Kenzaburo Oe - Somersault

Patron's church doesn't commit criminal acts like Aum Shinrikyo, she went on. According to reports on TV and the weekly magazines, Patron's Somersault took place because he anticipated the danger of his church becom- ing Aum-like and wanted to nip any terrorist plans in the bud. The death of Guide reported not long ago was the work of a terrorist group that has been hostile to Patron ever since the Somersault, with the church its victim. After ten painful years of self-reflection, Patron had chosen this place to build his church anew. Why not just let it happen?

After Mr. Soda and his secretary left, Ogi and Dancer heard more details about all this from the head priest of the Fushoku temple and from Asa-san herself. Once this conversation drew to a close, they set off in their rental car, Asa-san leading the way in her own car, Mr. Matsuo as their guide, and drove from the temple to the Hollow. It was already late afternoon, and a strong late-rainy-season downpour was falling.

Right after descending to the river from the temple they came across the newly completed bridge connecting up to the bypass leading to the cross- Shikoku highway. Mr. Matsuo explained how in crossing it they would pass by the road leading down to the Hollow, but today, since he wanted them to remember the lay of the land as it used to be in this region, they drove along the old main road on this side of the riverbank.

The Kame River is lined with dikes now, he said, and is no longer a wild river-it used to flood its banks every year-yet if the water filling the man- made lake to its brim overflowed, Old Town would be flooded. According to Mr. Matsuo, this fact lay behind the wariness with which the residents of Old Town viewed the followers of the Church of the Flaming Green Tree- who lived, at that time, in the chapel and in tents in the banks of the lake- and also lay behind the movement opposing this newest church.

Besides introducing them to the special topographic features of the region, Mr. Matsuo also related some of the highlights of local history. Dancer didn't say anything while she sat next to Mr. Matsuo in the front passenger seat, but when she was alone with Ogi she complained. "That priest thinks that since our church is moving to these woods we have to revere their his- tory just like he does. But aren't Patron and all of us going to create a new history in this region?" she grumbled.

All complaints aside, when they crossed a ridge filled with red pines, began descending a slope, and cut through a dark road filled with tall bam- boo trees, Dancer looked up to the rise above her, filled with layers of wind- swept deciduous and coniferous trees, and felt her breath taken away.

The road began to climb up again. Although it was paved, it was more like a mountain path, with wild grasses on either side, and with raindrops dripping down from the thick oaks and beeches it felt like they were cutting through a deep forest. As soon as they emerged into the open, they came across a dam, like a huge wall blocking the way. Beside it, Asa-san, who'd preceded them, was parked in a flat spot and stood beside her car, umbrella open and extra ones under her arm.

They opened up the umbrellas, each of which had the mark of a tree done in the style of a woodblock print-umbrellas left over, it turned out, from the Church of the Flaming Green Tree. Asa-san told them that there were plenty of extra raincoats and high boots too, items essential to life here be- tween river and woods, stored in the shed at the monastery, and they should feel free to borrow them. They all then trooped up a railless stairway carved out of the outer wall of the dam.

"This lake that was made when the water was dammed up was also the work of some young people in this area involved in a group called the Base Movement. They flooded the plain, leaving the trees standing to make the lake, and one huge tree we call the Hollow's Cypress rises above the water on a bit of land, like some island that's been there forever."

"Asa-san was a main actor in one act of recent history that took place there," Mr. Matsuo said, as he brought up the rear.

Asa-san, who was first to the top of the dam, riveted her eyes on the rain- pounded misty surface of the lake and the overgrown island with its huge cypress, but she didn't follow up on what Mr. Matsuo said. All of them- Dancer, Ogi, and even Mr. Matsuo, who scrambled up on top of the dam last- fell silent for a while as they gazed at the scene.

In the now unimpeded field of vision, the rain fell on the conifers, rais- ing a mist around them and on the dark green of the broad-leafed forest, making its darkness brim with vigor, sending up splashes on the slightly clouded surface of the lake. On the small island near the north shore, the unusually large cypress towered upward, so high the top disappeared in the fog swirling about it, with only its charred trunk near the lake's surface and the thick, intertwined branches, the life force of the tree, visible.

On the east side of the lake, to the right, stood a wet, bright gray-blue cylinder with a gently sloping, conical roof: the chapel. On each side of the roof a half-globe skylight swelled out, showing a faint golden luster. To the west of the chapel an ancient-looking stone wall ran up to the southern edge of the dam, and above this loomed a Western-style shed-shaped monastery-the dormito- ries, in other words-a courtyard between them, with two parallel rows of roof tiles, the one nearer the forest slightly higher than the one in front.

As Ogi and Dancer stood absorbed in the scenery, Asa-san spoke content- edly to them in a way that left no doubt what a basically decent person she was.

"The huge cypress is trying its best to be as full of greenery as the stand of camphors on the slope to the north, isn't it? If you stand at a different angle, though, it looks horrible, like a blackened, charred pillar. Even from here you can see that a little. Fifteen years ago, the withered branches were burnt, you see. I find it hard to believe now, but that was Brother Gii's one and only sav- age act."

"There's no need to recite the whole of recent history, now, is there?"

Mr. Matsuo gently chided her.

Asa-san readily turned to more practical matters. "That patchwork- colored area just in Iront of the camphors used to be a tangerine orchard," she said. "And do you see that prefab building off to one side? We haven't taken as good care of it as we should, so the branches all around are overgrown and you can only see the roof. I inherited that house, and your church asked to buy it from me. I've decided to accept their offer and have it fixed up so you all can use it. The monastery will have to be thoroughly cleaned, I'm sure, before it's livable. In the meanwhile you can live in that prefab building on the north shore."

"When she decides to support something, Asa-san doesn't fool around,"

Mr. Matsuo added, putting Ogi's thoughts into words.

Asa-san turned her face, the freckles standing out on her prominent cheekbones, toward the lake and directed a languid look at its surface. Her expression looked sad, but when she spoke her voice was full of conviction.

"I'm already old, having spent most of my life right here," she said, "and I've seen a lot of tragic but compelling things happen here in the Hollow- everything from the Base Movement to the Church of the Flaming Green Tree. After the church disappeared, though, the young workers in this area just seemed to shrivel up and die, and even a staunch supporter like Mr. Matsuo went back to his temple.

"I was worried that the local spirits might get too frustrated. That's what happened just before and after the Meiji Restoration, when the riots took place.

The local spirits here have a history of stirring things up. And just while I was thinking these things, look what happened-you all decided to take over the chapel and monastery! I feel revitalized now, and I'm hoping that before I pass away something exciting will happen, just like the old days! Admit it, Mr. Matsuo, you feel the same way, don't you? The other day I stopped by the Church of the Flaming Green Tree Farm, and things seem much livelier than before. You all don't know about the Farm yet, but Mr. Soda has been interested in it for quite some time. The wife of the church's founder, who helped build the chapel and planned the monasteries, is running it with a small number of friends."