The Yotsuya Kwaidan | Page 7

time of service came Densuké
appeared in full uniform and with his pike. A handsome young fellow
of nineteen years, the women, especially O'Mino, saw to it that his
appearance should be a credit to the House. His progress up the wide
Samoncho[u], up to his disappearance into the great highway, was
watched by O'Mino--and by the neighbours, who had much sharper
eyes and tongues than Matazaémon and his wife. They marvelled.
With ground for marvel. In the eyes of her parents O'Mino was the
most beautiful creature ever created. Occasionally Matazaémon would
venture on criticism. "Naka, something is to be said to Mino. Too much
powder is used on the face. Unless the colour of the skin be very dark,
the use of too much powder is not good. Mino is to be warned against
excess." Thus spoke the official in his most official tone and manner.
Wife and daughter heard and disobeyed; the wife because she was ruled
by her daughter, and the daughter because she would emulate the fair
skin of Densuké and be fairer in his eyes. O'Mino had suffered both
from fate and fortune. She had been born ugly; with broad, flat face like
unto the moon at full, or a dish. Her back was a little humped, her arms
disproportionately long, losing in plumpness what they gained in
extension. She seemed to have no breasts at all, the chest forming a
concavity in correspondence to the convexity of the back, with a
smoothness much like the inner surface of a bowl. This perhaps was no
disadvantage--under the conditions. So much for fate. But fortune had
been no kinder. "Blooming" into girlhood, she had been attacked by
smallpox. Matazaémon was busy, and knew nothing of sick nursing.
O'Naka was equally ignorant, though she was well intentioned. Of
course the then serving wench knew no more than her mistress. O'Mino
was allowed to claw her countenance and body, as the itching of the
sores drove her nearly frantic. In fact, O'Naka in her charity aided her.
The result was that she was most hideously pock-marked. Furthermore,
the disease cost her an eye, leaving a cavity, a gaping and unsightly
wound, comparable to the dumplings called kuzumanju, white puffy
masses of rice dough with a depression in the centre marked by a dab
of the dark-brown bean paste. The neighbours used to say that O'Mino
was nin san baké shichi--that is, three parts human and seven parts
apparition. The more critical reduced her humanity to the factor one.

The children had no name for her but "Oni" (fiend). They had reason
for this. They would not play with her, and treated her most cruelly.
O'Mino, who was of no mild temperament, soon learned to retaliate by
use of an unusually robust frame, to which was united by nature and
circumstances her father's acidity of character. When the odds were not
too great all the tears were not on O'Mino's side; but she suffered
greatly, and learned with years that the Tamiya garden was her safest
playground.
O'Mino grew into a woman. Affection had to find some outlet. Not on
the practical and very prosaic mother; not on the absorbed and crabbed
father; but on Densuké, on the samurai's attendant or chu[u]gen, it fell.
All manner of little services were rendered to him; even such as would
appropriately fall within his own performance. At first O'Mino sought
out little missions for him to perform, out of the line of his usual duties,
and well rewarded in coin. This was at his first appearance in the house.
Then she grew bolder. Densuké found his clothing undergoing
mysterious repairs and replacement. His washing, even down to the
loin cloths, was undertaken by the Ojo[u]san. Densuké did not dare to
question or thwart her. Any trifling fault O'Mino took on herself, as due
to her meddling. She became bolder and bolder, and sought his
assistance in her own duties, until finally they were as man and maid
employed in the same house. Matazaémon noted little increases in the
house expenses. O'Mino took these as due to her own extravagance.
The father grunted a little at these unusual expenditures. "What goes
out at one end must be cut off at the other end. Densuké, oil is very
expensive. At night a light is not needed. Be sure, therefore, on going
to bed to extinguish the light." Densuké at once obeyed his master's
order; and that very night, for the first time, O'Mino boldly sought his
couch. Confused, frightened, overpowered by a passionate woman,
Densuké sinned against his lord, with his master's daughter as
accomplice.
Henceforth Densuké had what O'Mino was willing to give him. On
Matazaémon's going forth to his duties, O'Mino, and O'Naka under her
orders, did all his household work. The