Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

Applause rang out from three sides of the lake. On the wooden scaf- folding on the cypress island, Guide's Spirit thrust out his papier-mâché chest. Once more the Guide doll at the grandstands lifted up the micro- phone, and the crowd became so quiet one could hear the cries of insects for a moment.

"Now, this young man who first viewed the Somersault in a positive way came to me, as you see him in the triptych in the chapel, as Yonah. In addition to what he's actually said to me, I have also imagined the appeal he's making to me silently. What he really wanted to ask me, I think, was whether I did the Somersault in order to be the kind of Lord who could rewrite the ending of the book of Jonah. Even if I wasn't that sort of Lord, he wanted me to know that I could be--I could rewrite the book of Jonah.

"Here I'd like to re-create what I imagine Yonah's words to be.

"Since you are a person who can communicate directly with God, he'd say, isn't it possible for you to become another Lord yourself? You're the person who made a fool out of God. Even after God decided against de- stroying the people, children, and cattle of Nineveh, you're the Lord who can raise his voice in protest! You're the Lord who can call not just on Nineveh but on the whole world, to repent as it faces the end time-the Lord who can defend the original calling.

"When I was a child, Yonah would continue, I heard the voice of God telling me to take action! And I obeyed this voice. But afterward I never heard the voice of God again. I suffered, thinking the reason must lie with me. But it was God who erased this call. Just like Jonah, I have the right to protest.

"Transmit this protest to God for me! If God still continues to cancel out his call, then I want you-as someone with the courage to make a fool of God-to give me your own special call. Tell me to take action!

"Because you had done a Somersault, when I met you I thought I'd finally met a person who could rewrite the ending of the Book of Jonah, something I've longed to do for such a long time. Let me and my friends stand by, awaiting your call.

"I think this was the young man's appeal to me as Yonah.

"Yonah knew that the Somersault Guide and I did was a decision we were forced into by the tense situation between the Izu radical faction and the authorities, and that carrying it out, we knew, would have great after- effects on church members throughout the country. Over the past ten years this has become public knowledge through reports in weekly magazines and other media. Yonah had to be aware of this.

"But Yonah saw a relationship with God in this very dilemma Guide and I found ourselves in. If Guide had shot back the following question to Yonah, this would only have created the grounds for Yonah to question us: "Yonah, Guide might have said, have you considered one other possibil- ity? That even before the Somersault neither Patron nor I ever believed in a tran- scendental being? Just like most Japanese! Still less did we believe in the possibility that we were mediating for God. That this whole setup of Patron's coming into direct contact with God through his trances and me relating the visions he had is nothing but a bunch of nonsense we made up ourselves?

"Yonah would be shocked at first on hearing this. No doubt, though, he would come back with his own fearless response. By your Somersault, he'd say, you made a fool of God, Patron. But can you make a fool of something that doesn't exist? The fact that you had no choice but to do the Somersault is inescap- able proof that God appeared to you. Patron acted as he did in front of the TV cameras at the time of the Somersault, but if you think he did it for the viewers, you're greatly mistaken. He did it for the sake of God, a God who is real.

"Yonah's positive questions have made me ponder things, and I now recognize that I made a fool of a God who is real though silent, a God who is definitely keeping watch on me. And because this is so, the descent into hell awaited me after the Somersault. If Guide and I really broke all connections with the other side through the Somersault, why in the world would we have to suffer in hell?

"What was it like to live as Patron? I'd like to review this very briefly for you. Through the trances-that I couldn't willfully produce or distance myself from-I had visions that became a part of me. That's how I spent the better part of my life. Still, though, if people ask me if I saw God's face or heard his voice, or ask me what the face and voice of God are like, I can't say.

"I was asked this once by a lady who helped pave the way for our move here. The former diplomat who spent his final years in the Hollow after retire- ment tried his hand at writing a science fiction story. The plot apparently involved a being from another universe that covered the planet like a weather system and sent out messages. When I was in the midst of a trance it was like this-as if I were a mushroom in the middle of a wind stream.

"Friends, after I moved into my residence here in the Hollow I've been scattering sunflower seeds under the eaves of the second floor. The nuthatches have taken over, chasing away all other little birds. They eat a few of the seeds right there and take some away to hide for later. While they're gathering their sunflower seeds they're quite bold, but just as they're about to fly away they do a complete about-face, screeching as if they've been overcome by fear.

"When I awoke from my trances, the kind of mutterings I spewed forth were just like the screeching of those birds. Guide was the one who made them intelligible. That's how I became a mediator for God's word. Guide devoted his life to it. Then came the Somersault. Yes, Guide and I were driven into a corner, put in a real fix by the radical faction. But did I have to go so far as to make a fool of the God I was intimate with? It's become clear to me as I've mulled over Yonah's questions that this was absolutely necessary. There was no other choice.

"By making a fool of God, Guide and I made a confession of faith. It's clear to me now that fear of our followers committing mass suicide was just an excuse. If that's all it was, there would have been other ways out.

"Using that image of God as expressing himself through the weather, Guide and I, like tiny mushrooms shaking in the wind, had to suffer. But by making a fool of God, the existence of this wind-stream God took on an even greater reality.

"Before Guide was murdered, when he and I were living in seclusion, I had a pitiful little dream about the future. Time would pass, I dreamed, and the world would forget about us, and just at that point my trances would re- turn. I would go over to the other side with a sense of nostalgia, I'd come back in a weakened state, and while I recovered Guide would explain what all my senseless mutterings meant. And weren't we, at this moment, even more deeply, even more really, just small mushrooms in the rush of wind that is the Lord?

"Before this could occur, though, Guide was killed. Truthfully, I only made up my mind to rebuild the church after this happened. With Guide gone, I announced the rebuilding of the church to all of you-for all the world like one of those little birds giving out a scared, flustered screech.

"But having done the Somersault, and now without Guide by my side, would I really be able to lead the church? It was Yonah who made me push aside my hesitancy. This was the calling I got from him, to be the one who made a fool of God, the one who, still protesting against him, could continue to be a mediator. After Guide was murdered, I was searching for a new Guide.

Professor Kizu, Morio, and our young Yonah himself may all have been new Guides. That being the case, the triptych in the chapel is the most suitable painting for our church.