Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

man forty-eight years of age, distinguished for his ability and judgment,
ruling a district which produced a thousand kokus, stepped forward,
and said—
"This is by no means an easy matter, my masters. It certainly is of great
importance that we should forward our complaint to our lord's palace at
Yedo; but what are your plans? Have you any fixed intentions?"
"It is, indeed, a most important matter," rejoined the others; but they
had nothing further to say. Then Sôgorô went on to say—
"We have appealed to the public office of our province, but without
avail; we have petitioned the Prince's councillors, also in vain. I know
that all that remains for us is to lay our case before our lord's palace at
Yedo; and if we go there, it is equally certain that we shall not be listened
to—on the contrary, we shall be cast into prison. If we are not attended
to here, in our own province, how much less will the officials at Yedo
care for us. We might hand our petition into the litter of one of the
Gorôjiu, in the public streets; but, even in that case, as our lord is a member
of the Gorôjiu, none of his peers would care to examine into the
rights and wrongs of our complaint, for fear of offending him, and the
man who presented the petition in so desperate a manner would lose his
life on a bootless errand. If you have made up your minds to this, and
are determined, at all hazards, to start, then go to Yedo by all means, and
bid a long farewell to parents, children, wives, and relations. This is my
opinion."
The others all agreeing with what Sôgorô said, they determined that,
come what might, they would go to Yedo; and they settled to assemble at
the village of Funabashi on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month.
On the appointed day all the village officers met at the place agreed
upon,—Sôgorô, the chief of the village of Iwahashi, alone being missing;
and as on the following day Sôgorô had not yet arrived, they deputed
one of their number, named Rokurobei, to inquire the reason. Rokurobei
arrived at Sôgorô's house towards four in the afternoon, and found him
warming himself quietly over his charcoal brazier, as if nothing were the
matter. The messenger, seeing this, said rather testily—
"The chiefs of the villages are all assembled at Funabashi according to
covenant, and as you, Master Sôgorô, have not arrived, I have come to
inquire whether it is sickness or some other cause that prevents you."
"Indeed," replied Sôgorô, "I am sorry that you should have had so
much trouble. My intention was to have set out yesterday; but I was
taken with a cholic, with which I am often troubled, and, as you may see,
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