36

Prince Hotaru and Kashiwagi came calling at Rokujo~ one pleasant day in the Third Month. Genji received them.

“Life is quiet these days, and rather dull, I fear. My affairs public and private go almost too smoothly. So how shall we amuse ourselves today? Yu~giri is devoted to that small-bow of his, and never misses a chance to take it out, and that would be a possibility. Where might he be? He had a collection of eminent young archers with him. Was he so unwise as to let them go?” He was told that Yu~giri and his friends, a large band of them, were at football in the northeast quarter. “Not a very genteel pastime, perhaps, but something to wake you up and keep you on the alert. Send for him, please.”

The summons was delivered and Yu~giri came bringing numbers of young gentlemen with him.

“Did you bring your ball? And who are all of you?”

Yu~giri gave the names.

“Fine. Let us see what you can do.”

The crown princess and her baby had gone back to the palace. Genji was in her rooms, now almost deserted. The garden was level and open here the brooks came together. It seemed both a practical and an elegant

To~ no Chu~jo~'s sons, Kashiwagi and the rest, some grown men and some still boys, rather dominated the gathering. The day was a fine, windless one. It was late afternoon. Ko~bai at first seemed to stand on his dignity, but he quite lost himself in the game as it gathered momentum.

“Just see the effect it has on civil office,” said Genji. “I would expect you guardsmen to be jumping madly about and letting your commissions fall where they may. I was always among the spectators myself, and now I genuinely wish I had been more active. Though as I have said it may not be the most genteel pursuit in the world.”

Taking their places under a fine cherry in full bloom, Yu~giri and Kashiwagi were very handsome in the evening light. Genji's less than genteel sport—such things do happen—took on something of the elegance of the company and the place. Spring mists enfolded trees in various stages of bud and bloom and new leaf. The least subtle of games does have its skills and techniques, and each of the players was determined to show what he could do. Though Kashiwagi played only briefly, he was clearly the best of them all. He was handsome but retiring, intense and at the same time lively and expansive. Though the players were now under the cherry directly before the south stairs, they had no eye for the blossoms. Genji and Prince Hotaru were at a corner of the veranda.

Yes, there were many skills, and as one inning followed another a certain abandon was to be observed and caps of state were pushed rather far back on noble foreheads. Yu~giri could permit himself a special measure of abandon, and his youthful spirits and vigor were infectious. He had on a soft white robe lined with red. His trousers were gently taken in at the ankles, but by no means untidy. He seemed very much in control of himself despite the abandon, and cherry petals fell about him like a flurry of snow. He broke off a twig from a dipping branch and went to sit on the stairs.

“How quick they are to fall,” said Kashiwagi, coming up behind him. “We much teach the wind to blow wide and clear.” *

He glanced over toward the Third Princess's rooms. They seemed to be in the usual clutter. The multicolored sleeves pouring from under the blinds and through openings between them were like an assortment of swatches to be presented to the goddess of spring.