Pathway to Japanese Literature

Author: Tokuda Shusei

On a certain Wednesday with a clear blue sky, Aoki had arranged to have lunch with a dancer at Saikantei, a Chinese restaurant in Yamate, so he timed his departure precisely and set out by taxi.
The city was bustling everywhere with radio broadcasts of baseball games.
It had been only recently that he had been introduced again by one of the dancers at a certain dance hall one evening to the Madam of Saikantei—whom he hadn't exactly been a stranger to from the start—and had then dined there together with those very dancers who had made the introduction.
Saikantei stood on the grounds of an opulent mansion that had belonged to a certain once-prominent industrialist now fallen into ruin.
When turning slightly off the main street into a listless late-spring thoroughfare where dust seemed to hang hazily visible, the yellow wall immediately caught the eye.

The face of a familiar maid appeared in the entrance.

“Are you here alone?”

“No—a woman will be joining me shortly…”

Aoki was shown to a room at the corner of the veranda—the same one he’d been led to before.
Pale sunlight was streaming onto the veranda.
He was smoking a cigarette while gazing at the Chinese characters on the hanging scroll.
Lately, he had made it a hobby to converse with young women whose real-life circumstances he didn’t need to consider.
Of course, even dance girls were not without their life circumstances.
Given that they stood on the front lines of life, there was no doubt they too, like other working women, had lives of their own.
In each of their fates lay the same worries shared by all modern young working women.
Their lives were short.
New dancers appeared in the hall, passed from one patron to the next.
Their emotions were coarsened and their nerves worn ragged by the stimulating music and swarming members of the opposite sex.

"The loneliness after dancing in splendor is the moment I discover my hollow self."

At one time, a certain dancer had sent him such a song.

Behind the dancers clung a loneliness greater than that of other working women, yet the daily mood of the hall served to sprinkle over it.
At any rate, compared to other working women, the only thing worth noting about them was that they lacked the kind of misery found in flattering the opposite sex or hitting dead ends in menial jobs.

While he was talking with the maid, the Madam appeared.
The Madam seemed to possess both a certain neutral disposition common to all women working in some capacity in this city and a modern vitality, though her refined air unmistakably marked her as someone from the intellectual class.

"Is business thriving?"

"Thanks to your patronage, we're gradually recovering... What's truly fortunate is that my establishment enjoys regular patrons—mostly noble families and political figures from this neighborhood."

"Dancing is…"

"I had danced myself long ago, but only swayed along to the one-step."
"Now everyone has become so skilled…"
"When going to the hall, it’s usually to accompany esteemed customers, but I’ve been considering having the young people at my establishment learn too."
"The times have changed, haven’t they?"
"With just food alone, our current patrons won’t come anymore."
"It’s not as if we’re providing erotic services or anything of that sort."

"Huh!"
"Well, everyone’s grown so talkative nowadays."

“I have been thinking of expanding to Ginza and opening a diner myself, but at present I do not have the capital for such things… Not that much comes in anyway….”

“Your place feels rather homey.”

“Oh,” Madam smiled gently. “They’re all like daughters to me. Just considering these people’s futures alone becomes quite taxing. Though I engage in such work, I truly adore solitude. If I could just make ends meet, I’d want to withdraw deep into the mountains without doing another thing—but were I to quit, these people would lose their way, and my solitary life isn’t something I can live entirely for myself...”

A shadow akin to that of an old maid came to fall upon her too.

"She doesn't seem to be coming."
Aoki was beginning to feel impatient.

"That's true, I wonder what could have happened."

"She's not coming. What could those people be saying?"

“But if you were to wait just a little longer… It’s still early.”

“I suppose so.”

“Perhaps you might have something to eat…”

“That’s right.
Since I don’t eat much during the day—perhaps something…”

“Oh, I’ll bring you something light.”

Madam left.

The languid day was shining on the lawn in the garden.

Aoki was vaguely imagining Miss Akimoto Yasue, the dancer perpetually besieged by Modern Boys. There was no telling where or how she had slipped away. He felt an irritating suspicion that she might be overestimating the significance of today's lunch engagement. Yet there was no particular need to dwell on such matters.

Small plates, chopsticks and napkins had been arranged. Aoki stepped out to the veranda where he basked briefly in the southern sun before settling at the dining table. A belated bush warbler trilled at the cliff's edge. Brotherly boys resembling young nobles in gold-buttoned attire stood watching pond carp in their garden clogs - offspring of some mid-forties nobleman who had dined here earlier. They had established themselves in the room visible diagonally from his position.

More than an hour had already passed since his arrival. Aoki didn’t particularly feel bitter about being stood up, but precisely because he had been a seasoned dancer back then, he wasn’t in the best mood either.

“Oh, you can go anywhere you like,” Akimoto the dancer replied when he invited her as they danced.

“It doesn’t mean anything, you know.”

“It’s fine if we had them.”
“But even if we didn’t have them, it’d be fine.”

“I’ve had my share of heartbreaks too…” Aoki said with a wry joke.

Akimoto the dancer halted mid-step and laughed.

"It's too early for heartbreak."

"You're excellent at service."

"My pleasure."

"Let's share a meal sometime."

“Sure.”

And so the plan was settled.

Aoki had concluded she wasn’t coming after all. And once the meal was finished, he talked with Madam for about ten minutes before deciding to leave.

“But where are you heading? The hall?”
“The hall?”

“Hmm, I think I might stop by for a bit though…”

“In that case, I’ll have you driven in our car.”
“Since I’m going to the dentist, I’ll have you driven to the hall.”

“Right!”

A new Studebaker was waiting at the entrance.
"After you," said the driver courteously as he bowed.

Then Madam came down as well and got in together.
Aoki suspected Madam might be overestimating something, and he felt an uneasy premonition.

Before long, they arrived at the hall.

“Thank you!”

“Well then, please come again.”

Aoki ascended the building’s elevator and entered the fourth-floor hall to look around. Because the time was still early, there weren’t many customers. The daytime hall, sleek as a flower’s whetstone, was pleasant. Even so, he searched for her among the twenty or so dance pairs. Her figure immediately caught his eye.

During two or three intervals, he smoked cigarettes. While dancing, she too noticed him, exchanged a nod, and passed by.

When the fourth slow trot began, Aoki made his way toward her.
She too came forward.

“I waited until now.”

“Oh bother!
You went today?
I distinctly said Thursday wouldn’t work—we should make it Friday—didn’t I?
What a rash fellow you are.”
She delivered this with playful mockery.

After dancing five times with Akimoto and other dancers in rotation, Aoki left the hall.
Someone had whispered to Akimoto that an unnamed tabloid reporter was dancing with her—this made him anxious about accidentally fueling fabricated gossip.
He’d long maintained that certain newspapers ranked among modernity’s most brazen liars.

When he walked outside, the weather was warm enough to make the back of his jacket grow slightly damp with sweat.
He walked the pavement until the soles of his feet ached.
Though he kept thinking he would ride, he ultimately missed his chance.
Lately, he had grown somewhat weary of jazz.
At times he would exert his mind, but by now the atmosphere of the hall had become quite tiresome.

"You came back again!"
Exiting the elevator and entering the dance hall, he always felt melancholy.
He had grown thoroughly tired of the mechanical dance steps as well.

"I'm already sick of these steps."
When he noticed his legs were moving mechanically now, he felt somehow unfulfilled.
That said, dance could not have occupied such a significant position in his life.
Compared to last year, new steps were being danced among them again this year.
Those dancing the tango - rarely seen before - had grown markedly in number too.
Old dances like the pasodoble were coming back into fashion, but he lacked the interest to study each emerging trend.
Still, he entered the hall.

While wandering through Ginza, he encountered Yamane Mitsuko, a delinquent girl he occasionally saw at the hall. He was walking with the pianist from the ×× Hall band. Lately, Mitsuko had been holding court like a queen on the second floor of a distinctive bar in Ginza's backstreets, dressed to perfection.

She preferred foreigners.
That pianist too was one of the handsome Filipinos.

“What happened there?” he asked, and she smiled beguilingly,

“I quit,” she said, her face flushing red as she walked past.

Just as Aoki began to feel slightly hungry, he decided to go into the Olympic to rest.
The lights were already on.
He considered calling S-ko—who often walked through Ginza with her child—but then thought that doing so would mean escorting her home and making it late.
He no longer felt any novelty in any of the women around him.
Inner desires were demanding some new form of life.
It was something confined to his own state of mind, having little interaction with the external world.
It was nothing other than moderately unifying the external life he was constantly absorbing.

“Out alone today…?”
The manager came near and greeted him.

Aoki came to the area by the wall and took a chair. He ordered oysters.

“The oysters are already finished, aren’t they?”

“Ah.”
“Even so, they should still last until around the end of next month...”

After finishing his meal, as he was smoking a cigarette, a woman ascending the stairs suddenly blocked his vacant gaze. The woman was large-framed. She wore a long Western dress with a polka-dotted skirt and a wide-brimmed hat, but whether she looked this way or not, she kept her face lowered, slipped past his gaze as if evading it, quickened her steps, and disappeared into a booth in the back.

He somehow thought it might be Ohashi Sanshiko, the social critic who had recently returned from Germany, but since he only saw her figure and not her face, he couldn't be certain.
If that had been Sanshiko, she wouldn't have slipped past him.
Because she was looking down, he wondered if she hadn't noticed.

Aoki had often danced with Sanshiko at hotel dance parties and gatherings in private homes.
For an amateur, she had kept up quite well.
Though Sanshiko was already thirty, she remained unmarried because she was cautious and devoted to her work.
However, her year and a half abroad had significantly altered her timid emotions.
Various members of the opposite sex gathered at her salon.

“Lately, there are two people I like.”

One time she spoke to Aoki.
Sanshiko had long been acquainted with Aoki.

"Yes, that's nice.
What kind of person?
The Modern Boy who came before... that one?"

"No. That one's from a magazine company.
He's nothing special really - but one of them is extraordinarily handsome.
I do still like beautiful people mind you - I'm thinking about it.
That man already has a wife and children.
I couldn't marry him."

"What about the other one?"

"He's a good person.
Well-versed in German literature.
So our conversations flow naturally with him - but he's too young."

“Oh, that’s right!”

“A friend told me, ‘The one who’s already married would last longer, and it’s actually more comfortable that way,’ they said.”
“If it’s the younger one—there’s no telling when he might marry someone else—then I’d suffer…”

“If that person were to marry you!”

“It’s not that I wouldn’t consider it, but were I to marry, my entire life as a critic up until now would be completely upended.”
“And unless done that way, there’s no way real family life could work out properly.”
“I would hate to wither away in domestic life.”

“Everyone says that sort of thing, don’t they?”

“That’s why I’m so conflicted.”

“But how far things have progressed...”

“The man who has a wife was surprised that I’m a young lady.”

In truth, Sanshiko remained a virgin both in mind and body. When engaged in arguments, she would often sharply rebuke men. However, when facing members of the opposite sex as individuals, she remained timid as a small bird toward everyone.

“Since I haven’t seen that person myself, I can’t properly comment,” he said. “Well, there’s no need to make any hasty decisions or immediate choices right now, is there? Though marriage would be a different matter altogether.”

“That’s true too,” she replied. “But I feel uneasy about the younger one.” Her voice dropped slightly. “An older person would be better though.”

That had been about two months ago.
In her salon, while arranging chairs beside the stove and eating walnuts cracked open with a nutcracker, Aoki was listening to that story.

He wondered what had become of her since then.
Aoki was now recalling this while facing a woman who resembled Sanshiko.

Aoki said to the waitress.

“You—sorry to trouble you—go over to that woman there. Could you ask if she might be Ohashi-san?”

The waitress did exactly as told.

“I believe you’re Ohashi-san…”

“Oh, that’s right.”

Aoki grabbed his hat, fumblingly approached Sanshiko’s side, and sat down facing her.

“Oh!”

“I did think it might be you…”

Yet her demeanor suggested she hadn’t been unaware.

“You’re meeting someone here, aren’t you?”

“Well, just a moment.
But it’s quite all right.”

“Is it that person from before?”

“Not at all.”
“It’s nobody important.”
Sanshiko looked at her wristwatch. “We did agree on eight o’clock...”

“Eight!
It’s already eight!”

“Oh, he should be here any moment.
He’s attending a banquet in Akasaka, but being such a serious sort who can’t abide geishas making a fuss, we promised to meet tonight and go enjoy ourselves at a dance hall instead.”

“I did dance three or four times at A Hall just now, but somehow it left me wanting more, so I was thinking of going elsewhere.”

“Then do come join us.”

“I’d just be in the way.”

“No, it’s nothing at all.”

“What does he do?”

“He isn’t doing anything at all. He’s from Mitade, but the countryside there is quite nice.”

"But he’s late."

"Oh."
"But let’s wait a little longer."

As they were speaking, a young man with a slender build and a pretty, gentle face approached.

Sanshiko introduced him to Aoki.
The young man did not seem particularly perplexed.

“Where should we go?”
“I’m fine with anywhere.”

“Well, I’m fine with anywhere too. However, it might be better to go back.”

“But…”

Aoki felt it would be somehow improper to leave them like this, as doing so might fix these profoundly shy, reserved individuals as lovers in people’s perception. Moreover, since it involved a dance hall, he thought it might still be better to accompany them temporarily.

When they went outside, they immediately hailed a taxi and headed to G Hall in the downtown district. Aoki had undoubtedly seen this young man at some dance floor before. Precisely because he possessed such an unassuming face and bearing, he didn’t particularly stand out, yet somehow Aoki didn’t feel he was seeing him for the first time.

G Hall was relatively quiet.
But being their regular dance hall, it felt comfortably familiar.
Facing the bandstand at the front, the three of them settled into position.
Then they started dancing.

Past nine o'clock, the hall finally acquired its proper festive air.
Caught in that secretive mood peculiar to new lovers, Aoki watched Sanshiko and the young man begin their dance and leave—twice, even three times over.
The young man's steps appeared to follow the Namioka style, though unlike most Namioka disciples he lacked any showy affectations.
Their dancing flowed with harmonious refinement.
Seeing Sanshiko glide across the floor—her face nestled snugly against the young man's chest as though intoxicated—Aoki offered them his heartfelt blessing.

Just as he thought the two of them were whispering about something, Sanshiko turned toward Aoki.

“This person says he’s hungry. He apparently came without having eaten anything at all.”

“Ah right, let’s go then.”
“Since I was thinking of leaving too, why don’t we have some tea somewhere around here before parting ways?”
Aoki stood up from the chair.

“No, that’s quite all right.”

The young man spread both hands to stop him.

“I’ll go get something to eat by myself, so please stay as you are.”

Aoki couldn’t bring himself to insist further.

“Well then, why don’t you two go ahead…?”

“It’s quite all right.”
“I’ll go by myself and come back.”

The young man picked up the edge of the Flower and went out.

Meanwhile, as Aoki danced the next blues with a dancer, returned to his seat, and smoked, the young man who had just left came hurrying back with an air of impatience.

“What happened?”

“No, I just took care of it quickly.”
“I managed at a nearby sushi shop.”

“Right. Still, that was quick.”
Aoki laughed but paid no mind.

Aoki found himself growing somewhat irritated at being unable to find an opportune moment to part ways.

The young man was dancing with a dancer.

“Isn’t this quite nice?”
Aoki whispered to Sanshiko.

“Oh, he’s such a nice young man.”

“Wouldn’t it be perfectly fine to marry him?”

“Yes...”
Sanshiko smiled gently.

The young man soon led Sanshiko out to dance again.
She appeared to be teaching him the steps as well.

The mood of the dance floor gradually reached fever pitch.
Soon it became time for the last dance.

Aoki didn’t particularly care for the hectic mood that came with the approach of the last dance, but he ended up staying through it all.
“Last dance!”
The bandman shouted loudly and began playing a brisk Trot.

Aoki went to his regular dancer, and Sanshiko began dancing with the young man.
Soon, they launched into a spirited number.
Sporadic applause erupted.

Aoki thought to leave and searched for Sanshiko and the others.

"They’ve just arrived at the entrance."

The dancer informed Aoki.

Aoki hurried to the entrance to look.
The entrance was in chaos.
However, neither Sanshiko's figure nor the young man's could be seen.

Aoki boarded the elevator.
He got off and checked below, but the two were already nowhere to be seen.
Even to dull-witted Aoki, their initial bewilderment had at last become clear.

(November 1931, "Sōzō")