O-bon in Chimunesu by Catherine Lang

Author:Catherine Lang [Lang, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS006000, SOC008000, History, Ethnic Studies
ISBN: 9781551523347
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Published: 1996-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Kaname isn’t fearless, but he likes the job and the camaraderie of being one of the boys on the boom. Before long, his brothers Satoshi and Mitsuo are working on it too. Sometimes they get mischievous, forcing too many logs onto the cog that feeds them into the mill, causing the chain to break. One of the millwrights has to come and weld a new one on, so they take a smoke break and swap tall tales. Osamu gets fed up letting his partner bum his tobacco. Finally, Kaname starts buying his own.

On her trek to fetch water, Sunao trips along the mill’s train tracks above the shore. She often sees her brothers huddling out in the bay, clouds of smoke mingling with the damp, grey mist that hangs in the air. Despite the penetrating chill, she wishes she were a boy.

After hauling her buckets back home, she sets a big tub on the pot-bellied stove and pours the water in. She punches down the dirty work clothes with a big wooden stick and carves shavings of Sunlight bar soap into the mix. After boiling it awhile, she scrubs it on a scrub board until her fingers are raw. Her childish hands are not big or strong enough to wring the water from heavy work clothes and bed sheets. Kaname does it willingly when he comes home from work and often helps prepare supper too.

One night he boils some burdock root and everything in the pot turns black. He finds Sunao changing Toyo’s diaper in the next room.

“I’ve ruined dinner, Sunao.”

“How?”

“You’d better come see.”

Toyo follows her big sister into the kitchen, and Kaname picks her up. Sunao lifts the lid on the pot.

“Oh, Kaname, you have to soak burdock, but don’t worry. It just looks bad. It’ll taste okay.”

Soon everyone sits down to dinner, facing bowls of black vegetables. Goshichi digs in and says, “Oh, this is good, Kaname. You’re a good cook.”

He winces. “You never complain, Papa.”

After supper Kaname daydreams about the Thanksgiving turkey dinners he once enjoyed at Shige Yoshida’s home. He remembers the trek along the road past the cemetery, down to Mr. Howe’s farm on the outskirts of town where Shige’s family lived. Satoshi, Mitsuo, Kaname and Sunao ran through piles of autumn leaves en route, the pungent smell of burning leaves filtering through the crisp, cold air. As they approached the Yoshidas, the smell of roast turkey sharpened the ache in their bellies.

Turkey was a short-lived, almost unimaginable luxury, but the sea offers an ongoing supply of fish and clams. Sunao especially likes going digging for clams in the winter, when their flavour is enhanced by the cold. At low tide on moonlit nights, the Izumis join other Japanese and Indian families in the bay. Their shadows lengthen over the bubbles in the mud as they set down coal oil lamps and buckets and dig in. Pockets of half-bent bodies are silhouetted against the silver sand, while the squishy sound of mud sucking boots echoes across the bay.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.