The Tenth Night

by Natsume Sōseki

On the seventh night after Shotaro was abducted by a woman, he suddenly returned. However, he soon developed a fever and was confined to bed when Ken-san came to deliver the news.

Shotaro was the most handsome man in the neighborhood, and he had a very kind and honest personality. He had only one indulgence: wearing a Panama hat, sitting in front of a fruit shop in the evening, and watching the faces of women passing by. He was constantly impressed by their beauty. Other than that, he had no particularly noticeable characteristics.

When there were few women passing by, he would gaze at the fruits instead of watching the street. There was a wide variety of fruits: peaches, apples, loquats, and bananas were beautifully arranged in baskets, lined up in two rows, ready to be taken as gifts. Shotaro would look at the baskets and say, "They're beautiful." While he would say, "If I were to do business, it would definitely be a fruit shop," he himself was just idly strolling around wearing a Panama hat.

One evening, a woman suddenly stood in front of the shop. She appeared to be a person of status, dressed in fine clothing. The color of her kimono captivated Shotaro's heart. Furthermore, he was greatly impressed by the woman's face. So, he took off his precious Panama hat and greeted her politely. The woman then pointed to the largest basket and said, "I'll take this." Shotaro immediately picked up the basket and handed it to her. The woman lifted it slightly and said, "It's very heavy."

Shotaro was originally a man of leisure and very considerate, so he said, "Then, I'll carry it to your house," and left the fruit shop with the woman. Since then, he had not returned.

Shotaro's relatives and friends began to worry about his actions, and a commotion arose with them asking, "Did something happen?" Then, on the seventh night, Shotaro suddenly returned. When many people gathered and asked, "Sho-san, where have you been?" Shotaro replied, "I took a train and went to the mountains."

According to his story, the train ride was quite long. As soon as he got off the train, he immediately came out onto a wide plain. It was extremely vast, with blue grass growing as far as the eye could see. As he walked on the grass with the woman, they suddenly came to the top of a cliff. There, the woman told Shotaro, "Try jumping from here." When he looked down, he could see the cut face of the cliff, but not the bottom. Shotaro repeatedly declined and took off his Panama hat. However, the woman asked, "If you don't dare to jump, you'll be licked by pigs, is that alright?" Shotaro hated pigs and Kumouemon, but thinking that his life was irreplaceable, he hesitated to jump.

At that moment, a pig approached, snorting. Shotaro, having no choice, hit the pig's nose with the thin betel nut cane he was holding. The pig squealed "goo" and tumbled over, falling down the cliff. As Shotaro breathed a sigh of relief, another pig came and rubbed its large nose against him. He reluctantly raised his cane. The pig again squealed "goo" and tumbled headfirst into the bottom of the hole.

Then, another one appeared. At this moment, Shotaro suddenly realized. From the far end of the blue grassland, countless pigs were coming in a herd, snorting and heading straight for Shotaro. Shotaro was deeply intimidated, but having no choice, he carefully tapped the nose of each approaching pig with his betel nut cane. Strangely, as soon as the cane touched their noses, the pigs tumbled into the bottom of the valley. When he looked down, he saw a line of upside-down pigs falling down the bottomless cliff. Shotaro was frightened by himself, thinking how many pigs he had sent into the valley. However, the pigs kept coming one after another. They had legs like black clouds and snorted endlessly, as if trampling through the blue grass with unstoppable force.

Shōtarō, summoning all his courage, continued to tap the pig's nose for seven days and six nights. However, he eventually ran out of energy, his hands became as weak as konjac, and in the end, the pig licked him. He then collapsed on the cliff.

Ken-san, having heard Shōtarō's story up to this point, said, "That's why it's not good to look at women too much." He himself thought the same. However, Ken-san also said he wanted Shōtarō's Panama hat.

Shōtarō probably wouldn't be saved. The Panama hat would likely become Ken-san's.