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THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 253
Oze"ki, the scholar who helped to translate the
Dutch Life of Christ, hearing of his friend's seizure,
said to himself
"
: This calamity that has fallen upon
Watanab6 is due to my having made the translation.
I would gladly go to the government and make confession
and suffer in his place, hut this would avail
nothing ;
for the authorities would not set Watanabe*
free, but I should be crucified on the bamboo cross
and my shame would remain upon my family and to
remotest posterity. Therefore I shall commit harakiri."
So on that day he tore up every scrap of his
writing and burned all his Dutch books and his
manuscripts. That night, when in bed and while
his wife was undressing in another room, he plunged
his dirk into his bowels and died.
As for Takano Choye', he said " :
My only crime
is that I wrote the 'Dream Story,' and I am also
charged with communicating with men who wanted
to go to Europe. Now if I hide myself I can not
explain anything. Therefore I shall go and confess."
This he did. He was sent by the authorities to
the great prison in Yedo where he remained six
years, during
which time he wrote several books.
During a fire, when the prisoners, according to custom
at such time, were released, he got away and
did not return. For some years he lived quietly
and unsuspected in Yedo, translating Dutch books
and going into the open air only at night and with
disfigured face to avoid recognition. It was the
excellence of the translations which he made for