At dusk , the pond’s surface soaked up the orange of the sky, taking on a faint reddish tinge .
“Minico, what’s that say?”
As Kopo lay sprawled on the grass and asked, his brother carefully refolded the newspaper. “The cormorant fishing on the Nagara River starts tonight. They light bonfires and let trained cormorants catch sweetfish in the river. It’s been going on for thirteen hundred years.”
“Huh… a cormorant, like that bird?”
“Yeah. But all the sweetfish the bird catches belong to the fisherman. There’s a ring around its neck, so it can’t swallow them.”
Kopo sat up on the grass. “Isn’t that kind of sad?”
Minico didn’t answer. Instead, he looked toward the far bank of the pond.
Hasshi was resting his wings on a rock. In the evening light, his great shadow stretched across the water’s surface. His feathers, dyed orange by the sunset, made him look like a slightly different creature from the Hasshi that Kopo knew.
When Kopo stood and walked toward the shore, Hasshi spoke without turning around.
“Tonight, bonfires will be lit on a river in the city.”
“I know. Minico told me.” Kopo stepped through the grass and stood beside him. “Do you think you’re like a cormorant, at all?”
For a while, only the sound of the pond’s water continued.
“I wish I could say no.”
A faint sound came from his wing bones. Kopo knew it was a sign the weather was about to change.
“No ring around my neck. But I decided not to catch what I could catch. At first… someone else decided that for me. Now, I keep it up myself.”
Kopo hugged his knees. “Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Sometimes it does,” Hasshi said slowly. “But you need a direction. Like when you’re swimming through a dark river — something like a bonfire. If something’s lit, you know which way to go.”
Kopo couldn’t quite grasp the feel of those words. But as the pond shifted from orange to indigo, sitting quietly beside Hasshi somehow felt like the right thing to do.
The reeds swayed in the wind. From far off, Keromi’s humming could be heard. A single heron skimmed low across the water’s surface and vanished into the dusk.
Margin note: That night Kopo dreamed of swimming through dark water. Far off, an orange fire flickered , and Kopo swam toward it, single-minded. When he reached the shore, he was holding something in his hand, but he let it go before he woke.
【Today’s Motif】
- Nagara River Cormorant Fishing Opening: A traditional fishing method beginning May 11th on the Nagara River in Gifu Prefecture. With over 1,300 years of history, trained cormorants catch sweetfish startled by bonfire light. Fish the ringed cormorants can’t swallow are handed over to the fisherman — a ritual of cooperation between human and bird. It continues until October 15th.
- Local Mascot Day: Established from the wordplay “go(5)·tō(10)·chi(1)” (local). A day to deepen ties among Japan’s regional mascot characters and share their appeal with the country, meant to energize local communities.
This is an English translation of “かがり火の魚”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).