Hello, everyone. I’m in Ōsaka at the moment, so I’ll tell a story about Ōsaka.
Long ago, a man came to Ōsaka seeking an apprenticeship. I don’t know his
name. Because he was seeking work everywhere, even among the kitchen servants
and cooks, the story usually sticks him with the name Gonsuke.1
While wandering through the city, Gonsuke passed by the sign for an employment
agency. There was a clerk outside the door, chewing tobacco. Gonsuke asked him
about the services offered by the agency.
“Mr. Clerk, I want to become a wizard. I want to live somewhere that will
allow me to do that. Is this the right place?”
The clerk was taken aback and stood dumbstruck for a few moments.
“Mr. Clerk? Can you hear me? If I’m not in the right place, can you direct me
where to go?”
“I’m terribly sorry, but I know of no place where you can go to learn such
things,” the clerk said. He chewed his tobacco with greater agitation. “This
agency has never employed a wizard, to my knowledge. I must request that you
go elsewhere.”
Gonsuke was most displeased. He turned a pea-green color and rubbed at his
elbows. “That doesn’t make sense,” he said, voicing his opinion in plain
terms. “Can’t you read your own sign? It says you’ve been in business for
hundreds of years! You must have employed every kind of person in that time.
Or are you going to tell me that what’s written on the sign is a lie?” Gonsuke
asked, indignant.
"The sign tells no lies," the clerk said. "If you truly are seeking employment
as a wizard, return here tomorrow at the same time. I will make inquiries and
ensure that this office is well-prepared."
He was saying this mainly to stall, of course, but he did take Gonsuke's
concerns seriously. He'd never had anyone ask to be apprenticed to a wizard so
this was his first time riddling out all the logistics of such a request. For
now, he sent Gonsuke home, then went to visit a doctor who lived in the
neighborhood. He explained Gonsuke's situation to the doctor, then asked,
"What do you think? Being a doctor and being a wizard are pretty similar,
aren't they?" There was worry in his tone--he didn't want the doctor to
disagree with his assessment.
The doctor appeared troubled. He stood for awhile, frowning with his arms
folded as he stared out at the pine trees in his front garden.
The doctor's scheming wife overheard her husband and the clerk. "Have him come
and work in this house for a year or two," she said. "I am certain that he
will be able to become a wizard."
"Do you truly think so?" the doctor asked. "Then perhaps this will all turn
out for the best. It is possible that the path of a doctor and the path of a
wizard overlap more than I believe they do."
The clerk knew nothing of medicine or magic. He bowed to the doctor many times
in thanks and returned to his post with a lighter heart.
The doctor still wasn't certain that what he was about to do was right. He
watched the clerk leave, then turned to his wife. "I find it difficult to
understand your reasoning. If that man comes here to serve for a few years,
don't you think he'll notice that he's not learning any magic or wizardry at
all? What will we do when he figures it out?"
The doctor's wife didn't apologize for putting him in this tight spot. She
snorted, then said, "If he figures it out, say nothing. You are far too honest
for this harsh world. Honesty won't fill your belly or our coffers. Just leave
everything to me." The doctor's wife was his exact opposite in many ways.
The next day, Gonsuke accompanied the clerk to the doctor's house. He had
dressed up in a clean overcoat that had his family crest embroidered on it. In
all other ways, Gonsuke looked and acted like the son of a farmer.
The doctor looked into Gonsuke's face as if he were some exotic, smelly beast
from India. "I've heard that you want to become a wizard," the doctor said.
"Why is this your wish? Where did you come up with it?"
"Nowhere in particular," Gonsuke said. "I entered Ōsaka for the first time
recently and saw the magnificent palace of the lord of the city. It occurred
to me that even that great lord would die someday, despite all his wealth and
power. So I thought that I should like to become immortal."
"I see. And what kind of work would you be willing to do in order to attain
immortality?" the doctor's scheming wife asked.
"I would do any kind of work if it meant I would become immortal," Gonsuke
said.
"If that is so, then come here and work for the next twenty years," the doctor's
wife said. "At the end of twenty years, we will teach you how to become a
wizard."
"Really?" Gonsuke asked. "Thank you so much!"
"In exchange, for the next twenty years, you will work with no pay," the
doctor's scheming wife said.
"All right," Gonsuke said. "I agree."
And so Gonsuke was employed at the doctor's house for the next twenty years.
He drew water from the well. He chopped wood. He washed and folded clothes and
bedding. He cooked meals. When the doctor was absent from the house, he went
on his rounds with him, carrying the medicine box. He didn't receive a single
coin as payment for all this work. There was not a more hardworking--or
exploited--manservant in all of Japan.
At the end of twenty years, Gonsuke came to the doctor's house in the same
overcoat that he'd worn on his first day of work. He politely expressed his
gratitude for all he had learned from them, then said, "As you promised, I
would like to learn how to become an immortal wizard."
The doctor was lost for words. Gonsuke had worked for twenty years without
pay, so he had no right to say that he did not know how Gonsuke could become
an immortal wizard. The doctor turned to his wife and said, "If you desire to
become a wizard, you must ask instruction from the lady of the house."
The doctor's wife remained entirely calm. "Learning how to become an immortal
wizard is incredibly difficult. You must promise, Gonsuke, to do exactly as I
say. If you do not, you will never become a wizard, and if you do not die in
the attempt you must serve me for another twenty years without pay."
"Yes, mistress. I swear I will do exactly as you say, no matter how
difficult." He was overjoyed that he would finally be learning magic. He
waited for the doctor's wife to give him instructions patiently.
"First, climb that tall tree in the garden," the doctor's wife said. There was
no way for Gonsuke--or anyone--to become a wizard, so she had decided to give
him increasingly challenging tasks until he gave up. That way, she could get
him to work for her and the doctor for free for another twenty years.
Gonsuke didn't hesitate: he went out into the doctor's front garden and
climbed up the tallest pine tree.
"Oh, higher than that," the doctor's wife said. "Much higher." She stood on
the wooden veranda that surrounded the house and looked up at the climbing
Gonsuke.
When Gonsuke had climbed all the way to the top of the tree, the doctor's wife
said, "Good. Now let go of the tree with your right hand."
Gonsuke did so. At the same time, he tightened his grip on a thick branch with
his left hand.
"Excellent!" the doctor's wife said. "Now let go of the tree with your left
hand."
The doctor had witnessed part of this from inside the house and came outside
in a rush. "Hey! You can't tell him to let go completely! He'll fall, and
there are stones in the garden below. He could die!"
"It is not your place to instruct him in this," the doctor's wife said. To
Gonsuke, she said: "Do as I say! Let go with your left hand!"
Before the doctor's wife even finished speaking, Gonsuke let go of the tree.
He expected to fall--everyone expected him to fall--but instead, he stood
suspended in midair, as if he were a puppet held up by strings.
"Thank you!" Gonsuke called down to the doctor's wife. "Thank you! Thanks to
you, I've become an immortal wizard!" Then he walked into the sky, climbing
through the air as he'd climbed the tree. After awhile, he'd risen so high in
the sky that the doctor and his wife couldn't see him anymore.
The pine tree grew in the doctor's garden for many years after that. The
wealthiest merchant in the city, Yodoya Tatsugoro, had it dug up and replanted
in his garden so that he could enjoy the sight of the glistening snow on its
branches in winter.2
Translator's Notes
1 権助: Gonsuke means “manservant” in Japanese.↩
2 淀屋辰五郎: The Tatsugoro family of Japan got rich as silk traders and rice agents. Yodoya, a member of the fifth generation of the family, became so wealthy that the austere shogunate confiscated his fortune in 1705, claiming that it was unbecoming. The truth was, many government officials owed Tatsugoro money--always a dangerous state of affairs. Tatsugoro's worldly goods at the time of his confiscation included 250 farms and fields, more than 146,000 pounds of gold currency, 583,000 pounds of silver currency, and warehouses of carpets, crystals and other luxury goods.↩
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