The Sixth Night

by Natsume Sōseki

I heard a rumor that Unkei was carving the Nio statues at the Sanmon gate of Gokoku-ji Temple, so I decided to go see it on a stroll. When I arrived, a large crowd had already gathered before me, lively discussing their predictions.

In front of the Sanmon gate stood a large red pine tree, its trunk diagonally obscuring the gate's roof and reaching towards the blue sky. The green of the pine and the vermilion of the gate complemented each other, creating a magnificent scene. The placement of the pine was exquisite; it cut diagonally into the left edge of the gate without obstructing it, widening as it went up and protruding above the roof, giving it a somewhat archaic feel, reminiscent of the Kamakura period.

However, everyone around me was a person of the Meiji era. Among them, rickshaw pullers were particularly numerous, probably waiting for fares, standing idly with bored expressions.

"It's huge, isn't it?" someone said.

"It must be much harder than making a human," another voice followed.

There was also a man who said, "Oh, it's a Nio. Do they still carve Nio statues? I thought all Nio statues were old."

"They look strong, don't they? They say there's no one stronger than a Nio from ancient times. There are even stories that they're stronger than Yamato Takeru," said another man who spoke up. This man wasn't wearing a hat and had his shirihashori (tucked-up kimono skirt), suggesting he wasn't very educated.

Unkei, completely unconcerned by the onlookers' comments, continued to move his chisel and hammer. Without even turning around, he was busily carving out the area around the Nio's face from a high position.

Unkei wore a small eboshi-like hat on his head and had the large sleeves of his suō-like garment tied behind his back. His appearance was truly ancient, seeming completely out of place with the noisy onlookers. I stood there watching, wondering why Unkei was still alive.

However, Unkei paid no mind to the surrounding noise and continued to carve with single-minded devotion. A young man, who had been gazing up at him, turned to me and said,

“As expected of Unkei. We are not in his sight. It seems he believes the only heroes in the world are the Nio and himself. Splendid,” he praised.

Finding his words amusing, I glanced at the young man, who immediately continued.

“Look at how he uses the chisel and hammer. He has truly reached a state of great freedom.”

Unkei carved out a thick eyebrow to a height of an inch, then turned the chisel blade vertically and struck it downwards diagonally from above with the hammer. As he carved a piece from the hard wood, thick wood shavings scattered in response to the sound of the hammer, and the side of an angry nose with flared nostrils quickly emerged. The way he wielded the blade was truly unreserved, appearing to leave no room for doubt whatsoever.

“How can he use a chisel so carelessly and still create eyebrows and a nose exactly as he envisions?” I muttered to myself in admiration. Then, the young man from earlier said,

“No, he isn’t creating the eyebrows and nose with the chisel. It’s merely a matter of excavating the eyebrows and nose that are already embedded in the wood, using the power of the chisel and hammer. It’s like digging a stone out of the earth, so there’s no way to make a mistake.”

Hearing those words, I realized for the first time that sculpture was like that. If so, I thought anyone could do it, and suddenly I wanted to carve a Nio statue. I stopped watching and immediately went home.

I took a chisel and hammer from my toolbox and went out to the backyard, where many oak logs, cut by a sawyer for firewood after being felled in the recent storm, were stacked.

I chose the largest one and began carving with vigor, but unfortunately, there was no Nio. The next tree was also unlucky, and I couldn't carve one out. There was no Nio in the third tree either. I carved through all the stacked firewood, but none of them concealed a Nio. Finally, I realized that Nio were not buried in Meiji-era trees. With that, I almost understood why Unkei was still alive today.