Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/112

he made to his father. When an eta is thrown out of the inn where Ushimatsu, the hero, lodges, he immediately moves, even though he knows that this action may arouse suspicion. Again, when an eta boy at the school can find no one else with whom to play tennis, Ushimatsu joins with him. But it is especially in the interest he shows towards the writings of an eta who has become a celebrated champion of the class that Ushimatsu, in his own eyes at least, reveals his identity. He accordingly in a moment of fright sells all the books he has by the eta author and denies to others that he has any special interest in him. Later, when this author visits the town, Ushimatsu sees him secretly. He longs to tell him that he too is an eta, but, remembering his father’s commandment, controls himself. It becomes increasingly difficult for him to hide his anxiety and depression from his friends, who almost push him to the point of revealing his secret. Then, quite by chance, the director of the school, who is unfriendly to Ushimatsu, learns that the young man is an eta. The fact spreads among the teachers of the school, and finally to the pupils just at the moment when Ushimatsu decides that he must break his vow to his father. The effect is beautifully managed, the two currents meeting at the moment when Ushimatsu makes his supreme effort and tells the truth. What can the ending of the novel be, we wonder, as we approach the last few pages with no solution in sight. It comes, a pure deus ex machina. The eta who was driven from Ushimatsu’s inn at the outset of the novel reappears with an offer of a job on a ranch in Texas, and Ushimatsu accepts, setting off with the young lady who has remained faithful to him in spite of the awful truth of his background. The ending vitiates the story for us, but it was perhaps the only possible one for Japan. I think it likely that in a European novel of the same date, it would be far