Bheela’s Blog-014
20 February 2021
Episode 13 Recap
Oshin is rescued by a man, Shunsaku. He and his older friend, Matsuji bring her to their hut in the remote mountain area. Oshin starts recovering and wonders why these two men are hiding from the world.
At the Nakagawa Lumber mill home, the Master reveals that he is the one who took the coin and Oshin is innocent. He arranges to look for Oshin and promises to return the money to Oshin.
Both men live in hiding, but their reason for hiding is not known. Oshin is at peace in the company of these two men.
Episode 14
FLASHBACK CONTINUES
Oshin could remember trying to walk home through the blizzard, but that was all. At some point, she fainted. When she was back in her senses, she found herself in the hut. There is still snow all around, but it is warm inside. A man had saved her from freezing death, but she has no idea who this man is.
There are some books kept on a make-shift desk. Oshin tries to glance through one of the books but is unable to read the script. She had to keep it back as Shunsaku enters the hut.
Shunsaku starts preparing food on a pan with boiling water kept on the burning wood fire. He adds some Daikon and animal meat. Oshin wants to help him, and she seeks his permission. She says that she can clean and can cook rice too. There is no rice in the hut, Shunsaku tells her. He throws whatever herbs or animals he finds in the mountain into the pot of boiling water. He is preparing tonight some rabbit meat, turnip, and chestnuts. Oshin is surprised that there is no water around, and the man melts snow to collect water. When there is no snow, the men get downhill to the river and get water from there.
Oshin has many questions; she asks him if Shunsaku and older man Matsuji live in this hut all year long. Shunsaku replies that they prepare charcoal throughout the seasons. Oshin then concludes that he is a “Charcoal Maker.” She wants to cut the vegetable, but Shunsaku asks her to keep making the fire using straw and dry wood lying around. Oshin collects straw and starts pushing into the fire. Her next question is if Shunsaku lives alone, does he not have any father or mother? Shunsaku does not reply; instead, he asks Oshin her age. When Oshin answers as 7, he is astonished how her parents send her to work at such young age. Oshin is already mature to reply to such questions! She tells him that she has younger siblings, so the food is never enough for all of them. She enthusiastically tells him that her family got a whole barrel of rice as her wages! Now her mother’s new baby will not have to die, and she can deliver the baby without any worry.
Shunsaku is shocked; he asks Oshin if her work at the lumber mill was very rough? Was it so harsh that Oshin had to run away? Oshin replies instantly, ‘It wasn’t the work; they wrongly accused me of stealing! That wasn’t all; they took away the 50-cents coin Grandma gave me when I went off to work. That coin was so precious to her!’ Oshin also tells him that even if she was hungry, she thought of spending that money, but she didn’t. Grandma had saved it for so many years. They accused her and took that coin away. She tried her best to continue there since she was aware of the paid-up rice barrel against her wages; she never wanted to leave the work. But that day, when she was washing the diaper in the icy river water, she just wanted to go home to her mother.
Shunsaku was listening; his eyes were moist, his throat choked, but at this point, he could not bear the pain of the little girl anymore. He asked her to stop. Oshin, in a low voice, her head bent down, continues to say, ‘why didn’t I stay?’ All she needed to do was to hang in till the Spring.
Shunsaku asks her to tell her name. When she replies, my name is Oshin, Shunsaku tells her that it is a perfect one. He explains the meaning of the word Oshin.
‘Shin’ in the word Oshin means ‘believing.’ The same name has several other meanings. This name also means ‘heart.’ ‘perseverance,’ ‘center.’ and ‘truth.’ On the whole, the word Oshin represents the Gods’ character. She indeed has a beautiful name. Then Shunsaku somewhat philosophically tells her not to cry, or her name will suffer.
Oshin is sad, and she says that even if her name is so good, she cannot go home. She is desperate to go to her mother. Shunsaku tries to console her that she will be able to go as soon as the snow melts. He asks her to stay at his hut as there is no other option. He tells her Spring will bring hope, and everything will be alright.
Shunsaku goes to the other hut adjacent to his own, where Matsuji lives. He calls Matsuji for dinner. Matsuji is cross with him since he has decided to keep Oshin with him for the time being. Matsuji again insists that Shunsaku should take Oshin downhill and explain to her not to report about them. He says that we do not have enough food for a third person. They cannot sell the charcoal that they prepare as they cannot visit the village. He is worried. Shunsaku then returns to his hut without speaking another word. He starts to worry too.
Somehow Matsuji calms down and comes to Shunsaku’s hut for the meal. Both men with Oshin sit down and start drinking the soup from their respective bowls using chopsticks made of forest wood sticks. Oshin is very happy to drink such a tasty stew; she hadn’t tasted meat all these months she was at work. Shunsaku offers her more soup. Oshin has not eaten so much ever; she is excited. At work, all she got was a bowl of Daikon gruel and cold soup. The soup hardly had anything left in the bowl. ‘It was terrible,’ she says. Even at her home, she never had enough. Looking at the bowl full of tasty soup with meat pieces, she wishes to feed this soup to her mother and grandma.
As Oshin narrates, the older man, Matsuji, begins to feel for Oshin. He understands that Oshin’s family are poor share-croppers. He was himself the third son of a poor farmer. He, too, had to work for a landlord at about Oshin’s age. He remembers his past and shares his own life with Oshin. He says that he did not have any land to call his own once his employment tenure was over. He couldn’t get married, so he started making charcoal. He traveled from one mountain to another, and finally, he found a wife. He had two sons, but Army took them when the sons grew. Joining Army was the only chance to get ahead in life. Eventually, both the sons got killed.
Oshin is very curious to know who killed his sons. Matsuji sarcastically replies that the war killed them up on Hill 203. They volunteered to serve their country. They did not want to end up with a life of charcoal makers!
(At the beginning of the 20th century, in the years 1904–05, Japanese troops and Russia fought a war. Several young Japanese soldiers died on top of a hill at 203 m in China. This war was called 203 Hill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/203_Hill)
Shunsaku tries to calm him by saying that talking about them will not bring your sons back. Matsuji tells him shouting that he wants Shunsaku to learn a lesson. He should do whatever to keep himself alive. Shunsaku promises to him, saying that he got his life due to Matsuji and won’t waste it.
Oshin watches both of them but cannot understand much of the conversation. She sits next to Matsuji as he makes charcoal and starts talking to him. She tells him that her father, too, made charcoal, but she did not see the process herself ever. She wants to know if Matsuji always stayed in the mountains and work here? Matsuji replies that when he runs out of trees, he moves on. Oshin innocently asks him where they will move next. Matsuji gets upset by her question. Oshin continues to ask if Shunsaku will also move with him? Matsuji then tells her that these huts are their permanent homes.
They hear a gunshot, and Oshin understands that Shunsaku must have caught an animal. She is excited and runs towards the gunshot sound. Matsuji suspects that Oshin will report about them and he feels threatened. Oshin finds Shunsaku in the middle of the forest trees, covered in snow. Oshin is very impressed with the accuracy of Shunsaku’s gunshots. As Oshin praises him for his perfection, Shunsaku freezes for a moment remembering something. He ignores Oshin, loads the dead animal on his shoulder, and walks on.
This life was all new to Oshin; she was captivated by all she saw. Soon she forgets her hard life at work or her home. Those places seem to her as a distant dream of her life.
Meanwhile, the employment agent who had engaged Oshin to work at the lumber mill home is summoned by the Mistress. Otsune and Mistress both accuse him of lying about Oshin’s age. Otsune tells him that Oshin was worthless, and she ran away. Mistress is also not happy with the agent to have brought them such a small child for a babysitting job. Also, she is worried since no word has come from Oshin’s family, and they do not know if she reached home safely. It has been 20 days, and Mistress is worried if something happened to her on the way because of the blizzard. Otsune is not bothered; she says we would have learned by now if something happened. The agent tells them that he will go to Oshin’s village and inquire. Otsune tells him not to bring Oshin back. Otsune is upset with Oshin that she was giving Oshin good training, but Oshin defaulted on her. She wants the agent to get the rice around, paid against Oshin’s wages. Mistress does not like this approach, but Otsune reminds that it was part of the deal. Otsune asks him to bring a better babysitter. She continues to blame the agent for this situation.
Otsune then takes out the 50-cent from her dress pocket and gives the agent an instruction to return this to Oshin if he happens to meet her. Mistress also asks the agent to make sure to deliver the 50-cents coin to Oshin. The agent is puzzled, and he asks the purpose of this coin. Otsune curtly replies that Oshin would know. Mistress is kind-hearted, and she wants the agent to tell Oshin that they have done wrong by accusing her and apologize for this mistake. Otsune remains rude and asks the agent that there is no need for an apology. She still believes that Oshin is at fault for not persevering.
Shunsaku cleans his gun meticulously. Oshin watches with curiosity, and in her eagerness to learn, she asks Shunsaku if he was a Hunter? Shunsaku contemplates that since he is shooting animals, eats the meat, and trades the animal fur; he can be called a hunter! Oshin then asks him if Hunters speak differently? Oshin thinks that Shunsaku’s way of speaking is somewhat different than others. She also has seen him with books, so she wants to know if those belong to him and if he read them all. When Oshin went to school for a short time, she learned the ‘Katakana’ script, but those books in the hut have a different script. She wants to learn to read like Shunsaku. She tells him how she always wished to go to school and learn. Shunsaku asked her if she liked reading books? Oshin has never read any book so far. Then she once again asks Shunsaku — she addresses him as ‘Onichan’ (Older brother), did he ever go to school. Shunsaku, tired of her questions, asks her to go to bed. Oshin is still enthusiastic and tells him that she can write in Katakana script and wrote a letter to her mother! She wishes that she could send a word to her family that she is being looked after by a hunter and a charcoal maker, so they need not worry. She also tells him that she wants to stay up in the mountain forever. Looking at the stern face of Shunsaku, she runs to go to bed and covers herself with a quilt made of straw.
(Japanese script comes in three variants — Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji https://www.accreditedlanguage.com/languages/hiragana-katakana-kanji-3-alphabets-1-language/. These are quite different. Therefore, it is quite tough to learn the Japanese language for the English- speaking population)
As expected, Oshin’s village is covered with snow all around. Her mother, Fuji, is washing clothes in a streamlet flowing between the notch created by snow mounds. The agent, Gensuka, shows up, and Fuji is worried about why he is at their village in the middle of the snow. She is concerned for the older daughters Haru and Mitsu, and she inquires about their welfare to the agent. The agent tells her that he has come for Oshin. As soon as he says that Oshin has returned home, Fuji gets a shock. The agent continues that he got scolded because Oshin ran away. He continues to blame Fuji that he lost his reputation because of Oshin; Fuji is still in shock and tells him that Oshin is not home. The agent tells her not to fool because Oshin ran away more than 20 days ago!! Now, Fuji is severely anxious; Oshin is missing for over three weeks. The agent continues that the owner does not want her back, but he has to settle the deal. Fuji is again pleading that Oshin is not at home. Fuji worries, ‘Did something happened? Where could she be?’
Oshin is still not home, now in addition to Fuji, the other family members also get worried. Their worry is about the blizzard. Could she survive the snow?
In the next episode, we will know more.
Episode 15 is coming soon.