Aug. 3 2000
TITLE:The drenched boy with an umbrella
The sea at URANO-HATUSHIMA raged upon the coast, and the wind down from Mt. MUKO was
severe. The sky was covered with black cloud and began to shower, that led to a haunted time.
Then it rained and the people at the street was in a panic.
A samurai, who was the ambassador of the Lord of AKASHI to the Lord of AMAGASAI
took shelter with his servant under a big tree at IKUTA-NO-ONOE.
The name of the samurai is Sakon HORIKOSHI. A young dude about 12-13 years old came to them with
an umbrella named MOMIJIGASA that was usually used in fall, and he was
drenced with rain because he did not opened his umbllera.
When the dude saw the samurai and said 'Could you mind my lending the
umbllera?' then he lent his umbllera to the servant.
Sakon said ' Thank you, honey, by the way, how come you don't use your umbllera yourself?'
Sakon asked the dude the reason. The dude begun to weep. Sakon said' Could you mind telling
me the reason of your grief?' The the dude answered' I'm the son of Syuzen NAGASAKA. My
name is Korin. My dad lost his job at Province of KOSYU, and we were bound for Province of
BUZEN. My father died on the boat for illness on the way,
and my mother and I buried him in this fisherman's
villiage. After the fureral the people in the villiage helped us. We made a tiny house and
lived here.
We make umbrellas made of bamboo for a living, that was thought to be a job for a man.
The situtation kept me stop using this umbrella because we truly need time and sweat to work out
even one umbllera.' The samurai made out the dude behavior in that the seller of a fan never use
the fan to shelter the sun, and the seller of a rain coat nerver use the coat to shelter the
rain. That is a craftsmanship and the dude absolutely loves his mother.
Sakon was quite moved by the dude's story, so he made someone to follow the dude and the
sarvant found out the dude's house to take care of him afterward.
As Sakon came back to AKASHI with a diploma of the Lord of AMAGASAKI, he went to the
Lord's castle. He spoke to his Lord about the lovely Korin, when the Lord felt good and
it was a chance to talk and promote the dude.
The Lord said 'Bring the dude immediately!', and Sakon felt joy and take the dude and his
mother to the castle by an old-styled car. When the boy was in front of the Lord for the first time,
Korin has no hesitation to all the people and was like a serene moon in the deep forest
, where he can showed his pure-hearted soul.
His hair was black like a color of a crow, his eyelid was serene like a lotus flower,
his voice was lovely like a nightingale, and his nature was straight like a peach blossom that
extended its branch to the sky straight. Korin became the page. As everyone could tell his
great talent as the page, the Lord loved korin more and more. Korin had a lovely time with
his Lord.
One night, when the gaurd was on next door, he listened to the two shouting.
The Lord said' I'm dying for you, so my whole life is up to you.'
Korin showed no gratitude and answered
' The true love between you and I is not depended on the power.
The love for the power is supposedly tangent for samurai-to-samurai relationships.
I train as a page by a hard way and would rather welcome someone who loves me if can.
I would even give my life for that purpose.'
The Lord felt jealousy with Korin's blunt attitude,
so he tries to forget what Korin said immediately.
But Korin wanted to know the Lord what Korin had in mind and said again'
I swear what I said before all the gods of Japan.'
The Lord was amaized at the brave dude in front of him.
On the contrary, the Lord loved the page more.
-----to be continued------some day
1) NANSYOKU-TAIKAN(COMRADE LOVES OF THE SAMURAI); Saikaku IHARA(1642-1693)
transrated by
2)Isoji AZABU& Akio FUJI; MEIJISYOIN ltd.;1979