10 of the Best Stories from Kenji Miyazawa and Nankichi Niimi

  "Are you ready?"

  "Not yet..."

  - were lost amongst all the other sounds.

  The boss waited for the little boy as if he was waiting for himself to return. He was standing ready to say "Here you go!" and hand back the calf with a smile so the boy would never think he was a thief.

  But the shouts of the children gradually faded in the direction of the village, and then disappeared altogether. The boy in the straw sandals never returned. The moon that was floating above the village began to shine like a craftsman's freshly polished mirror. An owl in the distant woods began to sing two hoots at a time.

  Chapter 3

  The calf started to rub up against the boss' leg as if it were hungry.

  "I can't help ya. I haven't any milk for ya," said the boss as he stroked the calf's spotted back.

  Tears started flowing from his eyes once more.

  Just then all four of his apprentices returned together.

  "Boss, we're back. Looky here, where'd you get this calf?" exclaimed Kamaemon on seeing the calf. "You're no ordinary thief, are you boss? While we were looking around that village, you've gone and pulled off a job of your own."

  "Yeah, that's what I was planning on telling you all, but it's not really true," said the boss, turning away to hide his face that was wet with tears. There's a reason for this."

  "Eh boss, they're not tears.... are they?" asked Ebinojo in a hushed voice.

  "Once these tears start flowing, I can't get 'em to stop," said the boss, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.

  "Boss, you'll be proud of us," said Kantaro enthusiastically. "This time each of us have gone around that village like proper thieves. Kamaemon discovered five houses with pots made of gold, Ebinojo checked the locks on five storehouses and found each could be opened using a bent nail, I saw five houses I could use my carpentry skills to easily cut through the back wall using this saw, and Kakubei saw five fences that he could either jump over on his own or by wearing his high clogs. Tell us we've done good."

  Without commenting on their efforts, the boss said,

  "I was given this calf to look after. But they haven't come back to get it, so I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'm sorry, but could you guys split up and search for the boy who handed me this calf?"

  "Boss, are you going to give this calf back?" asked Kamaemon, who couldn't understand what was happening.

  "Yes."

  "Do thieves do that kind of thing?"

  "I've got a reason. This is one I have to give back."

  "Boss, you have to think more like a thief," advised Kantaro.

  Grinning sheepishly, the boss explained the situation to his apprentices. After hearing the boss' explanation, they sympathized with his feelings and promptly set off to look for the young boy.

  "He's a fine looking lad, about seven years old. He's wearing straw sandals, and he's got a shaved head," said the boss as his apprentices spread out to begin the search.

  Unable to sit still any longer, the boss joined the search as well, pulling the calf as he went.

  On a night when the multiflora rose and white deutzia flowers glowed faintly in the moonlight, five adult thieves, pulling a calf behind them, wandered around the village searching for a child.

  He might still be playing hide and seek, they thought, so they looked beneath the shrines by the road where the earthworms were crying, and they looked up in the persimmon tree, and they looked inside the storerooms, and they looked in the shadows of the wonderful smelling mandarin tree. And they asked the villagers.

  But there was no sign of him at all. The farmers lit paper lanterns so that they could take a good look at the calf, but none of them had seen it around here before.

  "Boss, I don't think we are going to find him, even if we search all night. It's time we gave up," said Ebinojo sitting down exhausted on a rock by the side of the road.

  "No, I have to find that boy and give it back to him," insisted the boss.

  "But we've already tried everywhere," said Kamaemon. "The only thing we haven't done is go and ask for help from the village officer, but you wouldn't want to go there, would you boss?"

  (These days, the equivalent of the village officer would be the local policeman.)

  "Hmm," murmured the boss, before thinking quietly to himself.

  He gently patted the head of the calf, before announcing,

  "Right, let's go there," and walked off.

  His apprentices were shocked, but they had no alternative but to follow after him.

  Chapter 4

  After being given directions to the house of the village officer, they were greeted at the door by an elderly man with glasses that hung down the end of his nose, which immediately gave them a sense of relief. If worse comes to worst, they could always push him aside and make a run for it.

  The boss explained the story of the young boy, finishing by saying,

  "So we don't know where he is and we are not sure what to do."

  "I haven't seen any of your faces around here before, where have you come from?" asked the old man, taking a look at each of them in turn.

  "We have come from Edo and we are traveling west."

  "You wouldn't happen to be thieves, would you?"

  "No, of course not," replied the boss in a fluster. "We are traveling tradesmen. Pot makers, carpenters, locksmiths and the like."

  "Well, no, of course, that was a silly thing for me to ask. You people are not thieves. A thief would never bring something back now, would they? If you gave something to a thief to look after, why they'd be more than happy to make off with it right there and then. No, I apologize for asking such a silly question after you've had the good conscience to come here and hand in this calf. Because of my position here, I've gotten into the habit of being suspicious of people. These days I only need to take one look at someone and I think to myself, that man looks like a swindler, or this man looks like a pickpocket. Please don't think badly of me," apologized the old man.

  After it was settled that the old man would take care of the calf, a servant came and led it round to the barn.

  "I am sure you must be very tired from your journey. I was sitting on the veranda enjoying the moon, about to open a nice bottle of sake that I just received from Nishi-no-Yakata. You came at a good time. Please, come join me for one."

  Saying this, this kind old man led the five thieves onto his veranda.

  There they drank the sake, and these five thieves and this village officer were completely at ease in each other's company, laughing and chatting as if they'd all been friends for at least ten years or more.

  But before long the boss realized he was shedding tears again. When the old man saw this, he said,

  "It seems that you are a crying drunk. I myself am a laughing drunk, and when I see a person crying, I always burst out laughing. Please don't think badly of me, because I'm about to start laughing."

  And saying this, he opened his mouth wide and began to laugh.

  "No, these tears of mine, once they start flowing, I just can't stop them," said the boss blinking repeatedly.

  The five thieves then said their thanks and left.

  After they'd passed through the gate and made it as far as the persimmon tree, the boss suddenly stopped as if he had just remembered something.

  "Did you forget something, boss?" asked Kantaro.

  "Yeah, I did. Come back with me," he said, and with his apprentices in tow, he went back to the village officer's house.

  "Old man," he called, placing his hand on the veranda.

  "What's this, a heart to heart? Is the crying drunk going to play his trump card? Ha ha ha," laughed the old man.

  "The truth is, we are thieves. I am the boss, and these men are my apprentices."

  The old man stared at him in disbelief.

  "I totally understand your surprise. I myself hadn't the least intention of making such a confession. But you are a very kind man, and when I saw the way in which you trusted us
as honest people, I could no longer bring myself to deceive you any longer."

  The boss then confessed all of the bad things he had ever done. And when he was finished confessing, he said

  "But these men here, they only became my apprentices yesterday, and they haven't done anything bad yet. The only thing I ask, is that you show these men mercy and forgive them."

  Chapter 5

  The next morning the pot maker, the locksmith, the carpenter and the lion dance acrobat all headed in separate directions out of Hananoki Village. Their eyes were mostly cast down as they walked. They were thinking of the boss. They were thinking that he was a good boss. And they were thinking that because he was a good boss, they had to obey his last words of, "Don't ever go back to being a thief."

  Kakube picked up his flute from where he'd left it in the grass by the river, and played it as he walked off.

  ――――――――――――――

  And so it goes that the five thieves were able to mend their ways, but the question remains, who was the young boy that was responsible for it all. The people of Hananoki Village tried looking for the boy who saved the village from the thieves, but they never found him, and eventually they came to this conclusion ―

  It was the small Jizo statue that had sat at the foot of the earthen bridge since long long ago. The fact the boy was wearing straw sandals proved it. This was because the people of the village often placed straw sandals at the feet of the Jizo statue as an offering, and someone had left a new pair there that same day.

  ― It certainly would be strange for a Jizo statue to be walking around in a pair of straw sandals, but it was thought the world could do with this amount of strangeness. Not to mention that this story happened a really long time ago, so, what does it matter? But if it were actually true, then it would mean that the Jizo statue saved the people of Hananoki Village from the thieves because they were such kind-hearted people. And if that were true, then that would also mean a village needs to have people living in it that are kind-hearted.

  THE END

  Buying Mittens

  by Nankichi Niimi

  The cold winter had made its way down from the north to the woods where a mother fox lived with her young cub.

  One morning the little fox was about to go outside to play, when suddenly he cried out, and rolled back down in front of his mother with his paws pressed over his eyes.

  "Ma, something's stuck in my eye. Quick, quick, take it out," he pleaded.

  Suddenly in a fluster, his mother rushed to pull back her son's paws from in front of his eyes, fearful of what she might see - but there was nothing there. When she took a look outside their hole, she soon realized what had happened. There had been a huge snowfall during the night and the glare of the sun on the fresh white snow was blinding. Having never seen snow before, the little fox was surprised by the bright glare and mistakenly thought something had hit him in the eye.

  He soon went out to play. As he ran through the snow that was as soft as a ball of silk, he sent snow powder flying like a spray, tiny rainbows appearing instantly around him.

  Then, suddenly from behind came a great noise,

  DO-TA DO-TA Zaaaa!!

  and the little fox was covered in powdery snow. Startled, he jumped sideways and rolled for about ten meters or so. He looked back to see what had happened, but there was nothing there. A huge clump of snow had fallen from the branches of a fir tree. Silky white threads of snow were still floating down between the branches.

  A little while later the little fox returned to their hole.

  "Ma, my hands are cold. They've gone all num num" he said, placing his wet paws that were now bright pink in front of his mother. Mother fox took them and blew on them, wrapping them gently in her own warm paws.

  "They'll be warm soon enough. Once you touch the snow they start to warm up," she said, but she hated the idea of her baby getting frostbite and decided that when evening came, she would go to town and buy some mittens to fit her little boy's hands.

  The dark, dark night arrived, wrapping up the woods and the fields with its shadow like a sheet, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't smother the snow's brilliant white light rising up from the ground.

  The two silver foxes emerged from their hole. The little fox walked beneath his mother's stomach, busily looking this way and that, his big round eyes wide with excitement.

  After they'd walked for a while, a single bright light appeared up ahead. When the little fox saw that, he said,

  "Ma, that star has fallen down."

  "That's not a star," replied his mother, and suddenly her legs froze to the spot.

  "That is the light from the town."

  Seeing the light had reminded her of the terrible experience she had the last time she went to town with her friend. Despite her pleas to stop, her friend tried to steal a duck from a farmhouse, and when they were sprung by the farmer they both had to run for their lives, only barely managing to escape.

  "Ma, what are you doing? Come on, let's go," said the little fox from under his mother's tummy, but her leg's refused to take her any further. As there was nothing she could do, she had to ask the little one to go into town on his own.

  "Sweetie, give me one of your paws," she said to the little fox. As she held her son's paw in her own, it suddenly turned into a tiny human hand. He stretched out the fingers, made a fist, pinched it, and then put it up to his nose to smell it.

  "Ma, this is weird, what is it?" asked the little fox as he stared with wonder at this strange-looking paw.

  "That's a human hand. Now listen carefully honey. When you get to the town you'll see a lot of human houses. Make sure to look for the one with a picture of a top hat on the sign out front. After you find that, knock on the door, and then call out, 'Good evening!' After you do that, a human will come and open the door just a wee bit, then you take this hand, see, this human hand here, and put it through the doorway, and you say 'Can I please have some mittens to fit snug on my hands?' Do you understand me sweetie? You mustn't show them this hand here," warned the little fox's mother.

  "Why not?" asked the little fox.

  "If a human realizes that you are a fox, they won't sell you any mittens. Even worse than that, they'll grab you and put you in a cage. Humans are scary."

  "Oh."

  "Never show them this one, just this one here, see, the human one," stressed his mother as she placed two silver coins in the little fox's human hand.

  The little fox tottered slowly across the snow-lit field towards the light of the town. Although there was only one light at first, it soon increased to two and then three, until finally there were ten. As he looked at these lights, the little fox thought to himself that lights were like stars, with reds and yellows and blues. Eventually he arrived in the town, but all the houses along the street had their doors closed, and the only sign of life was from the warm light falling onto the road from the windows high up.

  Most of the houses had small electric lamps above their shop signs, so the little fox was able to look at these as he searched for the hat shop. There were signs with pictures of bicycles, seeing glasses, and all kinds of other signs. Some were newly painted, while others were peeling like an old wall, but the little fox didn't know what any of them meant because he had never been into town before.

  Finally he came to the hat store. The sign with the large black silk hat his mother had given him directions for, was lit up by a blue electric light.

  The little fox knocked on the door just as he had been told.

  "Good evening," he called out.

  There came the sound of movement inside, and finally the door opened just a couple of inches, a thin ribbon of light stretching out along the white snow-covered road.

  Startled by the bright light, the little fox accidentally put the wrong paw in through the gap - the one his mother told him he mustn't show.

  "Can I please have some mittens to fit snug on my hands"

  Oh,
my! thought the hat maker. A fox paw. A fox paw asking for some mittens. I bet he is going to try and buy them with some leaves. So he said,

  "Please pay first."

  The little fox did as he was asked, handing the hat maker the two silver coins he had been holding. Placing the coins between his thumb and forefinger, the hat maker rubbed the two coins together, and the coins went clink, clink. He then knew that they weren't leaves but real coins, so he took two child-sized mittens from the shelf and placed them in the paw of the little fox. The little fox thanked the hat maker and then headed back in the direction that he had come.

  Ma said humans were scary, but they aren't scary at all, he thought. He didn't do anything when he saw my hand.

  But the little fox was curious to see what humans were like.

  As he passed beneath a window he heard the sound of a human speaking. It was so gentle; so beautiful; such a charming voice.

 

  Go to sleep, go to sleep

  On mama's breast

  Go to sleep, go to sleep

  In mama's arms

 

  The little fox was sure the person singing must be a mother. That's because his own mother sang him songs just like that when she was rocking him to sleep.

  Then he heard a small child speak.

  "Mummy, when it's cold like tonight, the little fox in the woods will be crying 'I'm cold, I'm cold."

  The mother spoke again,

  "The little fox in the woods will also be listening to his mummy's singing as he goes off to sleep in his hole. Now it's time for you to go to sleep too. I wonder who will be the first to get to sleep, you or the little fox in the woods? I think it will be you.'

  When he heard this, the little fox suddenly wanted to see his mum again, and raced toward where she was waiting for him.

  Mother fox had been beside herself with worry, shaking as she waited anxiously for her little one's return, so when he did come back she hugged him tightly in her arms and was so happy she wanted to cry.

  The two foxes returned to the woods. Their coats shone silver under the bright moon, their footprints filling with dark-blue shadows.

  "Ma, humans aren't scary at all."

  "Why is that?"

  "I accidentally stuck out my real paw. But the man didn't try and grab me. He just gave me these nice warm mittens," replied the little fox, patting the mittens that were now on his paws together, as he showed them to his mother.