悟浄歎異Gojōtanni — Gojō Looks On in Wonder

Contents

1. Hakkai's Failed TransformationsAfter the midday meal, while their master rests, Gokū makes Hakkai practise transforming into a dragon, but Hakkai only produces a rat snake and then an absurd lizard-like python. When Hakkai protests that Gokū is judging only by results, Gokū concedes the point but explains his theory that transformation depends on pure, intense concentration of will. The narrator, Gojō, then reflects on Gokū's genius and the fire of self-confidence that burns in him and spreads to those near him.
2. The Monkey's Fire and the Bull Demon BattleGojō reflects that Gokū gives meaning to everything around him, marvelling at each sunrise and sprouting seed like a poet, yet in battle he becomes a figure of perfect, burning beauty. Gojō recalls Gokū's fight with the Bull Demon King on Mount Suiun, which he wrote down as a chronicle of shape-changing duels ending with the two giants clashing in their true forms. He felt no urge to join in, because adding his clumsy brushstroke to such a masterpiece would have shamed him.
3. Gokū's Wisdom and Fearless JoyGojō reflects that hardship only makes Gokū burn brighter, and that, illiterate as he is, Gokū sees the shortest path to any goal with uncanny clarity and has a considerable practical knowledge of animals, plants and stars that leaves Gojō feeling the poverty of book learning. He recalls how Gokū, trapped inside Kōbi Rōbutsu's golden cymbal and half dissolved, worried only about his master and finally escaped through a hole drilled in a dragon's horn. Gokū never thinks of his own death, so his deeds feel grand but never tragic.
4. The Monkey in the Buddha's PalmGojō reflects that Gokū never imitates others and forgets his past, yet absorbs every lesson it taught him. The one experience Gokū cannot forget is his first meeting with the Buddha: after rampaging through Heaven, he boasted that he could fly beyond the Buddha's palm, only to find he had never left it, and he was imprisoned under Mount Gogyō for five hundred years. When Sanzō freed him, Gokū wept for joy, and his pure gratitude is why he follows Sanzō to Tenjiku.
5. The Strength Hidden in Sanzō's WeaknessGojō reflects that Gokū's terror at being subdued by the Buddha, and his five hundred years under Mount Gogyō, gave his vast nature an earthly limit and made it useful in the world. He then asks why the three disciples are drawn to their weak, defenceless master Sanzō. He concludes that Sanzō clearly sees how pitiful and how precious a living being's place is, yet still bravely seeks what is right and beautiful. Because Sanzō looks within and has already prepared his heart, outward dangers cannot shake him, whereas Gokū's genius, for all its brilliance, may meet situations it cannot overcome. Despite his frailty and constant persecution, Sanzō cheerfully affirms life.
6. Necessity, Freedom, and a Pleasure-Loving PigGojō observes that Gokū does not understand his master's superiority and the master is unaware of it himself, yet the two share one trait of genius: they treat whatever is given as necessary, perfect and free. He compares how differently the three disciples think, then turns to Hakkai, whose long list of earthly pleasures shows him that enjoyment itself takes talent. He also senses a hidden fear beneath Hakkai's hedonism, but decides that for now he must focus on learning from Gokū.
7. Learning from Gokū, and the Stars at NightGojō admits that he has learned almost nothing from Gokū. His only role is to restrain and advise others, and he fears Gokū's rough, enormous nature too much to get close to him. He resolves to stop admiring from a distance and to learn from Gokū by getting close to him, even if it means being scolded and beaten. That night, lying awake under the stars in a mountain valley, he feels deeply lonely and suddenly thinks he understands the compassion in Sanzō's eyes. Watching his master sleep, he feels a small, warm light kindled in his heart.

Before you read

• Learn the cast and their alternate names before you start. Gokū also appears as 孫行者 and 斉天大聖, Hakkai as 猪悟能八戒, and Sanzō as 三蔵法師. Many demon, deity and mountain names, such as 牛魔大王, 黄眉老仏 and 五行山, appear only once, so treat them as labels rather than vocabulary to memorize.
• Gojō's reasoning moves through a few literary patterns again and again. Expect 〜には違いない (surely), 〜というよりは、むしろ〜 (rather than X, actually Y), 〜ないではいられない (cannot help but), 〜ないではない (it isn't that…not), 〜のごとき (like) and 〜がゆえに (because). Once you recognise these, his long analytical sentences become much easier to break apart.
• In part 2, the Bull Demon King battle record, and in part 4, the Buddha episode, the style switches to classical kanbun-like phrasing: 曰く, sentence endings in 〜たり and 〜す, and short clipped clauses. Read these as a formal chronicle where each clause is one action. Don't try to parse them as modern Japanese.
• Expect abstract Sino-Japanese vocabulary about character and thought, such as 天才, 自信, 意志, 必然, 肯定 and 愛憐. These words carry the essay's argument, so learning them first will help more than the battle vocabulary.
• Notice the shifts in voice. Gojō narrates in plain だ/である with 俺, and occasionally 私. Gokū and Hakkai talk in blunt, casual male speech, while Sanzō uses an old man's わし. These differences help you tell who is speaking when the dialogue tags are short.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

Plot summary

About the author

Nakajima Atsushi was born in Tokyo into a family of scholars of the Chinese classics, a background that shows clearly in his style. After studying Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University, he taught at a girls' school in Yokohama. He later went to Palau, then under Japanese administration, to prepare Japanese-language textbooks for the South Seas Bureau. His small body of work includes several stories drawn from Chinese history and legend, among them Meijinden and Riryō.

More stories by Nakajima Atsushi →