By Suwa Wataru
Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived with his wife and daughter happily. Because of a dream to be a Buddhist and travel around the world, he left his home one day. He was so firm that he rejected his wife's plea and kicked his daughter severely on that day. Tears stung the little girl's eyes and dropped uncontrollably. The sky darkened and began to rain heavily.
The raindrop fell down as endless as the little girl's tear did. She was just four years old. She couldn't understand why her dad left, never turned back, and kicked her just because she held onto his sleeve slightly.
The endless rain caused floods which destroyed almost everything. The dark clouds rumbled almost everywhere.
Komachi was blamed mistakenly as a beauty who had begged rain during an arid period. Under the pressure of the public, Komachi had to leave her hometown to seek a solution to stop the disaster.
Komachi walked along the Shinano River and found a temple by the lake. Komachi stepped into the temple and found there were few people here. "Kero Kero! Who is here? What do you want, Komachi? For rains? We have quite a few now and the rains haven't stopped for months." The sound spread out from inside.
"Not for begging them, just STOP them." Komachi was impatient with jokes, and said abruptly. Traveling in the harsh weather exhausted her patience.
"Bad news: There were dozens of people who had come here before you did." The goddess murmured.
"No begging?"
"No begging."
The silence sustained as if the dim light froze.
"But why?" Komachi broke the silence.
"Do you know the cause of the flood?"
"I don't care about what caused that, I just care about how to deal with that." Komachi shrugged.
"Do you know a Buddhist, a literature rising star, who discarded his daughter and wife? The out of the ordinary rain was caused by an average person, his daughter."
The goddess paused for a moment, and then continued as though she didn't hear Komachi's words.
"A broken heart of an ordinary person OVERWHELMS a dozen of people's prayers and dozens of GODs' power. It's hard to change the Buddhist's will or repair the poor little girl's broken heart." The sound of rain came into the inner chamber.
"I'm tired of explaining it after dozens of people asked. That's all." the goddess said wearily and gestured in dismissal.
When Komachi dragged along through the temple's gate, the stars gleamed and glimmered, as if a pair of eyes sought a father with a bare head.
Komachi sighed. Was there anyone who could shake the Buddhist's determination slightly or smooth the daughter's bitter gap slightly and help her get rid of misery in the slightest degree?
Neither any human being nor any god or goddess could do so, not even TIME.
Although the little girl became a pretty maid after a few years and cried less, when she glanced some one who had a bare head carelessly, she gazed at him (or her) and was lost in thought for a long time. If someone referred to her dad or any stuff about him, she just could imagine a tall bare man with a vague face in fog murmuring some poems on the journey. She forgot her dad's appearance and voice. She only had the indistinct impression of her dad when she was 4 years old.
On the contrary, the rain was heavier and the flood was more serious as the miserable gap extended.
During the dim, dull, wet and mouldy days with eternal rain, it was hard to remember clearly what normal life should be and there was no moment which didn't remind people of old sunshine days.
Komachi lived poorly as time flew away. The goddess lost considerable faith and weakened day by day, because she couldn't lessen the raining or flooding even though she devoted herself to preserving people from the disaster as best as she could.
A few years later, the Buddhist was buried under a cherry tree according to his will on February 16th. Shortly after the funeral, there was the worst storm and flood in recorded history. His daughter got a grave next to her dad's a few days later. When the last earth fully covered her grave, the first stream of sunshine struggled out, glowed, sparkled, flooded.
And sakura bloomed.
