Then respectfully, in a kneeling posture, approaching nearer, Bunkichi thus addressed his master: “Master, in the request I am now going to make of you, I fear you will put me down as a child with a vain, childish notion of doing great things; none the less, I am bold to ask you, in all seriousness, will you give me leave to attempt the destruction of this wanizame?”
The master exclaimed in astonishment: “What! You think that you are going to kill the wanizame? It would be the greatest thing in the world if you could, but already every means has been tried. Whaling-men have tried to kill it with their harpoons, the hunters of wild game on the mountains have tried to shoot it with their guns; but the wanizame has defeated all their schemes, and, to say nothing of the money it has cost, several men have lost their lives in their attempts to kill it, and our citizens have given it up as hopeless. Son of a samurai though you may be, this is no task for a boy of thirteen or fourteen. No; you may have seen in the seas around Kada-no-Ura sharks of four or five feet in length, but just go out to the hill above the town and look over the bay until you catch sight of our monster. The very sight of it is enough to terrify most people.”
“You mistake me, master,” said Bunkichi, sitting up straight. “I have no thought of trying my strength against the wanizame. But I have a trick in my mind I should like to play, if you would allow me.”
“Oh, it’s a trick, is it? And what is the trick our crafty youngster is going to propose for killing the wanizame, I should like to know?” said the master, smiling.
“The plan I have is simply this: First, to make a straw figure and to fill up the inside with poison. Then I shall dress it in a man’s clothes and take it out into the bay, and, when we see the shark coming, throw it out to him to eat. Sharks are senseless creatures and ready to eat anything, so he is sure to swallow the straw man, and if he does the poison will at once take effect and kill him. That’s my plan; what do you think of it?”
“Yes; I think your plan of making a straw man is not at all a bad one, and I have little doubt, as you say, that the shark would swallow it. In that case it would certainly die and we should be free at last from our great calamity. But wait a minute; I am afraid, when the doll is made, there is nobody who will venture to take it out to the sea. People have had so many bitter lessons from trying to kill this shark that, however much money you offer, no one, I fear, will agree to take it out into the bay.”
Bunkichi without any hesitation replied: “I will undertake the task of taking the doll out for the shark to swallow. As I grew up by the seaside at Kada-no-Ura, I can row a boat well and can swim better than most people. I saw a boat just now fastened at the jetty in your garden. Please lend it to me and I will go out alone upon the bay.”
Astonished by the audaciousness of the lad, the master said: “It is too wild an idea, my boy. What if the shark upsets your boat? He will swallow you up in an instant.”
“As to what you say about drowning, that doesn’t disturb me at all. Suppose I have no luck and lose my life, there is nothing to be regretted if by my death I succeed in removing the great calamity under which many are now suffering. And, as I said before, it is my determination to become the leading merchant of Japan; but if I am to realize my ambition I must be prepared to run many risks. If fortune favors me I shall come safe through them and attain my object; if, however, this first venture goes against me, and I go out to sea and fall a prey to the wanizame, it simply means that I must accept it as the decree of fate, and, as far as my life is concerned, I am quite ready to risk it.”
The master, who was much struck by his fearless determination, worthy of the boy’s descent, said to him, “Indeed, your magnanimity is greater than ours, but for that very reason we should be all the more sorry to lose you.”