In her newly made summer kimono of spotted crimson with tucks at the shoulders, Suga cut such a striking figure in the theater that even the actors in the green room commented on her to each other: ‘They say that’s the new wife who’s recently come to live with the chief secretary of the prefecture. The kind of face you might see in the picture on a young girl’s battledore, isn’t it?’

To the active members of the Liberal Party who so often had their secret gatherings raided and their leading figures arrested and who hated Shirakawa as their principal foe, the very sight of Suga was like a red rag to a bull. ‘He’s the kind of man who deserves to be called a blight on the state – depriving the people of their rights while he lets tarts like that live in the lap of luxury.’ Neither Suga nor Etsuko, of course, had any idea that they were being watched with eyes darting hatred. Even Tomo always accepted more or less without question what she had been told by her husband and the wife of the governor: that those who defied the officials governing the nation in accordance with the Emperor’s command, and who tried to stir up the people with talk of liberty and civil rights, were rogues who deserved punishment in the same way as arsonists and robbers. Toward the Emperor and the authorities she showed the same vaguely submissive attitude as to the feminine ethic that had taught her to yield to her husband’s wishes in every respect, however unreasonable they might seem. Born in a country district of Kyushu near the end of the feudal period and barely able to read and write, she had no shield to defend herself other than the existing moral code.

The play at the theater was different every evening. One evening as they entered the box where the family always sat, Etsuko began to cry and complain that she was scared. The play was Yotsuya Kaidan, which was a great favorite among horror-loving patrons and often appeared on summer programs.

‘It’s all right, Miss. We’ll shut our eyes together when the ghost appears,’ said Suga, who despite her usual timidity seemed relatively hard to scare and was watching the proceedings eagerly as she sat close by Etsuko’s side. At bottom, Tomo thought, she’s no weak woman.

The prologue gave way to the scene in the grounds of the temple of Kannon at Asakusa, then to the scene in which the heroine’s father is killed, and by the time they had reached the scene in which Iemon’s servant combs Oiwa’s hair for her and it starts to fall out, Tomo’s attention was entirely caught by the play and her eyes were riveted on the stage without so much as a sidelong glance at the others sitting by her.