One

There was a young camellia tree besides a road in the mountains. Risuke, the cowherd, tethered his cow to it. Kaizo, the rickshaw puller, also kept his jinrickshaw^*1 at the roots of the camellia tree. Since a jinrickshaw is not a cow, there was no need to tether it.

Then Risuke and Kaizo went into the mountains to drink water. Deep in the mountains at about a hundred meters from the road, clean and cold water of a stream gushed out endlessly.

The two of them took turns placing their hands on the ferns and osmunds at the edge of the stream and lying on their bellies, they drank water like deer while inhaling the fragrance of the cold water. They drank till they could hear the water gurgling inside their tummies.

Spring cicadas were already chirping in the mountains.

“Oh, they have already started chirping. Hearing cicadas sing means it is going to get hot.” Kaizo said while putting on his manjugasa^*2.

“We will get to drink this spring water again whenever we come and go this way”, Risuke said while using a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat that came from drinking too much water.

“It would have been better had the spring been a little closer to the road”, Kaizo said.

“Very true!” agreed Risuke. After drinking water from here, everyone would always say such things to each other, almost like a greeting. 

As they returned to the camellia tree, they saw a man standing who had parked his bicycle there. This was a time when bicycles had just entered Japan and in the countryside, only the well-to-do could afford them.

“Who could it be?” Risuke said apprehensively.

“It could be the village headman”, Kaizo said.

As they went near, they realized that thiswas the old landlord of the town who owned the land around here. And another thing that they realized was that he was seething with rage.

“Hey there! Just whose cow is this?” The landlord shouted as he saw them. That cow belonged to Risuke.

“It is my cow, Sir.”

“Oh, yours, is it? Then you had better take a look at this. Your cow has eaten all the camellia leaves and has turned the tree into a monk with a shaven head!” 

The two glanced at the camellia tree to which the cow was tethered, and saw that it was indeed as the landlord with the bicycle had described.  Soft leaves of the young camellia tree were entirely plucked off and now the standing tree was looking like an ugly stick.

This is too awful, Risuke thought. Red faced with embarrassment, he quickly removed the rope from the tree. Then as if apologizing, he smacked the cow’s neck with the bridle.

But that was not enough for the landlord to forgive him. The landlord went on lambasting Risuke, a grown up adult, as if he were scolding a child. Then, while hitting the seat of the bicycle, he said, “Do anything it takes and better attach the leaves back to the tree as they were before!”

This was obviously not possible, so Kaizo the rickshaw puller also took off his manjugasa and apologized on Risuke’s behalf. “Please be lenient just this time Sir! When Risuke tethered the cow to the tree, he had no idea that the cow would eat up the camellia leaves.”

Only then did the landlord’s anger subside a little. Yet,he had been yelling so fiercely that his whole body seemed to be shaking and although he tried riding his bicycle twice or thrice, he failed miserably. Finally, he managed to get on his bicycle and rode off.

Risuke and Kaizo started walking towards the village, but they did not exchange even a word. Kaizo the rickshaw puller understood how deplorable it must have been for Risuke be scolded so harshly by an adult, and sympathized with him. 

“How nice it would have been had that spring been a little nearer to the road…” Kaizo said finally.

“You said it”, answered Risuke.

Two

When Kaizo came to the gathering place of the rickshaw pullers, he saw Shingoro, the well digger, there. Although known as a gathering place for rickshaw pullers, it was actually  a cheap confectionary shop. There, Shingoro the well digger was telling some run-of-the-mill story in a loud voice while nibbling on some fried candy. Since he always had to talk from the bottom of a well to the people outside the well, he had become habituated to speaking in a deafening voice. 

“So tell me, Idoshin^*3, just how much does it cost to dig a well?”Kaizo asked while helping himself to a piece from the box of cheap candies.

Idoshin explained in detail the cost of manual labour, the cost of clay pipes around the well, the cost of cement to fill up the joints of the clay pipes and so on.

“If it is an ordinary well, all it takes is thirty yen”, he said.

“What? Thirty yen?!” Kaizo exclaimed with wide open eyes and kept on munching on the fried candy for a while. Then he asked, “If I dig a well in the place after going down from Shintanomune^*4, will I find water?” That was the name of the area around the camellia tree to which Risuke had tethered his cow.

“Oh, if that is the place, yeah, you will get water. There is a gushing spring in the mountain at the front, so there must be water in the ground below. But why would you want to dig a well at such a place?” Idoshin asked. 

“Hmmm, there is some reason…” Kaizo answered but did not disclose the reason.

As he returned home while pulling his empty jinrickshaw, he kept on muttering to himself again and again, “He said thirty yen, didn’t he? Thirty yen, is it?”

Kaizo used to live with his old mother in a small thatched hut behind which was a bamboo grove. Both of them worked as farmers and Kaizo used to pull rickshaw whenever he had free time. They always looked forward to sharing the happenings of the day with each other at dinnertime. His old mother kept chatting away about the neighbourhood hen that laid its first egg today although the egg was unusually small, about honeybees that were likely to build a beehive in the holly olive tree near the back door, telling him that they had appeared yesterday as well as today to check out the tree and if they were to builda beehive at such a place, it would be very dangerous to go to the miso^*5 storeroom to bring miso, but there was no other choice.

Kaizo told her about how Risuke’s cow ended up eating camellia leaves while he had Risuke had gone to drink water. Then he said, 

“How nice it would have been if there was a well by the roadside in that place!” 

“Yes, had there been one by the roadside, everyone would benefit,” his mother said and started counting the number of people who passed that road in the scorching hot sun. The oil seller who came pulling his wagon from the town of Ono^*6, the courier who went from the town of Handa^*7 to the town of Ono, Tomi the pipe repairer who went out from the village to the town of Handa, besides so many horse wagon pullers, oxcart pullers, rickshaw pullers, pilgrims, beggars, and students. All of these people would feel very thirsty by the time they reached the area around Shintanomune.

“Surely, had there been a well by the roadside, how convenient it would have been for everyone!” concluded Kaizo’s mother. Kaizo told her that a well could be dug there for the price of thirty yen.

“For dirt poor people like us, thirty yen is a big sum that would make our heads spin, but for someone newly rich such as Risuke, thirty yen is really nothing,” she said. Kaizo recalled someone telling him that Risuke had recently made a big fortune from the forest. 

After taking a bath, Kaizo set off for the house of Risuke, the cowherd. Owls were hooting ‘ho, ho’ in the mountains behind him. Perhaps someone was chanting the prayer to Amida Buddha^*8 in Nizaemon’s house that was built on top of a cliff, because he could see light falling on the paper screen of the door and hear the sound of the fish shaped wooden gong even from the road beneath the cliff. It was already night time. When Kaizo reached Risuke’s house, the ever diligent Risuke was still doing something, fumbling around in the darkness of the cowshed.

“Working really hard, aren’t you?” Kaizo said.

“Ah, this is nothing. After we came back today, I went twice all the way to Handa and back, so I got a little late”. While saying so, Risuke came out, crawling under the cow’s belly.

As the two of them sat on the outer edge of the verandah, Kaizo began, “Actually this is about what happened today at Shintanomune”.

“I think if someone digs a well there by the roadside, all would benefit”, he came to the point.

“Yes, certainly”, Risuke agreed. “Because the spring is far from the road, I had no idea the cow ate up the camellia leaves.”

“That is the point.But one can dig a well there for thirty yen”, Kaizo continued.

“Thirty yen, you say?”

“Yeah, just thirty yen would do”.

“Well, if someone had thirty yen.”

Even after Kaizo said it indirectly, like this, Risuke was simply unable to grasp what he was hinting at, so Kaizo tried putting it across bluntly.

“Can you spend just that much, please, Risuke? I hear you have amassed quite a fortune from working in the forest”. 

Risuke, who was speaking cheerfully until now, suddenly went silent. Then he pinched his own cheek.

“How about it, Risuke?” Kaizo urged him after a while. But even then Risuke was quiet as a rock. It seemed the idea did not appeal to him much.

“It can be done for thirty yen,” Risuke said again.

“And why do I have to shell out those thirty yen? If I was the only one drinking that water, that would make sense, but why should I pay the money for a well that everyone is going to drink from? That is just what I don’t understand”, Risuke said finally. Kaizo tried different ways to explain how it was for the benefit of all, but Risuke just could not ‘understand’ it at all. In the end Risuke, as if indicating that he was fed up of this talk, turned towards the house and screamed, “Hey, woman, prepare the meal, will you? I am starving”.

Kaizo got up. He clearly understood why Risuke worked so hard till late at night- it was only for himself. As he walked on the road all alone at night, Kaizo thought, ‘It is no use relying on someone. I have to do it myself’.

Three

 Travelers or people going to the town saw something that looked like an offertory box suspended from the camellia tree beneath Shintanomune. The box had a label which said:

‘I am thinking of digging a well here so that all passersby can drink from it. Those who wish the same, kindly contribute one sen^*9 or even five rin^*10’.

This was Kaizo’s doing. As if to prove this, five or six days after suspending the offertory box, Kaizo was lying on his stomach on the top of a cliff across the camellia tree, and just poking his neck out from under a broom bush, observing how people made donations.

At last, an old woman appeared from the direction of the town of Handa, pushing a pram. She must have been returning after selling flowers. Her eyes fell on the box and she kept on looking at the label for a while. But obviously she did not read the writing, for she said this to herself, “Why is an offertory box kept here when there is no Kshitigarbha^*11 statue or anything?” And she went off.

Kaizo, who was watching while holding his chin with his right hand, now shifted to the left hand.

Next came a bowlegged old man from the direction of the village, his kimono tucked up in his belt. “Oh, here comes old Shohei. Although he is old fashioned, he would certainly be able to read the writing”, Kaizo muttered. The old man cast a glance at the box. Then he bent over and started reading the label, all the while saying, “Oh, what is this?”  Finally when he had finished reading, he said, “Oh, I see, oh, I see!” and looked very impressed. As he started searching for something in his pocket, Kaizo thought he would make a donation. But what he took out was an old cigarette holder. He puffed a cigarette sitting at the root of the camellia tree and went away.

Kaizo got up and slid down towards the camellia tree. Taking the box in his hands, he shook it, but there was nothing inside. Disappointed, Kaizo let out a sigh.

“Finally I have understood- people are not reliable. If that is the case, I will have to do it myself”.

While saying this, Kaizo went climbing up Shintanomune.

Four

The next day, after he had carried a customer to the town of Ono, Kaizo went to the confectionary shop. This was a place where the rickshaw pullers of the village used to come for a short rest after finishing a job and waiting for another customer. That day, three other rickshaw pullers were also resting at the shop before Kaizo entered. 

Coming inside, Kaizo lay down on his back behind the counter where boxes of cheap confectionary were kept and as usual, absent mindedly helped himself to a piece of fried candy. Since there was nothing to do while waiting for the next customer, it had become habitual for the rickshaw pullers to open the box of cheap confectionary and chew on fried candies, genkotsuame^*12, a candy called ‘pekoshan’, dried cuttlefish, sweet beans and the like. Kaizo was no exception. 

But today, Kaizo put the fried candy that he had picked up back into the box. His friend Gen, who was watching, said, “Hey, what happened Kaizo? Has someone dipped that fried candy in rat piss?”

Kaizo went red faced and answered, “No, nothing like that, but I don’t feel like eating today”.

“Huh? But you certainly don’t look unwell, then what’s wrong with you?”

After some time Gen took out a handful of kompeito^*13 sugar candies from the glass pot, threw one of them up and caught it in the mouth. Then he said, 

“Hey, Kaizo! How about playing this game?”

Kaizo used to play it with Gen until the previous day. The two used to compete in this game of popping candies up and catching them in the mouth. The one who missed catching the lesser number of candies made the loser buy some other sweets for him. Kaizo had not lost to any other rickshaw puller in this game.

But today Kaizo said, “one of my molars is aching since morning, so I simply can’t eat anything sweet.”

“Oh, is that so? Then Yoshi, why don’t we have a game?” saying, Gen started the game with Yoshi. The two threw Kompeito candies of different colours up towards the ceiling and tried catching them in the mouth. Sometimes the candies would enter their mouths, but sometimes they would strike their noses or ended up falling into the ash in the ash tray. 

Had it been me, I would not have missed a single one, thought Kaizo as he watched. As Gen and Yoshi were missing more candies than catching them, Kaizo felt the urge to join and say, “hey guys, let me show you how it is done!”, but he controlled himself, although it was very hard for him to do so.  

Narrowing his eyes, Kaizo was looking at the bright road, hoping a customer would show up soon. But the one who showed up soon was not a customer but the lady who owned the confectionary shop. She came with freshly made hot sweet bean rolls. Overjoyed, the rickshaw pullers picked up one roll each. Unable to resist himself, Kaizo also put his hand forward a bit, but finally somehow checked himself.

“Hey, what’s up, Kaizo? Not spending even a sen and saving all of it, you intend to build a huge storehouse or something?” Gen said.

Kaizo went out with a bitter smile. He bent the kayatsuri grass^*14 at the edge of the drain and hunted for frogs.

Kaizo’s chest was full of determination, strong and steely as a fist. From now on, he was going to save up all the money that he spent on sweets and use it to dig a well for everyone beneath Shintanomune. He had neither stomach ache nor toothache. He had desperately wanted to eat the sweets. But he’d changed that habit he had until now so that he could make the well.

Five

Two years passed. One day, when three or four flowers were blooming again on the camellia tree that the cow had eaten leaves of, Kaizo came to the house of the landlord who lived in the town of Handa. He had been coming to this house from time to time for the last two months. Although he had now saved up nearly enough money to dig a well, the landlord had refused to grant him permission to dig a well there, so he had come to request him again and again. This landlord was obviously the same old man who had rebuked Risuke harshly when he had tied the cow to the Camellia tree.

As Kaizo entered the gate, he heard a terrible hiccup from inside the house.

“Ughh…”

As Kaizo found out, since the day before the previous day, the old man had started having hiccups that just would not stop, which had made him weak and bedridden. Kaizo came to see him near his bed. The old man’s quilt was being tossed up like a wave due to his hiccups. As he saw Kaizo’s face, he said stubbornly, “No matter how many times you come to plead, I just won’t let you dig a well there. I am told that if the hiccups continue for another day, I will die, but even if that happens, I won’t allow you to dig the well”.

Thinking it was useless to quarrel with a man on his deathbed, Kaizo told him the magic charm that was supposed to work against hiccups- putting a chopstick in a rice bowl and drinking water in one gulp.

As Kaizo was about to exit from the gate, the old man’s son came running after him and said, 

“My old man is adamant and it just cannot be helped. Soon I will be inheriting this house and his land, so when that happens I will let you dig a well there”.

Kaizo felt elated. From what he had seen of the old man, he was not likely to last longer than two or three days. Then that son would inherit his estate and allow me to dig a well there, he thought happily.

That evening during dinner time, Kaizo said to his old mother, “Once that stubborn oldie breathes his last, his son is likely to let me dig a well. He is surely going to his grave within two or three days, which suits me fine”.

Hearing this, his mother said,

“Thinking just about your own work, your heart has turned black. Wishing for someone’s death is an evil thing, you know”. 

Kaizo felt a pain his heart. He had become exactly as his mother had said.

Next day, early in the morning Kaizo once again set off for the old landlord’s house. As he passed through the gate and went inside, he heard the sound of a hiccup-tighter and much weaker than yesterday. It was evident that the old man’s body had weakened considerably.  

“Oh, here you are again! My dad is still alive!” His son exclaimed, as he came out.

“No no, I want to see your father while he is still alive”, said Kaizo.

The old man was looking haggard as he lay on the bed. Kaizo came near his pillow and said,

“I have come to apologize. Yesterday as I was going back from here, I heard from your son that after you are gone, he would allow me to dig a well and hearing that my heart turned dark. Very soon you would be no more and that would be good for me- I was thinking of such terrible things nonchalantly. In other words, thinking only about my own well, I was looking forward to your death; my heart had become as evil as a demon’s. That is why I have come to apologize today. I will no longer plead with you about the well. I will look for some other place somewhere. So for heaven’s sake, please do not die”.

The old man, who was hearing him silently, now looked up and stared at Kaizo’s face silently for a long time. Finally he broke the silence.

“You are a wonderful man, Kaizo”, he said. “You are good hearted. I have lived my long life only thinking about my own desires, caring little about others. But today for the first time I am feeling moved by your golden heart. People like you are indeed rare these days. And so be it-I will allow you to dig a well there. Dig any type of well you like. If you don’t find water after digging the well, you may dig it anywhere, at any other place you like- all the land in that area belongs to me. Oh, and one more thing. If your money is not sufficient for digging the well, I will give you any amount of money you want. As I may die even tomorrow, I will put this in my will”. 

Hearing these unexpected words, Kaizo did not even know what to say in reply. But he also felt happy to see this greedy old man having a change of heart before his death.

Six

Spring was coming to an end, when on one afternoon, firecrackers set off from Shintanomune burst out in a partially cloudy sky. A procession from the village climbed down Shintanomune. At the head of the procession was a soldier dressed in black, wearing a black and yellow hat. He was none other than Kaizo.

The camellia tree was standing on one side, just beneath Shintanomune. Now the flowers had fallen off and the tree was covered in tender young leaves, pale green in colour. On the other side was the new well, made by hollowing out the cliff a bit.

As the procession reached the spot, it came to a halt-because Kaizo leading the procession had stopped. Two small kids on their way back from the school were drawing out water from the well, and one could hear the gurgling sound in their throats as they gulped down the sweet water. Kaizo was watching them with a smile on his face.

“I think I will drink a mouthful too”,

Saying this Kaizo went towards the well when the children had finished. As he peeked inside, he saw that fresh spring water was bubbling up in plenty inside the new well. A feeling of happiness bubbled up inside Kaizo’s heart in exactly the same way.

Drawing up some water, Kaizo drank, relishing its taste.

‘Now I have nothing left to do, I don’t have any regrets. This was just a small task, but I could leave behind something that would benefit others’.

Kaizo felt like saying this by catching hold of just about anyone. But without saying anything, he just climbed up the slope towards the town, smiling all the while.

Beyond the sea, war had broken out between Japan and Russia. Crossing the sea, Kaizo was about to enter that war.

Seven

Kaizo never returned. He fought valiantly and became one of the many scattered gallant flowers of the Russo-Japanese War. But the work that Kaizo left behind lives to this day. Even now, spring water bubbles up in the shadow of the camellia tree, tired passersby moisten their throats, and having refreshed their spirits, proceed on their way.