Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"You really think Ms. Tachibana would stand up like that?" Dancer asked. "Morio might be mentally handicapped, a child, really, but he's already quite grown up. He wouldn't get involved in anything dangerous connected with the children. Mrs. Shigeno is certainly a sophisticated woman, but don't underestimate Ms. Tachibana and Morio-they're more complex than meets the eye. Personally, on an emotional level I can't relate to either Mrs. Shigeno or Ms. Tachibana. So until Patron defines the role of the Church of the New Man, at least while you're in this office I'll thank you not to use such careless terms as mass suicide. "

The next day that the rain let up, the temperature, rising since morn- ing, had such energy to it that the soft leaves of the oaks and camellias- pruned under the direction of the former junior high school principal-wilted in the sunlight.

That day Ogi led a group around the chapel and the monastery. The group consisted of local sake and pickle makers, as well as an environmen- tal group organized to protect the confluence of the Kame and Maki rivers.

The group also included the editor of a local magazine produced in Tokyo- a woman who was writing a piece on the former residences of a Meiji literary figure-as well as the editor of a magazine in Ehime.

Dancer took care of all the arrangements through the town hall, part of her plan to forge a good relationship with the next generation of civic lead- ers, the pro-growth faction. Many activities the church was involved in had helped lessen the suspicions of the townspeople: the fact that the church did not proselytize locally, the starting up of production at the Farm again after a long period of dormancy, the leadership role the church was taking with the Young Fireflies, and, most of all, Dr. Koga's medical practice. None of this escaped Dancer's attention.

What most interested the local authorities and businessmen was the upcoming summer conference, with church members scheduled to come from all over the country. The business leaders saw it as an excellent chance to advertise local goods and sell their farm products.

Ogi met the study group as they alighted from their minivan to view the chapel and the monastery. It surprised him that, for the short distance between the Farm and the Hollow, Ikuo volunteered to drive. The group, talking merrily among themselves, apparently mistook Ikuo for the church's full-time driver.

As the group listened to Ogi's explanations, the woman intellectual, the leader of the group, sounded as if she were familiar with other buildings de- signed by the architect of the chapel and monastery; the rest of the group seemed somehow proud of what she said. I'm not speaking about these build- ings, the journalist from Matsuyama began transparently, his remarks directed at the woman, but you remember how last night at the party at the sake fac- tory we were talking about the imbalance between the poverty of ordinary people's homes in the provinces and the ultramodern government buildings in the same locales? The two of them chuckled to each other and exchanged knowing winks.

Ogi rode back with the group to the Farm, where they boarded cars brought up from Old Town and left; Ikuo, seated next to Ogi in the driver's seat of the van, had been silent all along but now spoke up.

"That skinny Olive Oyl woman and those guys from Matsuyama made me want to puke! Man, am I glad I dropped out of architecture school. If the Young Fireflies had heard them there would have been hell to pay. But it does seem that after Mr. Hanawa and the other leaders of the Techni- cians explained to the locals how they were using the Farm's land and equip- ment to revive production the Church of the Flaming Green Tree had begun, they got high marks for their efforts. With the success of food pro- duction at the Farm, people are expecting they can work with growers in Old Town and sell their products-not just in Matsuyama but in the whole Osaka-Kobe district. When people come to the summer conference from all over Japan, it'll be a good opportunity for the locals to gauge their reac- tions too."

Ogi set out some folding chairs in the clearing where the Church of the Flaming Green Tree once erected tents and held meetings, and he and Mr. Hanawa and Ikuo sat down and talked. Ogi had only seen Mr. Hanawa in the dining hall and around, but it was obvious how close he and Ikuo had become.

"Right now in Maki Town," Mr. Hanawa said, "one of the more expen- sive products is the sake the sake maker says you can freeze for ten years, thaw out, and it'll start fermenting again-that'll run about ten thousand yen a bottle.

If you use refrigerated trucks you can deliver anywhere in Japan, so they're thinking ahead to make this kind of product. Though I don't imagine it'll be easy to sell in bulk a brand of sake produced in the backwoods of Shikoku.

"What do you think about making up a gift set combining the sake with the best ham we make at the Farm and some fresh pickled vegetables? Charge maybe fifteen thousand yen a box? We could start by having Mr. Soda's com- pany buy them as New Year's gifts. According to what I've heard, there're quite a few manufacturers around here producing quality goods. You've got to connect with the right distribution system if you want to survive. We re- ally should hook up with them."

"The group that toured here today," Ikuo said, "will learn about our church's abilities at the summer conference. Come fall, and they'll get seri- ous about working with us."

"I may be naive, or they wouldn't have nicknamed me Innocent Youth,"

Ogi said hesitantly, "but are you saying the local people will start cooperat- ing with us more actively starting in the fall? So the summer conference is the first step toward opening those doors for us?"

Instead of a typical of course, what else? look, Ikuo turned deeply suspi- cious eyes toward Ogi. Ogi felt an instinctive defensive reaction welling up, but before anything developed, Mr. Hanawa intervened.

"I know you're concerned about what the Quiet Women might be pre- paring to do. After the Technicians were barred from their meetings, you went there to play the piano, didn't you, Ikuo? And you said things were pretty tense. The summer conference is the top priority for the Quiet Women.

They're not thinking about fall or anything beyond.

"A little self-criticism here, but in the final days of their activities in Izu the Technicians drove Patron into a corner as he agonized over how to keep the church from self-destructing-which resulted in the Somersault. The Technicians didn't learn a thing; they went ahead and killed Guide. So I can't just sit back idly in regards to what the Quiet Women are up to.

"Now that Patron's awakened from his long hibernation, for our part, we have to work steadily, starting in the fall, to build his new church: the Church of the New Man."

Ikuo studied Ogi as he listened to Mr. Hanawa. Thin clouds covered the sky, and the pale light brought out Ikuo's high cheekbones and deep eye sockets in stark comic-book fashion.

Once he opened his mouth, Ikuo's words were measured. "The Quiet Women are on fire after Patron's announcement, but I don't think they've settled on a definite program. According to Dancer, Asa-san and Ms. Tachibana have misgivings. Since the Quiet Women lived so long in an isolated environment, it's understandable that their sermons tend to be narrow and obsessive. But we've also got to give them credit, as a group of women who've gone through a lot."

"Well, if you put it that way," Mr. Hanawa said, "the Technicians are a closed-off, self-righteous sect too. That's something they'll have to be aware of as they participate in the construction of the new church. They'll have to let Patron's intentions seep into their consciousness and get feedback from the entire body of the church; otherwise it'll have been pointless for Patron and all of us to have come to live in this place… At any rate, until Patron points us in the right direction in his sermon at the summer conference, we need to concentrate on building up the farm as our economic base. I'd appre- ciate it if you'd let the office staff know this."