The Tale of the Soga Brothers (曾我物語)

A great book. Really. Quite moving, no doubt. In a lot of ways, it resembles The Tale of the Heike (平家物語) and Yoshitsune (義経記), not surprisingly: They are all considered gunkimono(軍記物), warfare tales from one of the most bloody periods in Japanese history from the 12th to 16th century.

The Heike is about the rise and the fall of the Heike family from the time Kiyomori reaches the height of glory. Descriptions of him are definitely not flattering: He keep getting described as being crass, provincial, and unfeeling. One of the examples of how cruelly he is portrayed is in the story ofGioh, a female entertainer: Gioh was the most favored entertainer of Kiyomori until Hotoke came along and replaced her–except that Hotoke only was granted audience in front of Kiyomori because Gioh pleaded with Kiyomori to give her a chance. Hotoke, not wanting to kick out Gioh, pleads with Kiyomori not to kick her out, but Kiyomori doesn’t listen. However, feeling so bad that she ended up kicking Gioh out of her place, Hotoke grows glum so Kiyomori invites Gioh to sing and entertain Hotoke. With much urging from her mother, Gioh goes and entertains Hotoke in Kiyomori’s presence. After this, she takes the tonsure along with her sister and mother and goes to live in a hut in the countryside (a la Kamono Chomei 鴨長明 of Hojoki 方丈記). A few years later, Hotoke comes to join them and the four women live in peace until the end of their lives.

Similar to Kiyomori, Yoritomo is described in unflattering ways as crass and provincial, but not unfeeling. In fact, both in Gikeiki and The Tale of the Soga Brothers, Yoritomo, “the bad guy” in both tales, is portrayed as quite sensitive and easily moved (although not quite compassionate). The one who is always stopping Yoritomo from saving the lives of dissenters is Kajiwarano Kagetoki 梶原景時 who keeps advising Yoritomo not to save the lives of whomever was acting like a good samurai–like Soga Goro, in the The Tale of the Soga Brothers.

Yoshitsune is about the fall of Yoshitsune, the younger brother of Yoritomo, who ruled during the period called Kamakura (1192-1334). Yoshitsune is a story that portrays Yoshitsune’s life in quite a tragic light. He is such a good fighter and manages to win some crucial battles to help the Genji family win back their power which had been taken over by the Heike famil by Kiyomoti. However, after all the warring, Yoshitsune is suspected to be plotting again his brother, Yoritomo, who was being advised by (guess who?) Kagewara no Kagetoki. So, Yoshitsune has to flee with his comical and amazing fighter servant/monk Musahibo Benkei. Yoshitsune is this really kind and gentle courtly guy who has deep feelings for all the women who he sleeps with (a la Hikaru Genji in The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki). The story of how Shizuka, Yoshitune’s most loved lover (though not his wife), dies is really really sad. She manages to flee part way, but is captured byYoritomo. She is not killed because she is only a woman (that’s the way they thought), but she is carrying a child of Yoshitsune so they decide to kill the baby if it is a boy and let it live if it is a girl. What comes out of her… was of course a boy so the baby is immediately taken away and killed. A while later, after she is released, she fades out of this world, at the young age of nineteen.

So, how much more tragic can the story of the Soga brothers be? I am not sure. But it is pretty sad. Perhaps more pitiful too since the previous two stories of the Heike and Yoshitsune are about people more central to the government. The tale of the Soga brothers is about two poor (for samurai) brothers who planned revenge on another samurai who killed their father. Their mother tries to stop them (she has remarried and Soga is their adoptive father’s last name) as well as other relatives who hear of their plan. But they are determined to pay revenge and so they do. I have read up to the second to the last chapter–where the younger brother Goroh states his case in front of Yoritomo and is executed. I wrote all of this down to get myself motivated to read the rest and to put some of my thoughts together. Let’s see how it works…

 

My Dad

 I kind of like my parents.  I think they are cool.  Not so much because they try to be up on the youth culture of the time (which I am not sure how much I am familiar with anyway), but because they take genuine interest in people and things around them.

 

My mom tells me the things about my dad that charmed her when they were still dating. 

 

One episode is when she asked him to tutor her in her Japanese, and he refused to be paid since it was not his area of specialty.  She thought, “wow! The samurai spirit!!  How cool!!” and I am sure that her eyes twinkled.

 

Another one is when she took him to a dinner with my uncle and grandfather and he was served bleu cheese.  He had never seen the stuff before and you know how strong smelling bleu cheese is.  But instead of turning his face away in disgust, he looked at it and said, 頂いてみましょうか。 To my mother, a student of Japanese, this must have sounded really cool.  (The utterance of a foreign language you are learning in earnest by a native speaker always arouses some tingly emotion—especially if it is by a man you already like)  At the same time, she was impressed by his laid back and adventurous attitude of trying something entirely new to him without reservations.  

 

A digression: My mom grew up in a home where new and different things were always worth trying out.  She tells me about this Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that her father used to take her to when she was young.  How he was friendly with the Chinese owner of the restaurant and how they used to try all the different and completely foreign foods to them.  Yes, she grew up in a typical cosmopolitan home with cosmopolitan values.

 

So, she thought “wow!! What a cool guy!!”

 

My father has not changed.  He is always eager to try new things with this nice laid back attitude and faces those new challenges or objects with a nice sincerity.  He is also quite serious about learning where my mother comes from.

 

(My mother has made knowing about Japan her profession, which was why my parents met in the first place, so she also doesn’t fall short in that area.)

 

He once confided in me something I never knew:  Whenever he goes to a foreign country, the first thing he does is to look for the Jewish museum or the Synagogue, or something Jewish in the area.  I never knew that. 

 

My parents are full of surprises.  That is why I think that they are so cool.

 

Pesach Craze

I love Pesach.

It was one of five holidays I grew up with and I always thought that it was rather fun.

I grew up celebrating Pesach, Chanukkah, お正月, Purim (sometimes), and Sukkot (until I was about 9).

Every year on Pesach my mom would read the Passover issue of the Tokyo Jewish Community Center Newsletter and tell me something new that she found out Passover that year–it usually concerned some new Kashrut rule that either she had forgotten about (I find it impossible to remember all the intricacies from year to year) or had learned new that year and she would ask me, “Do you want to do this?” Invariably I would say “Yes!”

So I fondly remember the year when we boiled all our silverwear for the first time to properly kasher them for Passover, eventhough they were unused all year.

Pesach is a crazy time of the year.

In fact, I confess that I go a little nuts during Pesach.

It’s fun for me. I get to be as machmir (strict in ritual observance) as I want in terms of Kashut in a way I usually find hard to be. Pesach gives me a great excuse.

Misha, who tends to think that I take things overboard (I disagree) thinks that it’s a bit ridiculous. But I don’t care as long as he gives me the freedom to do what I want.

I love all the matzah eating and the lack of rice (since I don’t eat kitniyot on Pesach) and all those familiar soy foods (like しょう油、味噌、豆腐) replaced with delicious matzo balls in vegetable broth. Matzah brie is something that my mother made only a few times during Passover, but I am lucky this year that that is one of the things Misha makes a lot of. I have already had savory and delicious matzo brie five times this Pesach!!

The sad thing is that Pesach is already on its way out. Sure, I am happy that my familiar Japanese and Korean foods can re-enter my life again, but I am also sad that that little craziness of Pesach is also almost over.

The three day break (two yom tovim plus Shabbat) at the beginning of Pesach this year really did me some good. It helped me to completely relax and re-focus like nothing else worked for me in the past.