Chapter 2 Part1 (2/2)
“Hmph. I play the role splendidly, don’t I, Gyokuran-sensei?” I said, to which Gyokuran smiled wryly, “Drop the sensei t.i.tle, would you.”
The tanuki known as Nanzenji Gyokuran was the younger sister of the head of the Nanzenji clan by the name of Shoujirou.
In the past, when I was one of the Akadama tanuki pupils, Gyokuran already had both wisdom and good sense and was Akadamsensei’s favorite. A few honor roll tanuki from among those who studied under sensei were tasked with helping sensei. Nanzenji Gyokuran, along with our brother Yaichirou, served as Akadamsensei’s a.s.sistant, herding and controlling the furry bad boy bustling beneath the teacher’s platform like a dog at a sheep farm. That’s why I called her 'Gyokuran-sensei’.
Standing in front of my cage, Gyokuran was telling me about how much she looked forward to the Tanuki Shogi Tournament. Apparently, she dropped by on her way back from inspecting the preliminary tournament venue with her brother Shoujirou.
“You’re coming to watch, right, Yasaburou-chan?”
“I’m not sure. I have no interest in shogi, you see,” yawned I.
“Yaichirou-san worked so hard to bring the tournament back, but you’re not coming? You shouldn’t say such cold things. If you come, you’ll find it fun, I’m sure.”
“Well, it’s fun to you, Gyokuran.”
Gyokuran was a known shogi enthusiast even as a child.
To begin with, the Nanzenji clan were always a family of shogi fans, but Gyokuran’s love for the game stood out even among the rest of them, and numerous tales such as her never stopping solving shogi problems even when she fell into the Biwako Ca.n.a.l, or her loving shogi so much that she would even eat shogi pieces, or her sleeping every night with a shogi board, circulated about her as if they were true. According to Gyokuran herself, all of them were nonsense, but I knew for a fact that back when she was one of Akadamsensei’s pupils she did force innocent little tanuki to play shogi, and I was among those who ran around trying to escape from her as she chased us with a shogi board in hand yelling, “It’s fun! It’s really fun, you’ll see!” Because of her excessive love for shogi, Gyokuran was unsuitable for shogi promotion activities. The numerous legends about Gyokuran circulating in the tanuki world were spread by the annoyed tanuki kids she had chased in the past.
Suddenly, Gyokuran said, “Yaichirou-san still won’t get back to playing shogi, huh?”
“Our big brother doesn’t play shogi,” my second elder brother said in a soft voice. “And you know better that than anyone else, don’t you, Gyokuran?”
“For how much longer does he plan to let it bother him? Even though he’s turned into a fine capable furball already.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“I can’t. …I’m not sure why, but I just can’t.”
In the Tadasu forest, there was a certain shogi board left by our father, and our eldest brother cherished it as much as he did the automated rickshaw. Although that shogi board was carefully stored in a box of empress tree, its surface was covered with deep teeth impressions. Those marks were left on it by our eldest brother who turned into a tiger in a fit of anger and bit into it. When he was little, he had a bad tendency to shapes.h.i.+ft into a tiger whenever he got angry because of finding himself at a disavantage in shogi. The reason why he quit playing shogi was because he started deeply hating losing control of himself like that. Playing against a girl his own age, bursting into tears from frustration and then biting into the shogi board were memories hurting his honor, no doubt.
Eventually, Gyokuran said, “See at the shogi tournament” by way of goodbye and went back to the Nanzenji forest hazy with the rain. As she walked, she was spinning her umbrella like a real child. Seated on my head, my brother murmured, “Were it not for furry love in this world…”
“What is it, nii-san?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”
“Being a tease, huh.”
“Even a frog at the bottom of the well has an obligation to keep a secret.”
〇
On a certain evening in the middle of June when it was getting quite late, our whole family went out, heading to Nanzenji.
The sky was concealed behind bulky clouds, and not a single star was visible, with only moist night wind blowing. My little brother Yas.h.i.+rou took the point, his face lighting up in pride and elation as he hoisted a paper lantern with our family crest on it, looking like the leader of a drum and fife band. Pa.s.sing through the dark town with its endless line of fences surrounding big mansions, we entered Nanzenji-keidai that was crawling with Kyoto’s tanuki holding paper lanterns.
The reason was simple: tonight was the day when the Tanuki Shogi Tournament organized by the Nanzenji family was to be held.
Mother was impressed as she looked around. “Look at that crowd.”
“That’s because this tournament was on a hiatus for a long time ever since father’s death,” our eldest brother sounded boastful. “It was worth every effort I’ve invested. I’m sure father would be pleased, too.”
“If nii-san wins today, father would be even more elated,” I said.
My second elder brother riding on my shoulder stirred. “I don’t know. Don’t get your hopes up too much.”
“Don’t say such fainthearted things, Yajirou. Protect the honor of the s.h.i.+mogamo family,” our eldest instructed.
“Hold it, hold it, nii-san, I don’t play shogi for the sake of protecting our honor.”
“I know you’re capable of giving Gyokuran a run for her money.”
“I don’t know about that,” replied our second elder.
“I’m sure you can win,” joined in mother. “Though winning and losing are both down to luck.”
Majority of the the tanuki a.s.sembled on the premises were hopeless at shougi, unable to tell a rook from a bishop, they only came for the chance to gamble and party. Beneath the black towering gate of Nanzenji temple surrounded by pine trees, the owner of a bar 'Akegarasu’ on Teramachi-doori street was consulting with his friends on the matter of betting. For betting on all and every kind of compet.i.tion was their raison d'être.
I walked up and called out to him.
“Hey. I can’t believe you bothered to come when you know squat about shogi.”
“Do your worst for us, Yasaburou, because we’re counting on seeing some fighting outside the shogi board, too.” That was scandalizing of him to say. “Out of the ring action is your forte, yeah?”
When I was about to retort, my kid brother waved the paper lantern with our family crest.
“Yasaksan is here!”
The Yasaka tanuki sounded their trumpets shortly in a modest fas.h.i.+on and set foot on the Nanzenji temple grounds. Nise-emon Yasaka Heitarou expectedly wore an aloha s.h.i.+rt.
Noticing us, he pa.s.sed under the temple’s triple gate and clapped my eldest brother on the shoulder in good humor.
“Oh, Yaichirou-kun. It makes me so happy to see tanuki shogi revived.”
Since spring, Yasaka Heitarou had been steadily advancing his preparations to retire, little by little transferring his Nise-emon work to my eldest brother. Despite my brother grumbling about how he had time to even sleep, he didn’t at all look dissatisfied, swimming energetically all around Kyoto like a furry fish that had found water after making a show of downing a dodgy energy drink procured in the s.h.i.+nkyougoku shopping district.
Yasaka Heitarou chatted up my second elder brother squatting on my shoulder. “I gotta say, I was surprised that you survived the preliminaries, Yajirou. I had no idea you were so good at shogi.”
“Father taught me well. Besides, there is hardly anything else to do at the bottom of a well.”
“You, too, learned all the dubious entertainments from Sou-san, eh. I’m the same. When we were little, it was tsuchinoko hunting, and when we grew up, it was shogi, sake and Hawaii. All the good-for-nothing things that earn you no squat but are most fun in the world. That said, Sou-san was always good at everything he did.”
Mother snickered at that. “And you, Heitarou-san, was always so clumsy.”
“Okay, wait, that’s quite the comment to make, you know.”
“Oh? Well, even if you’re clumsy, being able to always have fun no matter what is an admirable quality and what really counts.”
“You just say whatever you want, huh. I’m no match for you,” said the Nise-emon in his aloha s.h.i.+rt and laughed.
T/N:
[*1] Koujin-sama 荒神様: a G.o.d of fire, the hearth and the kitchen (wiki); in Kyoto, Koujin charms and talismans are often put up in the kitchen. In this particular context, however, 'Koujin-sama’ is a pet nickname for Gojoin temple (same as Kiyos.h.i.+kojin temple jp wiki), used by locals ().
[*2] Tousen 桃仙: this name consists of the kanji for peach (桃) and the kanji for what is known as sennin (仙) or xian in Taoism (wiki), that is, a mystical enlightened mountain sage.
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