Saying farewell to Odasaku...
I go to the Jiyuken Restaurant and eat the famous curry. I stroll the backstreets near Hozen Temple. I see a large red lantern emblazoned “Sweet Soup for Married Couples”, which puns on the title of one of Odasaku’s stories＊. When I think about it, I’ve been obsessed by Odasaku for a long time now. From Namba I walk through Sennichimae and climb Yuhi Hill. Just as Odasaku said goodbye to his youth while walking down Kuchinawa Hill, so I break free of him while descending it too. I will not walk up and down this hill again. To draw the curtain on him, I’ll gaze at Ikukunitama Shrine one last time.
It’s a long dragging walk up Gensho Temple Hill. I’m feeling utterly fed up. At Ikukunitama Shrine I come face to face with Odasaku’s bronze statue. With his soft hat and Inverness coat blowing open and the green patina of the bronze, he looks just like Peter Pan, light enough to carry under my arm. A strange foreboding runs through me. No, I don’t think I can do it... I speak to a taxi-driver having a cigarette in the corner of the shrine. “Sakunosuke Oda? Oh, the guy who wrote ‘Feet Soap for Married Couples＊.’ Ha, ha, ha.” His laughing voice seems to channel Odasaku’s.
Odasaku. Oda Sakunosuke. Born in Osaka. Wrote. Charged into Tokyo. Coughed up blood and died just three months later. How could I ever say goodbye to this melancholy man who pretended to be happy?
