Chapter 34 : Ganjitsu

The immense temple bell, the size of a mountain boulder, rang out for the

one hundred and eighth time, its deep sonorous dong resonating into the

night. Spirals of incense smoke swirled through the air and candles fluttered

in all corners of the Buddha Hall like a heavenly constellation of stars.

Jack stood in silence with the entire school as they waited for the slow

swing of the long wooden pendulum hammer to come to a rest.

'GOOD FORTUNE FOR THE NEW YEAR!' announced Masamoto.

Dressed in his ceremonial flame-red phoenix robes, he stood before a

large bronze statue of the Buddha.

The Niten Ichi Ryū was celebrating Ganjitsu, a festival that marked the

beginning of the New Year. Jack had discovered that the Japanese

celebrated New Year, not on the first of January like most Western

countries, but according to the Chinese calendar several weeks later in

anticipation of the arrival of spring.

It had been Sensei Yamada's honour to strike the temple bell for the

final time to mark midnight, and he now knelt before the Buddha shrine in

order to bestow blessings upon the school.

Robed in their finest kimono, the students formed a line that coiled

round the hall like a bejewelled dragon. Jack wore the burgundy silk

kimono that Akiko's mother, Hiroko, had given him on leaving Toba. It

bore Masamoto's phoenix kamon, picked out in fine golden thread so that it

caught the light every time he moved. That though was nothing compared

to Akiko's attire. She had a purple orchid in her hair and was dressed in a

glorious yellow, green and blue sparkling kimono that appeared to be

woven out of hundreds of butterfly wings.

'So why was the bell tolled exactly one hundred and eight times?' Jack

asked as they waited in line to receive their first blessing of the year. The

rituals of Buddhism were still bizarre to his Christian way of thinking.

Akiko didn't respond. When Jack looked, her attention was elsewhere,

her eyes far away, and her face appeared paler than usual.

'Are you all right?' he asked.

Akiko blinked and her eyes came back into focus. 'Yes, I'm fine.'

Jack studied her a moment longer. She smiled back in response to his

concern, but her eyes looked rheumy.

Beside her, Yori was fumbling with the sleeves of his kimono, which

hung too long for his tiny frame. He answered Jack's question instead.

'Buddhists believe that man suffers from one hundred and eight desires or

sins. With each ring of the bell, one of these sins is driven out and the evils

of the previous year forgiven.'

What a curious way to be pardoned, thought Jack, having been

brought up believing only God and Christ alone had the power to forgive

sins. Despite his scepticism, Jack thought he could still hear the bell ringing

inside his head.

Then he realized Sensei Yamada was gently striking a large brass bowl

while hammering out a hypnotic rhythm upon a wooden block and chanting

softly to each student in turn. The bowl sounded as if it was singing, the

note going round and round in an undying circle.

When it became their turn to be blessed, Akiko whispered, 'Follow

what I do.'

Jack had considered not participating in the Buddhist ceremony, but he

realized that with the growing animosity towards Christians and foreigners

he needed to blend in as much as possible. Showing his willingness to

accept Japanese beliefs might help him to win favour. Besides, as Sensei

Yamada had once said, their religions were 'all strands of the same rug,

only different colours'.

Jack carefully watched Akiko step up to a large urn full of sand, take a

stick of incense from a nearby box and light it with a candle. She stuck the

incense among the forest of burning sticks, the urn now resembling a huge

smoking pincushion. Akiko then bowed twice in the direction of the bronze

Buddha, following this with two hand claps and a final bow. Sensei Yamada

beckoned Akiko over. She knelt down before him, bowed once more, then

offered the monk her orchid as a gift.

Jack suddenly realized he hadn't brought a gift to offer the Buddha.

But before he could do anything about it, it was his turn. Without any other

alternative, Jack stepped up to the urn, a large waft of woody incense filling

his nostrils, and repeated the ritual that he had seen Akiko perform. He then

knelt and bowed awkwardly before Sensei Yamada.

'I'm sorry, Sensei,' began Jack, bowing again by way of an apology,

'but I don't have anything to give.'

'Don't worry, Jack-kun. You're not yet familiar with all our customs,'

said the old monk, smiling serenely back at him. 'The most perfect gift to

offer is an honest and sincere heart. It is clear to me that is exactly what

you've just brought to the altar and in return I will bestow my blessings

upon you for the year.'

Sensei Yamada began a Buddhist chant that rolled from his lips and

flowed warm and hypnotic into Jack's ears…

'Just as the soft rains fill the streams,

pour into the rivers and join together in the oceans…'

…the silken words weaved in and out of the chimes of the singing bowl and

Jack felt his eyes begin to close…

'So may the power of every moment of your goodness flow

forth to awaken and heal all beings…'

…Jack's ears thrummed with each beat of the wooden block and he began

to drift, his whole being gently vibrating…

'Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.'

He opened his eyes, his mind calmed and his heart filled with an expansive

joy.

His Zen master bowed to indicate the blessing was over. Jack thanked

him and got up to depart, when on an impulse he said, 'Sensei, may I ask

you something?'

The old monk nodded. Recalling Sensei Hosokawa's riddle of the

years, Jack continued, 'I have to master mushin quickly, but I don't

understand how the harder I work at it, the longer it will take.'

'The answer is to slow down,' replied Sensei Yamada.

Jack stared at his teacher, mystified by yet another contradiction. 'But

won't that take even longer?'

Sensei Yamada shook his head. 'Impatience is a hindrance. As with all

things, if you attempt to take short cuts, the final destination will rarely be

as good and may even be unattainable.'

Jack thought he understood and Sensei Yamada smiled, recognizing

the glimmer of enlightenment in Jack's eyes.

'More haste, less speed, young samurai.'

Outside, the courtyard was empty of snow and the early signs of spring

could be seen in the budding flowers of the surrounding cherry-blossom

trees. Jack, Akiko and the others made their way over to the Hall of

Butterflies where the Ganjitsu celebrations were to continue until dawn.

Inside the Chō-no-ma, tables had been laid with bowls of ozoni soup

and plates piled high with sticky white rice cakes called mochi. Several

groups of students were already tucking into the feast. A small crowd was

gathered around two girls in the middle of the hall who were giggling

loudly as they batted a feathered shuttlecock between them with wooden

paddles. Jack noticed that the face of one of the girls was covered in large

black spots.

'What's going on?' asked Jack, sitting down at a free table.

'Hanetsuki,' Akiko replied, pouring each of them a cup of steaming

sencha. 'If you fail to hit the shuttlecock, your face is marked with ink.'

A cheer and more laughter erupted as the girl missed the shuttlecock

again and had to suffer another blotch of ink.

'May I join you?' asked Tadashi, bearing a plate of rice cakes.

Yamato and Saburo shuffled along to make room for him beside Jack.

'Here, try this,' suggested Tadashi, offering Jack a mochi.

Jack bit into the rice cake. While it was tasty, it was also very

glutinous and he found it difficult to swallow. Tadashi laughed and slapped

him on the back to stop him choking. Jack took several swigs of sencha to

wash the rice cake down.

Tadashi offered the rice cakes to the rest of the table. Everyone tucked

in, though Jack noticed Akiko didn't touch her food. Then he spotted

Kazuki and his Scorpion Gang sit down at the table opposite.

Kazuki glanced over at Jack but ignored him. His friends began to

clear the table of plates, while Kazuki dealt out a deck of cards across its

surface. They huddled close as he selected a card from another pile and read

its contents to the group. Immediately, there began a frenzy of cardsnatching and boisterous shouting at one another.

'What's that they're playing?' asked Jack.

'Obake Karuta,' replied Tadashi, putting down his soup. 'One person

reads out clues and the others have to match it to a legendary character or

monster featured on one of the upturned cards. The player who accumulates

the most cards by the end of the game wins.'

'Jack, I'll show you a game you should try,' Yamato announced,

finishing his sencha. 'Fukuwarai.'

'Fuku-what?' repeated Jack.

But Yamato merely beckoned him over to where a group of students

was huddled round a picture of a face hung upon the wall. They were all

laughing at a blindfolded girl who was trying to pin a mouth on to the face.

Judging by the fact that the eyes and nose were located on its chin, she

wasn't doing very well.

'Go on, Jack,' encouraged Yamato after the girl had pinned the mouth

to the face's forehead, 'you have a go.'

Yamato grabbed Jack, blindfolded him and handed him the mouth. He

then positioned him three paces in front of the blank face before spinning

him round several times.

Completely disorientated and unable to see, Jack wondered how on

earth he would even find the face, let alone pin the mouth in the correct

place.

'He's got no chance,' he heard Tadashi say. 'He's not even looking the

right way!'

It was then that Jack recalled Sensei Kano's words: 'To see with eyes

alone is not to see at all.' Using the sensitivity skills he'd been taught

during the past couple of months, Jack listened to the crowd's whispers,

judging where the paper face was in relation to the changes in background

noise. Turning until he found the blank spot among the chatter, he figured

he was now facing the wall. He then visualized the face in his mind's eye,

took three confident paces forward and stuck the mouth on.

'Good work, Jack. Now the eyes and nose.'

Yamato spun him again, then handed him the other features. Once

more Jack 'listened' for the face, using all his other senses to judge where

to go. Once he finished, a stunned silence filled the air. Then everyone

applauded.

'How did he do that?' exclaimed Tadashi to Yamato. 'He must have

cheated. Jack, you couldn't see, could you?'

Shaking his head, Jack lifted the blindfold. In front of him was the

picture of a perfectly proportioned face. Sensei Kano's chi sao training was

clearly working.

'Beginner's luck,' explained Yamato, giving Jack a conspiratorial

nudge with his elbow. They went back to the table to rejoin the others.

Akiko was no longer among them.

'Where's Akiko?' Jack asked.

'She said she wasn't feeling very well and went to bed,' replied Kiku.

'She thinks it's something she drank.'

'Has anyone gone and checked on her?' said Jack, recalling how pale

she had looked during the ceremony and her lack of appetite.

They all shook their heads. Worried, Jack excused himself and made

his way over to the Hall of Lions.

Akiko wasn't in her room. He checked the bathhouse and toilets. She

wasn't there either. He wondered if she had gone back to the party. Jack was

about to return to the Hall of Butterflies, when he spotted a lone figure

leaving the school via the side gate.

Jack ran out of the school gate and into the midst of a carnival.