time is approaching, and I am happy to know that she is doing well. But since she is our only daughter, and since in addition it is her first child, we would like her to give birth at our house, if it is possible. There are many such cases, but in this case, since my wife and I (and particularly my wife) greatly desire it, I should appreciate your granting our request, selfish though it may be. Depending on your answer, we are ready to send someone to fetch her when it is convenient for you.
"My mother has no objections, but what do you think?" Shinzo asked, after he had let Ichi read the letter. "We should forget now about your hesitation and reserve. I want to know what you really want."
It was teatime, after supper, and Kyunosuke, Tatsuya, and Iso were also there. Ichi indicated that she wanted to think about it for a while, but soon answered firmly that she wanted to give birth in her husband's house and that she was not going back to her parents'. The truth was that she would have felt safer and more relaxed at her parents' house. As a girl she had often heard people say that "so-and-so is now at her parents' house to give birth," and there must have been a good reason for it. But again Ichi remembered Bennosuke's words and could not bring herself to say that she would go home.
"But don't you think your parents would feel bad, since they want you to go home?" Iso asked, as if she had not expected this answer from Ichi. "In any event, it's your first childbirth. I think you'll feel more secure when the time comes if you're with your parents."
"I don't think so," Kyunosuke said as if angry. "Since mother has had experience giving birth to and raising three children, and since we have enough servants, I don't think we should bother the Okumuras. I think that what Ichi said is right."
"That may be true, but you really feel helpless with the first childbirth, though Kyunosuke may not be able to understand this since he's a man."
"Anyway, think it over for a while and let me have your answer later," Shinzo told Ichi. "It's not something you should decide in a hurry, and it won't be too late after you've thought it over well. . . . No, Kyunosuke, that's all right," Shinzo added. "I know exactly what your opinion is."
Kyunosuke had been about to say something and seemed unhappy at being cut off. Only Tatsuya had been silent from the beginning, absorbed as usual in using his fan and wiping perspiration. When they had finished talking, however, he said something strange.
"I've heard they wrap hemp around a dog's belly, and then it can give birth to its young rather easily."
"Around a dog's belly?" Iso asked him, shocked. "Sometimes you say things we can't understand, Tatsuya. ..."
"Since I heard it from someone, I don't know whether it's true or not. It's probably a superstition, but I heard that everyone does it."
"From whom did you hear this?" Iso asked.
"You know the old man named Josuke—the one who brings vegetables to the kitchen? . . . From that old farmer." Tatsuya blinked his puffy, drooping eyes. "And I also heard that Josuke's wife is very good at delivering babies. They say there will never be a mistake if his wife is asked to attend any dangerous childbirth."
Iso's eyes widened. "Why did you get into such a conversation? Isn't that old man a queer person to have told you such a thing!"
"Oh no, that old man and Tatsuya talk about anything," Kyunosuke said, coming to his brother's rescue. "When I was listening to him the other day, he was so proud of having made an eggplant bear 416 fruits. He was saying something about fertilizer, wasn't he, Tatsuya? Hasn't he been coming here for a long time?"
"Well, another old man named Heishichi had been coming here until year before last. Since Josuke is the successor to that man, it's been almost two years."
"Anyway, he's able to get along with Tatsuya. He chats for long hours, unaware that the greens he's brought are withering. You know, the other day ..."
Ichi, thinking over Tatsuya's words, was moved. When she had heard about wrapping hemp around a dog's belly, she had almost laughed. But in his own way Tatsuya was showing concern about her.
Ichi also knew that the farmer would chat for long hours with Tatsuya whenever he came. He was a short, small old man with a flabby body, looking more like a retired townsman than a farmer. His clothes were neat, and the strings of his sedge hat were always white as though freshly washed. The farmer would sit on the stump of a paulownia beside the hut in which the firewood was stored, take out a tobacco case, old and worn and made of India leather, and talk and smoke simultaneously. His topics of conversation were never the same. He could be said to have a simple, honest personality. He always put the year, month, and date at the beginning of his conversation: "Since it was the Year of the Tiger, it must have been such-and-such year, such-and-such month, such-and-such day." That was his way of talking, and Tatsuya would listen with enjoyment from his room, leaning over the window or sitting on the window sill.
The Kugata family had always made it a practice to talk to everyone as equals, and when Ichi listened to the conversations between Tatsuya and Josuke, they sounded like conversations between friends. Now she could imagine them talking about a charm for easy delivery.
A few days later Ichi again told the family that she was not going back to her parents' house, and the Okumuras were informed through Shinzo. The wife of Chusai Yonezawa, a family doctor of the clan, was skilled at examining pregnant women, and Ichi had therefore been consulting her from the beginning of her pregnancy. Each time she was examined, the foetus had grown so well that the doctor's wife was satisfied, and Ichi was told that she was doing very well. She had been performing exorcisms on tabu days and trying to observe the prohibitions and warnings about foods, ways of sleeping, and compass directions. After she had definitely decided not to go back to her parents' house, she became more cautious and tried to avoid everything that pregnant women were said to detest, even though such sayings were probably only superstitions.
After the letter of refusal had been sent to the Okumuras, Ichi's mother sent her a letter together with an amulet to ensure an easy delivery.
I don't think it will happen, but if the baby refuses to come out at the time of delivery, you should write down the word "ISE" with India ink on white paper, and swallow the paper. The word "ISE" consists of the characters which mean "this is one who has power to be born," and it has long been said that to swallow it draws the grace of the gods remarkably well.
The letter also contained a kaiba (a dried sea fish resembling a dragon) and a cowrie shell, the name of which, koyasugai, means "safe delivery."
Since her husband was again late in returning from the castle, Ichi brought the objects to the living room after supper and showed them to him.
"Giving birth to a child is really something." Shinzo forced a smile. "This one is called kaiba, isn't it? What is this shell called?"
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