushed in from the nearby tram stop startled by the rain.
Rainwater glistened on both his straw hat and the shoulders of his iron-gray gauze haori.

“That must have been awful, wasn’t it?”

She seated the customer at the entrance’s left side, where the Naniwa-bushi Youth were.

The customer ordered whiskey and vegetable salad.
It was when she heard that order and was about to leave his side.
A moth, no different from tonight’s other insects, fluttered as though crawling about his collar.
Thinking that filthy insect mustn’t let its powdery wings taint his dishes or drink，she considered swatting it mid-flight—but fearing scorn for such unrefined gestures，

“Oh! A butterfly! A butterfly!” she said, looking on in frustration.

“Butterfly! Butterfly!”

At the neighboring table, one of the two young men who had taken off their suit jackets, changed into white shirts, and been singing stood up holding a fan while stretching his body diagonally forward.

“Hey! A butterfly!”

The tip of the fan appeared about to reach the moth.
At this, the handsome customer stood up and extended his hand.

“I’ll set it free.”

The moth immediately flew into the customer’s palm.
The customer cupped his hand into a hollow shape and peered at the moth inside.

“Isn’t it a lovely creature? Humans are so cruel.”

Muttering to himself, he went out to the entrance and stood facing the darkness.

“Go on home now,”

The returning customer’s eyes appeared to shine as if moistened…

“What a kind person he is,” O-sachi thought.
O-sachi, thinking she mustn’t act rudely and be scorned, politely brought the cup before him.

“I apologize for the wait, sir. The food will be ready shortly,”

As she said this, she focused her eyes on the insect in the customer’s hand.
The customer held the butterfly in his palm as if cradling it to let light through.

“A butterfly came that night too, didn’t it? You must have a bond with butterflies.”

“Ah, that’s right. One came the other day too. But even if I had a bond with butterflies—it’d be meaningless unless it’s with you... Big sister.”

“You and your jokes,”

O-sachi-chan laughed in a girlish voice.

“Hey! What’s with that disgusting noise? Bring us more booze! Beer, now!”

The Naniwa-bushi Youth shouted with his cheek still propped on his hand.
O-sachi felt as though the hazy warmth enveloping her body had vanished at that voice.

“Still drinking? Even after having so much...”

“Quit screwin’ around,”

O-sachi passed through the noren curtain once more with a laugh, and when she emerged this time, she held a plate of food in her right hand and an opened beer bottle in her left.
She immediately placed the dish before the Handsome Customer.

“I apologize for the wait, sir.”

The customer held a plain cup.

“Thank you.”

O-sachi looked at the customer’s left hand.
His left hand was already placed on the table with the palm facing downward.

“What happened to the butterfly?”

The customer looked up intently at O-sachi’s face from an angle, raised his left hand that had been propped, and with it pressed down slightly on his right sleeve to demonstrate.

“Because I felt sorry for it, I thought I’d let it go on my way back—here, you see,”

“Oh!”
O-sachi's eyes shone.
“Hey, hey! What about the booze?”
The Naniwa-bushi Youth thumped the table once with a loud bang.
O-sachi-chan hurried to where he was.

“O-sachi-chan! O-sachi-chan! Booze! Bring the booze!”

At the trio’s table, a loud voice erupted.
O-kiku-san, who had been talking with a portly man at the next table, went over there.

“What’s this? More sake? You want another round?”

“It’s not you we want—it’s O-sachi-chan!”

“How rude! I’m just as good, you know,”

“Damn it, I wanna see that young lady all dressed up proper!”

The customer moved his body in some way, as if making a gesture, and laughed while mimicking O-sachi-chan’s speech.

O-sachi turned around.

“You’re making fun of me, Mr. Moriyama. Just you wait and see.”

As she said this, O-sachi went to the noren curtain and poured the Masamune sake, though her mind remained fixed on the handsome customer nearby, leaving her unsettled. She fidgeted and turned back, but feeling strangely self-conscious, couldn’t bring herself to approach him unsummoned. Gazing down obliquely at the customer as if entranced, she lightly tapped the table with her right fingers in an alternating rhythm.

The handsome customer was eating his meal. Having finished all of it, he set down his fork. O-sachi-chan thought how nice it would be if he ordered a little more and stayed awhile longer, waiting for an order to come from him. The handsome customer set down his fork, took a sip of the beer that remained about a third full, set that down too, and looked up at O-sachi's face.

"How much?"

This gentleman had also left just the other day after only a single plate of food and a glass of nama—he didn’t seem like one to drink or eat much.

“Aren’t you leaving rather early? Please, take your time.”

“I’ll be coming by from time to time now.”

“Please do come again,”

O-sachi-chan tilted her head and, with a composed demeanor, settled the bill for the food and drinks.

“That will be 45 sen,”

The customer had opened a small black pouch at his chest.

“Right，then the rest is up to you，”

The customer placed a one-yen bill beside the plate and，adjusting his hat，stood up.

“Thank you very much.
“Please do come again，”

O-sachi-chan，about to see the customer out，remembered the umbrella she had taken into custody.
She took the customer’s umbrella that had been leaned against the reed-papered wall.
The customer's face，as he turned around and waited，smiled gently.

“Thank you very much.”

The customer received the umbrella, inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment, then went out. Once outside, he paused briefly and snapped the umbrella open.
O-sachi went as far as the threshold and watched him leave.

The sound of rain pattering against the umbrella could be heard forlornly for a brief moment, but the customer’s figure soon vanished from sight.
O-sachi remained standing there nonetheless.

O-sachi was sitting on a chair she had pulled near the mitsuke shelf.
Whether it was late at night after customers had left or a daytime hour when none came, O-sachi’s consciousness held no such distinctions.

At that moment, a yellow moth flew before O-sachi’s eyes. As she looked at the moth, she also gazed upon the petite, gentle, handsome man’s face...... What a kind person he was. What sort of man could he be? Judging by his clothes and features, he must be some young master—certainly not from a merchant family. With all the estates nearby, he must come from one of those great houses. That such an estate resident would visit this filthy bar—he must be here out of morbid curiosity, wanting to observe something unusual. She’d never met anyone like him before. How wonderful it would be if someone like him were her older brother or younger brother. Thus O-sachi chased one thought after another.

The yellow moth still fluttered somewhere...... That gentleman had said humans were cruel, but truly—they wear such kind faces yet every last one is vicious. Exactly as he declared. Of course it’s troublesome when they drop filthy scales into plates and cups, but they’re not doing anything wrong—they come chasing the electric light, and if one were a butterfly’s spirit, wouldn’t it be unbearably joyful? They’re just dancing like humans do. Yet people suddenly try to swat them with fans or grab them to smash against the earthen floor. Truly nothing is crueler than humans. I hate them. I want to go where butterflies and birds dwell—places untouched by human hands.

“O-sachi-chan—I did call you O-sachi-chan, didn’t I?”

O-sachi-chan started and lifted her face.
The handsome customer had come to stand before her eyes.

“Oh—you’ve returned, sir.”

O-sachi-chan stood up and bowed, then tried to offer the chair on the left.

“I came out for a stroll tonight, and seeing you here alone looking bored made me come in.”
“Why don’t you come to my house now? It’s right nearby. My study stands apart from the main residence—if we enter through the back gate, we won’t meet anyone.”

O-sachi desperately wanted to go together. When she went to the noren curtain and peeked inside, O-kiku-san and O-kami-san were talking at the counter...... If customers came, O-kiku-san would probably handle them—if questioned upon returning, she could just say she'd been walking around somewhere in that area, she thought.

“How about it—five or ten minutes would be fine, wouldn’t they?”

The man looked at O-sachi’s face and said.

“There’s no issue with you coming,”

“Let’s go—if we go so no one sees us.”

O-sachi responded with a smile instead of words.
The man，seeing this，quietly went outside.
O-sachi also followed after him and went out.
Outside，blue moonlight seeped through gaps in the clouds.

“Oh，there’s a moon out.”

“The rainy season might already be lifting.”

The man walked to the right.
Since walking side by side felt awkward，O-sachi followed about six feet behind.
And as she walked，she kept alert for any acquaintances she might encounter，but though she passed about two people，they were unfamiliar faces.

“Now we’ll go down from here—it’s right about halfway up this slope.”

There was the foot of a small slope, with a single streetlight lit at the left-hand corner. There continued what might be called an estate's black-painted fence. The handsome-faced man descended along that fence. The slope bent to the right from its midpoint. Near that rightward curve stood a hedge fence.

“This is the place. If we enter here, we won’t run into anyone from the household.”

There was a small black gate door.
As the man reached out his hand，the door opened without a sound.

“Come on in,”

The man entered first, held the door, and shifted aside.
The gate’s interior was bright.
When O-sachi-chan stepped inside, he loosely closed the door.

“This way now—it’s just ahead.”

Vivid green trees grew thick on both sides.
The man walked ahead through their midst.
After about eighteen meters lay an engawa—its shoji screens glowing with electric light.

“Now, step up—this is the place.”

The man stepped briskly onto the engawa and opened the shoji.
O-sachi-chan also felt awkward but steeled herself and followed him up.

The eight-tatami room had a simple elegance, with one side featuring a tokonoma alcove where a scroll of large cursive characters hung. Before it stood a flower vase holding wildflowers resembling irises.
To the right of the alcove stood a small black desk, and five or six books were stacked upon it.

The man brought a light blue futon from beside the desk and placed it in the center of the room.

“Please sit. No one will mind.”

O-sachi-chan stood hesitantly, but having no choice but to sit, she went to its side and sat down.
At that moment, the man fetched his usual red futon that had been lying before the desk, placed it in front of himself, and sat down.
"Why don't you lay out the futon? Whether you do or not, the room charge stays the same."

The man laughed and looked at O-sachi-chan’s face.
O-sachi-chan brought her hand to her mouth and laughed.

“Now, you should lay it out, I suppose.”

O-sachi-chan finally managed to shift herself up onto the futon.

“I won’t make tea—it’s too much trouble. But here’s something instead,”

The man stood up and went toward one of the closets.

"That won't be necessary—I'll be taking my leave shortly."

“It’s not a feast like you’d have at home, but it’s rather nice—they say it’s made from flowers.”

The man opened the closet, brought out a triangular bottle containing pale reddish liquid and two small cups, then poured it into both cups while sitting down before placing one in front of O-sachi-chan.

“It’s something rare—not yet available in Japan.”

After saying this, the man took the cup before him and downed it in one gulp.

"There’s no alcohol or anything in it—it’s just like drinking water."

O-sachi thought it would be rude not to drink after he had insisted so earnestly.

"Then I’ll have some,"

"Try drinking it—there’s nothing to it."

O-sachi politely took the cup and brought it to her mouth.
It was a slightly sweet, soft beverage with a faint fragrance.

“How is it? Quite nice, don’t you think?”

“It really has a lovely fragrance,”

O-sachi drank about half of it before setting it down.

“O-sachi-chan—since you’ve gone to the trouble of coming here—I’d take your photo if it were daytime. But at night it won’t come out clearly. Let’s save photographs for another time. Tonight—”

The man said this and fell into brief contemplation.

“Please—I’ve left the shop unattended, so I’ll be taking my leave right away.”

“That’s right—that one’s perfect. I have a cosmetic box I received as a souvenir from a friend. I’ll give you that one.”

“Please—that’s quite enough—there’s already plenty.”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s something I received from someone.”

The man stood up again and went to the closet before returning with an object resembling a small box wrapped in yellow paper.

“It’s presumptuous to regift this, but if you don’t mind, take it with you.”

The man placed it in front of the woman and sat down.

"I couldn't possibly accept something like that,"

"What's wrong with it? If you don't mind taking it, it would probably be fine,"

“But that’s too much,”

Suddenly, footsteps sounded on the engawa, followed by the voices of a man and a woman.
O-sachi-chan, who had been told no one would come, was so startled she found herself at a loss.

"But there shouldn’t be anyone here…"

"Who’d be here? This room doesn’t get visitors, so it’s fine."

"But it did sound like someone was talking..."

"That’s impossible. Now, come here,"

At the same moment, the shoji slid open, and an elderly man entered alongside a young woman who resembled a maid, her face thickly caked with white powder.

“There’s no one here. Who could possibly be here?”

“But there’s a futon here.”

“The futon was put out for a guest earlier and left as it is.”

O-sachi sat frozen in panic, not knowing what to do, but perhaps because they couldn’t see them, the two said nothing.

“Do sit down,”

The man took the woman’s hand and tried to make her sit.

“Oh, there’s a moth here,”

“Where?”

“On the futon.”

“Is that so.”

The man looked down at the futon but adjusted his grip on the cigar and brought its glowing tip toward the bedding.

“How cruel! Let it go! Oh—its wing’s burning! Look how it’s writhing! Please, let’s set it free outside!”

The maid leaned down while picking something up and opened the closed shoji screen just enough to throw what she held outside.

O-sachi ran out of the room in a frenzy.

“O-sachi-chan, O-sachi-chan, what’s wrong?”

O-sachi had her shoulder shaken and suddenly looked up.
I was in the middle of dozing off with my face down on the shop table when O-kiku-san woke me up.

O-sachi-chan had developed a fever that night and stayed in bed for four or five days before returning to work. That day too, with rain since morning, even as the hour grew late for customers to arrive, no casual patrons came—only the regulars trickled in one by one.

It was already ten o'clock.
That customer had also left, leaving only the stout, bespectacled owner of the confectionery factory alone at the table in the far right corner.
O-sachi and O-kiku-san were keeping the customer company and laughing.
And just as O-kiku-san had gone to collect the payment and come back out, a customer entered.
It was the handsome customer, but for some reason he looked terribly haggard with a yellowish complexion.

“Oh, welcome, Sir!”

O-kiku-san said this and immediately turned her attention toward O-sachi-chan.

“O-sachi-chan, a customer’s here,”

“Ta… Ah… Re…”

O-sachi-chan remained seated on the chair and looked toward the entrance.

“Oh, welcome, Sir!”

O-sachi hurriedly stood up and went over, but her eyes widened at the sight of the customer’s sallow complexion and the bandage wrapped around his left wrist.

“What happened to you?”

“Just a minor burn.”

“That’s terrible.”

O-sachi straightened the outer chair near the noren curtain.
The customer sat down on it but grimaced as if in pain.

“Does it hurt?”

“It’s nothing serious, but it does ache sometimes.”

“Was it a bad injury?”

“Nothing major, though I did get properly burned.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I’ll have soda water today.”

O-sachi felt an inexplicable urge to cry.
With downcast eyes, she slipped through the noren curtain to fetch the soda water and set it before him.

“Thank you. We were just starting to become acquainted, but given how things have turned out, I’ve decided to go recuperate starting tomorrow. I came here tonight to see you.”

The customer smiled a lonely smile and looked at O-sachi’s face.

O-sachi forced a smile at that face but immediately hung her head and looked down.

"Seems no moths are coming tonight. I wonder what became of that one."

O-sachi suddenly recalled her dream and stared intently at the customer.

The customer was drinking soda water through a straw, his head bowed weakly.
And when he finally finished drinking, he took out a one-yen note from his right sleeve and placed it beside the cup.

“Well then, I’ll be off. Take care of yourself.”

“Yes, please do. You take care as well.”

O-sachi-chan’s voice trembled.
The customer left just like that.

The next morning, O-sachi-chan, who had woken when it was already nearly ten o'clock, went to open the front glass door as it was her turn, but upon opening it she saw lying on the plank bridging the muddy ditch beneath the rain-drizzled eaves a single yellow moth, dead. Finding this strange, she went closer to look and saw that its left wing was blackened and charred.