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火事とポチ有島武郎

Intermediate · JLPT N3

火事とポチKaji to Pochi — Pochi and the Night of the Fire

by Arishima Takeo (有島武郎, 1878–1923)

  • JLPT N3
  • 9,578 characters
  • 7 parts
  • about 80 minutes
  • 2 easier versions

This short story by Arishima Takeo is told by a young boy, Takeo. One freezing winter night his family's house catches fire in a quiet officials' housing quarter on high ground far from town, with a wooded hill and an old temple behind it. The first warning comes from Pochi, the family's big long-eared dog and the narrator's dearest friend. The story follows the panic of that night, the strange days afterwards in the ruins, and the children's worry about their dog. The boy narrates in plain past-tense Japanese with long, breathless run-on sentences, onomatopoeia and boyish speech. He is often scared, sometimes sulky and sometimes funny, and the story is moving without being sentimental. It is also good dialogue practice, because the voices differ clearly: his mother and Mrs Hashimoto speak politely, the workmen speak roughly, and Mr Hashimoto uses an older style. The vocabulary is mostly everyday and concrete, which suits a reader around N3. The main challenge is following the long sentences, where one clause runs into the next as a child's thoughts would.

Start reading →Try the easy N5 version

Contents

  1. Waking Up to a FireA boy wakes in the night to Pochi's barking and finds the cupboard in his room on fire, with his grandmother silently beating at the flames with a wet cloth. He runs to the annex and calls out to his parents. His mother tells him to wake his father and then the neighbour, but he puts on a pair of big sandals and runs straight out into the cold dark, and Pochi chases after him to the gate.
  2. Shouting Fire Through the NightTakeo runs from house to house shouting that there's a fire, until he finds himself far from home and suddenly scared and homesick. Racing back toward his burning house, he meets a big man carrying his little sister and brother under his arms. Sure that it is the frightening beggar from the old temple come to kidnap them, Takeo turns and chases after him.
  3. A Stranger in the Dark, Then ShelterTakeo secretly follows a ragged-looking man who is carrying his little sisters away. The man turns out to be Mr Hashimoto, who takes the children into his home, where they watch their own house burn through the night. In the morning they go home and find the main house burned but the annex still standing, and their mother, sooty and strangely changed in appearance, hugs them and cries.
  4. After the Fire, Pochi Is MissingThe family's house has burned down, and the six of them now live in a small outbuilding, eating rice balls their neighbours bring them. The police decide a burglar set the fire, and the children treat the ruins as a playground. Three days later, Grandmother asks about Pochi, and the narrator realises with a shock that the loyal dog who woke everyone has been missing all along.
  5. Searching the Hill for PochiThe narrator and his younger sister and brother search the housing quarter and the wooded hill for Pochi, but no one has seen him. On the lonely hill path the narrator blames his sister, she reminds him that he once hit Pochi, and all three end up crying. The maid fetches them home, and their mother scolds them and gives them rice balls, which the narrator starts eating at once despite feeling embarrassed.
  6. Pochi Found Hurt Behind the ShedA workman comes to say Pochi has been found, and the children rush to him. He is lying behind a half-burnt shed, burned, filthy, bleeding and unable to stand. The narrator forgets his fear, hugs him and resolves never to hit him again. Then the family wash off the mud and blood and make him a straw bed while the father goes to fetch a dog doctor.
  7. Pochi's Last Day and NightAfter the doctor treats Pochi, the narrator, his little sister and their father stay by the injured dog, who eats some milk porridge and drifts in and out of sleep. That night their mother makes the children come inside for supper. The next morning the narrator goes out to see Pochi and finds that he has died, and he wonders if Pochi's grave is still in the garden of the temple in the woods.

Easier versions

This story is also retold in simpler Japanese. Reading an easier version first makes the original much more approachable.

Before you read

  • Expect long run-on sentences that are chained with 〜て, 〜たり and 〜と. Break each one into its clauses and find the main verb at the very end before you worry about the details.
  • Learn the fire-and-house vocabulary early: 火事, 戸棚, 離れ, 母屋, 物置, 焼け跡, 火の粉. Also learn the boy's sentence endings ぼく, 〜だい, 〜やい and 〜よだ, which mark his childish voice.
  • Several patterns describe the boy's sudden actions and feelings: 〜なり (as soon as), 〜か〜ないかに (barely had… when), 〜たら最後 (once… there's no stopping), 〜たまま and 〜っぱなし (left in a state), and 〜てたまらない (unbearably). When one appears, notice the timing or emotion it adds.
  • Watch for inference and expectation. 〜とみえて (it seems that…) and 〜はず (should be, must be) show the child guessing at what adults are doing, and 〜ようともしない shows someone, often Pochi, not even trying to move.
  • Use the speaker's style to tell who is talking. The polite feminine speech belongs to the mother or Mrs Hashimoto. Rough forms like やんねえ and おれゃ belong to the workmen. The old-fashioned 見えなんだ (= 見えなかった) is Mr Hashimoto.

Words to know

The most useful words from the notes across the story.

WordMeaningJLPT
気味が悪くってきみがわるいcreepy, eeriedictionary form: 気味が悪い〜くって is a colloquial form of 〜くて.—
乞食こじきbeggarNow considered offensive; common in older texts.—
夢中むちゅうfrantically, absorbed, without thinking夢中になって = so caught up in something that you forget everything else.N3
離れはなれdetached annex, separate wing of a house—
人足にんそくlabourer, workmanAn old-fashioned word for a manual worker hired for heavy jobs.—
官舎町かんしゃまちhousing quarter for government officials官舎 = official residence provided by the government.—
気づかいきづかいworry, danger (that something will happen)dictionary form: 気遣い〜気づかいはない = there's no fear that…; old-fashioned usage.—
焼けあとやけあとthe ruins left after a firedictionary form: 焼け跡跡 means 'trace, mark'. 焼け (burning) + 跡.—
女中じょちゅうmaid, housemaidAn old-fashioned word. Today it can sound dismissive, and お手伝いさん is used instead.—
かしらんかしらI wonder (if)dictionary form: かしらOld-fashioned variant of かしら; at the time it was not only feminine.N5
返事へんじanswer, replyN4
無理にむりforcibly, against someone's wishesdictionary form: 無理N4
冗談じょうだんjoke, jestN3
墓はかgraveUsually said politely as お墓.N3
戸だなとだなcupboard, closet with doorsdictionary form: 戸棚Here it is the built-in storage space in a Japanese room.N2

Plot summary

Show the full summary (contains spoilers)

Woken at night by Pochi's barking, young Takeo finds his room's cupboard on fire. He runs to the annex and calls to his parents. His mother tells him to wake his father and then the neighbour, but instead he dashes out into the cold, shouting 'fire' from house to house. He sees a big man carrying off his younger siblings and follows him, fearing a kidnapper. The man turns out to be their neighbour Mr Hashimoto, who shelters them overnight. In the morning the main house is gone, though the annex still stands, and the family of six live in a small outbuilding. Three days later Grandmother asks about Pochi, and the children realise he has been missing. They search and end up in tears. Then a workman comes to say Pochi has been found, badly burned and unable to stand. A dog doctor treats him, but the next morning Takeo finds him dead.

About the author

Arishima Takeo was a Japanese novelist and essayist associated with the Shirakaba (White Birch) literary group. He studied at Sapporo Agricultural College and later in the United States, and for a time he was a committed Christian. His best-known works include the novel 或る女 (A Certain Woman) and the stories カインの末裔 and 生れ出づる悩み. Troubled by his inherited wealth, he gave his family's farm in Hokkaido to the tenant farmers who worked it.

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