The Eighth Night

by Natsume Sōseki

As I stepped over the threshold of the barbershop, three or four people in white kimonos simultaneously called out, "Welcome!"

Standing in the middle and looking around, a square room stretched out before me. Two windows were open, and mirrors hung on the other two walls. Counting the mirrors, there were six.

When I sat down in front of one of them, the chair was so plush that it made a soft "poof" sound. It was very comfortable to sit in. My face was clearly reflected in the mirror. Behind my face, I could see a window, and further back, the lattice of the counter appeared diagonally, but there was no one there. I could clearly see the upper half of people passing by outside the window.

Then, Shōtarō passed by with a woman. At some point, he was wearing a Panama hat. The woman seemed to be with him, also at some point, and I couldn't quite tell, but both of them looked triumphant. Just as I thought to get a good look at the woman's face, they passed by.

Next, a tofu seller passed by, blowing a trumpet. Because he had the trumpet to his mouth, his cheeks were puffed up as if stung by a bee. He just passed by like that, which somehow left me feeling uneasy. I felt as if he was being stung by a bee his entire life.

After that, an unmade-up geisha appeared. The base of her shimada hairstyle was loose, and her head somehow lacked tidiness. Her face still looked sleepy, and her complexion was pitifully poor. She bowed and said, "Hello, it's so-and-so," but the person she was addressing did not appear in the mirror.

At that moment, a large man in a white kimono came behind me and began to examine my head, holding scissors and a comb. I twisted my thin mustache and asked, "Well, do you think it will amount to anything?" The man in white said nothing and lightly tapped my head with the amber-colored comb he held.

"Come now, my head, but also, do you think it will amount to anything?" I asked again, and the man in white still gave no answer, but began to click his scissors.

I strained my eyes to see every shadow reflected in the mirror, but each time the scissors snipped, black hair flew, making me fearful, and eventually, I closed my eyes. Then the white man said,

"Did the master see the goldfish seller outside?"

I replied that I hadn't seen him. The white man said nothing more and continued to snip his scissors. Then suddenly, someone shouted loudly, "Danger!" I opened my eyes with a start and saw a bicycle wheel beneath the white man's sleeve. I also saw the shafts of a rickshaw. Then the white man pressed my head with both hands and turned it sharply sideways. The bicycle and rickshaw completely disappeared, and only the sound of the scissors echoed.

Eventually, the white man moved to my side and began to trim around my ears. Since no more hair flew forward, I opened my eyes with relief. Then, the voices of millet cake and rice cake sellers could be heard very close by. The sound of a small pestle hitting a mortar, rhythmically pounding mochi. I had seen millet cake sellers when I was a child, so I wanted to take a look, but the millet cake seller never appeared in the mirror. Only the sound of mochi being pounded echoed.

I used all my eyesight to peer into the corner of the mirror. Then, in the lattice of the counter, a woman was sitting, unnoticed. She was a large woman with dark skin and thick eyebrows, her hair tied in an ginkgo-leaf style, wearing a plain unlined kimono with a black satin half-collar, counting bills while kneeling with one knee raised. The bills seemed to be ten-yen notes. The woman lowered her long eyelashes and pursed her thin lips, diligently counting the bills, but her counting was very fast. Moreover, the number of bills seemed endless. There were at most about a hundred bills on her lap, but those hundred bills remained a hundred bills no matter how long she counted them.

I stared blankly at the woman's face and the ten-yen note. Then, the white man by my ear loudly said, "Let's wash it." At just the right moment, as soon as I stood up from the chair, I turned to look back at the counter's lattice. However, neither the woman nor the note nor anything else was visible inside the lattice.

After paying and stepping outside, I saw about five oval-shaped tubs lined up on the left side of the gate, filled with many red goldfish, variegated goldfish, thin goldfish, and fat goldfish. And the goldfish seller stood behind them. The goldfish seller, with his chin propped on his hand, remained still, gazing at the goldfish arranged in front of him. He paid little attention to the bustling activity of the street. I watched the goldfish seller for a while, but he did not move at all during that time.