Where the Reeds Grow Thick

Chapter One

Shige cast her eyes to the clouds and found none. "It's so warm today," Shige said, her cheeks burning with sweat. "I think it'll rain tomorrow."

She turned to her younger brother Eiichi, who sat weaving a grass raincoat. "Great," he muttered. "This will serve my trip to Kyoto well, then."

In the days before the fall of the Shogun, even before the days of Japan's most significant civil wars, the land lay in constant turmoil. Tax riots lay waste in the western provinces, while the east garnered their own grievances.

Perched between Kyōto and the surrounding mountains, this village of Yamazaki lay in relative peace.

Like every day, Shige worked in her family's garden, battling beetles among her beans. Her feet dragged a rake through the mud like a trowel, plucking weeds between her toes.

Eiichi lay back on the front step waving a hand in the air. "Big Sister," he said. "Tell Little Sister to go to town for a new hoe; your feet can't pick up the slack, you know?"

Shige stopped raking; Eiichi had stepped into her field of work, yes, but his childish laziness gave her pause. "Sachi's too young to go alone," she said. "Ask Mother to go with you."

"No, no, let's not bother Mother! I mean... Please? You're a better bargainer than me, and what if I say something wrong? Maybe I can ask her, but..."

Eiichi had always been shy; Shige knew what he hated was strangers. Even now, he preferred sitting with a task to helping in the fields like the others.

"Speaking of asking," Shige started and stopped to think. "Itsui and I... Shotarō's daughter asked to go to the cookout with me by the river. Itsui is going, as it is, but..."

"Itsui is his daughter?"

"No, Sawa is Shotarō's daughter. She's going with Itsui and me."

"So what?"

"Listen! Sawa is your age, right? Ask Sawa to dance at the cookout."

Eiichi sat back down and picked up his weaving. "Alright, 'Mother.'"

"Mother says the same."

"Of course, but... Sawa? Her teeth are so crooked," Eiichi said blandly, though not without a curious glint in his eye.

"Bah, she's the prettiest girl in town. You're eighteen, little brother; you should socialize. Make connections."

Eiichi continued to weave in silence, the grass squeaking as he maneuvered it. As she watched him, she thought of her brother's future; shyness would never get him a job, wife, or children. As the only son, it was his responsibility to have all three someday. Their father's death changed their cards ten years ago, and time was tight for the whole family.

Her hoeing done for the day, Shige scraped the bottom of her feet of mud. The rice paddy workers sang somewhere far off, and Shige could hear the sound of someone laughing.

Her little sister was off somewhere helping in the rice paddies, and their mother patched clothing inside the house; soon, Shige would have to plant some bean sprouts, and Eiichi would help her with that.

"If you buy a new hoe, Little Brother," she said. "I'll ask Sawa to introduce herself. At least you'll make a new friend, eh?"

While she washed her feet by the front gate, a voice called loudly from down the road, "Shige-sannn!"

Shige waved with a smile, watching as her friend Itsui approached. The woman was twenty like her, but she still held a girlish exuberance about her. "Itsui-san, good morning," Shige said. "Have you been up the mountain yet?"

Itsui stopped at the gate, scooting a basket up her back as she bowed. Her round face was flush with exertion, and her hair poked out from beneath her kerchief. "Oh, no, you flatter me," Itsui tittered. "I was up at noon, like always. Did you want to come with me to get bamboo?"

Shige shrugged. "If we don't eat all the fiddlehead ferns again."

The two shared a short laugh before Shige clapped in resolve. "Alright, I'll go get my baskets. I'll be right back."

Inside, Shige found her mother sitting in a corner, sewing the hem of someone's fine kosode. The smell of rice vinegar permeated the air from a pot of fresh pickles nearby.

"Mother, I'm off to pick bamboo with Itsui," Shige called. "I'll be back before dark."

She grabbed her hoe and basket, though she knew to pause for her mother's response. "Where are you going so early?" her mother said. "You haven't finished planting, have you?"

"Eh, it's a little difficult, Mother; I promised to help Itsui-san gather bamboo shoots. It's for the cookout, and I don't want to disappoint her, right?"

Her mother nodded and smiled. "Ah, I see. You did finish hoeing the soil?"

Shige bowed twice to her mother in apology. "The seedlings are in the container, so I'll plant them when I return. I'm sorry for not doing it right away."

Once gathering her sandals and baskets, Shige hurried off to meet Itsui again.

Fifteen minutes up the mountainside, a bamboo grove sat humbly among the underbrush. The soil was damp and peaty, their footprints squeezing water up into their waraji.

"Did you know there's a mountain spirit up here lately?" Itsui said, poking around with her hoe in the dirt. "I don't think it is a bad one, but I went up with Zako last Tuesday--for prickly ash, uh--and I saw the spirit in the bushes."

Shige frowned. "Oh?"

"It looks like a wild man with no eyes. A samurai was in the area, so maybe the spirit was once a samurai, eh?"

Shige thought back to the past week; samurai had been making their regular patrols of the area, collecting overdue taxes and dealing with any issues the peasants posed. After most had left, one samurai remained, the sound of a whinnying horse a distant feature in the background for days. "I saw the samurai with a servant recently," said Shige. "He is rather young, I think."

"The living samurai, of course. He looked like a country fellow, very handsome," Itsui agreed. "I imagine he's here for the shrine on Mt. Tennō?"

"Could be."

Plucking a few leaves to build a makeshift plate, Itsui placed a plum in the center.

"O forest spirit," she chanted. "Accept this plum I plucked for you as an offering to appease your soul."

In the ensuing silence, Shige sat chewing on fiddlehead ferns, handing a couple of fronds to Itsui. "You're very kind, Itsui. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Now, let's head back down."

The two went to work, bringing up dozens of bamboo shoots into their baskets. Shige made sure her basket was filled before setting it down beside the roots of a tree.

Later, as the evening dropped the sun low in the sky, the family sat around the table refueling on pickles and rice. Shige sat next to their mother, making funny faces at Sachi.

"I'll go into town after this," said Eiichi. "I made a new raincoat for traveling. Mother, I think it would be nice for you to come along."

Sachi butted in with her mouth full of radish, "Big Brother, what's in Gion?"

"Don't interrupt," their mother snapped. "You barely helped plant in Michigo's field, Sachi, so you'll stay at his house tonight."

"I'm sorry," Sachi muttered.

He leaned into Sachi, speaking low. "Gion is a neighborhood in Kyōto where pretty ladies sing and dance. But it's not a place for little girls. Got it?"

"I'm not little; I'm ten," Sachi protested.

"Of course, Little Sister."

Eiichi poured tea into their mother's cup, knowing there was no more arguing. The city was dangerous, but Eiichi was a grown man; he would be as safe as he always was.

"Eiichi did make a very good raincoat today," Shige said. "He'll have to make me one next."

"Is that what I saw?" said their mother, sitting on her heels. "It will do nicely for his trip."