Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

"Some people say the cancer that was removed in the United States came back, but since a fair amount of tests concluded that he didn't have any can- cer before this, I'd say cancer snuck up on him for a third time and this time got the better of him. Kizu was in my clinic until spring. Since he was resigned to what was going to happen, he really wanted to go back to stay in his house in the Hollow, so Ms. Asuka devoted herself to nursing him. Former Brother Gii had planted a lot of cherry trees on the east slope as part of his Beautiful Village project, and Professor Kizu passed away when they were in lull bloom.

"The Red Cross doctor and myself were both convinced that when Pro- fessor Kizu came here to live with Patron his cancer had disappeared. Opin- ion is divided, though, about whether he had cancer from the beginning or not. But once Patron was gone, the cancer rallied for a full frontal attack and did him in. After he returned to the Hollow, Professor Kizu didn't fear his cancer; death didn't bother him anymore. It was as if he'd conquered cancer and wanted to die. The cancer ravaged all his organs, and it was a pointless struggle.

"I'll let Ikuo tell you how Professor Kizu spent his final moments, since I wasn't there at the very end. Ms. Asuka seemed at a loss as usual, but also quite in control, and reported that she thought Kizu might not make it through the night so Ikuo should come attend to him. She doesn't have an ounce of sentimentality, though when Professor Kizu was in the hospital she stayed in his room the whole time. She's an unforgettable person, Ms. Asuka.

Professor Kizu too, of course."

The story of Kizu's final moments that Ikuo told to Ogi-not at all what Ms. Asuka anticipated, with Dancer there as well-he said he'd add later on.

Ikuo's later letter, written on the model Ms. Tsugane set for first drafts in that it left nothing out-proved helpful in this regard.

This letter contained details that Ikuo found hard to talk about that day in the chapel especially since all this became the basis for a turnabout in Ikuo's life. Even as an outside observer Ogi could sense, in this visit to the Hollow, how much Ikuo had gone through in a year's time, and this made him real- ize how in his own past year with Mrs. Tsugane he too had changed.

After Ikuo and Ogi had talked together for nearly an hour, Gii came over to the space heater with Fred and said that he and the Fireflies had to do some snow removal so he'd await their visit in the afternoon, and left the chapel alone. Fred seemed to be dying to tell Ikuo something about what he and Gii had discussed, so Ogi left his talk with Ikuo for later.

Ikuo spoke in English with Fred. The type of English they spoke- Fred's, of course, but also Ikuo's, who had been bilingual since childhood- was not the type of English Ogi was used to hearing. But once the conversation had settled down on track and he retrospectively picked up on what they'd said and outlined their conversation in his notebook, he was able to follow the general drift.

At first Fred seemed to be sounding out Ikuo, holding some mysteri- ous trump card in reserve. Repeatedly he asked Ikuo whether there'd been any changes in Gii's way of thinking or his actions since the summer confer- ence. At last night's discussion, everyone seemed to take it for granted that Gii was going to be the successor to the Church of the New Man. But wasn't Gii just being pushed forward like some automaton? After Patron's death, among those influential in the church, the hard-line remnants of the radical faction left the Farm together with Mr. Hanawa, and the police and the media had sounded a warning about allowing the Technicians who remained to hold any power in the church. Wasn't the way the church dealt with this-having a young boy like Gii as the front man-just a smoke screen?

Ogi couldn't catch all of what Ikuo replied in English, not because he spoke too quickly but because of the content. Still, he could tell that Ikuo, very patiently and meticulously, was responding to Fred's provocative questions.

But what really remained with Ogi was the change in Ikuo since they'd last met. He'd swept away the dangerous instability of old, the rebelliousness and negativism, the violence that even he himself couldn't control. Very clearly Ikuo was Yonah no more.

Since the summer conference finale ended as it did, Ikuo said, Gii and the Fireflies, who were deeply involved, were naturally shaken. Especially Gii, who showed his own unique reaction to events. He was furious that the per- formance with which the Fireflies had planned to wrap up the summer con- ference was upstaged by Patron's and Ikuo's plans. The reconciliation began only when Ikuo explained to the Fireflies how at the very last minute Patron had turned the tables on him.

After this, nestling up close to where Gii's thoughts took him, Ikuo opened up an even deeper dialogue with the boys. The first thing Gii said was this: His principle for living was to deny defeatism. In this point he evaluated Patron's church more highly than Former Brother Gii's Base Movement or the Church of the Flaming Green Tree. But in the end wasn't Patron the most defeatist of all? He didn't seriously ever plan to set up and run a church here in the Hollow. Instead, didn't he just use this whole thing as a public spec- tacle to finally do what he couldn't at the time of the Somersault-commit suicide? "I find it hard to forgive him for using our legend of the Spirit Fes- tival the way he did," Gii said.

But Ikuo patiently went on explaining things and finally Gii and the others admitted that, yes, before Patron had the idea of committing suicide at the finale of the summer conference, they'd been able to carry out the Spirit Festival, with Guide's spirit included, and that performing this Spirit Festi- val in front of so many people from all over the country was the plan they themselves had so strenuously pushed forward. And it was true that Patron, when he felt he had no other way out and reluctantly made use of the Spirit Festival, did it in a way that showed great respect for the Spirits.

As for defeatism, since Patron actually did commit suicide I can't de- fend him, Ikuo went on, but can't you young people be a little more gener- ous? Consider this: When people who've passed a certain age think about how they can wind up their affairs as best they can-and you could see in Patron's final sermon the effort he made to do this-and then commit suicide, this suicide may be just like the heroic but miserable and comic suicide of the African Cato that Patron spoke of, a variation of an honest and real effort at life.

It was Patron's fervent hope to build his Church of the New Man here, in this land. And hasn't that been accomplished? The Quiet Women were bent on their own plan to take the cyanide, but look at them now-they've accepted Patron's final request and are doing their utmost to help run things at the Hollow. There's no hint now of something happening like with Ameri- can cultists who all want to make a beeline to heaven en masse. These women have an experienced, healthy, realistic view of things and have developed a good relationship with the local women. Right now they're so close they go off together to the Mountain Stream Where Twenty-five Refined Ladies Shat and have a good time together picking butterbur.

It's true the Technicians split in half, and one faction left. But the other faction stayed, abandoned the agreements made by the leaders of the Tech- nicians before the summer conference, and formulated a new policy of full cooperation with the church. Aren't the Technicians friendlier and nicer to us and to each other than ever before? Look at the way we're working to- gether to teach you and the other Fireflies.

After listening to these details, Fred asked a question. "With the Church of the New Man starting off as it did, the position of leader, Patron's replace- ment, is vacant. And everyone-the office staff, the Quiet Women, and, more strongly than anyone else, according to Dr. Koga, the Technicians-agrees that Gii will assume that responsibility. How did this happen?"