As the May morning began dyeing the pond’s surface gold, Kopo stood alone at the corner of the plaza , gripping an old kendama .
He’d found it in the back of a shelf in the archive shed — its paint peeling red ball, its worn black spike . The wooden handle held a smooth, oily weight, soaked in with years of use. Tools grow old because someone treasured them long enough to use them, Sonchō often said.
“Watch this, Minico. I’ll master it perfectly by the end of today and land it right in front of the girls in the plaza.”
His brother Minico, sitting by the pond reading the morning paper, paused.
“Big brother, you can’t force a kendama up with strength, y’know.”
“I know that! This is nothing.”
Kopo swung the ball up stubbornly . It dodged the spike neatly and fell to the ground. Once, twice, three times. On the fourth, carried by his own momentum , the whole kendama rolled away, all the way to the tip of his shoe.
The May wind rippled the pond’s surface, carrying the scent of earth from afar. The morning dampness flowing from Dragon God’s Lake drifted slowly over the still-sleepy Amencho Town.
“…Why’s it running away?”
“It’s not running away,” Minico said. “The ball’s just honest. Rush it, and it looks like it’s fleeing . Wait, and it comes back.”
Kopo re-gripped the wooden handle with a sweaty hand. Bending his knees slightly, this time he lifted his hand not to force it up, but to wait.
The ball traced a quiet arc .
It landed on the tip of the spike, without a sound.
No one was watching. The only ones whose eyes went wide were Minico and the nameless water plants lining the pond’s edge. Kopo gazed at the ball, still balanced there, and said nothing. If he put it into words, this quiet weight might slip away somewhere.
Margin note: The next morning, Kopo arrived at the plaza earlier than anyone. Today too, no one was watching.
【Today’s Motif】
- Kendama Day: Established to mark May 14th, 1919 (Taishō 8), when the form that became the prototype of the modern kendama was officially registered.
This is an English translation of “玉は逃げない”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).
