KIBUN DAIZIN
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[Illustration:
“As the two boys were steadily gazing, up came the shark”
]
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KIBUN DAIZIN
OR
_FROM SHARK-BOY TO
MERCHANT PRINCE_
BY
GENSAI MURAI
TRANSLATED BY MASAO YOSHIDA
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY GEORGE VARIAN
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
The Century Co.
1904
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Copyright, 1904, by
THE CENTURY CO.
────
Published October, 1904.
THE DEVINNE PRESS.
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PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
THE CENTURY CO. counts itself fortunate in being able to present to
young readers an admirable story from the Japanese, written by one of
Japan’s most popular novelists and filled with the spirit of that great
Oriental nation. The author of this story, Gensai Murai, was once a
student of the Waseda School, founded by Count Okuma, leader of the
Progressive Party in Japan. There he studied English Literature as well
as Japanese, and after completing his course of study he was employed by
one of the well-known Tokio daily papers, called the “Hochi,” to write
stories for it. His writings soon arrested the attention of the reading
circles in Japan. Several of his novels went through as many as ten
editions within two years.
This story of Kibun Daizin is founded upon the life of Bunzayemon
Kinokuniya, a Japanese merchant of the eighteenth century, whose pluck,
wisdom, and enterprising spirit made him one of the most prosperous and
respected men of his time. He is much admired by his countrymen, and is
talked of familiarly, even to this day, by the Japanese, under the
nickname of “Kibun Daizin.” “Ki” and “Bun” stand for the initials of his
personal and family names, while “Daizin” means “the wealthiest man.”
The shrewdness and dauntless ambition of the young hero of this story
will commend him to the admiration of American boys, and in Kibun
Daizin, as here pictured, they will find a true representative of the
wonderful nation which, within thirty years, has entirely changed the
modes of life that it had followed for more than twenty centuries, and
has suddenly fallen into line with the most civilized countries of the
world.
The story was translated especially for ST. NICHOLAS, and many quaint
terms and expressions have been purposely retained, although the
pronunciation and meaning of the Japanese words are given wherever
necessary.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I AN AMBITIOUS BOY 3
II BUNKICHI PLANS TO KILL THE SHARK 23
III A BOAT CAPSIZED—A HAIRBREADTH ESCAPE 37
IV THE TABLES TURNED 54
V THE BATTLE OF STONE MISSILES—THE MONKEYS’ 75
PANIC
VI THE GREAT HAZARD—A PERILOUS VOYAGE 91
VII THE SEA-GIANT APPEARS 103
VIII AN ECCENTRIC FELLOW 118
IX THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION—THE CHARITY “BENTO” 135
X AMBITION SATISFIED—THE MERCHANT PRINCE 151
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
As the two boys were steadily gazing, up came the Frontispiece
shark
“If you please, sir, are you the head of the 5
Daikokuya?”
“Why, it’s just like a real dragon-fly!” she 17
cried, with delight
The lad was in the air, suspended by the rope 49
Putting a rope round the body of the shark 57
As though they were stricken by thunder at the 69
boy’s words, down they tumbled on the ground
Giving him a helping hand, Bunkichi led the man 77
along to the next village
Hundreds of monkeys had drawn a circle around 83
three men, whom they were pelting with a shower
of stones
He drew his sword and ran toward the monster 111
Bunzayemon then put on a lordly air 129
Matahachi in the great fire at Yedo 143
“I have no words in which to express my thanks to 159
you”
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KIBUN DAIZIN
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KIBUN DAIZIN
OR
FROM SHARK-BOY TO MERCHANT PRINCE
CHAPTER I
AN AMBITIOUS BOY
“IF you please, sir,—”
And, attracted by a voice behind him, a well-dressed gentleman turned
round and saw a boy of about thirteen or fourteen hurrying toward
him,—“if you please, sir, are you the head of the Daikokuya[1]?”
Footnote 1:
Pronounced Dy-ko-koo’ya, meaning “dry-goods house.”
“Yes, I am,” answered the gentleman, eying the boy with surprise. “What
can I do for you?”
“I come from Kada-no-Ura,” said the boy, making a polite bow, “and I
wish to ask you a great favor. Will you please take me into your shop as
an apprentice?”
“Your request is rather a strange one,” said the gentleman, smiling.
“Pray tell me why it is that you wish to come to me.”
The boy raised his head. “Oh, sir, yours is the chief business house in
Kumano, and I would be so glad if I might learn under you.”
“You wish to become a business man, do you?” said the gentleman, with a
friendly nod; upon which the boy drew himself up and exclaimed, “Yes; I
mean, if I can, to become the leading merchant in Japan!”
[Illustration:
“‘If you please, sir, are you the head of the Daikokuya?’”
]
The master of the Daikokuya instinctively studied the boy’s face. There
was a certain nobleness and intelligence about it; he had well-cut
features, a firmness about the lips, and quick-glancing eyes, and,
although his clothing showed poverty, his bearing was quiet and his
speech refined. These things confirmed the gentleman in the opinion that
the boy was not the son of any common man; and having, as the employer
of many hands, a quick eye to read character, he said:
“Very good, my boy! So you mean to become the leading merchant in Japan?
A fine notion, to be sure. However, before I engage a boy, you know, I
must have somebody to recommend him, and he must give me references.
Have you any relatives in this place?”
“No, sir; I know no one,” answered the boy.
“Why, where have you been until now?”
“I have only just come from my country. The fact is, I heard your name,
sir, some time ago, and being very anxious to enter your service, I left
my country all by myself to come to Kumano. But I have not a single
acquaintance here, nor anybody to whom I can turn. My only object was to
come straight to you; and I was asking a man on the road if he could
direct me to your house, when the man pointed to you and said, ‘Why,
that gentleman just ahead of us is the master of the Daikokuya.’ And
that is how it comes that I ran up to you all of a sudden in this rude
way.”
There was a charm in the free utterance with which the boy told his
story, and, having listened to it, the gentleman said: “I understand. It
is all right. As you have no friends here, I will do without a
recommendation, and you shall come just as you are”; and, saying this,
he brought the lad back with him to his house.
The Daikokuya, you must know, was the chief clothing establishment, or
“dry-goods house,” in Kumano, and did a larger business than any other
in the town. On arriving there, the master took the boy with him into an
inner room, and, telling his wife what had taken place, called the boy
to his side. “Tell me, my boy, what is your name?”
“My name is Bunkichi.”[2]
Footnote 2:
Pronounced Boon-kee’chee.
“Are your parents living?”
At this question the boy hung his head sorrowfully. “I have neither
father nor mother,” he answered, with a choking voice and eyes filled
with tears.
Filled with pity, the others asked him how long he had been left alone
in the world.
“I lost my mother,” he said, “more than three years ago, and my father
only quite recently.”
“And what was your family? Were you farmers or tradesmen?”
“Neither one nor the other. My father formerly served under the Lord of
Wakayama, and received an allowance of eight hundred _koku_[3] of rice.
His name was Igarashi Bunzayemon;[4] but, losing his position, he came
to Kada-no-Ura, where we had to live in a very poor way. My father,
however, would never allow me to forget that the ancestor of our house
was Igarashi Kobunji,[5] who served in old days at Kamakura, and gained
a name for himself as a brave warrior. ‘And when you become a man,’ my
father used to say, ‘you must win your way to fame, and so uphold the
honor of the family; but, unlike the past, our lot to-day is cast in
peaceful times when there is little chance of winning distinction in
arms; but become, if you can, the leading merchant in Japan, and you
will bring honor to our house.’ Such was my father’s counsel to me, and
not long since he was taken with a severe illness and died. And now, if
you please, I wish to learn the ways of business, that I may become a
merchant, and I have journeyed to Kumano to throw myself on your
kindness.”
Footnote 3:
One _koku_ equals about five bushels.
Footnote 4:
Pronounced Ee-gar-ash’ee Boon-zy’e-mon.
Footnote 5:
Pronounced Ee-gar-ash’ee Ko-boon’jee.
The gentleman listened to the boy’s clear account of himself and
expressed his admiration. “Ah! I was right, I see, when I thought you
were not the son of an ordinary man. Your ambition to become the chief
merchant in Japan is a high one, certainly; but the proverb says, ‘Ants
aspire to the skies,’ and anything is possible to a man who puts his
whole heart into his work. You are still quite young, I should say,
though you have come all the way from Kada-no-Ura by yourself, and
though you talk of your affairs in a manner that would reflect credit on
a grown-up man. Come, tell me, how old are you?”
“I am fourteen,” he answered.
“What, not more than that?”
And the master’s wife, who was by his side, could not repress her
surprise, either.
At this point the _shoji_, or paper sliding doors, opened, and in ran a
pretty little girl of about eleven. Her hair was drawn up into a little
butterfly device on the top of her head, which shook to and fro as she
ran up to her mother. Stretching out a small maple-leaf hand, with a
winsome look, she said:
“Mother, please give me a cake.”
“Why, my dear, where are your manners? What will our young friend here
think of you?”
At this the child looked around, and, for the first time becoming aware
of the boy’s presence, turned shy and sat down. Looking gently in her
face, her mother then asked her what she had been doing. Afraid of the
stranger, she whispered in her mother’s ear: “I have been playing
_oni_[6] with Sadakichi in the garden. But I don’t like Sadakichi. When
he was the _oni_ he just caught me at once.”
Footnote 6:
A play similar to tag or prisoner’s base.
“But that often happens in playing _oni_,” said the mother, with a
smile.
“Yes, but he does it too much; he has no right to catch people in the
way he does, and I don’t wish to play with him any more.”
“Well, if that is so, how would you like to play with Bunkichi here
instead?”
Accepting it as one of the duties that might fall to him, to act as the
child’s companion and caretaker, Bunkichi, rather pleased than
otherwise, offered to go out and try to amuse her. The little girl
looked into her mother’s face, and then at Bunkichi. “Mama, how long has
he been here?” she asked in a low voice.
“He only came to-day, but he’s a fine boy, and I hope you’ll be a good
little girl and show him the garden.”
But the child’s thoughts seemed suddenly to take a new turn, and,
sidling up to her mother, she begged to be given a cake. The mother
opened the little drawer of the _hibachi_,[7] and, taking out two or
three sugar-plums, put them into her hand. The child then, with barely a
glance at Bunkichi, ran through the _shoji_ out of doors.
Footnote 7:
Pronounced he-bah’chee. A wooden fire-box where a charcoal fire is
kept for warming the hands.
“Take care and don’t stumble,” her mother called out. “Do you mind just
seeing after her?” she said to Bunkichi, who at once got up and went out
on the veranda.
No sooner was Chocho Wage,[8] or “Butterfly Curls” (so named from the
way in which her hair was dressed), outside in the garden than she began
quarreling with the boy from the shop. “No, Sadakichi; I’m not going to
play with you. Mama says that the other boy who has just come is a fine
boy, and I’m going to play with him.”
Footnote 8:
Pronounced Cho’cho Wah’gay.
“What! another boy has come, has he?”
“Yes; there he is. Go and fetch him.”
Sadakichi called to Bunkichi, “You will find some _geta_[9] there, if
you will come out.”
Footnote 9:
Pronounced gay’tah. Foot-wear or wooden clogs.
So Bunkichi came out to the garden.
It was not a very large one, but it was a pretty spot, for beyond it
sparkled the bay that lay at the back of Kumano. Bunkichi had soon
joined the two others, and Sadakichi, turning to the little child, said,
“Well, shall we three play at _oni_?”
“No,” she answered; “you are always catching me, and I don’t care to
play.”
“I won’t catch you, then, Chocho, if you don’t like it.”
“All the same, I’d rather not.”
A thought struck Bunkichi, and, addressing himself to the child, he
said: “Would you like me to make you something? I would if I only had a
knife and some bamboo.”
The child was at once interested, and told Sadakichi to go and get what
was wanted. So Sadakichi strolled off and brought a knife and some
bamboo chips. “Now, then, what are you going to make?” said he.
“A nice bamboo dragon-fly,” Bunkichi answered; and, taking the knife, he
split a bit of the bamboo, shaved it fine and smooth, and fixed a little
peg in the middle of it.
Sadakichi, quickly guessing what it was, said: “Ah, it’s a dragon-fly. I
know! I once went with the _banto_[10] to Kada-no-Ura, and every one
there was flying those dragon-flies, and, now I think of it, the boy who
was selling them looked just like you.”
Footnote 10:
Clerk.
Not a bit disconcerted, Bunkichi replied: “Yes, you are quite right. I
was the boy who made them and was selling them.”
“Bah! Mr. Dragon-fly-seller!” blustered out Sadakichi, with a face of
disgust.
“Don’t speak like that,” said the little girl, turning sharply upon him,
and then to Bunkichi: “What made you sell them?” she asked, speaking out
to him for the first time.
“My father was ill in bed,” he answered, continuing to scrape the
bamboo, “and, as our family was poor, I managed to buy him rice and
medicine by selling these dragon-flies.”
Child as she was, this touching story of filial piety made her respect
Bunkichi all the more.
“Oh, wasn’t that good of him!” she said, turning to Sadakichi. “Do you
think you could have done it?”
“I—yes; only there would have been no need for me to sell dragon-flies.
I should have sold the wearing-things in our shop,” he answered,
arrogantly.
[Illustration:
“‘Why, it’s just like a real dragon-fly!’ she cried, with delight”
]
Bunkichi had now finished making the dragon-fly, and, holding it between
his hands, he spun it round, and up it went into the air with a whirring
sound, and lighted on the ground again some five or six paces away.
“Why, it’s just like a real dragon-fly!” cried the child, with delight.
“Do let me have it!” And, taking it in her hands, she tried to set it
flying, but she could only make it go up a little way.
Then Sadakichi, wishing to try his hand, pushed forward. “Let me have
it,” he said, “and I’ll show you how well I can do it”; and, seizing
hold of it, with the force of both hands he sent it flying high into the
air. “There, now—see how it goes!” and, while the little girl was
watching it with delight, the dragon-fly flew over the wall fence and
dropped into the water beyond.
The little child ran after it, followed by Sadakichi and Bunkichi. There
was a little gate in the garden, opening on a jetty. Through this they
passed and stood together on the plank, watching the dragon-fly tossing
about on the water.
“Oh, I wish we could get it,” said the little girl, looking at it
wistfully; “if it would only come just in front of us!”
“Take care,” said Sadakichi, holding her back, while the dragon-fly,
bobbing up and down among the ripples, gradually drifted farther off.
Now Bunkichi, seeing there was a small boat lying alongside the jetty,
had said to Sadakichi, “Let me row out and get it,” and was drawing the
boat toward him, when he was abruptly stopped by Sadakichi. “No, no; you
mustn’t think of putting out from the shore. If you do, you are certain
to be eaten up by the _wanizame_.”[11]
Footnote 11:
Pronounced wah-ne-zah’may, meaning a huge shark.
“Yes, it’s quite true,” chimed in the little girl. “There’s a horrid
_wanizame_ that prevents any one going on the sea. Only yesterday it
captured somebody.”
“Yes—a young man from the brewery,” said Sadakichi. “He had some barrels
in his boat, and he had gone only two or three hundred yards when the
shark came up and overturned his boat and seized him.”
“It doesn’t matter about the dragon-fly; I don’t want it; let us go back
to the house.” And the little child, frightened in good earnest, took
hold of Bunkichi’s arm.
It was the first time Bunkichi had heard about the _wanizame_. “Is it
really true, miss, that there is a _wanizame_ in the bay?” he asked.
“Yes; I can tell you it’s very serious. I don’t know how many people it
has eaten in the last month.”
“Really! But how big is it?”
“I don’t know what you would call big,” broke in Sadakichi. “But it’s
about as big as this house. If it sees a small boat, it overtakes it in
no time and topples it over, and if it is a big boat it gets in the way
and stops it so that it can’t move, and so the fishermen can’t go out,
and no cargo can come into the port. I suppose it must be want of food
that has brought it into this harbor; but, however that may be, it
thinks nothing of upsetting the small craft, so that for a month no one
has ventured out at all. Well, there was the brewer’s man. Yesterday he
thought it would be safe to go just a short distance, but he very soon
got swallowed up. And what is the consequence? Why, the fishing is
stopped, and there’s no trade, and the place is going to ruin. The
fishermen and hunters have tried over and over again to kill it with
spikes and guns and with all kinds of things. But what is the use? Their
weapons only snap in two or glance off its back, and they only get
killed themselves. So they have given up trying.”
Bunkichi listened to every word, and then suddenly went into the house
and stood before the master.
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