When Obon ended in mid-August, Sosuke, still on summer break, went to Kyushu with his parents. The marriage meeting was finally here. The Iwashimizu kept a house in Tokyo, but that was treated as a second residence, and special occasions like New Year greetings and memorial services for the ancestors were held at the main house in Kyushu, where the family began.
In the stretch between first hearing about the meeting and the trip to Kyushu, Sosuke had been examined at a hospital and had a doctor write a certificate saying there was nothing wrong with his reproductive function, which had been handed to the Iwashimizu.
A car from the Iwashimizu was waiting when they landed at Fukuoka Airport, a black minivan. The drive from the airport to the house was about an hour and a half.
For the coming week Sosuke would be staying at the Iwashimizu house. The plan assumed the meeting would not fall through: he would spend a week with Yukino and the two of them would get to understand each other better.
Watching the view change from city to farmland out the window, Sosuke was thinking. From the photograph alone, Yukino really was beautiful. And founder’s family or not, she was a senior managing director at Iwashimizu Holdings, so she had to be capable.
But to a twenty-one-year-old, a thirty-seven-year-old was still just a nice-looking aunt. Sixteen years apart and they would have nothing to talk about, and twice divorced meant there was a very good chance something was wrong with her personality.
Watching his parents in the front seat enjoying their Kyushu trip without a care, he started to get angry.
Sorry to you two, but I’ve got no intention of honoring some ancient promise my great-grandfather made.
The Iwashimizu main house, reached after the hour and a half drive from Fukuoka Airport, was a palace. It sat inside plaster walls like a daimyo’s1 estate, and the building was a mix of Japanese and Western styles, the way the houses of rich men in the Meiji3 and Taisho eras were built.
At an entrance hall as wide as a ryokan’s2, a housekeeper in a deep red kimono, properly dressed despite the height of summer, greeted them, and they went through long, wide corridors into the back of the house.
The housekeeper leading them stopped in front of a Japanese room with a large sliding screen.
”The Sawamizu party have arrived, if you please,” the housekeeper announced.
”Mm. Show them in, if you would,” came the answer from inside.
After the housekeeper’s voice came a man’s low, commanding voice from inside. The screen slid open to reveal a carpet laid over the tatami4, and beyond a large table set on it, three people were waiting.
His father and mother bent to ninety degrees and said “Excuse us” as they went in. Sosuke copied them, then sat where the housekeeper indicated, in a big chair that looked like it cost more than a car.
”Thank you very much for inviting us today,” Masayuki said.
Masayuki was rigid with nerves. Satomi was the same.
”Not at all. I am the one who ought to apologize for calling you all this way,” Kosaku replied.
Sosuke looked at the man behind the voice. Mid-sixties, maybe. Good features, and he supposed the man had been a handsome young fellow once, but there was nothing soft about him now. His eyes were sharp, and his whole body gave off a fierce pressure that Sosuke could not put a name to. This was a person from another world.
His father, shrunk down by the weight of it, spoke in a voice that shook.
”This is my second son, Sosuke,” Masayuki said.
Sosuke understood how his father felt, folding up like that. The man was not putting on any airs at all, and still he had an air that swallowed a room. He was exactly what you would call a man who stood above others.
The man smiled at Sosuke, who was bowing with a stiff face. Even the smile was frightening.
”Do not be so stiff. I am Iwashimizu Kosaku, the head of this house,” the man said.
Then he gestured with his right hand. “This is my wife Takako, and beyond her is my daughter Yukino.”
The wife, Takako, had none of Kosaku’s pressure. She was exactly what you would picture as the lady of a good family. Sosuke looked at the Iwashimizu Yukino he had been introduced to. She had worn a kimono in the photograph, but today her hair was down at shoulder length and she wore a white short-sleeved dress.
Yukino was as beautiful as the photograph. But she carried the same pressure as her father Kosaku, and it felt like being slowly crushed. She spoke in a calm, slightly husky voice.
”How do you do. I am Iwashimizu Yukino,” she said.
”I’m Sawamizu Sosuke. It’s a pleasure,” Sosuke managed.
As he said it, Sosuke was shouting inside his own head.
No way! Absolutely no way! Marrying a woman with this much presence is out of the question!
A thirty-seven-year-old with beauty, brains, and a strange weight about her, and a twenty-one-year-old who had drifted through life by the seat of his pants. There was no way the two of them looked like a matching couple.
Rigid with nerves, Sosuke went through what felt like a job interview with the Iwashimizu family. The air Kosaku and Yukino carried was overwhelming. If he absolutely had to marry someone, he would rather it had been the mother, Takako, with her soft manner.
Masayuki and Satomi were both hairdressers used to dealing with customers all day, and even they had gone stiff in the face in this room. After a conversation so tense that he could not afterward remember what had been said, Yukino offered to show him the garden, and he went out. The thought that the pressure would be cut in half let him relax a little.
The Iwashimizu garden was well kept and genuinely beautiful. Under the mid-August sun, though, it was too hot to stand and admire. Yukino noticed and invited him into the gazebo5 in the middle of it.
Just getting into the shade made it feel far cooler. The two of them sat down on the chairs inside the gazebo, and Yukino looked steadily at Sosuke.
Yep, even one on one, that’s some serious pressure. What does a person eat to end up like that?
She spoke to him in a gentle voice while he was thinking it.
”I understand very well that you are confused right now. Being told to marry a woman sixteen years older who has failed at marriage twice is close to a human rights violation. But we have our own circumstances that leave us no choice,” she said.
”An heir, you mean?” Sosuke asked.
Yukino nodded without a word. “So I thought about terms, so that you could feel at least a little positive about marrying me.”
”Terms?” he repeated.
”Yes. The main purpose of this marriage is children, and I would like you to do your best on that front. In exchange, once I have safely given birth, you may keep a mistress outside the house. Only, in front of the child, please play the part of a husband and wife who get along. Parents who do not get along affect a child’s development,” Yukino explained.
Yukino had just said something outrageous. “Hold up. What kind of wife tells her husband to keep a mistress?”
But Yukino was unbothered. “One is sitting here. I know I have no appeal as a woman, so I cannot ask you to love me. Even so, if living with me is unbearable, then please wait to divorce until the child has grown enough to understand it with their own head. You will join a company Iwashimizu runs after you graduate, and I will pay you enough to make up for what you put up with in this marriage.”
Sosuke was stunned. He had taken her for a sharp, confident elite, a beautiful woman born into a rich family. And yet she had no confidence in herself as a woman at all. Nobody would say a thing like that otherwise. He actually felt a little sorry for her, and he decided to ask.
”Yukino, this may be rude of me, but is there anyone close to you that you can talk to about anything? A mate you don’t have to be careful around…” Sosuke asked.
Yukino looked straight at him from the front, and the weight of it was unbearable.
Whoa! Did I make her angry?
But she answered flatly. “Because of my work I know a great many people. But there is no one I would call a friend. The people around me seem to avoid me.”
Well, obviously. Nobody could relax standing anywhere near pressure like that.
This beautiful, brilliant, very rich young lady might actually be a lonely person. Thinking that made him feel for her. But that did not mean he was going to be her husband. Sosuke hardened his heart. Time to put his plan into action.
”Would it be all right if I came to your room tonight? If the main purpose of the marriage is children, then as early as possible… that is… I was thinking we could have that kind of relationship…” he said.
A faint flicker of unease crossed Yukino’s proud eyes, the ones with the slightly raised corners. Then she nodded quietly.
”That is true. It is better to learn each other’s good points and bad points early,” she agreed.
To Sosuke, Yukino looked a little downcast. Back from the garden and into the room where they had met, they found Takako clearing away the tea things and the sweets. Masayuki and Satomi were nowhere to be seen.
”Um… where did my parents go?” Sosuke asked.
Takako gave him a gentle smile. “The Sawamizu have gone home. They said you are the main party this time, so there is no problem if they are not here.”
”I’m sorry?” he said.
Sosuke’s eyes went wide. Kosaku cut in with his low voice.
”They said it had been a while since the two of them took a trip alone, so they would do some sightseeing in Kyushu. Kyushu has plenty of good hot springs,” Kosaku said.
Anger came welling up in Sosuke. Those two! Am I a sacrifice or what!
Trivia:
1. Yukino’s offer to let Sosuke keep a mistress and her assumption that she has no appeal as a woman reveal a deep-seated loneliness and lack of self-worth beneath her intimidating presence, showing that her overwhelming aura may be a barrier she cannot control rather than confidence.
2. The detail that Kosaku and Yukino both carry the same pressure that makes people avoid them suggests this intimidating presence is a family trait, possibly inherited or cultivated, which has isolated Yukino despite her beauty and wealth.
3. Masayuki and Satomi leaving Sosuke alone at the Iwashimizu house to go sightseeing shows they trust the arrangement will succeed and are not worried about their son’s feelings, treating the marriage as a settled matter rather than a choice.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A powerful Japanese feudal lord who ruled over a domain during the Edo period. The comparison describes the Iwashimizu main house as being as grand and imposing as a feudal lord’s estate, emphasizing the family’s wealth and historical status.
2 ↩ A traditional Japanese inn. The comparison describes the entrance hall as being as wide as a ryokan’s, highlighting the grand scale and traditional style of the Iwashimizu house.
3 ↩ Historical periods in Japan from 1868 to 1912 and 1912 to 1926, respectively. The reference explains the architectural style of the Iwashimizu main house, which mixes Japanese and Western elements typical of wealthy houses built during those eras.
4 ↩ A traditional Japanese floor mat made of woven straw. The reference describes the carpet laid over the tatami in the meeting room, showing the blend of Japanese and Western elements in the house.
5 ↩ A small structure in a garden with open sides, used for sitting and enjoying the view. The gazebo in the Iwashimizu garden provides shade for Sosuke and Yukino during their conversation.