having determined upon the course to take, lord saito ichigo summoned a council of the relatives of the family.
for the first time, possibly, since his marriage, he faced the assembled kinsfolk with the calm demeanor of one who had seized, and intended to retain, the authority properly invested in him as head of the house of saito. his should be the voice heard! his the decision that must prevail!
in the minds of most men—japanese men, at least—who have married at the dictates of their parents, there is always some little cherished chamber to which, despite the passing years, memory returns with loving, loitering step. so with lord ichigo. now, with the fate of his beloved child in his hands, the father looked back upon his own life, and it was no reflection upon his excellent and virtuous wife that he did so with just a shade of vague regret.
the impetuous gonji’s passionate words had not been spoken to deaf ears. lord saito ichigo was determined to keep his promise to his son, whatever the result; for well he knew of the upheaval in his household which would be sure to follow.
there was, of course, ohano to think of. her case was not as difficult as it seemed, he pointed out to the assembled relatives. an orphan, one of a family already allied by marriage to the saitos, they had taken her into their house at an early age. they already regarded her as a daughter. as for a daughter, they would seek, outside their own family, for a worthy and suitable husband for the maiden. in fact, it was better that ohano should marry another than lord gonji, since the latter had always looked upon her as a sister, and a union between them was, to him, repugnant. that, indeed, ichigo himself had thought at first, but he had desired to please “the honorable interior” (his wife) and the many relatives of his honorable wife.
thus he disposed of this matter briefly, and, although the relatives looked at each other with startled glances, they had nothing to say. something in the fixed attitude of the one they had hitherto somewhat contemptuously regarded as weak and yielding claimed now their respectful attention.
to approach the matter of the marriage of a saito with a public geisha required not alone tact, but bravery. hardly had the father of gonji mentioned the matter when a storm of dissent arose. to a man—to say nothing of the countless unseen female relatives arrayed even more bitterly against her—the exalted kinsmen resented even the suggestion of such a union. so the lord ichigo approached the subject by wary paths.
in the first place, he pointed out boldly, the assembled ones were not actually of the saito blood, but relatives by marriage only; and, while their counsel and advice were respectfully and gratefully solicited, even their united verdict could not finally stand out against the legal head of the house. this bold statement at the outset met a silence more eloquent of resentment than any storm of words.
it was imperative, as all had agreed, continued lord ichigo, that the son and heir of the house of saito should make an early marriage. he was the last of the line. the glorious and heroic ancestors demanded descendants. it was a sacred duty to keep alive the illustrious seed.
lord ichigo launched into a detailed recital here of the notable deeds of his ancestors, but was stopped abruptly by the sarcastic comment of takedo isami, who quoted the ancient proverb, “there is no seed to a great man!” meaning none could inherit his greatness.
this cut off ichigo’s oratory; and, hurt and disturbed at the quotation as a reflection upon his own shortcomings, he brought up squarely before them the main issue.
these were the days of enlightenment, when the iron-clad ships of war sailed the seas as far as the great western lands; when the japanese had accepted the best of the ways of the west; when the spirit of the new japan permeated every nook and corner of the empire. there was one western privilege which the men of new japan were now demanding, and desired above all things. that they must have: the right to love!
now, “love” is not a very proper word, according to the japanese notion of polite speech. hence the attitude of the relatives. nor did the frigid atmosphere melt in the slightest before the flow of fervid eloquence that the father of gonji brought to the defense of this reprehensible weakness.
takedo isami, who seemed to have assumed the position of leader and dictator among the relatives, arose slowly to his feet, and, thrusting out a pugnacious chin, asked for the right to speak. he was short, dark, with the face of a fighter and the body of a dwarf.
admitting the right of man to love, he said it was better to hide this weakness, and, by all means, fight its insidious effort to enter the household. only men of low morals married for love. duty was so beautiful a thing that it brought its own reward. the proper kind of love—the lofty and the pure—declared the uncle of ohano, came always after marriage, and sanctified the union. that the last of a great race, in whose keeping the ancestors had confidently placed the family honor, should contemplate a union of mere love and passion with a notorious and public geisha was a gratuitous and cruel insult not alone to his many living relatives—and they of his mother’s side were equally of his blood—but to the ancestors.
as the uncle of ohano reseated himself a low murmur of approbation broke out from the circle. gloomy looks were turned toward ichigo, whose face had become curiously fixed. far from weakening his resolve, his pride had been stung to the quick. nothing, he told himself inwardly, would cause him to retreat from the position he had taken. he looked takedo isami squarely in the eye ere he spoke.
the honorable takedo isami’s remarks, he declared, were a reflection upon his own, since they concerned one whom the ancestors and the lord saito gonji deemed worthy to honor. moreover, it was both vain and reprehensible to cast a stone at a profession honored by all intelligent japanese. it was of established knowledge that often the geishas were recruited from the noblest families in japan. it was absurd to regard them with disdain, as apparently had latterly become the fashion. there was no great event in the history of the nation since feudal times wherein the geisha had not played her part nobly. the greatest of sacrifices she had made for her country and the mikado. there were instances, too famous to need repeating, of the most exquisite martyrdom. the emperor, the nobility, the priests—all delighted to do her honor. only the ignorant assumed to despise her. she was in reality the darling and the pride of the entire nation. one would as soon dream of being without the flowers and the birds, and all the other joyous things of life, as the geisha. who was it, then, dared to reflect upon the most charming of japanese institutions?
up sprang takedo isami, his hand raised, his dark face flushed with fury, despite the restraint he sought to exercise upon his features. his voice was under control, and he spoke with incisive bitterness.
his honorable kinsman, he loudly declared, wished but to confuse the issue. no one denied the virtues of the geisha; also the undoubted fact that many of them came from the impoverished families of the samourai. nevertheless, charming and desirable as she was, she had not been educated to be the mother of a great race. her lithe, twisting, dancing little body was not meant to bear children. her light, frivolous mind was ill-fitted to instruct one’s sons and daughters. society had set her in her proper place. it was against all precedents to take her from her sphere. one did not desire as a mate through life a creature of mere beauty, any more than one would care to take one’s daily bowl of rice from a fragile work of art which would shatter at the mere contact of the sturdy chop-sticks against it.
such a storm of dissent and discussion now arose that it was impossible for the father of gonji to hear his own voice, and indeed all seemed to make an effort to drown it. so he summoned servants, and coolly bade them put the amado (outside sliding walls) in place, lest the unseemly noise of wordy strife be heard by some passing neighbor—for the japanese esteem it a disgrace to engage in controversy. then, when the doors were in place, lord saito ichigo gravely bowed to the assembled relatives, and, taking his son by the arm, bade them good night, advising that they argue the matter among themselves, without his unnecessary presence.
