* * *
“I don’t understand,” said First-to-Dance. “What’s wrong with skinning animals? All women of the People must do it.”
“I understand, but your people don’t follow the way of the kamis and the buddhas,” said Chiyo.
“That’s fine for you and your father. But your brother, David, and most of your people, they are following the Way of the Christ. Does the Christ say that it’s bad to skin animals?”
Chiyo thought about this. “Not so far as I know. Let’s go ask my brother.”
They found him studying an ikebana, a flower arrangement, and put the question to him.
“No-o-o . . .” he admitted. “But the kirishitan, they learned the new religion from the Jesuits and the Franciscans, and in the countries they came from, butchers and tanners were considered to be dishonorable occupations. So the padres wouldn’t have challenged the status of the eta.”
“But why did the Christians think it dishonorable?”
David Date shrugged. “Because of the contact with blood?”
“So, just like Shinto!” said Chiyo.
David reached out, repositioning one of the flowers in the vase. “Fish cannot climb trees.”
“It’s too bad, then, that these eta are Japanese, not Indian, since then you wouldn’t care if they skinned animals or not,” said First-to-Dance.
The two women were about to leave, when suddenly Chiyo stopped short. First-to-Dance almost collided into her. “Wait a moment,” said Chiyo. “Why must the eta remain Japanese?”
“You can be adopted into a new tribe,” said First-to-Dance. “Then you no longer belong to your old tribe.”
The young samurai thought about this. “I think I heard that a few years ago, a hundred kirishitan lepers were exiled to Luzon so that samurai swords would not be defiled with their blood. I am not sure whether, once in exile, they could still be considered Japanese.
“And I have heard that the Chinese Emperor has ruled that those Chinese that choose to live in foreign lands are no longer Chinese. That’s why he ignored the massacre of the Chinese in Luzon some years back.”
“You see!”
“Well, I make no promises, but I’ll see what Father thinks.”
* * *
“I must confess that David’s proposal bothers me,” said Shigetsuna. “The young of frogs should be frogs, and the children of eta should be eta.”
Date Masamune clapped him on the back. “Poor Shigetsuna. You live in interesting times. As my son said to me, when there’s need, fish must learn to climb trees.”
Eta Village,
Morro Bay
The eta gathered together around Danzaemon.
“Well, what did the message say?” asked Hinkebei.
“The message enclosed a draft proclamation. The Grand Governor Date Masamune will make it public only if he is assured that we will accept it.
“The grand governor says that he does not have the authority to alter the terms under which those Japanese who are eta must live. However, if we are adopted into an Indian tribe, we are no longer Japanese, and hence we cannot be regarded as eta.”
The crowd murmured. Danzaemon motioned for them to quiet down.
“The grand governor will give us permission to be so adopted only if we agree to meeting certain continuing obligations concerning the supply of leather to New Nippon, and that under no circumstances will we take up arms against New Nippon, even if our new tribe is at war with them.”
Danzaemon raised his arms. “My friends, I believe we can consider this a victory!”
They cheered.
“Hikobei, you must find out whether the Chumash are willing to adopt all of us on such terms.”
* * *
Date Masamune passed the reply to Shigetsuna. “See? Problem solved. Issue the proclamation that the residents of ‘Kawata Mura’ have renounced Japanese citizenship and are now to be treated as Chumash Indians.”
“I doubt that our people remember to treat them as Indians and not as eta. As the saying goes, ‘Sparrows, though they live to be a hundred, do not forget their dance.’”
“Write to this Danzaemon, remind him that his folk should dress as do the Chumash when they come among us. That will help. If that is not enough, well, the whip improves a faulty memory.”
* * *
Yamaguchi Takuma deftly pushed down the five earth beads on the third rod, away from the reckoning bar, and moved a heavenly bead down toward it. The soroban that Shigetsuna-sama had lent to him had twenty-seven rods, each with two earth beads and two heavenly beads. Not, of course, that Takuma had much occasion to express a number with that many digits—the councilor had never asked him to count the number of grains of sand on the beach!—but the extra rods made it convenient to work with several different numbers at the same time. To multiply, for example.