the cellar. It was not mysterious in the least if scattered settlements that enjoyed little mutual contact developed very special customs. Given how unreliable the family registry system had shown itself to be, the two possibilities must have seemed equally realistic.
Yuhki set out to find the location of Tsuru’s hut near Uryunuma. There were no discernible landmarks up in the mountains, and since Tsuru could neither accurately recall where she had lived so long ago nor come along since she could barely walk, the only option was a brute search with more boots on the ground. Fortunately, Yuhki was given permission to use ten soldiers under the pretense of marching drills, and together, notwithstanding any misgivings on the part of Sugita or Yuki, they trekked among the stretches of virgin forest around the pond for nearly two weeks. What they found was a cluster of planks that seemed to indicate the site of a dilapidated hut and, nearby, an old abandoned hut.
This was in a very deep part of the forest, and it seemed as if people might live there with no one ever knowing of their existence. Theycarried Tsuru up there so that she could confirm the location. She told them that the abandoned hut was Chu-chan’s rather than hers, and that hers appeared to have fallen apart. According to Tsuru, her childhood home had been built new, while Chu-chan’s had been on the brink of collapse, which meant that someone must have regularly attended to the latter, and indeed, when they examined its flooring they found signs that it had been redone. Moreover, these repairs clearly used wood of varying ages and spanned a period of several years, if not dozens of years. There was also a loom in the hut, and next to it a branch that sported fruits identical to the one found in Yuki’s asshi. The tiny fruit appeared to have been woven into the material because an unshorn branch had been used as a tool to comb the fabric and to remove dust. One of the soldiers who had come from Shinjo examined the leaves and told Yuhki that the branch belonged to a redbark Manchurian ash tree.
In Hokkaido, the redbark Manchurian ash is found only in Uryunuma, around Lake Mashu, and near Shinjo. Its trunk is light red in color and the bark therefore used as a dye. It had grown in nearly all of Ezo, the old name for the northern territories, but because the tree did not multiply with ease even as demand for its dye increased, it had become a rare sight. Consequently it fell out of use, and artificial dyes that produced a vivid red took its place. Although no one cut them down anymore, the tree had already lost its diversity as a species, and the Uryunuma and Shinjo areas having become its sole habitat, it never proliferated again. Interestingly, the normally white fruit of the redbark Manchurian ash only rarely turned red, and in Uryunuma, that had happened the previous year. Since Yuki’s asshi was not very old and such a fruit had been woven into it, the doctor believed that the coat had been made the previous year and that perhaps its color also owed to the redbark Manchurian ash.
Furthermore, he gave Yuki some cotton wool to see if she could use the loom to weave some cloth, and he recorded in his journal that she worked effortlessly on her first try. “Even in the absence ofmemory, what the body has learned is not easily forgotten—an axiom derived from experience. The fact that Yuki once sat at the same loom to fashion her asshi appears certain,” the doctor concluded.
It was around this time that he sought Yuki’s permission to perform an autopsy on her in the lamentable event of her demise. Sugita affixed her own seal as a witness when the proceedings were put to official military paper. At the same time, Yuhki wound down his research into frostbite, stopped treating soldiers at the clinic, and decided to move to a cabin in the mountains of Uryunuma. It was not normally permitted for a military doctor to leave his assigned base, but on the rather
Yuhki set out to find the location of Tsuru’s hut near Uryunuma. There were no discernible landmarks up in the mountains, and since Tsuru could neither accurately recall where she had lived so long ago nor come along since she could barely walk, the only option was a brute search with more boots on the ground. Fortunately, Yuhki was given permission to use ten soldiers under the pretense of marching drills, and together, notwithstanding any misgivings on the part of Sugita or Yuki, they trekked among the stretches of virgin forest around the pond for nearly two weeks. What they found was a cluster of planks that seemed to indicate the site of a dilapidated hut and, nearby, an old abandoned hut.
This was in a very deep part of the forest, and it seemed as if people might live there with no one ever knowing of their existence. Theycarried Tsuru up there so that she could confirm the location. She told them that the abandoned hut was Chu-chan’s rather than hers, and that hers appeared to have fallen apart. According to Tsuru, her childhood home had been built new, while Chu-chan’s had been on the brink of collapse, which meant that someone must have regularly attended to the latter, and indeed, when they examined its flooring they found signs that it had been redone. Moreover, these repairs clearly used wood of varying ages and spanned a period of several years, if not dozens of years. There was also a loom in the hut, and next to it a branch that sported fruits identical to the one found in Yuki’s asshi. The tiny fruit appeared to have been woven into the material because an unshorn branch had been used as a tool to comb the fabric and to remove dust. One of the soldiers who had come from Shinjo examined the leaves and told Yuhki that the branch belonged to a redbark Manchurian ash tree.
In Hokkaido, the redbark Manchurian ash is found only in Uryunuma, around Lake Mashu, and near Shinjo. Its trunk is light red in color and the bark therefore used as a dye. It had grown in nearly all of Ezo, the old name for the northern territories, but because the tree did not multiply with ease even as demand for its dye increased, it had become a rare sight. Consequently it fell out of use, and artificial dyes that produced a vivid red took its place. Although no one cut them down anymore, the tree had already lost its diversity as a species, and the Uryunuma and Shinjo areas having become its sole habitat, it never proliferated again. Interestingly, the normally white fruit of the redbark Manchurian ash only rarely turned red, and in Uryunuma, that had happened the previous year. Since Yuki’s asshi was not very old and such a fruit had been woven into it, the doctor believed that the coat had been made the previous year and that perhaps its color also owed to the redbark Manchurian ash.
Furthermore, he gave Yuki some cotton wool to see if she could use the loom to weave some cloth, and he recorded in his journal that she worked effortlessly on her first try. “Even in the absence ofmemory, what the body has learned is not easily forgotten—an axiom derived from experience. The fact that Yuki once sat at the same loom to fashion her asshi appears certain,” the doctor concluded.
It was around this time that he sought Yuki’s permission to perform an autopsy on her in the lamentable event of her demise. Sugita affixed her own seal as a witness when the proceedings were put to official military paper. At the same time, Yuhki wound down his research into frostbite, stopped treating soldiers at the clinic, and decided to move to a cabin in the mountains of Uryunuma. It was not normally permitted for a military doctor to leave his assigned base, but on the rather
Similar Books
