Volume 1 - CH 3.3

The station and the surrounding area was overflowing with people. 

We visited the stalls and ate cotton candy, candy, kebabs, and on and on.  I was getting fed up with the rip-off prices at the festival, but Yuzuki continued shopping happily.

The festival music echoed incessantly. People flowing like a slow river. At times, an eddy would form and send people stumbling. As time went on, the steps began to fall in rhythm with the drums. Clinking of kanzashis, goldfish spinning in ponds. It was a rhythmic chaos. Energized cheer rose and fell occasionally.

[TN: Kanzashi is a kind of Japanese hair ornament.]

I felt like someone had splashed paint on my senses, my normal impression of being in a crowd. Excessive information and emotions flowed into my head mercilessly, the same as how excessive vibration caused carsickness.

A line of dancers passed by.

A familiar voice pulled me out of my reverie “Huh?”

It was Roppongi-senpai. He was with two third-year students. No big surprise, though, probably everyone from school came to this festival.

Senpai’s eyes swarm, darting between the two of us. “Hi, Igarashi.” Since the five of us stopped in the middle of the street, passersby glared at us as they made their way around. He scratched his cheek. “Didn’t you say you have something else to do?”

I looked at her puzzledly. She appeared unconcerned. “I do. Yakumo-kun here invited me first.”

Huh, didn’t she invite me?

“Oh.” 

“Then, excuse us. Let’s go, Yakumo-kun.”

With sharp clicks of her sandal, she strode off. I bowed to Senpai before hastily chasing after her.

“Yuzuki—” I asked when Ifinally caught up. “Weren’t you dating?”

“We aren’t,” she said stiffly, “He was persistent about inviting me somewhere, so I favored him with some time. He’s not a bad person, but I’m not interested.”

“Aren’t you getting his hopes up? I don’t think that’s good—”

She turned around and bristled, “So you want me to date him?”

“I haven’t said that.”

Yuzuki’s eyes took on a reddish-blue hue. She turned again and walked away.

８

We took a bus bound for Miharu/Funabiki and got off at Mizuana after about fifteen minutes. From there, we walked for about five minutes to the venue of the Fukuyama Yume firework festival.

A huge crowd gathered on the bank of the Abukuma River. All of the good spots were already taken, so we walked along the river and spread out the vinyl mat a little far out. There was still some time left before the fireworks. During that time, the tension from our encounter with Roppongi-senpai filled the air.

“Do you know the origin of this Uneme Festival?” 

Then she jumped into an explanation of the Uneme legend.

[TN: This is the Koriyama version of Uneme, which depicts a few things differently from the mainstream Uneme. Also, while there’s the Nara version in English on the internet, there’s no English for this version.]

───About 1,300 years ago, in the village of Ajiki of Mutsu Province, the old name for Koriyama Prefecture, the climate was cold and arid. The village had no way of paying tribute to the Imperial Court. The villagers petitioned their plight to King Katsuragi, a visiting envoy from the capital of Nara, and pleaded for the exemption of tax. The king, however, refused to listen to their petitions. 

That night, a scant, if marvelous by the villages’ standard, was held in the honor of the king. Being used to the splendor of Nara, the king felt neglected. 

Then, came the graceful Princess Haru.

She held water in her right, spirit in her left. She lowered her hand on the king’s knee and recited,

“O’ the pristine Yama-no-i waters reflect the Asaka mountains. With such a heart that is as shallow as the yonder pools, how could we entertain you?”

[TN: I did my best translating this (⇀‸↼‶)]

When your heart is like a pool so shallow it can reflect Mount Asaka’s shadows, there is no way you could enjoy the festivals, was what it meant. Water in her right hand signifies the “shadows of the Asaka” and the “shallow pools”, while the sake in her right hand meant “sincerity” the villagers offered.

The king drank the “sincerity” offered by the princess with pleasure. Regaining his enthusiasm, he lifted the tax for three years on the condition that Princess Haru become the emperor’s uneme.

[TN: “Uneme” roughly translates to “maid-in-waiting”]

Unbeknownst to the king, Haru had a fiancee named Jiro. They separated with tears in their eyes.

In the capital, Haruhime was favored by the emperor, nonetheless, it was a living hell for her. On the day of the harvest moon in mid-autumn, she rushed to the Sarusawa Pond in the midst of a lively banquet. She hung her robe on a willow branch and, feigning a drowning, fled back to her hometown.

It was a will-breaking arduous journey. But she trekked across the length of the Japan Island regardless. When she finally returned to her village, with an exhausted body and weary soul, however, an even cruel reality awaited her. Jiro, her lover, had thrown himself into the pristine waters of Yama-no-i in grief.

On a snowy night, Princess Haru drowned herself in the same shallow pool as her lover.

When spring came and the snow melted away, a lovely, unnamed, light-purple flower bloomed all around the Yama-no-i pool. The flower, people said, were their love crystalized and reborned. It was named “Asaka no Hanakatsumi”

In the Nara version, Princess Haru was deprived of the declining favor from the emperor and drowned herself in Sarusawa Pond.

The one that Yuzuki told me was a more abbreviated version of the tragic love legend from the Koriyama viewpoint.

“That’s… depressing…”

She took a breath. “What do you think is the lesson from this story?”

“lesson? “ I thought for a moment before testing, “love is beautiful?”

“Unimaginative,” she looked at me. “Women are weak. ‘Women must use her wits and wiles’ is the lesson. Without it, we can’t even have a proper love.”

“Is that really how it is?”

“You don’t understand,” She said quietly. “You’re still a kid.”

Before I could ask what she meant, a large firework bloomed in the night sky. The Abukuma River shone, mirroring the glow.

It was a beautiful summer night.