"From the very start she had no interest in working at a post office in a country town, and she took an examination to enter the Kumamoto Communications Bureau. Though she came out first on the written test, her fingers were clumsy, not skillful enough in striking those telegraph keys, and she failed. Well, Apparently she was a person unskilled in the use of her fingers. At least she could sew a kimono. When she was a young girl, she didn't take the slightest interest in love or anything like that. She never had the least bit to do with any of the young men around here. Of course, she was bright at school and pretty and attractive, and there were some men who liked her in a friendly way. Generally speaking, though, she studied hard when she was young and had no interest at all in young men.
"She was strong-willed, and though I'm rather talkative now, I was quite reserved in my younger days, since my sister would speak rapidly about whatever she felt like saying to anybody. When she grew up, though, it was just the opposite and she became quiet.
"You want to know about her first marriage? Well, she wrote that our parents and her uncle Dai and his wife had mercilessly decided everything according to what they wished and that she was the victim, but it wasn't that way at all.
"Of course, I'm not denying the marriage was arranged by our parents when my elder sister was at that girls' high school, but marriages of girls in those days were arranged in this way all over Japan, weren't they? The other party was well acquainted with all the members of our family, and even I had often gone to his home on festival days and other occasions. She wrote she had never seen the fellow's face or even known his name, but that wasn't the way it was. Not only that, for although she said she had no intention whatever of marrying him and that our parents heartlessly and forcibly made her, she did once definitely consent. Yes, of course, she never took a fancy to him even once from the very first, but she was fascinated by the prospect of going to America, and she told me that if she did get there, she'd definitely run away from him. So when they celebrated the wedding during the summer vacation when she was in the fifth grade in her high school, she certainly had consented. Even now I remember her hair in the shimada style with the bridal hood over it and her short-sleeved crested coat of gauze crepe, and I can remember she was talked about as one of the prettiest brides ever seen in our vicinity. It may sound strange for me to say this, but when she was very young, she didn't spruce up at all and didn't care in the least about her hair and clothing, but she was really pretty then.
"But when she was getting ready for the wedding ceremony, she flared up in anger, saying she didn't like him after all and, as if she were a man, deliberately walked along recklessly kicking up the skirt of her bridal outfit. She so worked off her bad temper on everyone around her she made all of us quite uneasy.
"The day after she married, she came running back home and promptly hurried off to her school in Tokyo. It seems she hadn't allowed the groom to make the slightest move toward her.
"'I wouldn't let even one of his fingers touch me!' she boasted, but we talked it over among ourselves and decided that we had never heard of the existence of such a submissive husband. Well, actually, he was a most unattractive man. All he had to him was that submissiveness, and even I found him distasteful. But as soon as my sister came home, she said quite calmly to me, 'Tsuta, it's better if you marry him instead.' That was her way of talking. And she really thought so. But even I found this kind of man disgusting.
"Though I sarcastically and severely asked how on earth a person like her could live, thinking only of herself and never paying any attention to her family or parents, she arrogantly declared our parents were poor out of their own choice and so it wasn't our responsibility. Nevertheless, with total indifference she continued to inconvenience others. Oh yes, as for me, she gave me lots of trouble until she died, and I never received a single world of thanks from her.
"Later on I settled down in Shimonoseki, and when she was on her way back home from Tokyo, she'd stop off at my place. She always bought her ticket only as far as Shimonoseki. And when she was returning to Tokyo from Imajuku, without fail her ticket was bought only to Shimonoseki. She had decided the remaining portion of her ticket would be handed to her by me, and as for some extra spending money, she had decided that I, of course, would hand that out too.
"Each time she came home, my mother had to work like a horse. Yes, whenever my sister gave birth to a child, whether by Tsuji or Osugi, she came back to Imajuku. You're asking why? Of course, it was because she had made up her mind that the cheapest way of having a baby and getting a rest before and after the birth was at home. My mother, who was already old, often complained about being forced to wash diapers even while having to watch Noe's other small children. Though I told my mother it would be all right to abandon a daughter who had never once since childhood helped her, the fact was my mother was a gentle person, and saying, 'Still, she is my daughter,' continued to look after my sister's needs. Even during the time of a birth, Noe would be reading her books whenever she had a moment to spare, and during that period when she came home, she never washed any diapers or anything else.
"Everyone in our neighborhood whispered about how such a good mother had ever given birth to such a daughter. To make matters worse, there were many times when she came either with Tsuji or Osugi as her husband. When she turned up with Osugi, our father was angry and for a long time broke off with them with the remark that he couldn't show his face to the world, but finally he gave in, and she again began bringing Osugi with her.
"Yes, well, she was lucky with men, wasn't she? Both Tsuji and Osugi were quite kind, and they thought highly of her, referring to whatever related to her by saying 'my dear Noe-san' this or 'my dear Noe-san' that. Both of them were good men, but I guess Osugi was much the better after all. He was more of a man, kinder, more dignified.
"In a way, Tsuji was somewhat feeble and gave one the impression of shilly-shallying. My sister finally complained he was a nincompoop, a good-for-nothing.
"Even now I can remember Osugi with his big body bent down by the side of our well as he washed their babies' diapers. Whenever he came, he worked hard doing this kind of thing, even washing Noe's undergarments for her.
"As for Tsuji, of course, she loved him very much at the beginning. He was quite an expert on the shakuhachi bamboo flute, and I remember how they often played together, my sister accompanying him on the samisen.
"She played it quite well, and she was also good at singing, since she'd been trained in both by our father. After she married Tsuji, she was taught how to sing and play the long epic songs of Japan, thanks to Tsuji's mother, who was quite accomplished in the arts, especially in these epic songs, because she was the daughter of wealthy rice distributor at Kuramae in Asakusa. You see, what my sister learned at home were short ballads and love songs, things like that. You can probably imagine how my mother felt, constantly having to take care of either Tsuji's children or Osugi's. My father and mother were rural people, and no matter which man came they said he was, after all, their daughter's husband, so it seemed they worked as hard as possible.
"After Noe lived with Osugi, our small quiet village came to be thrown into a turmoil. Up until then the police officials stationed in our village had nothing to do after they came to live here, and they were quite happy to come and just go fishing, but the moment my sister began living with Osugi, the officials were put to much trouble. Each time they went to our house, they complained it was just their bad luck to have been ordered to be stationed in such a town. Well, every three days without fail they had to appear at our house to ask us what letters had arrived from Tokyo or if any strange things had occurred. And if at that moment while they were questioning us, my sister and her husband happened to turn up, the police were quite alarmed. For a whole day they would have to loiter around our house as they stood watch outside. And besides that, since my sister and Osugi openly accompanied each other on quiet walks, the police were ready to drop with fatigue from following them. In the long run, my sister won these constables over, and she sent them off on errands and made them watch her children. She always had them carry her luggage from the station.