Rashomon Gate (14 page)

The interview with Kobe and Umakai was a fitting culmination to a day which had been dismal in most respects. In a dark mood, Akitada walked to the university. Beating helpless people who happened to have the bad luck to be in the wrong place struck him as an example of how far a flawed legal system would go to protect the privileged classes. Yet even his own relatively privileged life was no protection against misery— witness his own childhood and his present disappointment. How could he have hoped to find personal contentment with Tamako? He was a great deal better off alone.

He reached the gates of the university in a mood of self-pity and hopelessness. There were no gatekeepers today, but on the steps sat one of the senior students who occasionally ran errands for Hirata and himself. The young man was staring rather fixedly at the park across the street. He was a very plain and gangly fellow, with protruding teeth and round, frightened eyes, and a tendency to startle and drop things. Akitada searched his mind for a name and finally came up with "Nagai." Calling out a greeting, he climbed the steps and stopped before the student.

The youngster stumbled to his feet, looked at him wildly, and bowed. There was a sickly greenish cast to his face and dark circles under his eyes as though he had not slept for weeks.

"Are you feeling quite well, Nagai?" Akitada asked, concerned.

"Yes. Yes, I'm well," stuttered the student, his eyes downcast, his hands clenching and unclenching convulsively at his sides. "Quite well. Thank you, sir."

The young man looked absolutely wretched and was trembling even as he talked. "Had a bit too much to drink in celebration?" Akitada asked sympathetically, recalling some of his own youthful excesses.

The other jumped a little and looked horrified. "Celebration?" he squawked. "No, no celebration. Oh, God, no!"

"Well, don't be foolish! I hope I am not such an ogre that you have to be afraid to tell me. If you'll come with me, I'll brew you some of my tea. You will find it a little bitter, but it will settle your stomach and head. Are you going to the poetry contest in the park tonight?"

Nagai practically shrank into the gate column. "In the park? No! I couldn't go in there! Please excuse me, I'm not feeling well!" He turned and ran off in the direction of the dormitories, leaving Akitada to stare after him.

After Tora had seen his master's lady friend home, he returned ox and carriage to the rental stable and walked into town. It was only mid-afternoon and, like most of the other inhabitants of the capital, he had the rest of the day and night off.

Crowds of people were strolling, shopping or sampling food in restaurants or at open stalls. On Suzaku Avenue, smiling celebrants passed back and forth in their best clothes, hollyhock blooms everywhere: in their hats, their sashes, on the saddles and in the bridles of their horses, draped about the horns of their oxen and threaded through the curtains of their carriages. The "good people" rode to parties or picnics, and the commoners walked towards the markets or the willow quarter. And everywhere there was merriment: old men sat on temple steps, smiling and nodding to passersby; normally sober officials walked with jaunty steps; and young lovers giggled, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes.

Tora approved but felt lonely. He looked wistfully after the pretty girls with their young admirers. There had been a coy little maid at the Hirata house who had given him a long appraising look when he had helped her mistress down. He had winked back, but she had only tossed her head pertly and flounced away. He wished she were with him now.

On an impulse, he decided to buy her a little gift. Such things could pave the way to future friendly relations.

Strictly speaking there were two markets in the capital, one west and the other east of Suzaku Avenue, but they were open on alternate weeks as a rule. Today, because of the festival, both markets were open and bustling with crowds. Each covered a whole city block, enclosed by permanent one-story shops facing inward. Access was through four gates, and the large central space was filled with temporary stalls, tents, and anyone who wished to spread a sheet and display his wares.

Tora browsed through the western market first, stopping before a fan seller. She had many cheap and colorful paper and bamboo paddles spread out on the ground before her, and there were others dangling from ropes stretched between two poles. He studied the fans, but decided the designs were too crude for a romantic offering. A shop, which sold combs, was also rejected because they were all made of boxwood and far too plain to impress a pretty girl.

With a sigh Tora crossed Suzaku Avenue and entered the other market through its tiled and painted gateway. Tantalizing food smells greeted him. Stands and ambulatory vendors dispensed bean dumplings, fried rice cakes, steamed seafood and noodles in fragrant broth. Tora's mouth watered, but he decided to conserve his limited funds for the evening. He stopped only to buy some pickles, a local specialty of radish slices with red pepper and seaweed. These he carried with him wrapped in a piece of oiled paper, chewing while he wandered about and peered at wares or eyed the girls. When the pickles were gone, he decided this market also had nothing suitable to offer. Enough time had been wasted. Already the setting sun slanted across the rooftops and it would soon be dark. He tossed the paper on a refuse heap near a vegetable stall and left for the Willow Quarter.

Walking northeast, he crossed Suzaku Avenue again and entered a more affluent merchant quarter. Buildings and shop fronts were wider and many of the wealthier merchants lived in large two-storied buildings above their shops.

Halfway down one street, Tora passed a very large silk merchant's premises. It reminded him of the murdered girl and her sash, and he thought he might find something here to please the little maid. He entered, slipping off his shoes, and stepped up to the raised platform of the sales area.

The shop's owner and several clerks were busy waiting on groups of seated customers. In the back a wizened middle-aged woman with a sharp nose and small, hard eyes was bent over ledgers and an abacus.

Tora sat down. The shop's owner, a short man in his early forties with a fleshy face and a thin mustache, glanced over and signalled to a young clerk who came to ask Tora's pleasure.

"I'd like to buy a sash for a young lady. Something bright," said Tora, craning his neck to see the fabrics in front of the other customers.

The young clerk hesitated. "How much was the gentleman prepared to spend?" he asked.

"Oh, you can go as high as twenty coppers," said Tora generously. He felt his lonely status very acutely.

The clerk did not quite sneer— Tora looked too tall and muscular for that— but he said coldly, "You will find the cheaper stuffs in the next street. This is Kurata's. We carry only fine silks and brocades."

"Well," asked Tora, "what's wrong with a small bit of brocade?"

The clerk shook his head. "Even a small bit would cost a great deal more than a string of coppers. We cater mostly to the 'good people' and even supply the palace."

Tora raised his eyebrows. "More than a whole string of coppers?" He looked about him. "You mean that flowered stuff over there might be made into clothes for His August Majesty?"

The clerk nodded.

Tora jumped up and strode to where two officials in their best robes and court hats were discussing several rolls of flowered brocade. Picking up a red one with golden chrysanthemums, he stared at it closely. The clerk ran after him with little cries of dismay, while the two officials watched with surprise.

"You would sell this to His Majesty, would you?" Tora asked the clerk, gathering a piece into his large fist to test its strength.

"Yes, yes," cried the clerk, wringing his hands, "but please don't do that. The fabric is very fragile. Rough hands can quite destroy it."

Tora relinquished the brocade reluctantly. "It's soft all right. Of course I like a bit more color. How much would such a thing cost?"

One of the officials burst into laughter. "He has good taste!" he cried and said to Tora, "Oh, just ten bars of silver. There's enough there for a court robe, if you like. Or perhaps you were thinking of a hunting coat?" His companion guffawed.

Tora regarded them with wrinkled brow. "No. I just want a sash for a little maid I've got my eye on," he told them.

This caused even more merriment. The other official cried, "Why, sir! In that case you may wish to purchase my ox and carriage to impress the lady when you pick her up." This time even the young clerk could not suppress a grin.

"What's going on here?" snapped a sharp voice behind Tora. "What does this fellow want?"

Tora turned and looked down at the shop's owner, or rather at his bald spot, inadequately covered by a topknot thickened with false hair.

"Oh," stuttered the clerk. "Nothing, Mr. Kurata. The gentleman was just inquiring about a sash."

"A sash? You're a fool, Yotsugi. This man cannot afford brocade." The shopkeeper turned to Tora. "A sash from this brocade costs twenty silver pieces, more than someone like you can earn in years. We have nothing for you or your woman. You'd better leave."

Tora looked at the man closely and did not like what he saw. There was meanness in the small eyes and compressed lips. Neither did he appreciate being made the butt of a joke. Turning to the two officials, he said, "I may take you up on your offer just as soon as I start collecting bribes like you fellows." Then he nodded to the clerk and departed.

In the next street he purchased a cheerful cotton sash in a pattern of white cranes flying above blue waves from a properly accommodating shopkeeper and tucked it in his sleeve. A couple of streets farther he found a baker of sweet rice cakes favored by the ladies. He bought an elegantly wrapped box of the most select sweets and put it in his other sleeve. By now it was getting dusk, and Tora turned his steps towards the river.

Between Fourth Avenue and Kyogo Street, along the Kamo River, stretched the Willow Quarter, named after the willows that grew on the bank. Here a lively trade catered to pleasures of the body, from the most basic of food, drink and sex to the more refined aesthetic delights of music and dance.

The sun was gone and twilight had fallen; the streets were already shadowed in darkness, while above still stretched a luminous violet sky with the first faint stars. Ahead Tora saw the gate to the amusement quarter. It sparkled with the lights of many-colored lanterns, and the first faint sounds of music reached his ears.

He increased his pace and passed into a fairyland of lights. They were suspended from the branches of the willows and the eaves of the wine houses, and swayed in the soft breeze which came from across the softly gurgling river. Warm colored light fell on the robes of pretty women who peered from doors and windows and caught the brilliant colors of the elegant robes of wealthy customers strolling along the river.

Tora looked and yearned for the expensive goods on display, but he could not afford the prices charged in the best houses of assignation, or in any houses for that matter. He consoled himself by engaging in lighthearted banter with the pretty girls behind the wooden grilles he passed.

The wine houses and restaurants were not all prohibitively expensive and quite good. Tora had become something of a regular at the Willow, unimaginatively named, but offering excellent value in food, drink and entertainment.

Here he was greeted by the gap-toothed auntie who arranged private entertainments with some of the best courtesans of the quarter.

"Tora-san," she cackled. "We have been expecting you, the girls and I. Surely on the night of the spring festival a strapping, handsome fellow like you will wish to enjoy the clouds and the rain?"

"Auntie-san," said Tora, bowing with a soulful look, "I am your most devoted admirer, but my station in life does not permit me to enjoy the company of ladies such as yourself or your companions. Please accept this insignificant present instead." He presented her with the box of sweets.

"Ooh!" Auntie received the box with delight and peered inside. "Foolish boy!" she cried, giving him a playful slap on the arm, "if you did not waste your money on stupid old women like me, you would warm your august implement in the grotto of a thousand delights tonight. Surely by now the poor bird must be quite worn out looking for its nest. Won't you let Auntie find it a cozy resting place? We'll just put it on account."

"Ah, in that case . . ." Tora leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

She burst into hysterical laughter, shook her finger at him, and cried, "One of these days, my pretty young cock, you'll meet a woman who'll take you at your word. Now run along! Your friends are waiting. Enjoy the food and wine. And maybe, if you like one of the pretties, Auntie will make it right for you."

Tora gave her a bear hug, much to her delight, and then went along the hallway and into a large room where five boisterous men were sitting around a brazier warming bottles of wine.

"You're late, Tora," cried a scrawny fellow with permanently bowed legs and a sunken chest. He was the
tatami
-maker Ueda, his physique the result of generations of Uedas sitting cross-legged and bent over straw mats. "We had to start without you. There's room next to Kichibei."

Tora grinned and flopped down next to a muscular, heavily tatooed porter, who shouted, "Bring more wine! A very thirsty fellow has just arrived."

"He's not the only one," grumbled a pudgy young man in the thread-bare blue robe of a minor clerk, turning an empty bottle upside down.

"You'll never make a night of it at your rate, Danjuro!" teased his middle-aged neighbor who was a potter and never could get all the red clay from under his fingernails. "We've pooled our money, Tora. Fifty coppers will cover food, drink and the bounciest little bottom in the quarter."

"Sorry, Osada." Tora pulled the remnants of his wages from his sash and counted the coppers on the string. "Fifteen is all I can spare tonight."