Boyhood 1
The boy was born as the second son of the family in a forgotten small village in Japan. The eldest son died two months after his birth getting spots on his skin after bathing. So the boy was raised as the eldest son. His father divorced his mother when the boy was four, but he soon got married one year later and lived in the next wing across the road.
The house was on a small rise of the land, surrounded by many tall cedars in the backyard, half of which was a dim bamboo forest that led to a nearby house. There was a small shrine in the corner of the land. The shrine was said to be one that is related to the oldest shrine in the country dedicated to Amenohiko, a divine figure from an old myth, in a small town located a little apart, but in fact its role changes with the times, and during the war the emperor’s picture was placed in it.
Discharged water flowed into the rather low bamboo forest, and no one dared to enter the bamboo forest except cats, dogs and other beasts. At night when the cold winterly wind, tracing hundred spirals in the air, rustled bamboo leaves and the creepy darkness seemed to rush into the house. At night, the boy always felt like a demon was crawling outside. There were leaks here and there in the old kitchen part of the house. Tatami floor sank when he put his foot on it. The kitchen floor was bare soil. Two furnaces on the ground were made of soil and straw. Rain drops were dripping from the cord that hung the light bulb on the floor.
The boy was sleeping with his grandfather and grandmother in the bedroom. They were virtually his parents. In the middle of the building there stood a small garden, where a well-shaped and winding maple with colorful foliage. The boy was wondering always why the tree was there. Maybe it was only trace of his former prosperous merchant family several generations ago. The cold air flowed in through the scabrous wooden frame of the windows, like hungry mice following one after another. When he woke up on a clear winter morning, the water in the cup on his bedside was icy.
