English Subtitle of One Hundred Sacks of Rice
By:Nasrin Pervin
The last half of the third year of Meiji rule:
The Samurais were the indomitably gritty brave warriors in Japan before the Meiji era began. The small provinces of Japan were embroiled with bloody infighting amongst themselves. To attack another province without provocation was a common affair. Civilization and the economic infrastructure broke down due to social anarchy and lawlessness. Poverty, social erosion and ruination piled up and the sighs of the poorest of the poor reached their peak.
Just about that restless time the Meiji movement started in Japan. Before this change of scenario and social awakening, the Samurais used to wear striped kimonos and carry swords with them. By the fourth year of Meiji rule that is in 1870, the Meiji reign began to take its root in different places but their legal systems were not fully functioning everywhere. Men with long hair and swords in their waist could still be seen moving around. The backdrop of the drama was set just about in this period in Japan one hundred and forty years ago.
The Japanese society went through a social revolution during the Meiji period. Early signs of this social change over can be surmised in the drama.
One Hundred Sacks of rice
Scene 1
SEITARO: “The Emperor was then staying at MountKasagi. Nakatoki and Tomkimasu, learning of this, sent troops to attack him. Before the enemy troops could reach him, the Emperor issued a command to the four directions, requesting succour in his need. No one as yet had responded to this command, and the Emperor was exceedingly perturbed. At this juncture he had a dream of a great tree that stood south of the Hall of state. Below the tree was an empty throne. Two children appeared and, weeping all the while, said to the Emperor, ‘In all the realm there is no-where for Your Majesty to sit than on this throne.’ The emperor, waking, thought, ‘if one writes the characters ‘tree’ and ‘south’ together, they form the character for kusunoki, the camphor tree. There are people with that family name. I am sure someone of that name will come and rescue me from this predicament.”)
KIHEITA: Your reading gets on my nerves. Stop it.
KIHEITA: Endo’s second son has become a priest. Hayashi’s boy too. There isn’t a family with enough to eat, so the sons all become priests. You should also go into a temple. Then you’ll at least receive your keep.
SEITARO: A temple? What an idea!
KIHEITA: Listen to him! Talks back to his father!
SODE: Now, now you needn’t scold him so. Seitaro, why don’t you go to bed? Tonight you’re up later than your usual bedtime.
SODE: You perhaps heard that the Mineyama branch of his lordship’s family has donated rice to help out the people of our domain. They say a hundred sacks have arrived. I wonder what’s happened to them.
KIHEITA: Our officials- most of them, anyway- are probably enjoying a nap. They don’t understand how the rest of us are suffering. No- they don’t even try to understand. The town was burned three times during the war, but they manage to forget that the town is now nothing but ashes.
ZENNAI: Anybody home? Anybody home?
SODE: please come in. I’ll bring a cup right away. Are you going to drink the sake cold?
KIHEITA: (Laughs) when I’m drinking this way it doesn’t seem possible that three times a day we take the black rice we get on the ration and grind it in a mortar to make that watery gruel that’s our only nourishment. Zennai, I’m so happy tonight I can feel the tears coming.
KIHEITA: Here you go. (Pours the sake) you know, sitting here drinking cold sake out of a teacup reminds me of what happened that time.
ZENNAI: You mean the time when we took back Nagaoka? We sure drank that night. We were all but swimming in sake. I don’t know who brought the sake nor where he got it, but there was a perfect procession of sake casks all down the main street. We knocked off the lids and dipped our teacups into the sake. I’ll never forget how it tasted when we gulped it down.
ZENNAI: But it makes me sick that, having gone that far, we couldn’t hold the town.
SODE: But I wonder what’s happened to that rice. I’m sure it’ll help everybody a great deal if they distribute it promptly.
KIHEITA: Don’t let that worry you! No doubt they’ll give us our share once the bugs have got into it and it’s no longer edible.
ZENNAI: You’re always ready to argue about something.
KIHEITA: What’s the matter with you?
ZENNAI: This sake----- my daughter---- my daughter------
KIHEITA: (serious now) What about your daughter?
ZENNAI: They made her take off her kimono in front of everybody.
KIHEITA: What?
ZENNAI: It’s not in my nature to let things bother me. I always try to be as easy-going as I can. But this time was too much even for me. I pushed my way into the Sanuki shop and shouted, “You commoners! How dare you humiliate my daughter! What makes you think you can force my daughter to take off her clothes? How dare you, mere commoners, show such effrontery? Come on out, I’ll chop you down by turns.”
The head clerks and the others went completely pale. Then the owner came … and got down on his hands and knees to apologize for the mistake the shop assistants and the woman had made. I thought that it would defile my sword to kill commoners while they were in the act of apologizing, so I left the place for the time being. Then today the shop owner showed up and left this cask of sake.
SEMPACHIRO: If Kiheita is at home, I’d like to see him for a minute.
SEMPACHIRO: A matter of great importance has come up, one involving the survival of all of us. I have just learned to my astonishment that the rice from Mineyama that we’ve all been talking about has arrived------
KIHEITA: What’s happened to the rice? Is there something unfair in the way they’re dividing it up?
SEMPACHIRO: It’s not merely a question of being fair or unfair. Not one grain of those 100 sacks of rice will be distributed to us. He ( Kobayashi, the Grand Councillor) says he’s going to sell the hundred sacks of rice and use the money to build a school.
ZENNAI: Sen, there’s only one way we can put an end to that plan.
SEMPACHIRO: And that one way is?
KIHEITA: By killing Grand Councillor Kobayashi.
SEMPACHIRO: I think the best plan is for each of us to present his opinion at a meeting. Anyway, I’d like see you at the gathering at Mr. Izumi’s place.
Scene 2
SHICHIZO: Master, haven’t you gone to bed yet?
TORASABURO: Mmm. I’ve almost finished. I was just thinking I’d take my medicine and go to bed.
UKICHI: Sir, are you asleep? Sir!
UKICHI: Sir, it’s something terrible. You must leave at once.
TORASABURO: Forgive me for causing this trouble, just because you were kind enough to put me up. But this is not the time to run or to hide. Ukichi, would you mind handing me my jacket?
TORASABURO: So many of you! What brings you here at this hour?
SANZAEMON: ( stepping boldly to the front) Yes, it’s the middle of the night, and we realize we’re intruding, but there’s something we want to have clarified at once. That’s why we’re here.
SANZAEMON: We’ve heard you’ve decided not to distribute the rice the Mineyma domain has given to the samurai of our domain. Is this true?
SEMPACHIRO: What’s more, we understand you plan to build a school with the money raised by selling the rice. Is that what you’re really planning to recommend to His Excellency? We’d like a definite answer.
KIHEITA: Grand Councillor.( Stepping boldly up to Torsaburo, he draws his sword and thrusts it into the tatam) The business that brings us here tonight is extremely urgent. I’m sure you understand what this means. We’d like you to make up your mind and give us your answer. Depending on that answer, we may not let you go, even though you are the Grand Councillor. ( He suppresses a belch)
TORASABURO: I’m a sick man. The worst thing for me is to get a chill. Please excuse me.
ZENNAI: Is that your answer? Right! Let’s slash him down! ( He pulls his sword from tatam)
TORASABURO: I’m a sick man. Getting up is exhausting. If you want to kill me, go right ahead. That’s fine with me. Chop me up like a leek or a radish.
SEMPACHIRO: No, there is something. Don’t we have the hundred sacks of rice given to us for relief. If you distribute it, that will settle everything.
TORASABURO: Have you nothing higher in mind? ( sits up again) why do you suggest anything so picayune? Every time you get the chance you shout “ a hundred
Sacks of rice, a hundred sacks of rice.” But just how much do you think this represents? In the days of the shogunate even my family received about that much each year. If we were to try to distribute this miserly amount of rice among the samurai of the clan, all they would get is a mere handful. Think a minute. There are over 1,700 households in the domain this comes to some 8,500 people. If we divide the rice among all these people, each household will receive a bare two sho. It wouldn’t amount to more than four or five go for each person. That amount of rice would be consumed in a day or two. Once the rice is eaten, what is left afterwards?
SEMPACHIRO: What do you mean?
TORASABURO: If we go on merely living from one day to the next, Nagaoka will never be rebuilt. That’s why I thought of building a school. You may say that from your point of view building a school makes no sense at a time when people are suffering because they haven’t enough to eat. But it’s precisely at a time like this when, more than anything else, we must put our energy into education. Unless we build from there, it won’t be possible to breathe life into Nagaoka.
SEMPACHIRO: Grand Councillor, are you incapable of taking cognizance of the present, desperate situation? If we don’t get immediate relief from this emergency, there’ll be no putting down the unrest among the samurai.
TORASABURO: I see. In that case, I won’t say another word. But there’s one thing I’d like to show you. ( he whispers something to Ukichi) Once you’ve seen it- it won’t take long, I assure you- You can do whatever you please.
TORASABURO: (with solemnity) Gentlemen, I’m certain none of you can have forgotten the words written on this scroll. Surely no one here is unfamiliar with the words “ Always on the battlefield.” Every member of this domain has undoubtedly seen, heard and pronounced these words from the time of his earliest recollections. I need hardly remind you that these words were written on a wall at Ushikubo in MikawaProvince. These are the first words of the inscription. For the last three hundred years, ever since the clan moved to Nagaoka, this dictum has been considered part of the Mikawa tradition, and has been observed as aparticularly important principle. “ We are always on the battlefield.” To say that we are always on the battlefield means that even in times of peace, we must endure every hardship and privation in the same spirit as on the battlefield. Isn’t that what the words mean? On the battlefield can you talk about hardships, hunger and the like?How can you complain of what you need or what you haven’t got? For samurai, Nagaoka samurai at that, to complain about food- is that possible? How can you beg for rice? And do you still call yourselves samurai of Nagaoka? If you really were Nagaoka samurai, you wouldn’t be talking about such unworthy matters, even if you were dying of starvation. Have you forgotten the customs of our clan? Have you forgotten the inscription on the wall at Ushikubo in Mikawa? All of you- lift your heads and look with reverence at this scroll!
TORASABURO: It has truly been said that a samurai’s sword is his soul. The pure essence of heaven and earth coagulates to form a sword. Our lives, our souls hang completely on this blade. Come, Ito, calm yourself and listen to what the naked blade tells you. Take from within the sword an unshakable conviction. Then, if you discover that my plan is wrong, there’s no need to show mercy. Use this sword, which is even now pointed at me, to hack me to bits.
Kiheita, crouching in the entrance, sobs.
TORASABURO: This is a crucial time for japan. The great accomplishment of the Restoration has been achieved, but this is no more than a ground breaking. The role that japan must play still lies ahead. I ask each of you to open his eyes and look out over the five continents. To the east, on the other side of the Pacific, lies America. To the west are China and Russia. And loking farther into the distance, there are powerful countries like Germany and England. If we continued to dream of a closed country, even now, Japan will not be able to move ahead, shoulder-to-shoulder with advanced nations of the world. That is why, ever since the Ansi era, I have pleaded until my throat was parched for education of the people and the replenishment of national strength. If we neglect these matters, there is no likelihood our province or our town will ever be rebuilt. In order to rebuild them, we must endure scarcity and overcome adversity. If there is not enough to eat, we must work until there is. Everything began a new with the Restoration. I want each of you to make the initiative and leap into the midst of the difficulties. A samurai must be in the Vanguard, not only on the battlefield but in every situation. In the past our domain made the mistake of giving our loyalty to the wrong side, and we earned the stigma of bring traitors to the rightful government. Now, when our country faces immense problems, we must contribute truly admirable men to our country and vindicate our name. If we don’t, we shall have no excuse to offer His Majesty.
SEMPACHIRO: Each of the words pronounced by His Excellency has helped to open my eyes. All I can say is that I am overcome with awe. ( Turns towards Kiheita) Kiheita, you feel the same, don’t you?
Kiheita nods, not speaking
TORASABURO: Dawn has come. Shichizo, please open the door.
SHICHIZO: Yes, sir.
TORASABURO: The beginning of a beautiful day!
Golam Sarwar
Play Director
One Hundred Sacks of Rice