Christian in the Buddhist country (novel) ③

This is the English translation of 
My Christian novel in Japanese.
It's a story of Japanese man, Maki
with old feudalistic background 
forsaking all to follow Jesus.
It might give you a sneak peak
into a Japanese life and how
our culture is.

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For those Japanese cultural words, I put (※) with number. There is explanation for those words at the end. See the translation note.

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Lately, Maki san and I go out often, for a walk or a visit to a museum, some thing like a date. 

Usually, in courtship, Chaperon has to stay with the couple to avoid being just two of them. But it's not an iron rule. In our case, because Maki san is quite old enough, it was judged that it wouldn't be dangerous for us to go by ourselves. The judgment was handed down by my father in Tokyo and Paulo san the pastor here. If we needed the chaperon, it would have been Paulo san who would been troubled every time, so he escaped the trouble by this too.

"Do you know there is a ruin of a mountain castle near here?"

As we walk by the shallow water of the clear, simmering river, Maki san asked me. History is also our common interest. I knew from first sight, that he is my kindred spirit.

"Climbing a mountain castle is very tiring." 
I said it out of my experience.

"I was studying history and I just wondered….." Maki san spoke as he toy with wild grass, wrapping it around his finger.
"......Yae san, Is that the ancestral castle of your family?"

I didn't have any plan of telling that. That was my granny's family's little mountain fort during the middle age. (※1) They lost their independence during the Warring States period (※2) and during the Edo period, they were upper-class samurai serving local lords.

"How did you find out my granny's maiden name?"
"I read your uncle's book he gave me…."
Indeed, my uncle was a professor of Japanese history.

Maki san looked into my face.
"You have so much history behind you, much more than my own."

"Well, it's totally different. I am just one of the descendants and you are the master of the main family. My ancestors have never been a binding burden to me. And because my family has been Christian for several generations, the past is already dried. It's just an interesting heritage for me." 

"So your family has been liberated for many years."
"Yes, so somewhere up the line, there is an ancestor who had the same agony as you have now, and I was standing on it without appreciating it."

"That's why you can have a pure historical interest in temples or stone Buddha (※3) without feeling any shadow to it."
I looked at him anxiously for his sarcastic tone.　

"I was away in America for so long and it's odd for me to say it, but Yae san, you are a new species of the Christian in the Buddhist country. "

"Not everyone is born in a feudalistic jail system as you."

"That's because you are from Tokyo. In the province, everyone carries something in greater or less degree."

He might be right, thought I.

Distant mountains stretched in blue, and closer mountains burned with gold and scarlet. This land of Shinano (※4) has no ocean, but it keeps autumn leaves safe from salty winds and makes it so beautiful.

"But by marrying you, I can make my relatives happy for the first time."

With a calm face, Maki san said it with a slightly sarcastic tone. I was surprised to hear the word marriage so suddenly. In the open, desolate riverside, Maki san was kneeling.

"Yae san, Will you marry me?"
"Isn't the flow of the conversation too abrupt!?"
"No, it's like the flow of a river."
Maki san grinned.
"Shall I do it again?"

I saw a figure of people with a dog in the distance, slowly it was coming closer to us.

"No! It looks like a proposal scene and is so embarrassing! Please stand quickly!"
"But you are being proposed to."
"Oh, dear!"

"You should answer quickly. Unless you will provide a charming story of walking a dog and running into a proposal scene."
"Maki san, you are teasing me too much! That makes me want to say no to you."
"Oh, so you mean yes."

When we returned from our walk, Paulo san was sweeping the garden like he was expecting us. 
"Did it go well?"
Paulo san asked in English.
"I think it went well."
Maki san answered back in English too.

"But because it's Maki, I'm sure he couldn't score a terrific goal like I did when I proposed to Ellie!"

Paulo san and I have been close friends, but somehow I have never stepped in and asked him about Ellie san. 

"But you got stuck in mud after you knelt and fell in front of her."
Maki san said. Was he their chaperon then?

Three of us went into the house and sat down on the zabuton mat. Paulo san said,
"But now that you are engaged, you should be married off without space of time. That's better."
"But my family is not yet……"
Before I finish my word, Maki san took it over and finished it.
"I asked your father's permission by phone yesterday."
" You say you were thoroughly prepared when it was that abrupt…..?"

Paulo san's curiosity was litten.
 "What went on? What went on?"
After hearing the whole story, Paulo san had a good laugh.
"That's so you, Maki! That's so like you who spent twenty years observing everybody around you get married!!"
"How rude….." Said Maki san.

"Maki was popular but he had no intention of marrying an American."
"That's obscure. Maybe it was just Americans didn't want to marry Asian like me."

I can imagine how he felt being alone in a foreign country for so long. But there must have been many girls who were swayed beyond the difference of skin for an eligible gentleman like him. 

"Anyway, Ellie and I were excited when Maki told us he met a wonderful girl in Japan. We were so curious about you. It was a bit of shock to hear you are fifteen years younger though. Worth waiting for, wasn't it?"

I nervously cast my question. 
"Where is Ellie san now…..?"
Maki san answered with a slightly frozen face.
"Ellie was supposed to come with Paulo to Japan. So I prepared one of the apartments I own for them. But before they come…."

"Ellie and I couldn't have a baby for many years. Since I became friends with Maki, I always felt the burden to minister in Japan one day. But the crucial person, Maki, dilly-dallied in the States so there were no opportunities. But at last Maki went home and he even got depressed all alone, so we decided we gotta go and help him. It was just then we found out Ellie was pregnant."

Paulo san was speaking without a hitch but when he came to that point, his voice wavered.

"To be honest with you, I haven't overcome it yet. I understand that death and life are in the hand of the Lord and it was in God's plan. But it was too sudden. I still feel like even though I don't have her with me here in Japan, if I go back to America, Ellie is still there alive."

"It was very sudden for it was an extrauterine pregnancy."
Maki san added information. I didn't know what to say and was shaking quietly.

"But anyhow, I know Ellie would be very excited about Maki's wedding. She liked Maki very much and Ellie was the person for preparing the weddings."
Paulo san's voice got brighter as if he is believing Ellie san is still alive. 

"I learned this Japanese saying at school, Time to pay the land taxes. Is this the right application?" (※5)
"No, it's slightly wrong. Unless Maki san was a womanizer, then it's a different story."
I looked at him nonchalantly.
"Say what you want to say. But I am innocent of the accusation."

The news spread with the speed of light. Maki san called my parents on the spot, reported the result, and sent them regards. It was my father, who discovered Maki san first. The first time Maki san visited our church, my father immediately asked him for dinner in our house, and ordered me to cook beef stew. I have never failed my pressure cooker beef stew recipe. My mother's heart was already won just because Maki san is from the same city as her.

Maki san was planning to visit my granny also. But my mother called and told the news to her already. Yet still, granny was one step ahead. Even before I got engaged, granny was spreading the rumor that her granddaughter is marrying into Honke (main family) of Maki clan. Though she is excommunicated from Catholicism, she is well known and has a certain influence on society. That helped to restore Maki san's reputation a little. His neighbors now greet him back in the street.

The excitement of our church family was great. And because we set the wedding three months ahead following Paulo san's advice, Marian san and I got together for planning almost every day. It was so often, one might think it's us that are marrying. Both Maki san and I hated a flashy event, so we didn't even book a venue. We decided to do it in Maki san's mansion, something like the old Japanese traditional wedding (※6), in Christian style.　

Paulo san brought a big box to me. 
"This was Ellie's wedding gown."
Inside the box was a delicate antique dress. To my surprise, the size of the dress was perfect for me. 
"You and Ellie are almost the same height. She was small side for an American."
”Are you sure that I could wear this?"
"Ellie loved Maki like her big brother. I know Ellie is saying; Yae chan, please wear this!"

Then I said yes to the dress. We just didn't have enough time, so Marian san and I decided to hire a wedding planner. The tasteful lady suggested the yummy catering, cakes, souvenirs and all. And we just enjoyed the tastings. By we, I mean Marian san and I, not Maki san and I.

I don't quite remember what Maki san was doing during the period. It's a lady's job to plan a successful wedding. He just had to open his house as a venue and stand as the groom on the wedding day.

"Who are you going to marry, Marian or me?"
Maki san said to us as we gathered in his mansion and use it as a cafe to have the discussion.
"It's ugly for men to be jealousy."
Marian san teased.

"All these years, I was just watching people around me have their weddings. But when my turn comes, it is so tiresome. Why can't we just go to Gretna Green (※7) and be done with it?"
Maki san said.
"This is Japan, so it would be more tiresome to go all the way to Scottland I think."
I answered.
"You two are suited for each other. I don't understand what you are saying."
Said Marian san.

The day before the wedding, I found myself having nothing else to do, so I crept into his office to read a book. Maki san came in and said,
"Long time no see."
"We see each other every day, don't we?"
"You are always busy with this and that, you don't have any time left for me."
I ignored the sulky man and started speaking like rushing water. 

"But I learned one thing! Paulo san told us to get married as quickly as possible after the engagement. He could say that because he is a man! Maybe Ellie san had a magical hand and could create a wedding without effort, but I can't!"

"That's true. If Ellie was here, you didn't need to go through all the troubles."
"Three months is a mission impossible… Why did I agree on such absurdity…"
Maki san laughed.
"It doesn't matter now. You only have one day left of three months."
"I am worried I might get burnout syndrome after the wedding."
"Am I marrying a burnout?"

As he keeps joking, Maki san looked into the book I was reading.
"Are you reading Sasame Yuki (※8) on such a day as this? How ominous! What if you get a loose bowel tomorrow?"
"Will you marry me even if I get the loose bowel at my wedding?"
All of a sudden, I sweetly touched his shirt sleeve. The effect was immediate. Maki san's voice became cheerful.

"When I was fifteen, I got hospitalized for breaking my bone. Since then, I always had a feeling that something was lacking from my body. I realized the reason just the other day. God made a little baby girl with a fragment of my bone. Yae san is perfectly suited to me, your taste, knowledge, and character. It was worth waiting twenty years for. I realized the reason for my long banishment to America was to wait for Yae san to grow up." 

"Did you really get hospitalized at fifteen?"
I questioned him skeptically.
"Yes, I was hospitalized but it was actually an appendix."
He made an awkward face.

"Can I ask one more? Why can't you say some sweet words without making it a joke?"
"Don't make me say those words in Japanese. I can say them in English, but not in Japanese."

I might have forgotten to tell you, but I am a Jane Austin (※9) lover. Modern people might say Jane Austin is old fashioned. But they are missing the timeless joy and enlightenment you can get from her books. Austin's novel always ends with her heroine getting married. So after Austin, I want to end this story of Maki san and me here with our marriage. Wise and mature readers know that true trials start from here. But it doesn't fit a cheerful novel like Austin. 

There were times in our marriage when Maki san and I wanted to kill each other and times when we felt love for each other from the depth of our heart. But the strong anchor that held us was the fact that we knew we married the one God chose for us. To doubt if you have married the right one or not is tormenting. But we knew we are standing on the will of God. I am so glad to be married with Maki san. I feel so in every moment I feel Christ, Maki san and I become one and united.

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Translation note

1. The ancestral mountain fort of Yae. Because Japan is a mountainous country, there is lots of little or big mountain fort ruin used until the end of the Warring States period. It has a model in the north of Matsumoto city. It means Yae's ancestor was a small millitary power "Kunishu". Some lucky Kunishu made it into a Daimyo (local lords) in Edo period. But Yae's ancestor stayed as subordinate samurai. Just the name of the mountain castle as a memory of bygone independence.

2. Warring states period. Sengoku zidai. (1467－1615) During this period, the ancient regime ended and many warlords fought all over the country. Famous lords in this period are Oda Nobunaga, Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, etc. 

3. Stone Buddha. I translated it this way so its easier to envision, but the original word was Koshinto. There were huge boom to built this kind of stone statures in Edo period and Koshito is everywhere. It is from Chinese Taoism belief. I tried to study what Koshito is to write this column, but honestly I couldn't understand what it was. I think in Edo period, people liked to follow trend and it was trendy to build this stature that must be why it's practically everywhere. Sorry, I am no good.

4. This land of Shinano. Shinano is old country name of Nagano prefecture. And some people prefers to call Nagano prefecture, Shinshu after Shinano, especially people around Matsumoto basin. Nagano is very long prefecture and are not very united. It is mostly divided to four basins and each basin feels independent. That's why Nagano prefecture has a prefectural song called "The land of Shinano" which everybody can sing. It is the song to unite Nagano people, and it has even prevented Nagano from splitting into two prefectures in 1948.

5. Time to pay land taxes. Nengu no osame doki. When you use it on someone who has been single for long and is marrying, it could mean you have played around long enough, now is your time to pay the land taxes (time to be settled at last.)

6. Old Japanese traditional style wedding. In the old days, wedding was done in your home. It is symbolized with the ceremony of the three-times-three exchanges of nuptial cups. It is Shinto (Japanese old animistic religion) way of wedding. Maki and Yae somehow arranged and created Christian ceremony out of old home wedding style in this novel.

7. Gretna Green. A famous Scottland town for runnaway marriage. Going to Gretna Green means elopement.

8. Sasame Yuki. A famous Japanese classic novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. A story of the upper middle class family before WW2. Daily lives of four beautiful sisters of Makioka family, an old prestigious family of Osaka but the family name is gradually declining. That makes the third daughter, Yukiko's marriage difficult. She is the most beautiful out of four but too bashful and still single in her thirties. The novel ends with Yukiko finally getting married, to an aristocratic man named Mimaki. And the last scene is set on Yukiko getting on the train to Tokyo for the wedding the next day but suffering loose bowels. 

9. Jane Austin. English novelist (1775－1817). Her famous novel includes "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma".