Ichiyo Higuchi (bottom)

The time when Higuchi Ichiyo was active was the "Red Dew Era" in Japanese literary circles: the golden age headed by Ozaki Momiji and Koda Rohan. Ozaki Momiji's most famous work is "Golden Yaksha". "Golden Yasha" is a novel that has been serialized in the "Yomiuri Shimbun" for 5 years. As for Koda Rohan, he and Ozaki are classmates, and his famous work is "Five-Story Pagoda". The two writers have different writing styles. At that time, it was described as follows: Ozaki Momiji of realism, Rohan Koda of idealism [Note 1].

In this literary atmosphere, Higuchi Ichiyo's works were accepted and loved by the people at that time. In particular, it is rare for her works to write about women of that era from a female perspective. Introduce two articles "Big New Year's Eve" (大つごもり) and "Childhood Bamboo Horse" (たけくらべ).

"New Year's Eve" tells the story of the heroine, Feng, who works as a domestic helper in a mean and unkind family. Ah Feng accidentally broke the bottom of the bucket, and his wife was very dissatisfied. The barrel mouth described the lady's meanness like this:

……Although I don’t know how much this bucket is worth, my wife has a terrible blue vein on her forehead as if she is going to go bankrupt because of this bucket. She has been staring at me since serving breakfast. The next day, he started nitpicking and scolding day and night, "The things in this house are not free. If you don't cherish what belongs to the owner, you will be punished by God." I felt ashamed to myself that I was scolded every time someone came to visit, and then I was extra cautious about everything, and finally it didn't go wrong again. (page 44)

After reading this, I immediately remembered "A Xin's Story". It was the first time that A Xin worked as a servant in a lumber shop and was treated harshly by the housekeeper. Makes people feel sympathy for Afeng.

At that time, Ah Feng's only relative, his uncle, was ill, and Ah Feng was eager to visit him. The emperor lived up to his expectations, and finally got the master's consent to visit. However, the uncle asked Ah Feng a difficult problem, hoping that she would borrow money from the master so that he could repay the debt.

Ah Feng knew very well that if the family treated the servants like this, they might borrow money. But Ah Feng still tried to do it, and handed over the money to his younger brother before New Year's Eve. The wife agreed to her vaguely at first, but unfortunately, the family's prodigal Ishinosuke came home a few days before New Year's Eve, causing everyone to worry. So when Ah Feng mentioned borrowing money to his wife again, his wife naturally took it as nothing, which made Ah Feng hate his wife:

It's not a huge amount, but it's only two yuan, and it's clearly promised, how could it be so confusing and forget it in less than ten days! Isn't there a stack of unused banknotes in the drawer of the stationery and inkstone? I didn't say ten, twenty or all, I just wanted two... (page 60)

For the sake of her uncle and them, she decided to take two one-dollar bills. However, when she handed over the money to her younger brother, she regretted it: she was worried that her wife would learn of her crime, and she was even more worried that her uncle would be implicated, because her uncle did not know that she stole it.

On New Year's Eve, Shi Nosuke, the prodigal son, took money from his parents, but the owner had no choice but to take a stack of fifty-yen bills. After Ishinosuke left, his wife "was chewing her tongue again as usual" (pp. 66, 67), and of course Ah Feng was afraid. So the whole night was "a heart wandering around the drawer of the inkstone" (p. 67).

Because it is a business, there will always be a settlement on the New Year's Eve, all the money in the family will be reconciled and sealed and sealed. At this moment, the wife remembered that there was money in the drawer, so she led Ah Feng to get it to her. Of course, Ah Feng could only do as he did. Thinking about how things would develop in the future, he opened the drawer, the banknotes were gone, and he saw only a receipt. It turned out that Ishinosuke even took the money from this drawer.

Higuchi has always been plagued by his father's debts, so Afeng has more or less the shadow of Higuchi. How much Ah Feng wanted to get money to help his uncle. However, since Ah Feng "heartedly" stealing money, he is very worried that he will be exposed. I like the author's description of how the wife takes Ah Feng to the drawer to give her money:

Ah Feng thought to himself, now that my life is over, I will tell the whole story in front of the master, and boldly say that my wife is ruthless! Since there is nothing you can do, keep your honesty, neither escape nor hide, although I don't want to, but since I stole it, I will confess my guilt. Only my uncle is not an accomplice, I must tell the truth to the end. If they don't believe it, then I will bite my tongue and kill myself on the spot. They will never think it's a lie. After Ah Feng was so courageous, he walked to the inner room, feeling like a lamb to be slaughtered. (page 68)

The ending of the story seems to leave a tail, which is also very interesting:

...As a result, no one interrogated Ah Feng. Did the filial Yu De unknowingly convert Ah Feng's crime into Ishinosuke? No, no, maybe it was Ishinosuke who knew that he helped her to take the blame, then Ishinosuke became Afeng's patron saint. I really want to know what happens next! (page 69)

The author made the ending suspenseful, making people like me think that Afeng was in pain because of being held by Ishinosuke? This idea is not unreasonable, because the status of women in those days was too low. Ashin in "The Story of Ashin" is an example.

Another favorite piece is "Childhoods". The protagonists of the story are Tomiko of Daikokuya and Shinru of Longhua Temple. Both grew up in Yoshiwara and studied at the same school. The two are actually very clear about their future destiny: Tomiko will become a wandering girl when she grows up because her sister is a famous prostitute of Yoshihara; , even contrary to the Buddha's teaching:

...... Even his father felt shameful when he recited Buddha in the morning and settled accounts in the evening, holding an abacus in his hand and smiling, making him resent why his father had to shave his head to become a monk! (page 120)

The two did spend some time playing with each other. As I grew up, some caring actions were teased as gossip by classmates:

...... The scene of Meriden taking care of him was seen by jealous people among his friends, who said, "Fujimoto is obviously a monk and still talking to girls. It's ridiculous to see him happily thank you! Meriden will probably become Fujimoto. Wife, right? Since she is the abbot's wife, she is Da Heiniang." Everyone was talking about it, Xin Ru always hated other people's gossip, and always turned his head away with an unhappy face, how could he hear what he was talking about? bear it. From then on, every time he heard the name of Medanley, he was very scared. He was afraid that his friends would mention it again, and he felt unhappy in his heart. ......Midley didn't notice this, and at first he would call him "Fujimoto, Fujimoto" affectionately, ......but after one after another, she naturally felt that Shin was deliberately playing tricks on her, obviously not to others, but to herself Always showing a ruthless attitude...Meridon didn't know what to do, and there was no way to please him, so he just regarded him as an unpleasant, eccentric person who liked to get angry and teasing people. Since he didn't regard him as a friend, Stop talking to him. ...I don't know when it started, it was like a huge river running between the two of them, as if the passage of boats and rafts was prohibited, the two of them could only go their separate ways along the riverbank. (pages 104-106)

This is a typical teenage change. After that, something happened that made Mei Xing Deng hate him even more. In fact, that incident was not directly related to Xinru, but Xinru did not make any remedy, which made their rift deeper. But deep down, the two are still in love with each other. One day, Xinru was having an affair and it was raining, but he didn't bring an umbrella, and he broke the clog belt on the way. He was most stressed because he stopped in front of the big black house, in front of the Medley's house. At this moment, Midnley saw the letter such as:

As soon as he saw who it was, Midnley's face immediately turned red, as if something major had happened, and his heart was racing. Afraid of being seen, she had to look back and approached the door tremblingly. Xinru suddenly turned around, and he silently sweated coldly under his arm, wishing to escape barefoot. (page 133)

What is the fate of the two of them? Will it be reconciled? That's for everyone to read.

Because Higuchi opened a grocery store near Yoshiwara, he was able to carefully describe the wandering girls who lived in Yoshiwara, as well as those who depended on the industry for a living. This may not be special today, but back in the Meiji era, it would be different.

Most of Higuchi's works are from the perspective of women, so that readers at that time, and even today's readers, can understand how women in the Meiji era faced life difficulties.

～～～～～～～～

[Note 1] Koda Rohan (Wiki) -
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koda Rohan

(New translation) Ichiyo Higuchi's Ukiyo-e in Tokyo Shimomachi: Contains Yoshihara's Elegy "Childhood" and other inexhaustible love (from blog) -
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010727604