David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

‘Oh, the trouble my cough caused! Master Genmu sent Acolyte Jiritsu – may his Soul be at rest – down to Kurozane to procure fresh herbs from the herbalist.’

A crow, Orito aches, could reach Otane’s chimney in a half-hour.

She recalls this summer’s journey to Kurozane and wants to weep.

‘Sister?’ Hatsune notices. ‘Is anything the matter?’

‘No. “What with two large Court weddings in the Fifth Month and two funerals in the Seventh, the White Crane was inundated with orders. My year has been a lucky one in any respect, Mother, though I blush to write about it. Ueda-san’s principal supplier of brocade is a merchant named Koyama-san, who visits the White Crane with his four sons every two or three months. For a couple of years the youngest son, Shingo-san, would exchange pleasantries with me as I worked. Last summer, however, during the O-bon Festivities, I was summoned to the garden teahouse where, to my surprise, Shingo-san, his parents, Ueda-san and my mistress were drinking tea.” ’ Orito glances up at the enraptured Sisters. ‘ “You shall have guessed already what was afoot, Mother – but, being a dull-witted girl, I did not.” ’

‘She isn’t dull-phitted,’ Asagao assures Hatsune, ‘just phure and innocent.’

‘ “Small-talk was made,” ’ Orito continues, ‘ “about Shingo-san’s many talents and my own pitiful accomplishments. I did my best to master my shyness, without seeming too forward, and afterwards-” ’

‘Just as you advised her, Sister,’ clucks Sawarabi, ‘two years ago.’

Orito watches the Sister swell with pride. ‘ “And afterwards, my mistress congratulated me on the favourable impression I had made. I returned to my duties, honoured by the praise but expecting to hear nothing more about the Koyamas until their next visit to the White Crane. My foolishness was short-lived. A few days later, on the Emperor’s Birthday, Ueda-san took all his apprentices to Yoyogi Park to enjoy the fireworks along Kamo River. How magical were the brief-blooming reds and yellows against the night sky! Upon our return, my master summoned me into his office, where my mistress told me that the Koyamas had proposed that I become the wife of their youngest son, Shingo. I knelt there, Mother, as if a fox had put a spell on me! Then Ueda-san’s wife mentioned that the proposal had come from Shingo. That such an upstanding young man desired me as his bride caused tears to flow down my cheeks.” ’

Yayoi hands Hotaru a paper cloth to dab her own eyes.

Orito folds the last page and unfolds the next. ‘ “I asked Ueda-san’s permission to speak frankly. My master urged me to do so. My origins were too obscure for the Koyamas, I said; my loyalties lay with the White Crane Workshop; and that if I entered the Koyama family as a bride, tongues would wag that I had used low cunning to ensnare such a fine husband.” ’

‘Oh, just grab the lad,’ Yûgiri cackles, a little drunk on sake, ‘by his dragon!’

‘For shame, Sister,’ scolds Housekeeper Satsuki. ‘Let the Newest Sister read.’

‘ “Master Ueda replied that the Koyamas were well aware of my origins as the Daughter of a Shrine, but saw no objection. They want a daughter-in-law who is dutiful, modest, resourceful and not a” ’ – Orito’s voice is joined by Sisters who lovingly recite the sobriquet – ‘ “a prissy sherbet-guzzling miss who thinks ‘Hard Work’ is a town in China. Lastly, my master reminded me that I am a Ueda by adoption, and why did I suppose the Uedas to be so very far below the Koyamas? Blushing, I apologised to my master for my thoughtless words.” ’

‘But Noriko-san didn’t mean that at all!’ Hotaru protests.

Hatsune warms her hands at the fire. ‘He is curing her shyness, I believe.’

‘ “Ueda-san’s wife told me that my objections did me great credit, but that the families had agreed that our engagement could last until my seventeenth New Year -” ’

‘That would be this New Year coming,’ Hatsune explains to Orito.

‘ “- when, if Shingo-sama’s feelings are unchanged -” ’

‘I pray to the Goddess to keep his heart constant,’ says Sadaie. ‘Every night.’

‘ “- we shall be married on the first auspicious day in the First Month. Ueda-san and Koyama-san shall then invest in a workshop to specialise in obi-sashes where my husband and I can work side by side and train apprentices of our own.” ’

‘Imagine!’ says Kiritsubo. ‘Hatsune’s Gift, with apprentices of her own.’

‘Children of her own, too,’ says Yûgiri, ‘if young Shingo has his way.’

‘ “Looking at these lines, my words read like a dreaming girl’s. Perhaps, Mother, this is the greatest gift our correspondence gives us: a space in which we can dream. You are in my thoughts every day. Your Gift, Noriko.” ’

The women look at the letter, or else the fire. Their minds are far away.

Orito understands that the New Year letters are the Sisters’ purest Solace.

Early in the Hour of the Boar, the Gate opens for the two Engifters. Every Sister in the Long Room hears the bolt slide. Abbess Izu’s footsteps leave her room and pause at the Gate. Orito imagines three silent bows. The Abbess leads two sets of male footsteps along the Inner Passageway, towards Kagerô’s room and then to Hashihime’s. A minute later, the Abbess’s footsteps make their return journey past the Long Room. The candles hiss. Orito expected Yûgiri or Sawarabi to try to catch a glimpse of the chosen Engifters in the unlit corridor, but instead they play a sober game of mah jong with Hotaru and Asagao. Nobody so much as acknowledges the arrival of the master and acolyte in the Chosen Sisters’ rooms. Hatsune is singing ‘The Moonlit Castle’ very softly to her own accompaniment on the koto. Housekeeper Satsuki is repairing a sock. When those carnal negotiations the House terms ‘Engiftment’ are actually occurring, Orito sees, the jokes and gossip all cease. Orito also understands that the levity and lewdnesses are not a denial that the Sisters’ ovaries and wombs are the Goddess’s, but a way of making their servitude endurable…

Back in her room Orito watches the fire through a chink in her blanket. Male footsteps left Kagerô’s room some time ago, but Hashihime’s Engifter is staying longer, as an Engifter may when both parties are willing. Orito’s knowledge of lovemaking is derived from medical texts and the anecdotes of the women she treated in Nagasaki brothels. She tries not to think of a man under this blanket, pinning her body against this mattress, just one short month from now. Let me cease to be, she begs the fire. Melt what I am into you, she begs the darkness. She finds her face is wet. Once again, her mind probes the House of Sisters for a means of escape. There are no outside windows to climb through. The ground is stone and cannot be dug through. Both sets of gates are bolted from inside, with a guardroom between them. The eaves of the Cloisters jut far over the Courtyard, and cannot be reached or climbed over.

It’s hopeless. She looks at a rafter and imagines a rope.

There is a knock at her door. Yayoi hisses. ‘It’s me, Sister.’

Orito jumps out of bed and opens the door. ‘Is it your waters?’

Yayoi’s pregnant shape is fattened further by blankets. ‘I can’t sleep.’

Orito bundles her inside, afraid of a man stepping out of the darkness.

‘The story goes,’ Yayoi curls Orito’s hair around her finger, ‘that when I was born with these’ – Yayoi taps her pointed ears – ‘the Buddhist priest was called. His explanation was that a demon had crept into my mother’s womb and laid his egg there, like a cuckoo. Unless I was abandoned that very night, the priest warned, demons would come for their offspring, and carve up the family as a celebratory feast. My father heard this with relief: peasants everywhere “winnow the seedlings” to rid themselves of unwanted daughters. Our village even had a special place for it: a circle of pointed rocks, high above the tree-line, up a dry stream-bed. In the Seventh Month, the cold could not kill me, but wild dogs, foraging bears and hungry spirits were sure to do the job by morning. My father left me there and walked home without regret…’