Recitative. He wonders at the mother’s joy.
Kanpei. There appears to be something at the bottom of this. Mother, wife, let me hear it.
Recitative. And he sits right in the middle of the room.
Ichimonjiya. Oh, are you the girl’s husband? Here is the bond with the old man’s seal, in which he says no one whatever, be he the girl’s husband, actual or affianced, shall offer any obstruction. And I don’t care who you are, and I am going to take away the girl at once.
Mother. Oh, you are no doubt puzzled, my son. We had heard from our daughter that you were in want of money; and much as we wished to get it for you, we had no prospect of procuring a single sen. And so says my old man, “I do not suppose our son is thinking of getting the money by selling his wife; but it may be that he has such a wish and is deterred from carrying it out only by the presence of her parents. What if this old father sells her without his knowledge? It is a custom with the samurai, when other means are exhausted, to take her back by force. It is no shame to sell one’s wife, and if I find for him in this way the money he requires in his lord’s cause, I do not think he will be very angry with me.” So yesterday he went to Gion-machi to settle the matter, but he has not come home yet. While we, I and my daughter, were feeling anxious at his absence, comes this man and says that as he gave the old man half the sum last night, he will pay the remaining fifty ryo now and take away my daughter this moment. I tell him I must see the old man first, but he won’t listen to me, and insists upon taking her away. What shall we do, Kanpei?
Kanpei. I am truly grateful for my father-in-law’s kindness. But I, too, have had a piece of good fortune; of that, however, I will speak later on. I do not think we should hand over my wife before her father comes home.
Ichimonjiya. And why?
Kanpei. Well, the bond gives you the parent’s authority. Though I do not doubt that you paid half the money last night.....
Ichimonjiya. Here, I am Ichimonjiya who am known all over Kyoto and Osaka and have in my employ girls enough to make an island of Amazons. Do you think I would say that I had paid the money when I hadn’t? There is still another thing that I can tell you for certain. When I saw your old man wrap the fifty ryo in his towel and put it in his bosom, I said to him it was risky, and gave him a pouch to put it in and hang round his neck. The pouch was made of a piece of cloth of the same pattern as this garment of mine; and no doubt, he will presently come home with it round his neck.