Friday, April 14, 2017

KOINOBORI - 鯉のぼり


(The first task set for the Bedale Savages, April 2017)



Kenichi, peeked sideways from behind the old cherry tree at the end of the Minato-ku back street.  He strained his eyes into the shadows between the old timber and tile houses and shops. The old buildings crowded the narrow pavements. He knew Sanai and Yoshi would be lying in wait for him.  He had to make it to Sanai’s father’s noodle shop to win.  Kenichi made a break from cover to dash across the alley.  Made his way behind his house from where he had a line of sight to the noodle shop.  Just as he made it to the side of his home his mother slid open the shoji screen to welcome his father back from the office.  Kenichi was torn. He could see Sanai and Yoshi hiding in ambush but looking the other way.  He could see the shop and a path to a clear win. But his father was home.  It was a hard choice but Kenichi slipped off his street shoes and took his place beside his mother to welcome his dad home with respect.  

The three kids had formed an unlikely friendship as their families were quite disparate.  Sanai was the eldest of the three, destined to take over her father’s soba business as the only child.  Yoshi was from Nagasaki but lived with his aunt who ran a small ryokan for travellers to Tokyo.  The kids plotted gentle pranks and in their innocent play and terrorising soon formed ties with neighbours and between the families.  Ties that grew strongest between the three of them.

The pre teen years were marked by school holidays, national and local festivals like the taiko drum parade where the three of them once performed at the head of the troupe.  Childhood bonds are most fickle though and as years passed, if it wasn’t for returning home for traditional events, the childhood friendship would likely have waned, as travel and workloads encroached to pull them apart.
 
Thankfully though, the regular local reunions added to their weave of common experiences.  Friendships were flavoured by some sexual exploration between them and spiced by their tales of trysts with others.   In time, Sanai did actually take over her father’s soba shop and was growing it into a packaged soba company.  Yoshi became a popular manga artist.  Kenichi, as his father decreed, completed business studies at Kansai university and was working his way up a tedious corporate ladder.  In an increasingly westernised world he was now known as Ken-san.

Each of them were career focussed, but the pressure to settle and have families became strongest for Sanai and Ken.  The continuation of the family business was the driver in Sanai’s case, and for Ken, the demand of his parents for grandchildren.  In seeking a partner Sanai had enjoyed the pleasures of a few but sought in vain for communion.  Ken had sown oats, with a fortunate lack of productivity, but with no real intent to harvest a relationship. A partner could well demand a focus away from his career.  Yoshi, the hedonist, rejoiced under no such pressures.

At the end of Golden Week 2010 the three had met up once again in their old back street haunt.  The timber homes and shops of their childhood were now Homat apartments with shop front businesses.  The three met in a particular bar and were sitting relaxed, as among friends, Kenichi and Sanai's backs were to the window through which could be seen a red lantern marked in katakana as ‘Yoshi’s’.  The bar though was Yoshi's aunt’s, and named in honour of its slightly famous and occasional client.  Today, Yoshi sat opposite the others looking out, making his aunt most pleased.  It was the Shichi go san week and the bright Koinobori of local families were flying from balconies in the dank city breeze. 

‘You know,’ he mused,  ‘I was jealous of you two for having your family flags when we were kids’. 
Kenichi and Sanai followed his gaze out the window to see the brightly coloured carp and dragons moving slowly with the pulse of street air.
 ‘Yeah, said Kenichi, ‘my dad got me one so it nearly matched the size of his, I remember that’....  ‘But I never thought.  Your aunt never flew one for you did she?’
‘Nah, out of respect for my dead parents I suppose’
‘Oh, Yoshi, you must have felt a poor little thing,’ Sanai said with genuine feeling.
‘Well, I’m over it, but, yeah, I felt left out, the only one without a flag.’
‘I can imagine’ said Sanai ‘ I got really excited to see mine flying….Actually, funny, I was jealous too... Ken’s family had lots of flags, and mine, just the pink one for me’
Kenichi winced ‘Being the ichi-ban son is nothing to be jealous of.’
‘Try being an only child’ ..
‘Gawd, give it a rest you two, I was just saying...’
‘Okay.' 'Yeah, sorry’ chimed Sanai and Ken
‘So how are your love lives?’ asked Yoshi knowing the response.
Moans of derision and despair were followed with banter and laughs prior to a departure into a Roppongi night that was probably best forgotten.

As Ken reflected now, seven years on, it was that cocktail fuelled night in 2010 that was the start of the romance.  It was not an intended or even dreamt of connection they made.  But over the next few years, as the trio met up for their Tokyo family duties, the friendship turned stronger and to a genuine love. 

Life always throws curved balls and while Sanai desperately wanted a family the fact that Ken seemed unable to sire, and her soba business took her away so much, the unfulfilled ache in both Ken and Sanai had dragged at them.  Yoshi remained blissfully free of paternal urge but was compassionate to his two friend’s need.

Now it was 2017, Golden Week, the happy couple had moved to Nagasaki, a complete change from the previous year’s reunion where the union had been proclaimed.   Ken proudly hoisted a long pole with its spinning disk, windsocks of dragon tails, two large black koi, one pink, and a bright blue tiddler for their baby boy.   The wind filled the fish flags and Sanai giggled.

‘Well, that’s going to puzzle the neighbours’
‘Nah, they all know us.’ said Yoshi ‘And there is the four of us now.  Family.’ and he gave his partner a long, loving kiss. 
‘Oh, don’t do that Yosh’ said Ken, enjoying the embrace, ‘Sanai will get jealous.’     

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