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260 HEROES, ROGUES, AND FOOLS I heard the sea was bad, so I hurried over a shortcut and asked at every sort of fisher’s hut for a boat to cross, but there was none to be had. I walked and walked and finally reached the promontory, where I was able to borrow a fishing boat, but I thought you might be hungry, and while I was getting a meal prepared for you, the thunder and rain grew severe. Without intending to, I spent the day there and that’s why I’m so late. Since I didn’t describe all this before, you might have wondered about my loyalty.” But Yoshizane cut in: “What did I tell you! Neither Ujimoto nor I had any idea whether there would be a boat here waiting for us. If it hadn’t been for you, how would we now be able to go on to Awa tonight? How ingenious you are!” While Yoshizane lavished praises on Sadayuki, Ujimoto stroked his forehead and said, “What a great difference there is between talented and untalented people! In times like these, Sadayuki, doubts arise in one’s mind. My shallow heart had gone astray, and I’m afraid I held you in contempt, you, with such prudence,” he confessed with a smile. But Sadayuki held his stomach and burst out laughing. “This is how it should be between warriors—closer than the space between two double sabers,” said Yoshizane , also laughing. With that, Yoshizane turned toward Sadayuki and said, “While we were waiting to move on and waiting for you we obtained a gift of soil and saw a white dragon omen. I’ll tell you more in the boat.” As he listened to the lord’s words, the boatman raised his hand and summoned them, saying, “The moon is still bright and the wind is good, let’s hurry into the boat.” As the three got into their shaky little boat without any seat across, the boatman lifted the hawser and proceeded to row toward far-off Awa. translated by Ellen Widmer + + %  / 4 % (,  The Death of Funamushi KYOKUTEI BAKIN Illustrated Chiefly by Yanagawa Shigenobu and Keisai Eisen Z The twenty-eight years of the serialized publication of The Tale of the Eight Dog Warriors of the Satomi Clan spanned the author Kyokutei Bakin’s late middle age and senescence, a period during which he experienced a number of personal tragedies, HEROES, ROGUES, AND FOOLS 261 most notably the death of his much-loved son and the loss of his eyesight. Only by employing his daughter-in-law Omichi as his amanuensis was Bakin able to bring this masterpiece to completion. Further details of Bakin’s life and the general background of the novel may be found in the introduction to the earlier episode included in this volume. The Eight Dog Warriors is considered the most representative of the nineteenth-century “Edo yomihon,” so named because production and publication were centered in Edo, in contrast to the earlier “Kamigata yomihon ” produced in the Kyoto-Osaka region. Written in the typical yomihon style, the story mixes colloquial language with neoclassical Japanese and Chinese. Although Bakin, a tremendously prolific writer, tried his hand at other varieties of gesaku fiction, he is best known for his yomihon. His other masterpieces in this genre include Crescent Moon (Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki, 1807–1811) and Handsome Youths of Our Time (Kinsesetsu Bishōnen Roku, 1829–1848). A historical romance set in the fifteenth century, The Eight Dog Warriors takes as its central theme the restoration of the Satomi clan of Awa, in the southern part of what is now Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. As described in the introduction to the opening episode of The Eight Dog Warriors, Princess Fusehime’s immaculate conception and suicide result in the birth of eight heroes bearing a crystal bead marked with the symbol for one of the eight Confucian virtues. The novel as a whole depicts how the Eight Dog Warriors reunite through countless adventures that pit them against the forces of evil, ultimately resulting in their restoration of the Satomi clan. The sexual scheming of the female characters and the sadistic violence of this chapter belie the dull and moralistic image of the novel. Heavily influenced by The Water Margin and other Chinese vernacular novels, The Eight Dog Warriors as a whole is informed by the twin precepts of the Confucian encouragement of virtue and chastisement of vice (kanzen chōaku) and the Buddhist...

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